Winter camp presenters 2024

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Amara is a member of La'akea community. In 1989 she developed her own approach to peer counseling, called Holistic Peer Counseling, integrating many ideas from RC with spiritual meditation practices, psychic healing, breathwork and body centered techniques.  She is the author of Heartbeat Nurturing Therapy. She began studying Tantra and Sacred Spot work, a method of sexual healing, on Maui in 2003, and has since studied many methods of pelvic and sexual healing bodywork. 

Aniko has a love for traveling, which she has pursued with delight in her adult years.  She has a son, named Kaiea, who was born here at La’akea in 1997.  Aniko loves nature, she is passionate for the ocean as a surfer, snorkeler and has worked with stranded sea turtles on Maui.  Her connection to the plants and trees is also healing and grounding for her.  Aniko is a certified yoga instructor, has studied and taught Non Violent Communication, and Peer Counseling

Bill spent twenty years as the attorney for EcoVillage at Ithaca, one of the influential intentional communities in the United States, helping to design the legal frameworks that allowed its three thriving co-housing neighborhoods to succeed. His work also extends to smaller cooperative housing projects, pocket neighborhoods, and land-based LLCs, giving him a unique expertise in the intersection of law, governance, and intentional community design.

Kalama is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of HI, Hilo, where she teaches Sustainability, Interpersonal & family Communication courses. Her cultural reproduction and transformation research transcends disciplines and forges new paradigms and possibilities. This workshop, like her books Mana Cards: The Power of Hawaiian Wisdom, encourages exploration of the ways that identity, communication, synchronicity, nature, and connection converge. https://www.catherinebecker.com/ 

Otter Heartfountain (they/them) is a longtime communitarian, NFNC camp organizer, polyamorist, ZEGG Forum facilitator, and workshop presenter. They are a queer Indigenous neurospicy gender anarchist who practices relationship anarchy with a splash of solo polyamory. They are excited to share their workshops with you at this camp.

I have produced and created HAI events before the pandemic. I organized, produced and created 70-80 person weekend workshops called Love Fest, 2013-2016. They were under the HAI umbrella and were facilitated by 2-4 facilitators including myself. 

Trained originally in Existential and Phenomenological psychotherapy, my journey has led me increasingly towards the world of somatics and experiential modalities (including Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, EMDR and Play therapy).  Beyond psychology, the exploration of the body has led me toward dance, especially ecstatic dance and contact improv. I focus a lot of my time helping support Village Seed, an intentional community where I live (and in which I currently plan to grow old)

Sequoia (Curtis Kidwell) is a dedicated and seasoned explorer of spiritual connection, personal empowerment, and sacred intimacy. With a commitment to self-discovery and growth, he integrates elements of yoga, breathwork, mindful embodiment and shamanic practices into his experiences of transformation. His life journey has included being a successful entrepreneur, a free thinker, filmmaker, percussionist, and a humble devotee to the experiences of Native American ceremonies.

Shoshannah Crow was a founding member of GoddessIs; Womyns Ritual Theater Collective, which performed original works in Eugene, Oregon for ten years. She has been a Summer Camp West organizer since 2008, co-authored "Loving Freely," a journal of discovery in Polyamory. She has been a Forum facilitator since 2009 and teaches Forum facilitation for communities and groups. Most recently her passion has turned to painting and creating workshops around self awareness, and self love (aka Boundaries) c

Signa Cheney holds a Master’s degree in Teaching and has been practicing and teaching yoga, movement arts, music and meditation since the late 1980s. She has practiced sound healing since 2012, working with gongs, authentic voice, mantra & other vibrational healing modalities. Alongside her husband, Sequoia, she has led many kirtans & sound healing experiences. From a place of devotion & spiritual intentions, she has explored the art of bondage & Dom/sub dynamics as a transformational practice.

Tracy is an educator turned gardener, mother, permaculture instructor and lover of life. She is a founding member of La’akea Community where she has been living and experimenting with sustainability for more than ten years. Tracy practices what she teaches. She practices non-violent communication, peer counseling, Huna (a form of Hawaiian spirituality), couples counseling and group facilitation. When people learn from Tracy, they tend to feel good and have fun.

My dominant passions are curiosity, creativity, and love. I'm continually challenged by the infinite games of listening and learning. I constantly learn more about the human experience as a HAI Intern, Black Rock Ranger, and a Landmark Education coach. Despite such excellent and ongoing training, I'm constantly in my own way and struggling to avoid staying completely in my head! I'm seriously interested in diverse intellectual areas, including science, philosophy and rationality.