MATRIARCHY FOR FUTURE FESTIVAL

MATRIARCHY FOR FUTURE FESTIVAL
(www.matriarchy-for-future-net)
July 3-6, 2025
Venlo, Netherlands

by Joan Cichon

For four days in early July 2025 five hundred women from all over Europe, and North and Central America came together to share ideas, build on ancient traditions, hear leaders in the modern matriarchal studies movement, attend workshops, network, dance, sing, spend time in nature and dine on delicious, locally sourced food at the charming Kasteel de Berckt retreat center in rural Venlo, the Netherlands. Organized by the students of Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth, who are carrying forward her legacy, and the modern matriarchal movement, the topics covered at the Matriarchy for Future Festival included politics, ecology, sociology, economics, and spirituality. The amazing array of speakers came from current social movements and modern matriarchal research.

Two mornings were devoted to talks by the festival’s keynote speakers. The founder of the Modern Matriarchal Studies movement, Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth, opened the festival with “Matriarchal Politics and the Vision of a New Society.” She was followed by Gen Vaughan, founder and theorist of the Maternal Gift Economy Movement, who addressed the topic of “The Maternal Gift Economy as the Deep Alternative to Patriarchal Capitalism.” Ending the first morning’s keynote offerings was Dr. Annine van der Meer, Dutch historian, theologian, and symbolist, who spoke about “40,000 Years of Global Goddess Art: bringing to light the hidden history of female spirituality and the forgotten contribution of women to evolution and civilization.” The second morning of keynote addresses opened with Dr. Joan Marler, founder of the Institute of Archaeomythology, “Remembering a great woman of science: Marija Gimbutas’ pioneering development of Archaeomythology and the centrality of women in the nonpatriarchal societies of Old Europe.” Dr. Marler was followed by two Bribri women of the Talamanca of Costa Rica, Hayden Mayorga and Layli Moreno, speaking respectively on: From Bribri Girl to Territorial Authority: A Story of Female Resistance and Leadership Between the Matriarchal Legacy and the Challenges of Contemporary Patriarchy, and  “Lived experience in matrilineality in Bribri Farming in Finca Loroco (Costa Rica)”; Maria Suarez, journalist, radio producer, professor and activist for women’s rights followed with “Pedagogy of the Waters in Costa Rica’s Caribbean: Tidealectics in Feminist Citizenry Sciences: Lived Experiences are the Patterns that Connect.” The second morning of keynote addresses closed with a panel discussion featuring Joan Marler, Maria Suarez, Hayden Mayorga, andLayli Morena entitled “Of clans, culture and consensus on a living planet: archaeomythology and citizen initiatives.”

Along with the keynote addresses, mornings as well as afternoons were filled with an amazing array of workshops which illustrated matriarchal principles in action in current social movements. They included author and film producer Francesca Rosati Freeman  showing her film about the matriarchal Mosuo of China and talking about her Facebook group, where more than four hundred members are discussing a matriarchal future; Anne Wiebelitz and Walle Gairing from the  Uma-Institut on “Serving life: Transformation for social change – the political dimension of matriarchal life;” Claudio Harder on “Organize Matriarchally” discussing ways and opportunities to organize and help shape today’s organizations and initiatives in accordance with matriarchal values ​​and principles; red-green Finnish politician Kaarina Kailo speaking about her vision of an eco-socially sustainable matriverse; Stephanie Steyrer “Participatory Regions Initiative: Building bridges for social-ecological solutions in regions;”Rosmarie Wydler-Wälti  co-president of KlimaSeniorinnen, an association of 3000+ women over the age of 64, living in Switzerland, talking about KlimaSeniorinnen’s suit against the Swiss government for not doing enough to combat global warming; Barbara Elisabeth Graf Irisdotter explaining “Permaculture as an Earth-Cosmos-Spiritual way of living, working, researching and doing business” and demonstrating why knowledge from modern matriarchal studies is essential for building mature, healthy systems; the Council of European Grandmothers, founded in 2015 by a group of women in Merano (Italy) and inspired by the “Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers,” who talked about their efforts to  re-establish and revitalize the knowledge of the interconnectedness of all life for the next generations; Dr. Cécile Keller speaking on Matriarchal Medicine; Jill Goldman and her performance art piece Disentaglement/Re-embodiment, an ambitious attempt to disentangle the bonds of gender-based oppression and imagine a re-embodied self, unencumbered by patriarchal power and domination; and many, many more ranging from sexuality and matriarchal love life, non-violent communication, urban agriculture to bring people back into connection with nature, and putting money into women’s hands, to an unusual matriarchy project in Nepal.     

In addition to rituals opening and closing the conference, concerts by women concluded each day’s events, and took place during the day as well. Headlining the musical portion of the festival was a performance by the popular Israeli peace activist Yael Deckelbaum, a platinum-selling Israeli-Canadian singer/songwriter, recognized by many as one of the groundbreaking musical activists of our time. She was joined by Meera Eilabouni, an Arab Israeli musician who often collaborates with Deckelbaum, and with whom she won the Günter Wallraff Prize for Human Rights. Other musical artists included Schwessi, the Luisa Laakmann Band, Laura Lee and the Jetts, and popular ecstatic dance DJ Caroline S’Jegers. It was a joy to see women and children of all ages (and some men as well) sing and dance along with the performers.

And as if all this were not enough, musical theater, films on matriarchal themes, art exhibitions, photography, sculpture, paintings and handicrafts—all with a matriarchal theme--markets and information stands, circle dances and dance rituals, voice ceremonies, yoga, and rituals for the earth also took place.

The energy, enthusiasm, joy, and dedication of the festival organizers (ten women who spent the last four years preparing for the event) was electric and contagious. Indeed, so many of those who attended the festival exhibited that same degree of energy, enthusiasm, joy, and dedication to help bring about a world based on maternal values: care, nourishing, nurturing, peacekeeping, mothering in its broadest sense. The festival gave hope to all who attended that another world is possible, that immense positive change is underway and that those doing their part to create the change are doing so with joy. The festival was the epitome of what is possible with matriarchy, as Dr. Abendroth defined it, and it was the perfect example of what matriarchal principles in action look like.