Gatherings

One of the most important spaces in GENOA is our gatherings, whether they are face-to-face or virtual. We find that so much is activated and emerges when our minds and hearts meet. Through our gatherings, we are able to create synergy and foster community, within our team, the network and broader public.

GENOA hosts bi-annual regional gatherings, with our most recent event being the 2-day GENOA Online Gathering, Restore & Re-story: Coming Home to Ourselves, Our Communities, and Mother Earth, last November 2020. Due to the many restrictions of COVID-19, our team creatively developed this online gathering, with over 100 active participants, 50 hosts and facilitators and reaching a broader audience of 500 people, via various social media channels.

This special gathering took us on a journey through the process of Restoring ourselves back to resilience and Re-storying the regenerative future we want.  Each day was organised in the following segments with activities that engaged the body, mind, and spirit coming from the rich traditions and practices of the Asia and the Pacific region.

• Body – Embodied Practices (Mindfulness and Somatic practices )
• Mind  – Reflective – Dialogues (Panels and Webinar Conversations)
• Spirit – Creative Cultural Activities (Music, Visual Art, Movement, and Performances) 

GENOA Regional Gathering 2018: Compassionate Resiliency

Our 2018 regional gathering was held at the intentional community and education center, Wongsanit Ashram, Thailand, in December 2018. Through the languages and traditions of storytelling, orality, and spontaneous dialogue, coupled with ritual, ceremony, and authentic voice, it was an honour for GENOA to hold space for representatives from ecovillages, organisations and networks from our region. Our region’s diversity in tradition, lifestyle, culture, heritage and community process, allowed for compassionate resiliency to grow, even in the most challenging of times.

The aspect of Resiliency that comes from deeply rooted passions is integral to our survival as a species and a planet. The aspect of Compassion, emerging from that which passion ignites, enables us to respond to each other empathically and with connection, solidarity and unity.    Resiliency is both a vulnerability and a strength.  From a post-postmodern vantage, it empowers us to be flexible, adaptable and yet grounded and firm.  It acts as a driving force towards growth through adversity and disruption. The compassionate arises from compassion. The spirit of community stirs within the heart, a small intuitive voice that nurtures our contexts and brings us together in spaces of trust where our vulnerabilities become visible and shared. 

Emergence Convergences, 2016 to 2018

Between 2016 to 2018 GENOA helped support and sponsor 8 Emergence Convergences in 7 countries across the region (the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Vanuatu, in order to increase engagement, awareness and participation from individuals and communities. The key question that was asked was, “What is the Asia-Oceania Ecovillage Model?”. These events helped build momentum across the GENOA networks, creating community around envisioning an ecovillage world.

The Emergence Convergence (EC) is a type of gathering where people come together to listen deeply, speak spontaneously from the heart, and collectively dream about paradigm shifts towards systems of wholeness. Each gathering was themed on a particular topic, such as sustainability, education, medicine, dialogue, community, healing, and creating change in the world.

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