41st Annual Native American
Elders and Youth Gathering
July 25th – 27th, 2025
Post-Elders and Youth Gathering Workshops
Monday, July 28th, 2025
Sunray’s 41st Annual Native American Elders and Youth Gathering featuring Workshops online and onsite.
Thank you for Participating in 2025 Post-Elders and Youth Gathering Workshops!
Ecosystem Immersion & the Interconnectedness of all Beings
9:00 am – 10:30 am EDT
Location: at the Sunray Peace Village ( Community Tent) and on Zoom
Price: $25.00
This Workshop is available online. Register to receive Participation Links.
Workshop Description & Bio:
Yulia Klimento is a Restoration Ecologist, Regenerative Design Consultant, and Wilderness Guide with over eight years of experience supporting ecological & cultural regeneration across diverse bioregions. As the founder of R3 Ecology, Yulia’s work centers on restoring degraded ecosystems while rekindling human relationships with land through education, ceremony, and immersive nature connection. They walk a path that integrates scientific knowledge, systems thinking, and Earth-based wisdom—always in service to contribute to a future rooted in ecological balance & kinship with the Earth.
This ecosystem immersion practice invites participants to explore the interconnectedness of all beings through attuned presence, sensory awareness, and ecological reflection. Guided from a restoration ecology lens, we’ll attune to the light & life moving through our all the layers of our ecosystems — from soil to sky, microbes to galaxies — recognizing the threads that connect us within a living, intelligent Earth.
Through prompts, activities, and collective sharing, participants will deepen their awareness of their surrounding bioregional ecosystems, whether joining from the temple grounds or tuning in from afar. Together, we’ll explore how humans are part of — and responsible to — the web of life, with the power to act as keystone species in service to regeneration & balance.
Bridging Ancient Teachings and Modern Life in Service to Mother Earth
10:30 am – 12:30 am EDT
Location: at the Sunray Peace Village ( Adawi Temple) and on Zoom
Price: $25.00
This Workshop is available online. Register to receive Participation Links.
Workshop Description & Bio:
This event is hosted by Grandfather Michael Bastine, a respected elder and healer of the Algonquin Nation. A former student of renowned Tuscarora medicine men Wallace “Mad Bear” Anderson and Ted Williams, Grandfather Mike brings a deep lineage of traditional wisdom. He is also the co-author of Iroquois Supernatural: Talking Animals and Medicine People, a book that shares stories of spirit, nature, and the sacred teachings of his people.
In this workshop, you will explore cosmic cycles that shape all life—the moon phases, the Solstices and Equinoxes, and the great wheel of the seasons. These natural rhythms are not abstract—they are instructions. They guide planting, resting, ceremony, healing, and renewal. Indigenous cultures have followed them not as a belief system, but as a lived reality. The invitation of this workshop is to learn how to practically align your own daily life with these sacred cycles:
- How to track the moon and use her phases for healing, intention-setting, and inner work
- Why the Solstices and Equinoxes matter energetically and physically—within our bodies and in the land around us
- What specific sacred plants can assist us in different times of year and phases of life—from calming nervous systems to amplifying spiritual connection
We honor the wisdom that humans are the only life that needs constant reminders on how to stay connected—because we are the only ones who often forget. The animals, the trees, the rivers—they don’t need to be told how to listen. But we can learn again.
Whether you are just beginning to reconnect or have walked this path for years, this workshop will leave you with tools, teachings, and a deeper felt sense of the sacred web we are all part of.
Sacred Cooking
11:30 am – 1:00 pm EDT
Location: at the Sunray Peace Village (the Kitchen) and on Zoom
Price: $25.00
Workshop Description & Bio:
Sandra Polacheck (Lightheart Woman) is a Reading and English Language Arts Specialist and Master Teacher and Creation Story keeper/teller. Born of a father with Hopi-Mongolian, Korean, Slavic, and Viking ancestry, Sandra works with at-risk high school students teaching English literacy, Digital Literacy, Cultural Sensitivity, and Technical Career-based job skills. She has broken barriers in education employing Hopi/Navajo Restorative Justice practices in her classroom to create a peaceful climate and an open dialogue between her many diverse students over the past 28 years. Sandra is a long time member of the International Literacy Association where she served as a member of the ILA’s Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards Committee – Young Adult Novels (2017-2020). In addition, she has been recognized in “Whos’ Who in America” 2022-2023 and Cambridge’s “Who’s Who in the Globe” 2008-2009 for her work as a distinguished Educator. She is a life-long collector of Creation Stories from around the world. She is also a student who has studied under many tribal Elders over the years including Grandfather Bear Heart (Muskogee-Cree), Grandmother Esther Jackson (Hopi), Grandmother Nanatasis (Abenaki) and has learned Peacekeeper teachings under Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo since 2010. Sandra became an Elder Server in the Arbor in 2009, under the guidance of Fire Keeper Andy Tobey. Born of a mother (Italian, Greek, and West African ancestry) who was an artist, business woman, and pastry chef, Sandra grew up baking and became inspired to learn indigenous cooking when studying corn teachings and visiting the Mitsitam Café in Washington, D.C. at NAMI, while writing high school English Language Arts curriculum for the United States National Digital Library.
Food is Medicine. Food is love. Food is sharing who we are with those we feed to heal and nurture their heart, mind and spirit…Connecting the people to the land. Participants in the workshop will learn how to make various types of cornbread using modern indigenous cooking methods. Corn is viewed as a gift from the Creator and a symbol of harmony between the people and the land, and the interconnectedness of all living things. We will work with Hopi blue corn meal, Iroquois white corn meal, and Eastern yellow corn meals to prepare cornbread. If there is time, we will make Three Sisters’ Soup, something I learned at Ganondagan, (Seneca) during the annual Veteran’s Celebration Dance, Music, and Arts Festival. While we cook together, Sandra will share a few of the various Corn Mother and Corn Maiden stories that she has collected from different traditions throughout her travels on Turtle Island and beyond. Participants are welcome to join in the cooking and we will meet in the kitchen.
Weaving the Living Tapestry
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm EDT
Location: at the Sunray Peace Village ( Adawi Temple) and on Zoom
Price: $25.00
This Workshop is available online. Register to receive Participation Links.
Workshop Description & Bio:
A twice-published poet and author of an upcoming Native children’s novel, Hears Crow served as the Vermont State Liaison to the National Storytelling Network and mentored youth storytellers through Artists Standing Strong Together (ASST). She is on the faculty alumni at the Transformation Storytelling School. With over 35 years of storytelling experience, she brings Indigenous oral traditions and other cultural stories to life at libraries, schools, community centers, museums, and Indigenous gatherings. Formerly the Director of Strategic Sourcing at Deloitte & Touche, she now dedicates herself full-time to storytelling, blending her business expertise with Indigenous traditions to foster communication, engage communities, and educate through stories.
In “Weaving the Living Tapestry,” Grandmother Hears Crow will share stories that illustrate the importance of attentive listening and how to apply these lessons in our daily lives. Additionally, she will discuss various methods to connect, reconnect, and deepen our relationship with Earth Mother and all our relations. By incorporating simple daily practices, we can learn to see with spirit eyes and hear with spirit ears.
Grandmother Hears Crow (Nootauau Kaukôntuah) lives and breathes the traditions of the Narragansett people. As a master storyteller, educator, published poet, and workshop leader, she weaves Longhouse Tales, Native American legends, and Transformational Stories.
“Stories are gateways that can link diverse cultures, transform our spirits, and open our hearts to one another,” she says.
Website: storyteller.eenantowash.org