Re-storying Masculinity
What is the current state of contemporary masculinity and what sociocultural forces, historical events, psychological patterns, mythic stories, and rigid constructs shape(d) it? How do we look into the heart of patriarchal masculinity and heal the wounds of today? In re-storying the future of masculinities, how do we embrace a diversity of expression and forms, and make space for each one as they come into being? Let us embark on the journey of re-storying. The journey begins with diagnosing and contextualising contemporary masculinities and men’s work. Moving into psychological realms we explore how we might heal the inner child, and the Mother Wound often seen to be at the heart of patriarchal masculinity. Continuing along the lines of reparenting, we look at rebuilding fathering cultures and the role of community. We look towards possibilities for liberated futures, examining the intersections of masculinity and sexuality, and masculinity and coloniality. The journey concludes with new-old mythological frameworks for restorying masculinity. Guided by Ian MacKenzie, re-storying masculinity featuring a collective of storytellers, culture workers, wisdom carriers, and more.
hosted by Ian MacKenzie
Ian MacKenzie is a filmmaker and writer who lives on the Salish Sea with his partner and young son.
Module 1Contemporary Masculinities and the Renaissance of Men’s Work
Adam Jackson and German Villegas lead our journey with a diagnosis of contemporary masculinities within a historical, social and cultural framework, with a focus on how wider sociocultural forces shape men’s relationships.
Module 2Meeting our Monsters: Patriarchy’s Mother Wound
How can addressing the Mother Wound allow men to (re)establish a profound sense of connection to this earth, and to others, that they are deeply, and naturally longing for? How can we repattern through remothering, thereby restoring the feminine within the masculine and being in right relationship?
Module 3In a Time with No Fathers: Forging Intiatatory Pathways
What does it mean to father a culture, and how can we, regardless of where we are on the spectrum of masculinity, participate in this fathering? What happens when there are few initiated men, and an absence of holding? How might we collaboratively, life-givingly, initiate and liberate generational men’s work?
Module 4Liberating Gender: Queer and Trans Futurities
What sorts of healthier masculinities can emerge from widening the spectrum of gender, and breaking the binary? Is there a role for navigating the distinction of “femininity” and “masculinity”? What are ways we can conceptualise and understand the distinction? And how do we do so while embracing fluidity?
Module 5Decolonising Masculinity through Indigenous Thinking
How do the ghosts of an imperial past haunt us in the present? In the spirit of truly decolonising masculinity, we ask: if the solution is not to supplant an oppressive universalism with another, what might we learn from re-storying masculinities back into place and culture? Is rootedness the antidote, the...
Module 6Rewilding Masculinities and Embodying the Future
How do we reroot and reroute masculinities, in service of healing the earth? If masculinity has become a monoculturing myth within a dominator paradigm, how do we feed it as compost, back to the earth, and encourage its regeneration in a diverse, flourishing form? How do we develop and rediscover mythologi...
hosted by Ian MacKenzie
Ian MacKenzie is a filmmaker and writer who lives on the Salish Sea with his partner and young son.
hosted by Adam Jackson
CEO - Director of Operations, Co-Founder & Host of Sacred Sons Podcast
hosted by German Villegas
German is a community developer by work, educator by trade, podcaster by hobby, and a laugher by heart.
hosted by Bayo Akomolafe
Bayo Akomolafe (PhD) is Chief Curator and Executive Director of The Emergence Network.
hosted by Pat McCabe
Pat McCabe (Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining) is a Diné (Navajo) mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international speaker.
hosted by Stephen Jenkinson
Culture activist, worker, author ~ Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded the school with his wife Nathalie Roy in 2010, convening semi-annually in Deacon, Ontario, and in northern Europe.
hosted by Jhaimy Alvarez-Acosta
Jhaimy is a Traditional Curandero (Healer) from Cusco, Peru.
hosted by Zhenevere Sophia Dao
Zhenevere Sophia Dao is the founder of the philosophy of Post-Daoism.
hosted by Al Jeffery
Al is a psychotherapist, regenerative leadership and culture facilitator, keynote speaker, author, and deep-thinker. Dedicated to understanding disconnection and restoring connection in our lives, leadership and communities.
hosted by Téo Montoya
Writer, and Indigenous Futurist
hosted by Ke'oni Hanalei
Ke’oni is a practitioner in ancient archaic knowledge. Pua’aehuehu, Fern Medicine, or emotional intelligence—one aspect of this ‘ike, the legacy of his lineage—the awareness of the movement of emotions, and the release from control fixation.
hosted by Tamsin Omond
Tamsin Omond is a British author, environmental activist and journalist.
hosted by Paul Pulé
Dr. Paul M. Pulé is an Australian social and environmental justice activist, ecopreneur and scholar.
As a monoculturing myth, the story of patriarchal masculinity is retold repeatedly, both reinforced by and reinforcing the social structures that colonial, capitalist modernity has birthed. This myth, very much alive, has trapped generations within it, destroying land and life in its path. How can we reroute and reroot masculinity into a paradigm of serving and regenerating life? How might we embark on this journey of restorying?
Attempts thus far have been entrenched in conflicts on gender and power, often resulting in individual and collective pain. There is danger in having the prescription for healing written by the wound. Living in and working within a dominator paradigm, the enchainment of individual ego, the absence of initiatory pathways and holding spaces, the constraining effects of colonial constructs and the refusals to acknowledge the longings and hurts of the inner child, are but some of the reasons these attempts have failed.
In the aftermath of these attempts, factions have splintered into polarised encampments, unable to find themselves in a shared reality. Yet, the work to restory masculinity must be done together: there must be a rejection of universalising agendas, individual struggle, and binaristic answers. Perhaps a better framing is to say that the ask is to restory masculinities—we are coming together to diagnose, acknowledge, dissect, uncover, so that we can rewild, emerge, initiate, liberate. A polyphony of voices, including yours, will dialogue in this conversation.
What is the current state of contemporary masculinity and what sociocultural forces, historical events, psychological patterns, mythic stories, and rigid constructs shape(d) it? How do we look into the heart of patriarchal masculinity and heal the wounds that have created monsters today? What are men and masculinity missing, in a time of no fathers? In restorying the future of masculinities, how do we embrace a diversity of expression and forms, and make space for each one as they come into being?
