Co-creating a bold, liberatory future — and the governance to sustain it
Choose a turning point no less than one generation (20 years) into the future…
Something has happened that shifted your organization, tribe, network or team to make transformative leaps related to governance. What is different in you, your community, the world, the collective, and the environment because of these leaps your group has made? Before answering, take a moment to ground and be present in your body. Then let the story tell itself.
This storytelling prompt came forth during the inaugural WeGovern Learning Community convening where participants engaged in storytelling as a way of connecting to the world we know is possible. Participants shared stories of future transformation in small groups. Many reflected on a deeply felt sense of the magnitude of healing that needs to happen in order for the collective to be ready to thrive in the world we’re building — a world of abundance, liberation, mutual care, dignity, and wellness. Others shared that the storytelling practice added another dimension to a felt sense of shared purpose, enabling them to feel a greater connection to others in the Learning Community, and their work together.
Learning Community participants have come together to deepen their practice, with a shared commitment to embodying governance principles rooted in mutual care. They are organizations, families, tribes, and teams who are practicing liberatory governance in their own work in community — across workers rights, racial justice, Indigenous rights, anti-violence, food justice, and other movements.
We’re uncovering the governance that is already within us.
The WeGovern Learning Community is a deeply collaborative space — co-designed alongside participants — and focuses on reimagining, practicing, and exploring what governance can look like if our communities are leading the way, making decisions, and governing.
Our inaugural convening was focused on relationship building and embodiment — the starting place for the kind of governance and world we want to live in. Participants introduced themselves with the prompt “my people are…” with vivid reflections on what feels like community to each of us.
Anchoring in our bodies gives us access to ways of knowing that dominant culture does not. It is a starting place for possibility, expansion, and a different way of being — and being together.
Participants also reflected on the power of being invited to drop into their bodies for these experiences — in a world that encourages us to “live above our shoulders,” these storytelling practices grant us access to other ways of knowing.
With this kind of embodiment as a starting place, we are able to connect to what is possible — as well as what is present in the moment. For example, we are more able to recognize the ways in which dominant culture is showing up in our lives, thoughts, habits, and choices — and making way for transformation. Anchoring in our bodies gives us access to ways of knowing that dominant culture does not. It is a starting place for possibility, expansion, and a different way of being — and being together.
A world beyond violence is unprecedented — but not impossible.
When a group of Resonance Network participants came together last year to bring the WeGovern agreements into being, we tapped into the future we believe is possible, and created a set of principles that could sustain it.
A system of governance rooted in mutual care, collective well-being, and dignity for all is unprecedented — at least in this lifetime — as violence has been normalized as inevitable all around us. Black, Brown and Indigenous women, girls, femmes, trans, nonbinary, and two-spirit kin have withstood the brunt of this violence. These governance principles were co-created by healers, leaders, artists, and storytellers within these identities. Drawing on ancestral wisdom and their own lived experience, WeGovern authors spoke to what is possible on the other side of violence.
We are holding visions of bold, liberatory futures where all beings can thrive, and practicing the systems of governance to sustain them.
Further inspired by a rich history of Indigenous practices rooted in respect for land, natural resources, community, and collective well-being, these principles are not new — but rather draw on wisdom from generations past, to re-shape our collective future. WeGovern offers a framework to guide how we make decisions that impact all of us.
As our communities face sustained violence and injustice deepened by a global pandemic, climate emergencies, and collective systems of power that fail to preserve the wellness of the collective — we are holding visions of bold, liberatory futures where all beings can thrive, and practicing the systems of governance to sustain them.
Learning community participants are putting the WeGovern principles into practice every day, and are meeting together virtually to learn from and co-conspire with one another in this process. Our learnings will be shared broadly with all our communities — in hopes that this endeavor will continue laying groundwork for the kind of governance we all know is possible.
The WeGovern learning community and the work we are engaging in together will unfold over the coming months, and we look forward to sharing more with you as it evolves. But this endeavor — and the WeGovern principles themselves — are an invitation for all of us to embrace these commitments in our lives, families, and communities. If you’re so inspired, we invite you to join us in telling stories of the future we know is possible — by practicing the storytelling prompt above in your own community. To welcome and embrace the WeGovern principles as you navigate the world, and share what unfolds. The world we are creating may not be new, but we are creating it anew…together.
