Build the Healing Yurt

Hi, my name is Maeve, I'm Irish and I'm a medicine woman / shaman / healer. I live in New Zealand with my partner and my two boys. We live in a community of tiny house dwellings within our own fenced property that we rent. My work supports others to recognise unhealed trauma and the patterns it creates in their lives, and allows them to create deeper connections with their body, with mother earth and with others. These connections are created by recognising vulnerability as a strength and trusting in the body's language as a medium for transformative healing (embodiment).

We began the dream of creating a yurt from which to run workshops and hold community gatherings, a couple of years ago. A significant impetus for the project is that I have had chronic fatigue for 3 years, so I am limited to working from home when I can, in a very tiny space. I also have a degenerative eye condition and I am losing my vision, which means that over-time I will be even more limited to home-life. So we are eager to create a living environment now, that will sustain us over the coming years.

The dream was that building the yurt would open up the potential to work from home, to earn a wage again and support our family, but also to support my own healing journey through finding purpose and connection with community. The project is now underway, the materials and the yurt purchased. However, due to other financial burdens and miscalculations on total costs, we are now at a standstill and may potentially have to sell the yurt and lose money on the materials purchased and the site work which has already been completed.

In a bid to save the project we hope to create a free community focused yurt-building workshop, where there would be an opportunity to upskill and learn basic building skills. However, we would still need to finance the main builder and the remainder of the costs for the materials which are not yet paid for. My partner runs a bush (forest) school which is also community focused, and as a result his prices are intentionally low, as is his salary. We have a very limited income and we are aware this possiblity may not arise again in the future. So this is our final attempt to bring it to fruition. If you would like to support us in any way we would be eternally grateful. With love. Le gra. Arohanui xxx