Winter camp presenters 2024

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Aiua is a devoted guide in the realms of peace, liberation, and pleasure. As a mother, wife, sister, friend, and Sacred Sexuality facilitator, she embraces her calling to help others experience deeper love, intimacy, and connection.

With over a decade of study in bio-psycho-social-spirituality under renowned teachers like Gabor Maté, Diederik Wolsak, Mooji, Pema Chödrön, and Gerald Jampolsky, Aiua integrates wisdom from diverse traditions. 

Aleanu is a relationship coach trained through the Somatica Institute in San Francisco. His heart-centered experiential practice offers sessions on self love, self empowerment, emotional healing, conflict navigation, relationship dynamics, sexual intimacy and many other personal and relational growth challenges. He is a trained tantric shamanic healing practitioner (School of Tribal Tantra), a certified mediator (Ku’ikahi Mediation Center, Hilo), and a men’s work facilitator (Man Kind Project)

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

Gratitone loves music, loves dance. He’s taught movement in many forms… Salsa dancing and other Latin dances, contact improv, even rock climbing. As a DJ he's skilled at crafting delectable sets to delight your ears and set your body in motion. With a degree in ethnomusicology, he knows his music (and is always happy to chat about it) and  his sets tend to journey around the world— focusing on the groovy and the heart-felt!

Ixchel Tōnantzin Xōchitlzihuatl (she/ we/ they) is an artist, peace strategist and channel for the interdimensional being Black Jaguar Corn Woman.  Ixchel is mixed indigenous (primarily Uto-Aztecan/ Uto-Nahuatl), mixed race (primarily Celt), two spirit woman and queer being.  They hold an MFA from Colombia, an EdM from Harvard, are trained in BDSM, sex, and intimacy coaching, Buddhist liberation philosophy, Beyond Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique. 

Judy has trained in improvisational and Playback Theater for over 40 years, teaching and performing in Oregon and Hawaii. She served as artistic director of the Rogue Valley Playback Theater and is a co-founder of The Hamazons, an all-women comedy improv troupe in Ashland, OR.

A trained psychotherapist, she has facilitated grief healing groups including pet grief support groups. Judy was a member of La'akea community from 2005-2015, and is proud to have been part of this great community.

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/ 

 I have been an active member in the new culture community for 6 years, doing everything from set up, take down, to temple warm ups.  

I have done trainings with Ista, assisting 4 trainings as well as being a practitioner of sacred sexuality and sacred spot massage.

I have dedicated myself to the journey of deeper connection within myself, with others, and most of all with mother earth.

Kelly Klein, PhD, is a Transformational Kink Practitioner, somatic intimacy & relationship coach, filmmaker, dancer, & sacred sexuality educator. As a leader of the erotic revolution, her mission is to facilitate humanity’s liberation in harmony with the Earth & to encourage embodied knowing of our inherent divinity & interconnectedness. Having spent her life intimately investigating the body, relationships, community, sexuality, & sensuality, she celebrates the full range with compassion. 

After personal training and teaching dance all over Melbourne and the USA over the past 15 years, Miranda discovered GROOVE Dance & a new way of living, authentically!  She loves sarcasm & saying it how it is. She studied Tantra and Tantric yoga in Australia.  Miranda enjoys sharing what she has learnt and has a passion for ‘psychological experiments’ - because they always offer a different perspective on things.  She is excited to connect with the community & see how much we can learn!

Connection is my juice, community is my joy, & compassion is my jam. I love to hold space for connection of all kinds & help folx discover their authentic selves. I’m a former NFNC Scamp, HAI Intern, & Black Rock Ranger. I’m also a Buddhist lay monk & an elder of my Native American tribe. I’m nonbinary, neurospicy, indigenous, & queer. Most of all, I'm committed to shifting the old-culture paradigms that stuff humans into sociocultural “boxes" that don’t fit their hearts, minds, bodies, & lives.

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. 

 I aim to spend the precious moments I have left on this stunning planet, making the most of every moment.  Let’s dance and play in these amazing bodies, and give thanks for it all. I have done many many things, taught for decades, yoga, bio-machanics, art, meditation and laughter yoga. Among the many things I have done: relationship couch, Nationally Certified Sign Language Interpreter for college, university, community etc.,

I own my own forest in Oregon , and built my own cob cottage by hand.

Rebecca has been a dancer and self-healer through somatic movement her whole life. She has played with a plethora of dance styles and learned many healing modalities. She finds the free form of Ecstatic dance & contact improv to be an especially powerful way of transmuting stuck energy for individual & collective healing. Having found herself on a spiritual & soul healing journey to create peace within and heal generational traumas, Rebecca is excited to share what has given her sweet freedom.

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 has over three decades of experience practicing & teaching yoga. She integrates pranayama, mantra, yoga philosophy and yogic sound current technology into her classes. She is skilled with the deeper and subtle layers of yoga experience. Signa is passionate about weaving Kundalini, Bhakti, Tantra & Hatha Yoga styles into practice. She holds a Master's degree in Teaching & is a certified Natural Health Educator. She has ar Massage Therapy license and is a lifelong dancer.

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.