Defend the Sacred in India Nov 2023

We are 6 sacred activists & water protectors of Defend the sacred Alliance.

We need support to attend the Spirit of Water- Defend the Sacred - 6th Annual Gathering India in November 2023

“We are a global alliance united in prayer, mutual support, culture-to-culture healing, and shared actions. We come together to contribute to the growing practice of sacred activism, to catalyze regenerative systems change, and to protect the sanctity of all Life.”

Here is a Document about our history and purpose and about the gathering in India:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TTkQZ_MVHTxPCmYqirT0n1qDJQZQLb9pSsLUw0oK8Q0/edit#heading=h.f8w9d4oco5s9

We already have funding for all indigenous water protectors coming to the gathering and we are now looking for financial support for 6 key non- indigenous members of the alliance.

The funds are necessary to buy plane tickets and travels inside of India .

Here are brief descriptions of these sacred activists:

Teena Pugliese

Teena Pugliese is a youth mentor, storyteller, and digital activist focused on land stewardship, water protection, and building belonging & community with people, place, and planet. She is a member of the governance and stewardship council for Youth Passageways, a mentor & facilitator for the Indigenous Youth Council at Earth Guardians and a member of the Defend the Sacred Alliance. After the Standing Rock movement in 2016, she spent 3 years living and working with the youth and the Standing Rock community, creating content to help bring attention to the injustices in Indian Country. In 2022, she became a core partner of the Three Creeks Collective, and along with the Owen's Valley Indian Water Commission helped return Three Creeks, a 5-acre healing center and oasis in Payahuunadü (the place where the water always flows) to Indigenous care. She has a BA in Theatre and has a passion for exploring storytelling, the arts, and performance as pathways toward healing & connection. She is committed to and grateful for collaborations with all beings who work towards restoring our relations with each other and the natural world.

Martin Winiecki

(he/him) is an activist (mainly focusing on ecology and international solidarity), long-term member of Tamera and co-initiator of the “Defend the Sacred Alliance.”

He has led the Institute for Global Peacework in Tamera since 2013, networking and campaigning, organizing international events and providing online education. Martin has published writings in various outlets, among them, Kosmos Journal, TruthOut, CommonDreams, The Indypendent, Films for action and Tikkun. Since 2017, He has organised the Defend the Sacred international activist gatherings and dedicated himself to building a global alliance.

Stu Basden

Stuart Basden, MA, is a seeker, dreamer, writer and facilitator. He has studied Processwork since 2017, and holds a Masters in Philosophy (Toronto) and a Bachelors in Historical Theology (Chicago). He is one of the ten co-founders of Extinction Rebellion, the globe-spanning social movement that transformed the international conversation about the climate and ecological emergency.

Stu has facilitated hundreds of workshops, retreats and training courses across Europe and Turtle Island (aka North America). He was one of the initiators of Toronto350.org, for which he was elected as President twice. He is a founding member of the Defend the Sacred Alliance and the Being The Change Affinity Network. He has ten years of experience as a web coder, working for both a successful Silicon Valley startup, and making the website for Sarah Lawrence College, New York. He is interested in the big questions of consciousness and cosmology, as well as the smallest of interpersonal interactions. He enjoys nerding out on quantum physics and fantasy roleplay. He loves to dance and sing. He now lives in Hebden Bridge.

Gabriel Meyer Halevy

Musician, storyteller, peacemaker, writer, spiritual activist and radical creative.

Born in Cordoba, Argentina. Gabriel travels the Globe performing his music, leading “sacred playshops,” and interfaith and multicultural facilitation. He has three CD

collaborations out - Merkavah, SpiritIsreal & Hateva: Skin of God, and one

solo album: The Human Project.

He wrote 2 books of poetry, co-founded

Metatron Ritual Theater Collective('94 - '01).

Co-founder and co-director of Sulha Peace Project (2001until 2009)

He was initiated into the "order of disorder" by Zen Roshi Bernie Glassman

z'l, was given an honorary title of "true representative of the Jewish

people" by Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi z'l, had the honor of a private

audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, studied sacred wisdom with

Shamans from the Americas, Sufi Sheiks from the Middle East & Africa, and

renowned Buddhist teachers such as Jack Kornfield, Stan Groff, Joanna

Macy & Thich Nhat Chan.

Gabriel is part of the "Defend the Sacred" Alliance of global sacred activism. These days he's writing an autobiographical fiction

of prophetic sorts & is currently a temporary nomad.

Miguel Humblet

Is an architect/artist & ecologist consultant specialised in sintropic regenerative reforestation and water retention landscapes for the restoration of ecosystems. For the past 13 years he has been working with geomancy and shamanic practices, creating ceremony and healing for groups and individuals. He is the co creator of Gravito healing centre, a transformative eco retreat, regenerative laboratory, an initiation portal in remote central Portugal. Miguel loves sacred space, intimacy with spirit, with the elements, creating conditions to enter the mystery.

He is part of the inner circle of Defend the Sacred and the manifesting team for the Spirit of Water Gathering of DSA in India 2023. He has been holding men’s circles and way of council circles for over 12 years.

Silvano Rizzi

studied nonprofit-management and worked in disaster relief, while searching for effective and regenerative solutions. 9 years ago he discovered Tamera, permaculture and the concept of Water Retention Landscapes. He’s since been dedicated to these topics and to building regenerative models that enable land stewards to live self-sufficiently and regeneratively with water and land.