A three-day rite of passage for men hungry for a wiser relationship with strength, grief, purpose, and belonging.
A long weekend to slow down, come back to yourself, and reconnect with the parts of being human that modern life often pushes aside.
Through music, guided movement, time in nature, council practice, creative exploration, and honest conversation, we will explore what it means to mature into wholehearted adulthood in a time of ecological and cultural change.
This work is grounded in nature-based human development, rites of passage traditions, the power of music and the wider movement known as The Great Turning.
At the heart of the human experience is our relationship with power. Power is the underbelly of modernity. Modernity is the dominant system built on separation, certainty, endless growth, and the exploitation of people and Earth. The quest for power shows up in domination over nature, unbridled capitalism and greed, and the echoes and inheritance of colonisation.
Many men carry the wounds of all this in their bodies and into their relationships. We are aware that many fathers did not know how to attune to the needs of their children, their own fathers often damaged by war.
Maturing masculinity is about the choice we have to heal and make whole these wounds, to use them to become more aware and compassionate, to help each other, and to support younger men and children to come.
We are living in times that call for a healthy, life-affirming relationship with power. The theme of this retreat is to come into an embodied form of power with life — the power of wisdom, the power of interconnectedness, the power of deeply belonging. A form of power rooted in presence, responsibility, courage, and care.
Who is this for?
- Men seeking more creativity, vitality, and purpose.
- Men carrying responsibility in leadership, family, business, or community who are interested in Rites of passage processes.
- Men navigating transition, midlife, loss, or change.
- Men longing for deeper connections with other men.
- Men who want to grow, laugh, feel more alive, and belong to something larger than themselves.
- Men who value art, myth, poetry, music, and imagination as pathways to transformation
Your guide Jaime Howell
Jaime Howell (MEd Transformative Education) is founder of the Centre for the Great Turning and has spent many years working with nature-based rites of passage, grief work, and community processes that help people reconnect with belonging and purpose. His work is influenced by Bill Plotkin, Francis Weller, Robert Bly, Martin Shaw, Joanna Macy, Open Floor practice, contemplative traditions, and mythopoetic approaches to human development. Jaime values instinct, intuition and imagination. He loves being in wild nature, plays a mean blues guitar and is an grassroots poet.
About Les Gray
Les began doing specifically Mens work in 1980 with the For Men collective, conducting a number of workshops around the north island. With that collective in 1984 he coconvened the first national hui to address men's violence to women and children. He went on to be one of the pioneers of Stopping Violence group programs, serving on the national executive committee founding Men for Nonviolence and in turn serving as convenor of that committee. Les was known to the Karaka Tribe and Jim Horton of the Tui Community in Golden Bay. Les has a long association with the Essentially Men community, serving as a trustee and as an Elder in the Pathways to Manhood programme. Within that context he developed a 7 day Pathways to Elderhood programme. Currently Les regularly attends EM events and co-facilitates an annual Old Blokes gathering
This is a new generation of mens work…it will be safe enough, involve your whole body/mind/soul, nature, music and movement and myth.
If you are wanting a scholarship please email moc.liamg@sdnimgninepoemiaJ
