Wild Roots Feral Futures 2013 Mix Tape!

"After a few weeks of work, this is the Feral Mixtape for 2013. We cannot thank enough the tireless effort of organizers of the event, all the people who participated in the mixtape, all of the people and animals who supported the idea, everyone who attended the gathering and everyone else we're forgetting. The tracks are credited as well as we could, although our tiny notebooks could never describe to an internet textbox how much fun we had and how many smiles there were." —Rooster and Chelsi July 2013

Utah Tar Sands Roadshow at WRFF 2013!

COMING TO WILD ROOTS FERAL FUTURES 2013!

The Utah Tar Sands Roadshow is a listening project and educational presentation about the impact of tar sands extraction on people, water, and the land.  Tar sands development is one of the most destructive industries on earth--and a Canadian company is bringing it to Utah unless we rise up to stop it before it starts. 

Tar sands are geological deposits containing bitumen. In order recover oil, bitumen must be strip-mined, pulverized, chemically separated, and then extensively refined. This process requires enormous amounts of energy input and requires 1.5 - 3 barrels of water for every barrel of oil created. Utah is the second most arid state in the nation and tar sands extraction would tap already stressed watersheds.  The proposed mine lies in the Colorado River watershed, which 30 million people downstream rely on for agriculture and drinking water.

Tar sands mining also requires extensive refinery expansions in Salt Lake City, which will add to the already record level air pollution along the Wasatch Front.

An extractive project of this scale will irreversibly impact the remote and pristine Tavaputs Plateau in Eastern Utah.  Some claim there are 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil contained in this large formation. This would mean disaster for the climate as tar sands extraction releases roughly three times more greenhouse gases per barrel than conventional oil. 

The Utah Tar Sands Roadshow will journey around the region weaving together stories of resistance and resilience in the face of tar sands and other forms of extreme energy extraction. Our collection of interviews and conversations will be constantly updated on our website and compiled into a production to help educate people on the impacts of tar sands mining in the United States and the world.

More information:
http://canyoncountryactioncamp.org/
http://www.beforeitstarts.org/
http://canyoncountryrisingtide.org/

WRFF 2012 POC Fish-Bowl Report-Back

Thoughts in Race, Identity & Solidarity

By Sabitaj Mahal, Earth First! Journal

Wild Roots Feral Futures (WRFF) is a re-wilding, skill-share, and eco-defense camp annually held in the woods of Colorado. WRFF calls for folks who can share basic skills to survive in the wild— fire making, shelter building, plant identification—but also people oriented to anarchist praxis, unpacking privilege, and decolonization. When I went to WRFF last summer, I found that the camp more focused in hands-on skills—exactly what I was looking for. As for anarchist theory and unpacking privilege, discussions were difficult, and as a woman of color, I found myself facilitating one of the most tense discussions of race with white people that I’ve ever experienced.

Updates, final call for workshops, etc.

Once again, the time for Wild Roots Feral Futures is almost here! We just wanted to throw out a few updates & reminders, so here goes...

Important posts:

• Ride share!
• Street Medic/ine Training
• Street Medic/ine Training Registration
• Decolonizing Wild Roots Feral Futures
• Initial WRFF 2013 call/announcement

Site location, seed camp, etc.

The site location for Wild Roots Feral Futures will be announced on the coming New Moon, on Saturday June 8th at the latest, so stay tuned! At that point, seed camp (set-up) technically begins, and folks are welcome to head out to the site and start setting up. Wanna dig latrines? There's lots of work to be done! Local organizers will be on site to help facilitate. There is minimal support housing in Durango, as well as many local camping spots, so please email us if you are arriving early and need assistance.

Accessibility

The WRFF organizers' collective recognizes the dynamics of accessibility and ableism as a form of societal oppression in our culture, and strive to select sites with maximum accessibility, considering the context of an event located in forest and wilderness areas. Due to natural circumstances and the lay of the land (rocky trails on steep hills, etc.), ableism and “disability” may hinder accessibility for some to the inner reaches of the gathering. This is a reality of the natural world that is beyond our ability or desire to alter or control. We will, however, make very effort to help folks of differing abilities get their gear and themselves into the woods. Please contact us or ask an event organizers if you or someone in your group needs assistance hauling gear, etc. Together as a community we're able to do anything!


Workshops, skill shares, activities, etc.

We would like to issue one final call for workshops, skill shares, presentations, discussions, etc. If you have a workshop you would like listed ahead of time, please email us or post on our forums. We are particularly requesting trainings in direct action, blockades, etc. Other planned activities include tree climb trainings, discussions on patriarchy & consent, blacksmithing, plant walks, wild food & medicine foraging, tactical war games (capture the flag, etc.) star gazing, direct action trainings, earth skills trainings, a street/action medic/ine training, a reading group on critiques of anarchist accountability processes, writing letters to political prisoners, a radical puppet show, hiking, swimming, yoga, and much more!

Musicians, bands, etc.

WRFF 2013 is seeking acoustic musicians, performing artists, storytellers, etc., to join us and share your muse! If you have an act, band, or musical performance you would like listed ahead of time, please email us or post on our forums.

Kitchen

Once again, Durango Food Not Bombs will be facilitating WRFF's free communal kitchen. We are requesting support from other FNB chapters & revolutionary food networks, and are asking WRFF participants to bring any donations of food, herbs, spices, coffee, tea, sweeteners, etc., as well as kitchen gear (large pots & pans, spatulas, ladles, etc.). Got something you'd like to see served at the kitchen in the woods? Let's make it happen! We'll be collecting monetary donations throughout the event for food runs to town. Please dumpster on your way here, and contact us for local dumpster diving tips! Also, please let the kitchen know about any food restrictions, allergies, etc.

Medical

We have an amazing medic team forming, and are requesting WRFF participants bring first aid supplies, to be donated to the medic clinic/team. Please also check in with the medic team about any medical conditions we should be aware of.

Welcoming & Guard/Security 

For everyone's safety, we will be forming stationary and roving voluntary guard details, working in 3 or 4 hour shifts (which we'll decide together on the ground, in the woods), 24 hours a day. The entrance guard/security station near the parking area will also serve as a welcoming center for incoming participants. Please bring radios, scanners, batteries, flashlights, etc. to be utilized by the security team.

Distro Center, Really Really Free Market, etc.

Although WRFF is completely free and non-commercial, we encourage folks to bring along their distros, as a means of internal movement fundraising and mutual aid. We will also be creating a zine library (stuff to take) and lending library (stuff to borrow & return), so please bring along relevant literature & books (and be sure to mark lending library items for later reclaiming). In addition, we will be creating a Really Really Free Market ("free box" or "free store" area) with extra clothing, gear, and other items for free exchange. These will likely be located in close proximity of one another, near the entrance welcoming center.

Gear & Supplies

Other than first aid & kitchen supplies, we're seeking donations of infrastructural supplies such as extra ropes, tarps, tents, easy-ups, water jugs, water filtration systems, stoves, etc. For an expanded supplies list, see this year's initial announcement.

More information regarding safer space & accountability, conflict resolution and management, consent, security culture, etc. can be found in the initial call-out.

Well, that's it for now. We don't know about you, but we're getting really excited! It's time to get off the computer, and into the wildwood!

If you have any other questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us or post on our forums. We can also be found on fedbook.

May the Forest Bewitch You,

The Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers' collective

(PS - Don't forget the post-WRFF caravan to the Earth First! Round River Rendezvous!)

Decolonizing Wild Roots Feral Futures

Wild Roots Feral Futures, as an event, takes place on stolen indigenous land. In recognition of this truth, we would like to build relationships with those whose occupied land Wild Roots Feral Futures 2013 occurs on. In this spirit, we would like to reach out to indigenous communities in our area to establish direct lines of communication and extend an invitation to join us at the event in June. We recognize that protocol varies from community to community and Nation to Nation, and we feel that a good first step on our part is to simply reach out and establish contact, as we are doing now. Although we do not expect to have our hands held for us, any contacts and/or guidance regarding specific appropriate protocol would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! Feel free to contact us at feralfutures@riseup.net

For background reading on decolonization, please visit Unsettling America, particularly the Allyship & Solidarity Guidelines, as well as critical texts regarding cultural appropriation, including Wanting To Be Indian and Cultural Appreciation or Cultural Appropriation?

Wild Roots Feral Futures would also like to invite folks, indigenous & settler alike, to join us at WRFF 2013 to host and/or facilitate workshops, discussions, etc. regarding the theory & praxis of decolonization, and to work towards the formation of relationships of solidarity and allyship against all forms of domination. Settlers must not expect to have their status and privilege as settlers deconstructed for them, but we believe mutual dialogue to be foundational to true decolonization, which must listen to indigenous voices.

Here is one decolonization workshop scheduled thus-far: 


Batzarre: Decolonization and Awakening the Indigenous Self
 
Tentative Date: Begins evening of Tuesday June 18th. Picks up again in the morning of Wed. June 19th until supper. (open to suggestions to increase participation)

Beyond decolonization work in anti-oppression and academic settings lies “oiher” – the dangerous, crooked, but rewarding path of reawakening our selves and reclaiming our Indigenous cultures – particularly for people of European heritage. You are invited to join this day long mini-gathering that will explore finding our ancestors and our lost sense of place, how to know our relatives and lifeway again, and most critically – the liberating process of healing our hearts and spirits so that we may find our way back to our Indigenous selves. These are powerful understandings taught using story, discussion, experiential learning, and other tools, that has the power to disturb and change your life.

Nire izena Ana Oian Amets da, esan english Naomi Archer. I’ve been decolonizing for over 13 years– reawakening connection to my proto-Basque ancestors of the area we call southwest France. I’ve been invited to share my experiences of decolonization with people from all Four Directions, including Indigenous people of Turtle Island, as well as in Europe. I’m fully immersed in Indigenous resistance struggles as an adopted and active member of the traditional Cante Tenza Okolakiciye or Lakota Strong Heart Warrior Society, coordinator for the Lakota Solidarity Project, and former co-founder of the Four Directions Solidarity Network. You can see some of my current work at LakotaGrandmothers.org. I can be reached at tzorihou@gmail.com or 828-230-1404

Street Medic/ine Training Registration

Ride Share!

Car culture: it's killing the planet. Amongst other things. Alas, few will find other viable, less ecocidal options for accelerated, long-distance travel. We of course encourage anyone who's able to walk, ride a bicycle, etc., but in acknowledging the inevitability of motorized travel to Wild Roots Feral Futures, we have a ride share board on our community forum site. Please use it! (Note post dates, as some may have yet to be cleaned out from years past.)

Until we're "driving through the wilderness across over­ grown freeways on our species' last tank of gas"...