The
collectivity
Project
Re-Membering Belonging • Re-Indigenizing Our Relations • Decolonizing Our Grief
we all come from a people who gathered around fires, storytelling, dancing, and grieving together
We have been separated from village
Stripped of our initiation rites
Raised without our grief rituals
Taught independence (isolation) and scarcity
Severed from reciprocity with the earth
Born into dismemberment
We grieve
we were not meant
to do it alone
We are rebuilding our village
Recreating our initiation rites
Befriending our grief
Learning collectivity and mutual care
Reunifying our relations to the earth
Re-membering
We praise
Acknowledging that our tissues and nervous systems have embodied the
carceral ideologies of colonialism - shame, supremacy, isolation, outcasting, all
of the "isms" that our linages have assimilated in to survive through
We dismantle these structures through the active practice of remembering our
collectivity - no longer individualizing the harm of these systemic structures as
personal "moral failure" or labeling others as "bad people"
Co-operating through this communal grief to
move the Matter of Belonging through our communities and environments
Disengaging from inner-supremacy,
self-dominance, and self-rejection, strengthening our inner-consent,
our self-responsiveness, and our inner sense of belonging
We anticipate supremacy models of interaction as our cultural default,
anticipating the harm that we will both receive and contribute to,
because of generations of growing within these systems
Understanding that harm is inevitable in this state, we practice
pre-emptively tending to these realities through efforts in building our
communal skill set for repair, as we know this continuous repair is essential
for our collective healing and natural ecosystem of reciprocity
We soften our notions around worth, merit, and “earning” as they apply to
our belonging and to the belonging of others — seeing each individual inherently worthy,
holding precious, unique and irreplaceable gifts for the whole
We are re-remembering through creating environments that prioritize the
belonging, repair, and reciprocity that we are all so hungry for
This is recognition and re-indigenization of our most human nature
Belonging and Interdependence
as the anchor
as the bottom line
as the organizational structure
as the conflict resolution
as the prayer
as the medicine
prayers moving matter to nurture
our great remembering
composting urges of immediacy, fear and indignation
for fertile soil
tending trust, repair and reciprocity
The Collectivity Project is a project by Alyx Somas. Alyx is a Native Northern American with roots from multiple Detribalized Peoples whose lineages have been living upon Tongva Lands for four generations.
Their primary work is within movements of Collective Cultural Re-Indigenization, partnering alongside cultures of Belonging, Reciprocity, and Restorative Action.
Their community organizing is in service with Indigenous Knowledge Systems, supported by their training in group facilitation and somatic healing. They have spent the last decade working in education and organizing collective spaces for expressive arts, healing, de-colonization, honoring ancestry, connecting with the land, communal grief and prayer, and rituals of initiation. They especially find joy in decentralized spaces of ceremonial song, dance, and counsel.
They are on a journey of Initiation, training to be a Good Elder. All of their work holds heart in the belief that "we all come from peoples who gathered around fires storytelling, dancing, and grieving together." They are gently composting generations-old colonial wounding; resourcing in prayers that dismantle inner-supremacy, disengage from cultures of shame, blame, and carceral action, and offering prayers towards the unfolding of a multicultural people living out restored relations, in devotion to Inter-Dependence and to the ancestral ways of reverence for all that lives.
Their labor is for the world coming, where we gather together over the open flames that birth reciprocity from the fertilizer of our decay, united in our Praise and Grief towards the expression of our true nature — Reciprocity and Deep Beauty.
Current Workshop
“Resourcing Our Ancestral Bodies for the Collective Liberation Movement of Our Times”
This collaborative workshop anchors in honoring our lineage and shared
roots to explore the living practices of somatic abolitionism and
regenerative social permaculture, as they nurture our collective liberation
We will learn together, practicing the healing of simple attunement and witness, and integrating with somatic practices and community song
This is a gentle and encouraging experience in service to expanding our capacity to align our intentions with our impacts, to nourish our wholeness, and to live into our deepest human nature: Belonging
more to come
- workshops + 1 on 1's
- consultations
- collaborations
Connect + support
thecollectivityproject@gmail.com