Origin Stories-Community
How did we get here?
This workshop invites a lens of care and identity through community. It looks at how we as individuals show up for ourselves and one another, how we got to be in this valley, and how our presence contributes to the collective.
Like each of us, the collective is changing all the time, and we may be well served to understand who we consider our community, who we do not, what this town is , what we hope to preserve, and what we hope to dismantle. We will look at the land, how it got to be this way, as well as the origin stories of the settling of Missoula and those stories’ impacts on each of us. How did we get here, and how do we want to intentionally move through living with one another in this beautiful place? Participants will leave with a collective understanding of their perceived role in community, and the gifts and obligations that come with living in proximity to others.
An embodied yoga asana practice will bookend the workshop to call us into the present moment and invite strength, softening and integration. There will be guided meditation, journaling prompts, snacks and tea. This is a space for inquiry and contemplation.
Exchange: $25-100 sliding scale for 4 hour workshop. A note on the slide: I want to serve community, and am going to see how a sliding scale might land for the collective. If you are in a position to pay into community, pay in! If you have the resources, please consider paying on the higher end of the scale to make space for those who are shorter on cash.
This workshop is freestanding on its own, but also it is part 2 of a 3 part workshop on origin stories. Part 3 will focus on birthing the world we want to create.
This workshop is available to an intimate group of in person participants (12 max). There is a live online option as well for those who prefer to participate from home. There is some scholarship available.
Please note: The Abode, the studio in which the class is held, is on the 3rd floor of a building. Students with limited mobility may benefit from the online option.
My Context:
Kendra Mylnechuk Potter (enrolled citizen of Lummi Nation) is a theatre and film artist, birth+death doula, yoga educator, partner and mother. Most of her work centers on the mother/child relationship and embodied storytelling, with an awareness that this precious human form is a sacred gift we get to keep learning through again and again. Since 2021, Kendra has delivered keynotes and Q&As at festivals and conferences around the world with "Daughter of a Lost Bird", a documentary she co-produced and in which she is protagonist, about being adopted out and reuniting with her birth mother and Lummi community. She is currently directing a new documentary series of contemporary Indigenous storytelling throughout Indian Country called "The Aunties," as well as writing "Can't Drink Salt Water," a play commissioned by the Montana Rep about MMIP, human trafficking, and mother grief. Through her company Sister Moon Wellness, she shares yoga and doula support, and runs a yoga teacher training and birth doula training.