The gathering is grounded in Poka Laenui's Processes of Decolonization, moving through rediscovery and recovery, mourning, dreaming, commitment, and action. This is the framework beneath the work: helping us recover what colonization severed, grieve what was taken, dream beyond the systems we are in, and commit to building something new. Participants reconnected with their Golden Thread, who they were before the world told them who to be, and practiced imagining the world we are calling in together.

The day moved through dreaming, creativity, and water. Participants crafted alongside one another, sat in divination and reflection, and each received a personalized Golden Thread collage and a custom sound healing track created specifically for them, born from the divination held for the day. Every part of the experience was co-created with the Ancestors, held in community, and rooted in care.

Photography by Annah Meintzer.