On March 1st 2025 we held the 7th Ecoversities Assembly. Our intention this year is to hold these more frequently. The assemblies are places in the alliance where we hear each other and big decisions are taken. These are perfect for putting things in common, a space for proposal for members of the service circles! On this ocassion, the assembly engaged two important questions:
- What is it that you are learning? What do you hope to learn when you are in Alliance service in the circle? What were you looking to learn when you came to the circle you’re supporting?
What are we not talking about in Ecoversities? What issues do we have to pay attention to?
This is the first time an Ecoversities Assembly is held in Spanish. We experienced some challenges with Language Interpretation. There are available English subtitles in the Captions Option below the recording. Below is a rough transcript of the session translated from Spanish/Portuguese with some notes from the participants. It might be super useful to revisit the learnings of the previous two assemblies: 5th Assembly & 6th Assembly. You may also click here to go directly to the summary and annoucements of this assembly at the end of the page. Thank you!
Transcript Part 1: What is it that you are learning? What do you hope to learn when you are in Alliance service in the circle? What were you looking to learn when you came to the circle you're supporting?
Yeyo: Thank you, as I was saying in English, we wanted to open this seventh Ecoversities Assembly, with a song and a prayer and we found this one that is the 2 things.
And asking permission from the spirits of this place and from the spirits of each of the places where they dwell.
I also want to turn on a light. An elemental fire. Giver of life. To ask everyone to pray for our friend Andrea. That at the moment he is attending to some important matters. That this little fire and the spirits of the places where we live then arose for Andrea. Not bad. Well. We are going to open, although there are a little more people missing, but tell you. To those who are already present, that this Seventh Assembly of curiosities has as its title. I’m going to read it in English because that’s how it is and then I’ll say it in Spanish. Blooming into our curiosity. Sowing the seeds of our learning, blossoming in our curiosity and weaving the seeds of our learning. So, well, we are, it’s been 10 years, we’re here this year. Celebrating 10 years of the Alliance. And we want this first assembly of the cycle to be to honor what we have already learned. To see those seeds that we have already harvested that we want to bloom for this cycle and the following cycles to come.
Sierra and Albert from the Ecoversities facilitation circle will accompany me today. And if you are here in this Assembly, it is because you are part of some circle of service For the Alliance of Ecoversities in the Assemblies, this is the seventh, as I said, they are the space where we collect. The voice, the dreams and the learnings of those who make it possible for the alliance to work. Ok. So, briefly, Sierra, if you want to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about the circles, where where you serve, just like Albert.
sierra: Thank you Yeyo, hello everyone, how nice to see it. I’m Sierra, I think we all know each other here. In this cycle I am in a communications circle, I am supporting from the roots also of ecoversities. I’m weaving the region of Turtle Island (North America). And I am also supporting processes in compost and audiovisuals.
Albert: Hello, I’m Albert, and this year I’m still in the communications circle.
I’ve also been giving a lot of attention to the circle of care.
To regional weavers for Isla Tortuga and Abya Yala (Latin America), and also compost, and also in roots, many, many circles. Thank you for being here and I will pass the word.
Yeyo: Thank you, well, some of us have seen each other in the circles. Others may be seeing in our faces for the first time, welcome those who join a circle for the first time in this cycle and thank you and welcome to those who have served before in the Sierra alliance, tell us a little and Albert too. And if someone wants to contribute. Ladybird. About what these 10 years of Ecoversities have been. Go ahead
sierra: Thank you Yeyo, I wanted to invite you to show maybe with your fingers or in the chat. How many years have you been weaving with ecoversities? More or less, maybe it’s months, but I think most of them are already years, so maybe with our hands to see. Yeyo 7 years old. 3 years Maura, Camilo 6 years old. Bianca 4 years old, Vanessa 2 years old. Michael 3 years old.
Magdaluz 3, Mar 2, André months. Well, almost 1 year now.
It’s been quite a few years collectively, now. Offering this service these heartbeats to this group. First of all. A deep thank you to all of you here.
And I also wanted to invite us to share the names of people, friends, colleagues, people who have been present on this journey with us, who may not be on this call, but are present here.
If you want to put in the chat some names of people that we want to invoke also in this space. And in one of those they arrive and nothing else. I remember Sierra, Albert and me that we talk slowly so that Diego can do his work well. Thank you Diego for your service.
And with this I simply wanted, yes, as always, to recognize as always that those of us who come to the calls. Well, we have this chance to go a little deeper every time we meet, but we are a very, very broad fabric and we are also supported by this broader community. All these friends, Manish, Harsh, Alessandra, Nico, Andrés, Bianca, Gaby, Gerardo, Su. Ah, there are many people, many hearts, an organism of many hearts.
And well, wow. Yes, it’s been 10 years, as Yeyo said from the first meeting in Portugal, as Yeyo said, We can now say that we are no longer babies, that we are already growing and there are many lessons learned along the way. So yes, what, how nice to be able to share in these assemblies. I wanted to mention that just at this time some people asked us to put today’s date as an Assembly that is in the middle of carnival in Brazil. Some are in Ramadan. There are several different moments of presence with the territory in different parts of the world of this global fabric. So, we must also think and sustain, grateful for what these comrades are supporting. And we continue, we continue, we are all here. I don’t know if they want to. It’s also like in some parts of the world, like spring.
There’s Pawkar Raimi, which is what Andre, what she was going to do this part of this meeting, but as Yeyo said, she’s not here, she’s in some very, very difficult processes right now with her dad, so she wanted, she also wanted to invoke that intention that she had to bring that recognition of the fabric with the Earth, that we are all children of the Earth, from the culture of the Amazons. Ecuador.
So with that I wanted to open, to see if anyone else wanted to share something from this moment. Precisely if they are feeling something to share some emotion. I don’t know if Albert, then we’re going to go breakout. And yes, I don’t know, I open, I open slowly.
Albert: Well, I go to what you mentioned that these are a bit difficult times for many of us. And also that the beginning of this year. It’s been a little… Our forces have not been at 100%, we have had to stretch our hands a lot to attend to other pending issues. And in the end that’s how we end up lying on the ground. And maybe that’s why there aren’t so many people today. However, I also want to honor that it is precisely in that separation where we meet, like the space between the leaves, it is where the wind passes and that the alliance is super big and it is only like a small part. And we are in the process of finding them, in that somewhat ambiguous place. And it’s almost spring in the north. And it’s almost fall in the South, so I know there’s a lot going on and yes, I open up the space if anyone wants to add something.
Yeyo: Well, what else do you think about here, and to prepare us for the small groups. I mean for me this wind or what I have discovered that we already know about this wind between the leaves of which Albert speaks. Someone very new, Bryan from Cherán, Brandon from Cherán, said at the Abya Yala meeting. That what he sees in this network is something that is natural and intrinsic, not only to us as human beings, but to life in general, is love.
So, that. I want to put that at the center, which is what I have learned in this alliance. It is that, if you knit from love, many things are possible. Michael. Speak slowly so we can pause and we can translate you into Spanish.
Michael: Yes, of course, I’ll try to do that. My name is Michael. I’ve been in the Compost Circle for three years. The only in-person meeting I have attended was the one on Tortuga Island in July, I think.
I travel a lot between Portugal and the United States, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
And I just flew back to the United States, on Wednesday. And the film Soundtrack to Coup d’État. I don’t know if any of you have seen it? They were showing it on the plane. It is about 1959 and 1960, when the Congo became independent, and then its independence was quickly removed by a coup d’etat by a friendly government to maintain its relationship with the colonial powers and the sphere of influence of Belgium and the United States. And it was loaded with photographic material, which reminded me of when I was 9 or 10 years old, realizing what was happening in the world. And all my hopes that things might be different.
And now 65 years later…
The year 1960 was the year of the 15th General Assembly of the United Nations. And here we are in an assembly, and in fact Fidel Castro initiated the idea of having the heads of the states visit New York. And a tremendous number of new and independent states in Africa and Latin America became this great bloc in the United Nations.
So that was the beginning of my utopian thinking. I began to imagine this new world where imperialism and colonization were ending and people were being led by you know, even though it was mixed with a national independence, a real sense of liberation. And I mean I feel very sad 65 years later, that it seems like the same shit is still going on now, we’ve gone through this cycle several times, but it’s still the same pattern of great empires, trying to acquire power and people from all over the world suffering, and for me, Ecoversities with all of you, with most of you being younger than me, I have hope, you are my hope for the future. You are my hope that if things have not changed in the last 65 years, they may change in the next 65 years. So I’m sad as I remember the story of our sad story with the planet. But I’m also hopeful that all of you, that we’re all together at Ecoversities and I’m hopeful that some of you will achieve the day that I started imagining when I was 19 years old.
Last thing, I highly recommend this film to this community. It is called soundtrack to coup d’état because the American government had sent the great jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie. Nina Simone to travel through the Congo and Africa to be representatives, you know, to show a friendly face of the United States, and there’s a lot of music and their concerts. Meanwhile, this was just a cover-up. Because at the same time, the CIA was sabotaging the new independent government. So it’s a great movie. If you like music and political history, I recommend it!
Yeyo: Thank you, Michael, well, the movie will be recommended in the chat, I don’t know why it reminded me in these current times of something they called USAid in Spanish but hey, let’s go to the breaker rooms. We want you.
Let’s dig a little deeper and learn more about the intentions of these great allies who serve the Ecoversities circles.
We are going to make maybe 2 groups. Sierra 2 groups so that there can be. The conversation is rich and diverse, so yes, they only speak Spanish. or they only speak English, put us there so Sierra can put them in a room.
And yes, Vanesa, the world can be sinister, but also in the cracks we are flourishing those worlds that we want to inhabit.
So, the question is: What is it that you are learning? What do you hope to learn when you are in Alliance service in the circle? What were you looking to learn when you came to the circle you’re supporting?
And maybe since you’re still going into the circles, some circles are just opening the welcome, but. What were you looking for? Thanks Vanessa. The meeting is being recorded. Thank you, Vanessa, you have to go, but well, that’s it.
What were you looking for when did you decide to participate or continue to participate in ecoversities service circles? And we’re going to give 20 minutes to be able to go deep. Each group must bring a summary, a summary back. Please it is important because with that we nourish how we dream and plan the cycle.
sierra: We also wanted you to fill out and share the form. We have a project to make the relational part of the Ecoversities ecosystem visible a little more visible and as part of that we are asking them to share in a fun way.
Also as a way to play with words and create new, new, new ways of naming ourselves, and recognizing ourselves. If you have the opportunity now to fill it out, maybe later because it’s like putting your biography and inventing a title and so on.
Notes from the English Breakout Rooms by sierra
What Ecoversities Circles are you a part of? What does your Service in Ecoversities mean to you?
Maura (composters, roots, microecoversity in Costa Rica, publications, website revamp):
I find joy in the company of the people I’ve met here & hope
As an elder, I find the interpersonal work, the relationality is the most important – strengthening love and trust.
I’ve found a lot of love here in Ecoversities
Look forward to inviting new people in despite the joyful confusion
Kalashree (India region, farmversities):
looking to get more involved, interested in the other circles and be a part
feeling siloed in IMA – wish for more collaboration, want to overlap more projects and give more time
Michael (US/Portugal, Composters):
concerned with the splintering of groups because of conflicts not being faced/dealt with, which is why he joined originally; chats are not a good way to work through conflicts
sees his role as helping the alliance transform conflict within it so that it serves the world in its best iteration and in building alliances as well
André Vielma (Brasil, Eco-Communications Spiral, Language Justice, Website Makeover):
looking for? To be happy! It makes me happy to meet with all these diverse people with whom I have much in common.
meeting with the most empowered version of myself in Ecoversities
Sharing is so wonderful. The Global Gathering really changed my present moment in 2024
sierra (costa rica/turtle island: Roots, Comms, Composters, was w/AV for years, Facilitation, website, hat model trying to wear fewer hats):
Big unlearning journey regarding overwork/stress.
Deep collective learnings/unlearnings over five years of cocreating, weaving within the alliance
The diversity and emergence and honest modeling of who we are rather than “what we do” are what meke things worthwhile; in this present moment we have agency and sovereignty of being in the kind of world we want to be in.
Fortunate to be in these spaces.
In this moment in time ~everything we are doing here makes the most sense, especially in light of what is happening and emanating from USA. It’s a lifeline for many people right now.
Breakout Room Notes from Latin American Room by Albert
Bianca Najara (Brazil: PER):
I arrived to Ecoversities after transiting a system where you could not touch nor accompany your dear ones. I came to ecoversities to accompany the youth, to do compost.
Flora (Chile: Sensemaking/Care Circle, Regional Gathering):
Ecoversities for me is something that reminds me of the importance of community and engaging deeply with other human beings.
Diego (Mexico, Language Justice):
I joined through the Re-imagining Education Conference. So far, it has inspired me to be curious about how to find solutions, through PLAY we come to build spaces. It is like an earthworm, which gives a lot to the ecosystem.
Mar (Mexico, Sensemaking/Care Circle, Regional Gathering):
my arrival here to Ecoversities is part of my journey to transform relational hierarchies.
Yeyo (Mexico, Roots, PER, Facillitation, Regional Weavers Abya Yala):
a lab to experiment with all that which we dream of, a space for radical hospitality, and an invitation to accept the otherness of the other and also inner.
Camilo (Colombia, PER, Regional Weavers Abya Yala, Conflict Composters):
to relate from a space of service.
Albert (Mexico, USA: Roots, Communications, Facillitation, Conflict Composters, Sensemaking/Care):
Ecoversities for me has been an opportunity to explore other ways of being and relation with power. I like the metaphor of the earthworm, as it just exists, being slimy and doing its good work in the soil.
Transcript Part 1.5: Harvest and Overview
Yeyo: Welcome back. Let’s give a moment so that Diego can return to the channel in English. Diego let me know when it’s working.
And well, I don’t know who wants to tell us how it went from the other group, from the group in English. I hope it’s not Sierra because it’s on another channel now. Maura, who else was out there?
Maura: Andre Vielma and Kalashree, Miguel, Michael and me. I can do it in English, my Spanish, it’s more or less. We in general find that we are all in different groups, I am not going to mention which circle each one is in, but we find in common that we share values, we are lovable people in social, ecological and environmental justice, and shared loves in the covenant and we find the relationality that helps us to go through dark moments and also to be a lifeline for people in desperate situations. And also to build a future in which we believe in doing that positive work, that even with the many challenges facing humanity and the natural world, it is good to be in good company doing that work that we know needs to be done to repair the next stages of being on the planet. We will work on what the future may be even when the other things are not there, we will have a society that can flourish. I hope it’s a good summary of what we said together.
Yeyo: So if someone else from that group wants to add something and if not ask someone from the other group to share. Thank you, Sierra is going to return now to speak in English on the channel and Mar, I see that you removed your microphone. Are you ready to give us the rundown?
Mar: Well, we didn’t agree, we didn’t have time to agree on who could be the sharing of what we talked about, is Sierra ready to translate? Yes, ah, perfect. Well, we talk a lot about the learning that we obtain in ecoversities, and in the circles that we participate in and sometimes we receive it through service, through the process of service. And a great learning that was talked about was the power of how power is worked and how we can be. I am going to say it in Albert’s words, how in some way we can be these little worms. That they have a very important job, but in some way they are also vulnerable and fragile. And we’re not looking to be the ones who get the power of time, past, present, and future to get that power from the ring. If we don’t want to, then look for a way to live together like worms doing our work unintentionally, co-opting further. And since we also talked a lot about the relational, we coincided with the classmates who spoke in English. That we are learning a lot about how we relate to each other and how we organize ourselves through this of these service spaces. And I think that was, I don’t know if they love me. Accompany to share.
Bianca: I’d just like to add that, for our harvest, he also talked a lot about the process of unlearning, how we learn in a colonized way and how we see the deconstruction of that process about caring for relationships, interpersonal, and in this system of how we think about this world of the essence of life, of human life and of non-human life, how we can work with the issue of social justice, of equity. Come on, I think, when I walked into this place, I walked in that she didn’t see this, like 4 women. Did you say that? I arrived in confidence and I didn’t know anything. I just trusted the people who were with me and said, if they’re talking, I think. When I came out, I said, wow, this is it. That’s all. It’s sad, therefore, relationships bring this trust of love, of being able to look at it in different ways.
Yeyo: Thank you Bianca. And well, Sierra, one of the lessons I have learned from Ecoversities is that I understand more Portuguese than I thought. I hope the experience has been the same for you.
That is something that for us in this Assembly was important to collect intentions and learnings, because through this we can think about what else should be done from or can be done from businesses and what we are doing well. No, I don’t know how conscious, 10 years ago this idea of the relational was at the center of the Alliance, but it is clearly a seed and a learning that we have been consciously cultivating in recent years thanks to what we learn.
When we get together here, in the assemblies and in the opportunities we have to live together virtually or face to face. When we get together.
Albert, There is a time to talk a little bit about a big view overview, where we are right now in the alliance, which are the things that the circle of roots that is a little bit where we weave the different circles, we have been talking and thinking about some agreements that I would like to share later.
And some things that are still there, in manifesting or wanting to manifest together Albert, if you tell us a little about where the alliance is?
Albert: Thank you Yeyo, first of all, a little disclaimer. That he is alone is my perspective. And I have my limitations. This is just a projection of mine, so take it as a grain of sand, examine it with a magnifying glass and draw your own conclusions.
Well, then this is our seventh Assembly. And this year we celebrate 10 years with covers, so I feel that there are like 2 intentions with this Assembly, curiosity and learning, curiosity why what is it that guides us towards the future? What are we curious about? And learning, which is what we have accumulated, is the harvest we have now. So it’s like the metaphor of curiosity, it’s like the arrival of spring and learning is like winter, which we say goodbye to, but which we also carry with us. Like seeds that can later be transformed. So I feel that this Assembly marks as a point of transformation for the alliance.
And on the website there are a number of such de-colonization values. Experiential learning. Of transcultural dialogue more however, through our 10 years of ecoversities. We have kind of turned these values into more active things. That they are like a learning that is always happening, like what Yeyo mentioned, which is relationality and with relationality is like. To remember that we are interdependent. That everything carries a context. We are connected and it is one of the advantages, it is one of the changes that occurred after the pandemic, that we are now connected by the network, but we are kind of living. These other possible worlds. We all share a similar learning adventure. However, we are separated geographically and we are also separated by each other’s time, so we are like one of the collective learnings that we have, it is the justice of time. How do time zones affect us?
Linguistic justice, that the last meeting in Brazil was trilingual.
The conflict composters that sometimes to get good soil we need some good compost tank, wet quality full of bugs, a rich ecosystem where there were a lot of roles and we can all support each other together. How are we in solidarity in these times where everyone says, the world is going to end, This is the end. But now we are in a place of proposal. Hey, I looked at this person in India who’s doing these little things, so this gives us like hope. Learning with the Earth, we usually call the Earth nature or we look at it without agency as an object. Inert, lifeless, so learning with the Earth is like taking this step. What things can the Earth learn from us? Can we co-learn with the Earth, then we make room for other agencies?
And radical care. Bianca said it, Suyama said it in the last Assembly, what happens when we put care at the center? What happens when we move beyond the culture of exploiting our bodies? All these things are emerging and it was important to highlight it. And also how we relate to each other from our diversity, because I am another for you, you are another for me, but within this otherness that we have, we recognize ourselves and from there we can co-create. There are also disagreements that are productive, then. I took these from the glorious waterfall of abundance that I drew together with Sierra, but I feel that we will not go over it, today we will not get lost in his forest. As you can see, there are a lot of service circles.
And what I wanted to emphasize is that during the last Assembly there were new proposals such as the ecoversity of the grandmothers, the search for other sources of financing for ecoversities, sessions of wisdom sharing. The mapping of ecoversities in India, or the regional meeting in Latin America that was in Chile, some of these things. We have, as there has been, a kind of progress, but others are still suspended in the air and that is why before, Yeyo emphasized curiosity, how are we going to, what can we do with all these pieces that, with all this potential and something that this cycle is happening in the alliance is that we have not had so much. As if our attention has grown around the dimension of the territory.
We know we are not alone. We know that we are accompanied in our territories. And this presence of all these beings that you could say that we are in the middle of a network. And in ecoversities this is manifested with 4 circles of service. I compose newsletters. So I have to ask people what they are doing and what I have noticed is that during regional or planetary meetings people get together and spread the word, “hey, this person is doing this super interesting thing.” “Ah, I’d like to learn from that person!” then that little person kind of becomes a pollinator, so it flies and does a kind of residence in an ecoversity of the territory. So this ecoversity happens that in the past it could be a germination project, or it is either an initiative that is born from a person who attended a past meeting. That you say, “Hey, I can do that too, I can propose something.” So there’s kind of a cycle, like a feedback loop, where people in need are kind of co-inspired. And this indicates that there is a lot of wealth, there is a productive magma in ecoversities. But since this magma is so productive, there is like an overflow, there is like a superflow. Flows. It is brimming with life.
We are human, we have limitations in terms of our capacities in ecoversities. To follow the different trajectories that all these learners, that all these emerging ecoversities, to follow all these processes, we have a limited capacity. There is a circle that emerged through, and in conjunction with, this consciousness that was the circle of regional weavers, however. We are always meeting more ecoversities in the world, more people come to the Germinadores circle with their projects, more people do pollinations and residencies, but how do we integrate all this into the Alliance? How do we accompany? And this is like a question that is in the air, it is a curiosity that we have.
And so here I placed a couple of images giving examples. Like May (Thailand), who went to the South Africa match and then got the word passed on. “Hey, I heard you have a curiosity at a permaculture farm in the middle of the desert in Egypt.” He then did a residency in Siwa, where it had previously been a global meeting of Ecoversities.
Even Instituto Etno recently had the opportunity to travel to Italy and meet our friends from Free Home University, or there is Noni, whose germination project comes through the inspiration that emerged from the recent meetings with the bandita of South Africa or Instituto Favela da Paz, which I had also read that it had been a germination project in the past, and recently were the venue of a regional meeting, and it was also like a place where Nina from El Nido Casa Abierta ecoversity and another boy made their residency.
Our friend Sara told us that she wanted to help to sustain the circle of germinators a little, at the same time, we might also need, more support in that, because it is a lot of work, following up on all these projects. We may need additional help with gardeners, as we will have to cover about 7 regions in ecoversities.
And on average each one will have about 10 germination projects. So following up with everyone can be problematic. So I just put it in the air to navigate this situation together.
Transcript Part 2: What are we not talking about in the alliance?
Yeyo: I wanted to add to what’s going on in the alliance this cycle. That comes from what we gathered from the previous Assembly of the last cycle. An effort to diversify the alliance’s funding sources. Many of you probably already know, because it has spread in circles. That the Full Circle Foundation, which is where the funds of the Alliance come from, decided not to give us more money this cycle, but to guarantee us in exchange, 3 cycles of work.
So, taking advantage of the fact that we know that, for the next 3 centuries, including this one, there is guaranteed financing, we want to make an orderly effort.
An experiment in this cycle to bring in other funds and a diversification of funds. There is a circle that emerged for that, which is the circle of financial abundance. We are preparing a global document to launch a large fundraising campaign, but also regionally some efforts have been made for that. And it was piloted in some way in the turtle island region with a small launch of a regional campaign. So that invites from their circles to think of creative ways to get more funds and pass on the contacts of their millionaire friends to ask them to give us.
Before we leave we want to close before we leave, we want to close again in small circles. Perhaps how many are we? Maybe Albert, Sierra think we can do it here so we can keep English interpretation instead of doing breakout rooms. Give me signs of my design disruption. Thank you, we’re going to be here and the question is.
What are we not talking about in Ecoversities? What is not going off our radar at the moment in the ecoversities alliance? What issues do we have to pay attention to? an important one that we have briefly named, is that we did not have someone to support the circle of Germinators, Sara is going to take that role and we know that she needs help for that. So what else? What other issues are we not talking about? What else, what else do we have to bring to the attention of these circles and of this assembly of ecoversities? And I open the circle for the word.
Maura: This came up in a conversation within the chat at the conference Re-imagining Education on whatsapp where a great conflict has appeared, that the composters are thinking of holding a space for the discussion of the LGBTQ+ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, gender fluid) and the lack of understanding of it among some of our brothers and sisters,
Yeyo: (…) Sara, do you want to share?
Sara: Well there are two things in my heart, these are, the empire and building life outside, inside and beyond the empire after its collapse. And the other thing is, how do we disagree? Because we are a global alliance. And this is just my opinion, that we don’t expect everyone else to share the same opinion. And with different belief structures and habits, how do we disagree?
Yeyo: Thank you Sara, everything is fine, well, that. Does anyone else want to share something? It’s Flor.
Flora: Hello, good present. Well, I wanted to share a conversation we had with the circle of care and meaning and it is about how we can care and observe so that plans and planning, or rather activities at the planetary level, can also be combined with activities at the regional level. Specifically, the fact that the planetary encounter is very close to the meeting at Abya Yala moved us several fibers that we are interested in being able to see at a transversal level from different ways. And we are interested in being able to listen to each other. Listen to our needs. And also to be able to generate a connection, a connection from the different regions forms. And needs of all the people of the different cultures of the covenant in that sense, as a circle, we propose that this is a space that can be very fertile. And rather that we can compost with people who manage nonviolent communication a space of connection. And we wanted to propose a composting space where all beings are, being able to talk about what is happening inside us and how we can respect, connect, even take advantage of this moment to make it a coherent and really articulative space that manages to articulate, promote and connect with greater strength can also be an opportunity for creation.
And listening to each other, listening to our different feelings is also going to generate that connection, so that is our proposal, our observation and let’s hope to see how you also take that.
Yeyo: Thank you, Flor. I want to put something that I think is not being talked about and curiously I think it touches on the 3 or the topics that I have always been here. And I’m going to try to weave it from this word that Flower of Necessity mentioned. Because I think that something that we have to begin to accept is that this richness of diversity and the emergence of what emerges, of what emerges, that this alliance has. And it will necessarily generate dissonant spaces. And something that I’ve been experiencing in and I mentioned it a little bit in the breakout room is this thing of and even though we don’t agree, how we can walk, and I’ve been helped by the gift culture and these practices that we do in starting to see what is done from the service of what I can offer rather than what I need, I like the idea of getting together to talk.
There were not a few of us who felt, well, that they were so close to each other that sometimes the agreements were changed along the way. But I think we have to talk about that. How can we also navigate the differences? Without rupture and without wanting the other to change, but from how we approach, from what I can let go and offer, not change, but put aside.
That deep dialogue of and now that I see that there is a composting circle, a circle of making sense and caring is like how we care.
That all perspectives fit, because that idea of whether we ever embrace the Zapatista phrase of we are building a world where many worlds fit. That. What is the minimum I need to be able to let otherness be. Without limiting my way of being.
Well, we are going to give 2 or 3 more participations if there are so that no one is left without speaking, but we are closing to close at the 2:00 hours that we proposed.
Albert: Something that was mentioned in the last Assembly was to follow up on a youth circle. To a circle of grandmothers. And finally, a circle of ancestral wisdom, ancestral medicine, this was proposed by Sandra and Sandra is here.
Sandra: Hello, dear family, I hope you are well.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. And just as Flor also intervened, because I’m in India. And all this baggage that I have gone through has filled me with the most internal work. And when they were talking about this, about you who are going to continue supporting us but, all the time about abundance, which is what we talk about, how to achieve that beyond words? And I have experienced. The form of trust and dedication to service and to what we are. And I feel that if we are here in this nucleus, the people who are like, well, you especially are more involved, that we are there, because I feel that everything that is inside is reflected outside. So, if we have the capacity and possibility ourselves as individuals before what is the Community ecoversities, as individuals, to be able to work more inwardly and work on that trust. Everything begins to mobilize you much better and that’s when my energies appear to move to be able to share each other as a community. So this care is internal, because you cannot be spiritual right now, because they confuse it with religion, but spiritual of my real being, of what we already are, simply that we are limited. And it’s asleep because we have a lot of limiting thoughts. Love. How can we make sure that we can really put this into practice, which is abundance and confidence, the assurance that that can be handled in our Community, in our circle?
Without having to think about what we are going to do or what. Well, it’s cute, but how? That begins to mobilize beyond words. And for me, at this moment we need each one of us as an individual, a more in-depth inner work to work on all our limiting thoughts and all our work, shadows, darknesses, traumas that we have so that we are more fluid and for us to unite as is the energy, the energy flows and if we are hindered by our individual beings, everything is going to be hindered, so my interaction is that we can support each other so that we can heal ourselves more and more and that our community is more fluid, more fluid so that everything flows.
Yeyo: Thank you my friend, one last one. Bianca, would you like to share something?
Bianca: This is the regional meeting in global Brazil. On the circles of grandmothers and young people. That’s when we start to stand out or work with young people, it’s us, never, We never thought about young people. They wouldn’t have that ability to look at that. In this way. We take them to the circles, to the organization, to the programming, to the entire circuit. So, the young man was brought by a space of identity, legitimacy, belonging and in the planetary meeting that we were able to observe this dimension of diversity, both of the grandmothers and grandfathers. Maybe. And there are people in the middle, it’s the forty-somethings that we are there in this place, it’s a us who are 40 years old, can we think about ancestry? Young people in their 30s and younger because of the issue of globalization, because of the internet, already have another vision. They don’t. They don’t want to follow the ancestor, most of them. When we think about this issue that we saw with the young people, they are the ones who did the part of organizing the planetarium, the regional one. The strength of young people, right? Also the grandmothers together, then, when Nati called me to be part of the grandmothers’ group. And in the meeting with the grandmothers of the planetary, we listened to María Zefina Elena, I was able to observe this, of them talking like this, how are we doing? Let’s take the young people and make sure our history is not erased.
How are we going to think about the internet-free way? How are we going to take our ancestry, because many of our children, grandchildren do not want to follow ours? So I think that connection, but not separating into groups. Because if when we begin to separate into groups there is already separation, how is this crossing of knowledge connected to think about forms? Because one thing I said, right? Yes, for example, we work with many gender issues. And for some they are scams in some places still, that is something very strong. Man is man, woman is woman. Some traditions to this, to this is still very strong. We cannot forget it.
And how do you make sure that dignity is respected when you choose your identity? That is the challenge. How to join? Without separating. So I, we’ve been talking in the grandmothers’ group and we’ve also been talking in what they created, a youth group. But how do you make this connection? Because I have a grandmother and my grandmother talks like that. Or. But the world is lost in this. How many grandmothers do we hear about this? Lost in the sense of the question of I know I don’t know how it happens elsewhere. I know that in Brazil I know in the communities where I work. Just to the complexity we have of people loving each other just because of the gender issue, of accepting young people because they decided that my sexual orientation is now a lesbian girl or a trans boy. So there are women over 60 who have that expression, but that is what in Brazil is still a matter of prejudice. So I believe that this connection is not to separate the group, but as we are taking, these 2 groups come together so that these young people can feel, rescue theirs that they can take, but also that they are respected in their individuality, in their choice and in their life. So, this is a challenge that we have here in Brazil. I don’t know if you understood me. But that is what we experience here in a very intense and very complex way.
Yeyo: Ajo! Everything around the world dear is a complex issue, but it has been an important issue in ecoversities in the past and I feel that we had reached certain consensuses that it is always good to be reviewing and vindicating.
Well, we are reaching the end, we go, we want to say goodbye with another song also to pray, to honor the fire that we put at the beginning. To the spirits of the places where each one of us is, we thank you for joining us.
And well, there are going to be open calls from the alliance, surely from the circles of residence.
There will be a call soon for germinators who will also notify us.
Communications, the circles that grant grants will soon be their calls to remind you all, that an agreement of the Roots is that the entire calendar to exercise the funds this year is to make the calls from March to April selection and allocation of the funds. Between April and July at the latest, so that by August the funds are delivered and preferably exercised and if not, report back how it was used.
With that we go and we are going to put this song recited to close thank you very much for your time. Thank you, interpreters, thank you.
Invitations + Summary of the 7th Assembly + What To Do Next?
- 3 years of secured support: our sponsor FCF has given us three more years of support! Hooray!
- 10 years of Ecoversities and a coordinated effort to raise funds in our regions: This year is Ecoversities 10 year anniversary for the first time a coordinated effort is being hold among the regions to launch fundraising/crowdfunding campaigns to secure more funds coming from other sources! An invitation is being launched for the Ecoversities Service Circles to imagine creative ways of engaging with these campaigns. For example: Indian Multiversities Alliance.
- What are you learning in your service circles? Ecoversities is a life line for many people, shading light into other possible worlds, this diversity also creates an opportunity to learn from the other, to co-create from disagreement and from a place of service, to critique power structures and colonial powers and emerge from a space of proposition and aliveness.
- What are we not speaking in the Alliance? a need to have shared spaces for transformation between the Asia and Latin America Region to overcome time zone justice and communicate our growth together. To encounter and stay with the diversity of the alliance, composting our differences and approaching them from a space of curiosity. Different approaches towards the LGBTQ+ community, the challenges of the elder generation and the new generations when holding distinct positions, a separation and also the possibility of mutual acknowledgement and recognition.
- Website Makeover: a team within communications has been formed to work on the website and improve its interface to better convey the work and span of the Ecoversities Alliance.
- Latin American Regional Gathering 2025: a gathering is being prepared in Chile. More information soon.
- Global Gathering 2025: a planetary gathering is being prepared in Thailand. More information soon.
- Making visible Roles & Relationality in the Ecoversities Ecosystem: Fill the form if you are a service circle member, we are seeking ways to validate our gift and service to the alliance.
- Monthly Compost Heap: the Ecoversities Conflict Composters is holding this monthly space to accompany heavy conversations and conflict transformation processes. Follow our Instagram or check your mailbox for further updates.
- Support for Conflict Mediation: Hilando Semillas and the Ecoversities Care Circle are offering their support in mediating conflicts via Non-Violent Communication inside the alliance. You can fill up this form for more information.
- Service Circle Open Calls: it is recommended that the open calls through the period of April – May as to distribute the funds before Agosto, and receive the reports by the end of November.
- Welcoming New Members: don’t forget to welcome and get in communications with the New Ecoversities Members that expressed interest in joining the circles!
- Offerings & Needs Form: “What are you missing in your toolkit that would you like to learn? What are the topics that are calling to you right now? What help are you needing right now that can be offered on an online space? What do you have in abundance of knowledge and practice that you want to share? What spaces do you want to open for others? Open to any member of the alliance!” https://forms.gle/
a9s9c58Rd2o2tNB68 - Join the Ecoversities Alliance Google Calendar of Offerings and add your events there!
Closing Remarks
Thank you for joining us in the assembly. We honor the light and fire that were brought to this assembly to accompany our thoughts, dreams, and ideas. Wanting to keep walking together, trying to understand, in our many languages (body, soul, words, meanings), what that means. We hope to connect soon. With love toward 10 years of Ecoversities!
Andrea, Sierra, Yeyo, and Albert
