QTIBPOC Grounding Workshop: Recalibrating & Connectivity
Presented by Switchboard’s QTIBPoC Program
What are grounding workshops?
Switchboard's QTIBPOC Grounding Workshops are free community gatherings, specifically for queer, trans and intersex people, who are Bla(c)k and/or people of colour.
‘Grounding’ means to return to our bodies, in time and place, and reconnect with ourselves, each other, and the land. We bring people together and practice grounding through different expressions and practices.
Recalibrating & Connectivity: A three-part series
This February, join us for our three-part workshop series, Recalibrating & Connectivity, curated by Jackie Sheppard and Rosie Clynes.
Come and develop your practice of belonging and co-existence, through:
Connection to place (land, nature, place-based relationality)
Connection to self (cultivating the inner creative voice)
Community connection (community making, lateral relationalities & co-operation).
About the first workshop
Jackie will guide us along the Merri Creek, on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country, as they share some First Nations ways of being and knowing, including storytelling, embodiment, and Deep Listening.
Through a process of reflection and creative musings, we learn how to nurture and cultivate an active and working relationship with lands, waters, and what many First Peoples refer to as 'Sky Country' (stars, sky, cosmos). We will also explore what an ongoing practice of mind-body-land connectivity looks like.
We will learn how to cultivate a more conscious relationship with the land, while broadening our understanding of how First Nations place-based relationalities inform identity and community systems of care and responsibility.
Deep Listening is a First Nations practice of deep reflection and using our six senses to listen and attune to our environment and atmosphere.
What to expect
We will meet at Joe’s Market Garden in Coburg and travel along the Merri Creek in a group of 15 or so peers, stopping at several spots that may impact specific ideas and insights.
Throughout the workshop, we may engage in mixed creative forms of expression, including journaling, embodiment, and sketching.
About the facilitator
Jackie Sheppard is an interdisciplinary performing artist whose practice is grounded in dance, performance, embodiment, writing, installation, workshop facilitation, and somatic storytelling.
Through their creations, Jackie attempts to identify and interrogate intergenerational, ancestral, and embodied storylines, interrogating First Nations themes, as relevant to their personal lived experience as a First Nations person.
Date: Saturday, February 1 2025
Time: 1-3pm
Location: CERES Joe's Market Garden, 34 Edna Grove Coburg, VIC 3058
Access needs
If you have access needs or questions regarding travel along the Merri (or any other access needs or questions), get in touch via qtibpoc@switchboard.org.au. We will explore what options are available to ensure your engagement can be meaningful.
Important to note
These workshops are not designed as a substitute for therapy, counselling or professional mental health care services. If you need someone to talk to, or would like to be linked in with these supports, please contact our Rainbow Door helpline or QLife. By registering and agreeing to participate in this workshop, you acknowledge and understand the above considerations.