Untamed. A time to be free to be who you are, your quirky self, and be accepted. A time for tribe, pagans who, like you, love nature and have a unique perspective on living with Mother Earth. That’s what I’m looking forward to the most: being with kindred, with chosen family, with people who I jive with.
I know the staff from previous events, and I know every one of them is a great person and have a lot of common sense as well. I can rely on them to have the participants’ best interests at heart.
I’m the Accessibility Coordinator, and my job is to do my best to help this experience be accessible to all, to the extent that it is possible. There are a few things we can’t do anything about, such as no electricity or running water, and the land is rugged. So, normal wheelchairs will have a more difficult time there, and people with medical needs will need to consider whether their needs will be met during this event. For those who cannot attend for whatever reason, please know that there is a virtual Untamed event happening as well, to help you be able to participate from home.
Even though there are some barriers to access that we can’t do anything about, the staff is wonderful and I know many of the participants would be willing to help out. If it’s something we can do something about to help out each other, we will. For example, maybe you need help putting up your tent or breaking it down. If so, let us know! Do you need sign language access? Let us know that, too.
I will be bringing sign language access to Untamed. That means that certain events will have sign language access: music, rituals, workshops, and/or kids’ activities. I can’t provide this to all events, because I don’t yet have the ability to be all places at once! But, certain events will have this access. It will depend on who needs it, but some events will have this access no matter what.
When I’ve provided this kind of open access in the past, sometimes we had Deaf/hard of hearing participants who needed sign language access, and sometimes we didn’t. And when we didn’t, I still had people coming up to me saying they have a hearing loss and how much it helped them understand what was being said. So, I continue to provide this access, since I can.
That’s something many of the staff believe is important: to be of service. If you can be of service, do it. I think of that often, and to me, that’s my purpose in life: to be of service. Sometimes I don’t live up to that standard, but it’s something I strive for. And I know many of the staff, do, too. And, we are of service as we are able. If we aren’t able, it’s O.K. We are all just doing what we can.
Because of how awesome our staff is, this is bound to be a wonderful experience for participants. We’re here for you, to the best of our ability. We’re here to build community, to honor nature, and be with tribe. We hope to see you there!
– Lena