A Tribute to the Other and Elsewhere

Weekend Among Friends
Small Changes Making Big Differences

April 25 – 28, 2019

We are bound by the way we live and trying to change that world is difficult. It might be interesting to just try to understand how other groups organize and denote their world.
It is not about knowledge.
A conversation between F. David Peat and Godelieve Spaas, 2016

What if we had a wider range of ideas, knowledge and expressions to tap into to develop our way of living into one that contributes to the wellbeing of all in harmony with our Earth? What if we valued other knowledge systems and worldviews equal to our own? I believe that reaching out to people and organizations who are different from us and who live in very different circumstances on our planet, and this includes species and ecosystems everywhere on Earth, might be key in realising an ecological, economic and socially just world.

Staying with the Blackfoot people for a while, made David Peat see that his way of thinking and his world was a set of assumptions. He realised there were different ways of seeing the world. I had a similar experience working with the African scientist Catherine Odora Hoppers. I became aware of my own worldview and opened up to other worldviews. In this journey I experienced what beauty and wisdom can emerge from understanding the other and elsewhere and from weaving insights from different perspectives together. Annet Henneman, who will join us during this Weekend Among Friends, developed ‘Theatre Reportage’ a way to bring the lives of those who live oppression, war, and occupation closer to the ‘Western countries’. Annet has travelled through conflict areas in the Middle East and lived with the people in these areas over extended periods of time. These highly personal meetings are the basis of her performances.

Each set of assumptions offers a different understanding, denoting and giving meaning to ourselves, our actions and the environment we are part of.
How can we reach out, meet, understand and relate with the other and elsewhere? How can we be responsive to wisdom, experiences and expressions beyond our own? How can we weave new ways of living, working and organising out of variety and diversity, based on empathy and the embracing of the other and elsewhere?

To be in love is to be worldly, to be in connection with significant otherness and signifying others, on many scales, in layers of locals and globals, in ramifying webs.
Donna Haraway

This year’s Weekend Among Friends will explore ‘The Other’: other ways and other spaces of thinking, living andworking. We will look at change as a cooperative act, as a process of becoming with each other, based on relationships between beings, organisations, places, cultures, and ecosystems. We will explore relationships that invite us to move beyond our own way of thinking, acting and imagining. We will invite ourselves to engage with the other and stay with the problems this might bring.

We would like to invite you to the beautiful little village of Pari, Italy, April 25-28, 2019, to join us for the weekend and to meet with old and new friends. The landscape and community, the Pari Center and Pari Networks all represent a container in which one feels invited to have good conversations and to enjoy the company of our Pari friends, the excellent Italian food and wine, and of course the Tuscan sun and culture.

Costs
180 euros per day/per participant which covers meals, accommodation, activities and lectures (540 euros per participant in total for 3 days). Arrangements can be made if you want to stay longer. For registration and more information please contact one of us:

[email protected]                             [email protected]