NEWS + EVENTS

Dreaming Anti-Ableist Land Work - A Monthly Meetup for Disabled Landworkers**

Land work can be deeply healing, and so many of us come to it as a place of refuge. And also, land work spaces can be very ableist and often disabling. Disabled people deserve to be a part of land work, and land work needs disabled people. Disabled wisdom is how we learn to make our work sustainable by caring for ourselves and each other. But being a disabled landworker is not easy. The discrimination, exclusion, grief, conflict, and the pressure to fit your bodymind into an abled shape are so real, and it’s hard to find spaces to discuss these challenges. 

This program is a four-part monthly discussion group that will provide a space for connection and support amongst disabled landworkers. We will share our experiences, knowledge, and dreams. We will build community, knowing this community is the foundation for anti-ableist land work.

We will meet on the 2nd Sunday of each month, starting in December 2025.

This space will be facilitated by Julie Nowak and Maze with generous room for co-creation and feedback. More about your facilitators:

Maze (they) is a neuroqueer South Asian and Ashkenazi farmer based in Northern New Mexico. After developing chronic illness due in part to many years of farming and organizing in ableist spaces, they have recentered their work to focus on the intersections of disability justice and land stewardship. They are also an artist, organizer, and herbalist. In all their work, they strive to create microcosms of home and healing.

Julie Nowak (she/they) is a writer, multimedia artist, accessibility consultant, and disability justice educator who specializes in nature accessibility through their project “The Seasonal Body.” Their work is influenced by their own lived experience as a multiply-disabled and neuroqueer person, as well as by their professional experience in education and nature-related fields over the past 20 years. Julie holds an M.Ed. in Adult Education and Community Development, and is fluent in English, French, and Spanish. Based near Tkaronto (Toronto, Canada), Julie is a white person with Celtic and Germanic ancestry. They view both the #LandBack movement and ancestral connection as integral to nature-related work. You can follow Julie at SeasonalBody.org and @TheSeasonalBody on social media

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Access information for sessions:

• Simultaneous Spanish interpretation will be provided

• Simultaneous ASL interpretation will be provided

• Sessions will be on Zoom with auto captions

• Sessions will not be recorded for privacy reasons. We will be saving a copy of the transcript for internal use only

• We will send an expected agenda to all registered participants before each session

• Any slides or visuals will be designed for clear readability (i.e. plain font, high colour contrast)

• The facilitators will describe visual content (e.g. slides)

• There will be a short break in the middle. 

• There will be a breakout “rest room” available at any time for you to go in if you feel triggered, overwhelmed, or need space for any other reason but want to stay on the call. This meeting is a discussion group space, not a group therapy or support group space. As facilitators, we have the ability to listen and hold space, but we are not in a position to give professional guidance.

• One of the facilitators will be available to do the following (to the extent that they are able to as one person)

• Respond to access questions and tech issues

• Support with conflict if requested

• Check in with anyone who joins the rest room if requested

• Please respond to your body & mind during the sessions - all forms of participation are welcomed (e.g. it’s ok to keep your camera off, lie down, stim, leave partway through, etc.).

• There is a space to share access needs on the registration form, and we will do our best to accommodate you. Please register at minimum a week in advance to give us time to plan for your access needs. If we have questions about what you wrote in the form or are unable to accommodate you, we will reach out to you. If you have additional access questions, please contact Julie (julienowak@gmail.com) or Maze (mayael.chn@gmail.com). 

**This program is open to anyone who self-identifies as a disabled landworker. Land work can include farming, herbalism, ancestral land-based crafts, seed stewardship, nature education, etc. Your land work can be any kind of consistent practice, it does not have to be an official employed “job.” Disabled means anyone who systematically experiences ableist discrimination. This can include experiences of neurodivergence; mental illness; chronic illness; deafness; blindness; and other physical, sensory, learning, and mobility disabilities. If one or more of these experiences is shaping your land work, this space is for you – even if you have not identified as disabled before. If you have any doubts about whether or not this program is for you, please reach out to Maze (mayael.chn@gmail.com) or Julie (julienowak@gmail.com).

Register here! This RSVP form is for any and all of the four sessions, with a space to select which session(s) you are RSVPing for. You can fill it out anytime up until the session you plan to attend. If you RSVP for one session and later decide you want to RSVP for another, please fill out the form again.