Re-weaving the bond between People & Place
Next Uywanakuy:
May 29 - 31, 2026
Ancestral Regenerative arts
We are pleased to announce the return of Andean-Amazonian lineage keepers, artists, and teachers, NuhJay, to Lost Valley in 2026!
We will continue building upon the foundations set together in 2025, deepening our knowledge and experience of ancestral regenerative arts for rebuilding culture and re-rooting ourselves as people of place.
Uywanakuy, or mutual upraising in Quechua, is a gathering dedicated to the cross-pollination of cultures and lineages, the recovery of viable seeds from our own ancestral memory, and the rematriation of people to place, land, and territory. We are extending this invitation out especially to those who come with or representing communities, groups, or initiatives, that we may use our time of study, celebration, and sharing together to weave stronger alliances locally and bioregionally.
Over the course of two days, we will share stories, songs, traditional dances, and “Aswa Mama” or “Chicha,” the sacred fermented drink of the Andes. This workshop is an introduction to the ancestral tools and arts of communication, connection, and celebration that have built lasting relationships with natural cycles and shared identities.
SPecial Guest Teachers
"We are Nuhjay, from the Andean-Amazonian territory, right on the border between Colombia and Ecuador. Blessed with the heritage of our family lines and guided by the elders, we have passed on and shared healing ways of life in harmony with natural cycles. We have grown up in families, contexts, and experiences of recovering territories and traditions that were almost lost or forgotten, such as traditional dances, songs, stories, and seeds, which we have shaped into a path and way of supporting processes of transition toward more holistic ways of living. Currently, we care for a space in the Amazon where this entire cycle of recovery and regeneration of the memory of life develops and inspires people today...
”Now, we want to pass on these traditions, safeguarded, protected, and reconstructed with great effort and with the help and wisdom of the elders of different native communities in the Andean and Amazonian territories. The elders guided us throughout our journey, and now it's important to share this with other territories and families as a tool to navigate these times of change and evolve toward a more respectful way of life, more in tune with ourselves, with the living world, with planet Earth, and with the return to unity."
Song ✸ Dance ✸ Story ✸ symbol
“For many ancestral peoples, dance, music, singing, poetry, and the spoken word are not acts created solely for representation, entertainment, or amusement. They are a way of accessing the world and its manifestations through a logic of caring for life...”
Come dance with us at the intersection of Art & Stewardship…
The elders from the South tell us that song, dance, story, and symbol are the four pillars of nationhood—that is, what it means to be a people and to share an identity that binds us to each other and to place in concentric circles of care and reciprocity. Thus, to recover communal practices of song, dance, and story is not just a matter of joy-making and entertainment, but rather essential life-sustaining threads within the re-weaving of our collective sovereignty and memory. Here within the union art and stewardship, we offer our dance as part of a greater prayer to re-weave the bond between people and place and to strengthen our community alliances in service to the regeneration of land and culture.
ALL proceeds support ecological & cultural regeneration of both the Andean-Amazonian & Cascadian foothills, such as:
Restoration of ecosystems, ongoing conservation of local native habitat and biodiversity
Amazonian gastronomy, local food sovereignty efforts for native and non-native peoples alike
Place-based education and ongoing public outreach in the fields holistic sustainability and wellness, regenerative/syntropic agriculture and land stewardship, community governance, ancestral/Indigenous knowledge systems, and more
Endogenous research, social justice, access to land and knowledge for low-income people and individuals of historically marginalized communities for the purposes of ecological living, sustainable agriculture and forestry, cottage industries and worker co-operatives.
Logistics
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FULL 2-DAY WORKSHOP
ALL-INCLUSIVE: Meals and tent camping provided.Community Supported $155
This tier is offered in recognition that our dominant economic system often neglects to provide a living wage to those of us who are most deeply invested in the service of our communities. We want to affirm that we are all in this together and continue to provide accessible quality education offerings to all those who are truly dedicated to the path of mutual upliftment.Community Sustaining $250
This tier provides a more equitable exchange of financial support for the teachers and organizers of this opportunity, and covers most basic institutional costs of operation of Lost Valley.Community Regenerative $400+
This tier helps support our staff and teachers, increases total donations to ecological projects both North & South, and helps to cover the cost for economically marginalized participants. We are deeply grateful for any additional financial support to help us further our mission and goals!
Please inquire about special accommodations and group rates at vanessam@lostvalley.org
Limited work trade and scholarship opportunities are available.
All Families are welcome to attend! No pets please.
Children under 12 may attend for free.
Elders welcome – please reach out so that we may accommodate you well! -
*More detailed schedule and arrival instructions coming soon!
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Tent camping provided with access to shared outdoor bathing facilities, restrooms, outdoor kitchen, and meals with a strong emphasis on local, organic, wildcrafted, and ethically sourced ingredients. Guests will also have access to nature sanctuary trails, creek, and meadow.
*Dorm rooms are available and may be booked separately through Lost Valley.
Please reach out to vanessam@lostvalley.org any special accommodations or considerations.
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Personal camping gear (tent, rain fly, sleeping bag, headlamp), unless you are booking a dorm room in which case all bedding is provided.
Garden & forest-worthy boots, rain jacket.
Snacks, fruits, seeds, teas etc. to share (extra bonus for cacao!)
Music instruments, songs & stories!
Cultural
Cross-Pollination
We come together to share seeds, songs, stories, and dances for the regeneration of community and communication, connection and culture, memory and soil.
As dominant systems strain under the weight of disconnection and isolation—from land, from spirit, from heritage, from each other—learning from cultures that have sustained life through reciprocity, oral memory, and deep ecological knowledge offers a path toward whole-systems regeneration. These kinds of mutually upraising exchanges are acts of healing and service to the whole. We are rebalancing narratives, awakening the memory of our bodies and territories, and reweaving a collective future rooted in respect, diversity, interdependence, and belonging.
While it is a privilege and an honor to welcome our Colombian family and to help build this bridge between the global North and South, we also want to recognize the prolific and diverse local efforts, seeds, projects, and communities working towards community, land, and cultural regeneration here in the Willamette Valley and Cascadia bioregion. We want to strengthen these local alliances and promote cross-pollination of diverse ideas, visions, tools and arts.
For this reason, we are offering special discounted rates for groups, communities, and those representing regenerative-minded projects, with special consideration for historically marginalized populations.
If this corresponds to you, please send an email to vanessam@lostvalley.org with a statement of interest and brief introduction to your group or project.
We look forward to dancing, weaving, and working together!
calling all…
Artists, stewards, bridge-builders & peacemakers…
Musicians, singers, poets, storytellers, weavers, dancers…
Keepers of fire, water, and seeds of the future…
Educators, advocates, Earth defenders, farmers & forest folk…
Calling YOU!
How can we advance towards a new way of life that is more respectful and in tune with living beings?
What can we do to take our place as healthy cells in a greater living body – as a humanity that is an integral part of Mother Earth? To reawaken unity?
