River of Life
Time: One hour, but this depends on how much time is left for sharing stories and how many participants are in the group.
Learning Style: Drawing, visual, introspective, healing and sharing
Objective:
In the pilot trainings a suggestion was to make space for more emotional work to be explored by the group. People are impacted deeply by the reality of ecocide and experiencing grief and loss. The purpose of this session is for people to reflect on how carbon trading impacts their lives and to build links with others in similar situations. This session can be a way for people to share personal stories and/or to get people thinking about creative ways to resist, organize and build together. This can also be a deeply healing, emotional, and empowering session, depending on how it is organized.
Instructions:
The facilitator asks the participants to take a piece of paper and find a place on the floor or table to draw a river that represents their lives. It may have swamps or stagnant waters, or happy places for swimming and community. Participants can also explore how climate change and/or carbon pricing impacts their lives in the drawing. People can free draw and use other symbols to show how things have changed. The group does a go-round sharing stories after the drawing session. After sharing their stories and drawings, people can talk about how climate change/carbon pricing impacts their lives, how things have changed, and where there might be intervention.
Materials:
A large piece of paper, markers, colored pencils or other drawing materials
