42nd Annual Native American
Elders and Youth Gathering
July 24th – 26th, 2026
Post-Elders and Youth Gathering Workshops
Monday, July 27th, 2026
Sunray’s 42nd Annual Native American Elders and Youth Gathering featuring Workshops online and onsite.
Thank you for Participating in 2026 Post-Elders and Youth Gathering Workshops!
Earth Healing with BioDynamics: A Hands on Experience!
9:00 am – 11:00 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 and Recordings.
Workshop Description & Bio:
Dr. Orest Pelechaty is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, an Herbalist, an interfaith Minister, and a longtime Dharma practitioner. has been teaching the inner spiritual side of BioDynamic regenerative agriculture for over 10 years in Vermont. BioDynamics is deeply rooted in spiritual science, connecting with the elemental beings in Nature and aligning with Cosmic phases of Life.
Learn the basics of the Alchemy of Ecology . We will share simple techniques from a powerful healing system for the Land, Plants, Elementals, and People. While working to prepare the special medicines from the treasure house of Biodynamics we will “talk story” in the spirit of Aloha. Once the magickal waters are ready we will walk the land of the Peace Village to practice the application methods and share the energies of our Good Heart with the Hoop of Life.
Time is provided for questions and sharing.
Bridging Ancient Teachings and Modern Life in Service to Mother Earth
11:15 am – 1:15 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 and Recordings.
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.
Storytelling; the Gift of Restoration and Healing
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.
Grandmother Hears Crow will be sharing some storytelling basics, how to use them with legacy or modern tales and will be telling a few stories as examples. Bring a pad of paper for taking notes and story titles if you wish.
This will be a ‘deep diving’ look at legacy, fables and transformational tales that are more than entertaining, offering entirely different points of view. We hope this interactive workshop will help participants to become more confident and comfortable using stories for themselves and others on a path to reconciliation.
Activating the twenty principles of life encoded in the Maya Calendar
4:15 pm- 6:15 pm EDT
Location: at the Sunray Peace Village
Price $25.00
Workshop Description & Bio:
The sacred Maya Calendar Cholq’ij represents the 260 manifestations of life that are pulsating from the source in the Macro Cosmos, known as Itzamnaaj.
These twenty k’ins hold the four elements of life and the twenty essential building blocks of life.
Cacao, blended with Hmi Jwa, Pericon, is the drink that opens our senses to the Macro and Micro Cosmos, the twenty k’ins or nahuales.
During this workshop, you will be guided into a somatic journey through the 20 nahuales, encoded within our bodies, present in the different energetic points of our microcosm.
Through the medicine of cacao and a journey in our inner world, you will awaken the sense of the wholeness and resonance of this macrocosm order within our inner universe.
Together, Charlotte and Geraldine will weave their learned experiences in cultural astronomy, Mesoamerican calendars and Maya cosmovision
into a journey of heart coherence with the Earth Pulse.
Geraldine A. Patrick Encina, PhD, 52, born from Chilean parents with parental Irish Scottish roots and maternal Mapuche roots, formed a family in the sacred landscape of the Otomi Peoples originally called Zanbatha, the Valley of the Moon, in the Highlands of Mexico.
As an Ethnoecologist and a Cultural Astronomer, member of the Interamerican Society of Astronomy in Culture (SIAC), and founder and director of Earthtimekeepers, Geraldine has generated extensive knowledge about the astronomical, ecological, agricultural and spiritual underpinnings of ancient Mesoamerican philosophy on the cosmos and timekeeping systems. She has recovered the original calendars of the Otomi-Toltecs, Olmecs, Maya (Yucatec, K’iche, Kaqchikel) and Mexica-Nahua.
Her Mesoamerican timekeeping theory and practice is helping indigenous peoples re-signify the holistic approach to life of their elders by way of honoring and connecting deeply with their ancestors’ legacy. As the director of Earthtimekeepers and a member of collectives of local scholars in Mexico and Guatemala, she supports processes of revitalization of long forgotten calendars and almanacs with resources such as the Calendar Converter Damixi and illustrated children’s books such as Ja’ab Libro Ilustrado.
Charlotte Nieuwenhuis is the founder of Heart to Earth, a regenerative movement devoted to the remembrance of our kinship with Earth Mother. Over the years, she developed a deep relationship to a plant teacher, revered for its fertile and abundant nature by her original stewards: cacao. She has been walking with the Maya wisdom keepers of this plant teacher and learning alongside them. Rooted in ancestral wisdom, regenerative living, and sacred cacao, her work invites people to remember that true prosperity emerges from reciprocity, devotion, and harmony with nature.
Through ceremony, Indigenous wisdom, and immersive experiences, she guides others to reconnect with the wisdom of the Divine Mother and cultivate lives of greater vitality, purpose, and abundance. Her mission is to bridge ancient traditions with the emerging world, restoring the sacredness of life and inspiring a culture where both people and Mother Earth can flourish together.