The Stories of Our Bodies Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland [LGBTQIA+ cohort]

We often believe we can know something about other people based on what we see of their bodies. Before we’re even conscious of it, we label, compartmentalise or judge - and it can be a real struggle to relish our own bodies when this judgment happens in front of a mirror. 

The Stories of Our Bodies is an affirming and liberating circle, firmly
held in dignity, that redirects this judgement towards positive body image and bodily autonomy.
This two hour workshop builds on the living lineage of Australian Radical Faerie elder Uncle Teacosy. It's shaped from gay men’s survival of the 90’s AIDS epidemic, evolved to uplift queer&trans communities and has been offered internationally by only one facilitator.

Each participant is invited into deep connection with their body and then in turn, we share the stories of our bodies from birth til now, removing as many articles of clothing as we choose. Stories often include histories of illness, injury, gender affirmation, addiction, aging, intentional modification, shape, ability or size

What stories can the marks and folds of a body tell when witnessed in belonging and respect? How can we uplift each story and every storyteller?

This circle is for participants from the Takatāpui, MVPFAFF+, LGBTQIA+ communities, active in engaged consent and includes partial or full nudity in a non-sexual atmosphere.

Your Facilitators: Eleven Greenstones and val smith

Eleven Greenstones (she/they, Pakeha) is a cultural worker, community educator, researcher, gardener and facilitator who seeks deep and fertile justice by cultivating rich soil and robust, adaptive communities. For three decades, Eleven has informed and performed behind a radio desk, on stage, in community centres and cultural hubs. Her work spans the Pacific Ocean including in Aotearoa, Australia, Timor Leste, China, Korea, Mongolia and the US: educating in high schools, AOD rehabs, hospitals, police stations, co-housing cooperatives, squatted warehouses, international language schools and mentoring in arts workshops and community gardens.

Eleven is a life-long student, recently in decolonial Fieldwork with Leah Manaema Avene and with Héctor Aristizábal, founder of ImaginAction. They’ve studied post-activism with fugitive philosopher Bayo Akomolafe, Generative Somatics and Undoing Racism® (People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond). She's been mentored by First Nations ecologists to work for a living planet, Undoing White Supremacy Austin (Texas) to design and deliver anti-racism ‘unlearning circles’ and by Radical Faerie elders to facilitate liberating spaces for the LGBTQIA+ community.

val smith (Pākehā, they/them) is a choreographic artist-researcher and educator based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. Their practice engages critical somatics and friendship-based collaboration to explore the socio-political dimensions of whiteness, queerness, and transness within the cultural context of Aotearoa. Recent performance work investigates more-than-human kinship, queer intimacies, and temporalities in relationship with marginal urban places.

val’s teaching and facilitation engages with community, secondary and tertiary learning environments. They have a Postgraduate Diploma in Dance and Drama Secondary Teaching, and have worked with kids, young people with disabilities, the Disability dance sector, older folks, as well as queer and trans communities. They teach somatic practices, improvisation, performance skills, critical dance, yoga, creative practice and research methodologies.

A recipient of the Arts Foundation Laureate Award (2019), val was also the 2016 Caroline Plummer Fellow at Te Whare Wānanga o Ōtākou, University of Otago, where they undertook a community dance project with the local queer community.