Gathering Of The Four Winds 2022

Registration and payment for Kupidabin Gathering of the Four Winds 2022 can be done with a printable registration form and bank transfer. To download the printable registration form, please click on the registration form image. To register as a volunteer, please click the volunteer’s registration image to download the registration form.

Forms can be filled in and sent to Maureen at info@kupidabin.org

Claudia Ocean – Walk In Beauty, The Lakota way of life (1 hour session)

A heartfelt session to explain Lakota Culture, story, language and music. There will be a basket full of objects from life and explanations about each item. There will be laughter, language and song. There will be Native American flute playing, medicine drumming, rattle shaking, corn husk doll making, tree blessings.
Imagine a walk in Lakota moccasins.
Claudia has lived in Australia for nearly forty years. She teaches Native American flute (and sells beautiful ones) and also plays an orchestra of instruments. She can speak and sing in many languages including Lakota, Iriquois, Cherokee and Algonquin. She enjoys sharing the teachings from her elders and stories of life on Turtle Island, walking the shores and canoing the silver shining waters of Lake Michigan, her childhood home. Her five grandsons are Aboriginal Australian and Native American.
Extra sessions available on the Monday and Tuesday following the Gathering Of The Four Winds

Traditional Hawaiian Welcome – Kumu Pa’a Kawika Foster

Kumu Pa’a Kawika Foster is a traditional practitioner of Hawaiian culture and traditions. He was accepted as a student of Kumu Paa Lawrence Aki in 2007. Since his acceptance Kumu Pa’a Kawika Foster learned the cultural practices of his Hawaiian heritage. He learned in a traditional manner. Once initiated into the lineage he lived with his teacher in Halawa Valley Molokai. His trainings where conducted in an oral basis. Stories, chants and dance where taught through listening, observing, and repeated till mastery. As of 2010 he has been travelling internationally sharing the knowledge and wisdom he learned. In 2014 Kumu Pa’a Kawika Foster was released from his training by his teacher and given the responsibility to preserve and perpetuate this knowledge and wisdom. Today he continues sharing internationally from his home in Dungog, NSW, Australia. 

It is his passion to continue enlightening others with an interest in Hawaiian practice to the way of thinking and living that nurturers a sound understanding of his Ancestry. His sharing style combines ancient wisdom with a modern approach. Through straight forward talks and real world applications Kumu Pa’a Kawika Foster shows how traditional spirituality relates to these changing times.

Those of you who attended our 2019 Gathering will remember Kawika– Kuma Pa’a Kawika Foster a HAWAIIAN Cultural Teacher. 
He will be travelling from N.S.W.with Kuma Pa’a Kathryn Roberts and his Student Haumana Donna Manalani
Kawika will perform at the Opening Ceremony and will hold Spiritual Hawaiian Workshops and Ho’oponopono in the traditional Hawaiian way during the weekend. Also Private sessions on Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th September.

Bear Nutting – The Warriors Adventure Day Hangī

Bear Nutting is a Warrior Embodiment Coach and Facilitator based in Gold Coast, Australia. He travelled the world as an international performing artist, having performed in front of over a million people and he now brings through this confidence, creative self-expression and embodiment to his work to support people to become fully self-expressed and embodied in their power. Having spent over 15 years as part of the Mankind Project and leading workshops and circles, Bear established himself as a specialist in helping men, women and teenage boys unlock and activate their inner warriors. He does this through the Warrior Adventure Day for teenage boys, men and mums to support them to go through the initiation process. Bear is of Maori descent is the founder of the Freedom Warrior Training Camp where he brings through tribal teachings and tells stories from his Maori Culture to connect people with their own culture and ancestry to support them in living in alignment with their higher purpose.

The Warriors Adventure Day Hangī. Sunday 25th September

Kia Ora and Welcome to the Four Winds Festival and feast and preparation of an age-old cooking ritual from the lands of the long white cloud, Aotearoa (New Zealand), traditionally known as the Hangī.

The Hangī or earth oven is a traditional Maori method of cooking especially suited to preparing food for large numbers of people.

Hot rocks and water are used to create steam in a shallow pit dug into the earth. The food is layered on top of the rocks (meat first and then vegetables) and covered with banana leaves.

The hot rocks, sometimes known as the Grandfathers, are placed with care in the prepared hole. The soil is then replaced to trap the steam for a few hours.

All these steps are done with intention and respect for the earth and each other as a community.

So, come and be a part of something cultural and share your story with others at a feast fit for the gods. The Warriors Adventure Day is to connect community together and create a new story in our lives that tells us that we are more, we are enough, and I am not alone.

The Day starts at 5:30 with the lighting of the fire. It will be welcomed with a Maori prayer to acknowledge the land and surroundings. The hole will be dug and I will explain the way things are done and why, and that these things have not changed for hundreds of years. The fire will burn and heat the rocks for 4 hours or so.

9:30 the people will be invited to prepare their own food ready for the basket.

10:30 Men will start to pull the grandfathers out of the fire and place them in the hole. Then the food is placed and the hole is sealed up to commence the cooking.

At 2pm, before the Closing Ceremony, we can perform an old story (through storytelling and theatre) of boys initiation into manhood from a certain village back in time. Then we witness the food coming out of the ground and celebrate the ‘boys coming home.’

People can then share their food. The Closing Ceremony for the weekend Gathering of The Four Winds will Follow.

Cathy Douglas – Grounding the Mother Within – A Singing Circle for Women

Cathy Douglas is descended from the Vosa Ratu clan from the Fijian village of Vuna. She comes from a line of Oracles on her maternal side; and has followed a path of learning and healing that includes a near-death experience in December 2018. This NDE taught her both the true essence of our limitlessness being; and the importance of grounding into the Earth our Mother as part of embodying essence and expressing our full potential. Cathy is the mother of five children, and the grandmother of two. Her ongoing work with energy healing and crystal singing bowls allows her to express and share her gifts as a woman and healer.

This 2-hour workshop offers peace, quiet and connection for generous women ready to receive nurture from Mother Earth. Grounding practices will include guided meditations supported by singing bowls as well as chanting. Wear comfortable clothes, bring water and a readiness to connect with yourself and others. Suitable for non-musicians and designed to nourish and bring forth and share your beautiful and limitless essence.

Cathy will be assisted by Rain Hogen Downey

Rain Hogen Downey – Grounding the Mother Within – A Singing Circle for Women

Rain Hogen Downey is a writer, singer and healer who delivers workshops offering a sense of connection and sanctuary. Descended from Celtic and Zen ancestors, she is formally trained as a lawyer, executive coach and group coaching practitioner, and her published work on organisational culture has appeared in peer reviewed journals and the Sydney Morning Herald under the name of Jacqueline Jago. Raised trilingual in Vanuatu until the age of six, she weaves elements from her Catholic upbringing with her training as a Zen priest and her life-long partnership with Indigenous friends to midwife into being new harmonies in honour of the Earth our Mother.

This 2-hour workshop offers peace, quiet and connection for generous women ready to receive nurture from Mother Earth. Grounding practices will include guided meditations supported by singing bowls as well as chanting. Wear comfortable clothes, bring water and a readiness to connect with yourself and others. Suitable for non-musicians and designed to nourish and bring forth and share your beautiful and limitless essence.

Rain will be assisting Cathy Douglas

Richard Littlefeather

Born in Chimney Rock, Pennsylvania, USA, Richard has been following his Native Culture for many years. Growing up, he was taught many hand crafts such as leather working and beading from tribal members. A Lakota Sioux elder taught silver smithing and instructed Littlefeather in some of the cultural ways of his people.
For the past sixteen years, Littlefeather has been counsellor, teacher, University lecturer, and public speaker.

Richard has been running workshops for 20 years sharing culture, handcrafts, and teaching Personal Awareness. His teachings are based on the tenet of respect and awareness of the natural world around us.

Littlefeather conducts a number of workshops including Drum Workshops, Medicine Wheel Workshops and Talks through out Australia for both adults and children.

Te Aukaha Māori Performing Arts –  Performing at Friday evening Welcome Ceremony.

“Bringing the past into your future”
Learn about the Pōwhiri (traditional welcome)
Exponents of the Taiaha (Māori weapon)
Presenting the Haka (posture dance)
Experience for yourself by participating in a waiata a ringa (action song)

Ngā mihi nui my name is Julian Ratana I am the founder/Tohunga of Te Aukaha Māori Performing Arts. Our vision is to continue the legacy that our tupuna (ancestors), have left us through song and dance. We look forward to meeting you soon.

Onemaru Cultural Performing Arts is a Traditional Cook Island Culture Dance, Music and Drum Beats –  Performing at Friday evening Welcome Ceremony.

Rene Bahloo

Accomplished fibre artist, Rene Bahloo approaches skill building from a holistic perspective, actively facilitating community connection, life skills and wellbeing through the active meditation of basket weaving.

Taking an ancient cultural practice and adapting it to the needs of today for healing, connection, personal growth and skill building. The combination of creativity, environmental awareness, community wellbeing adds value to the weaving experience. Originally from South Africa, Rene holds a passion from her life-altering experience of Australian indigenous culture in Arnhem Land. She loves and lives women’s business and the weaving of consciousness amidst joyful community activity and the magic in life.

Rene invites you to weave and connect with land and culture, and to gather together with her special family of weavers in their homes in remote indigenous Australia and Africa. Her goal is for us all to weave our world into a better place, to weave ourselves in healing and wellbeing, to weave our environment with passion and purpose. 

www.weavery.com.au