A night of Spoken Word in ritual, in nature, with fire and with each other. We live in a beautiful world, beckoning us into our senses and calling us back to belonging. Courting the Sacred invites us into our senses, our feeling body, our heart. In ritual we remember. It’s an opportunity for that inner romantic to express this love we all share for the natural world. It’s for us to open up to the beauty of living. Word is powerful, we cast our spells with word. Words can both harm and heal, so may we create a scared healing space with our invocations and prayers.
The Ritual
We open with an embodied acknowledgment of Country and Custodians
Karla will begin the circle with a prayerful poem.
Circle will open for anyone to share their poem. It can be your personal poem or a poem by someone you are inspired by on the theme.
Afterwards you are welcome to share in potluck dinner round the fire. This will be a time for sharing stories together under the stars.
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Arrive by 6pm – we will begin shortly after.
Location:
Monbulk, Vic
Exact location given on booking This will be on a private property and held in a cosy dome in nature.
Booking:
$16 General
$12 Concession
Booking link: https://www.gatheraustralia.org/event-details-registration/courting-the-sacred-2023-12-17-18-00
Bring:
Food to share if you are staying for potluck dinner
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About Karla
Hi,
I had the privilege of growing up in remote Australia, on Kamilaroi country. It is these beginnings, in the bush that continue to inform me as I walk through life… mostly barefoot.
I started to focus on Spoken Word as a form of activism in 2020 when I was walking with Custodians of Country in central Australia. I wanted to use my love and my pain for the people to speak to the hearts of those willing. Each year I would write in the desert and come back to Melbourne to share the Poetry, and what I discovered was the power wasn’t in the message, the power was in how it moved through me as a form of healing. And so, I discovered that my own poetry was healing for me, and so, it could be healing for others. When we speak from the heart, we speak to the heart of others.
I am a romantic, but I also acknowledge my upbringing in remote Queensland and my time in communities with Custodians confronting the impacts of colonisation have weathered me into a deeper wisdom of the pain and injustice that exists in this world. So for me, Spoken Word is a way for us to speak truely from the heart, to unravel us from the rigidity of the man made world and bring us back to the ancient art form that was once used to bring healing and hope to the people. In ritual, our poems become invocations, prayers for the living. So come join me in my dome, on the edge of the rainforest on Wurundjeri country in the Yarra Valley, to remember our way back home to belonging.
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Testimonies
“Karla writes from a place of purpose. You can feel, in the soft and formidable presence she holds in her words, her connection to healing our relationship with country. Her message is one to deeply hold and one we all need to learn.”
~ Ren (Australian poetry slam champion 2020)
“Karla mesmerised us with her thoughtful, calm cadence. She grounded us with her story about real, visceral relationship with nature. We all walked out feeling part Earth.”
~ Jarrah Story
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I acknowledge the ancient lands on which we gather, the stories, language and ceremonies that exist within country and the custodians that have taken care of these lands since time immemorial. I pay my respects to the sacred art forms that exist within the original culture, to the ceremonies and rituals. May we learn to live in harmony, may we listen and may we continue to learn from the oldest living culture in the world.
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