The Kinship 2022 course is an exploration into being together in a time when being apart has fractured our relationship to self, other, and the more-than-human in ways that have left us painfully adrift. It is a timely collective inquiry into how community, relationality, and belonging can revitalise our sense of aliveness as creatures of and participants in this animate earth, and how such a renewal might influence our actions towards greater flourishing.

About Kinship

Our relationships are what enable us to step forth into being and enlivenment. Without relationship there is no thing, no body, no where, how, or why. So long as the relationships that sustain us here on earth are severed, so our sense of being here wanes. It is our relationships (to self, other, and earth) that offer us the greatest sense of belonging, and it is belonging that offers us the meaning we thrive on as a species.

Kinship is a way of relating that asks us to go beyond extracting value from the “other”. It is relationship for relationships sake, and for the sake of life itself. It is a form of relationship that acknowledges the deeper workings of reality by operating on the same principles as the very breath which keeps us alive: reciprocity, emergence, and sensuous awareness.

Restoring land without restoring relationship is an empty exercise. It is relationship that will endure and relationship that will sustain the restored land. - Robin Wall Kimmerer

About the course

We want to ask the questions: When we are not indigenous, _what are we? How can we belong? Why do we find it so challenging in the globalised consumerist world to practice healthy relationships and community? Can kinship arise through online relationships and those we form in demanding and fractured environments like cities? _

How do skewed power dynamics affect the quality of our relatedness? How might a sense of kinship help us navigate polarisation, and how might it encourage us to move beyond our deeply held views? How, ultimately, can kinship orient us towards greater individual and collective flourishing?

Whether or not you have unorthodox relationships with rocks, or find your wings in the world of words, we invite you to explore kinship with us, and reconceive relationship in the contexts we find ourselves in.

While Advaya seeks to hold a responsible container and work with facilitators and teachers who pledge to do the same, we do not hold a therapeutic status and therefore cannot be liable for any difficult emotions that may arise through your personal exploration of these topics. Topics will include sensitive material around colonisation, gender, race, oppression and so on. By joining this course, you agree that you will engage with the content at a pace that you are able to. Some of the things discussed may feel challenging for you - in many cases this can be a good sign! We invite you to participate with an open mind, and to build greater tolerance for views that you might not chime with ordinarily - this is to begin the journey of Kinship. It does not mean you have to agree with everything said, or that you should put yourself in a position you feel extremely uncomfortable with, but we do invite you to stretch your boundaries for the benefit of both yourself and others.