2024 Refuge Outdoor Festival

Session Capacity: 15

Attention attendees: Online registration does not guarantee session access. Please arrive at least 5 minutes before the session begins and check in with a volunteer to secure your spot. Thank you!

In this activity session, we will be playing two group interactive games in a wooded area. The games are designed to use kinesthetically learning as a way to cultivate skills that increase awareness of our sense of self, how we move through space, and our connection with others. The skills we will be learning involve embodied sensing and movement, intuition, and ability to play with discomfort.

Topics discussed include spirituality, mobility in rugged terrain, visibility/invisibility and identities, power, violence, grief, and pleasure. Participants can expect to engage with objects like toy bows, foam tipped arrows, eye covers, eye goggles, and face mask. Some emotions like excitement, suspense, tension, may arise.


Session outline:

Introduction (5 minutes)
Explain the intentions of activity
Talk about the importance of play and connection to nature in healing and learning

Share about the skills needed:
Embodied mobility (walking practice)
Distribution of weight in movement (centering practice)
Nervous system awareness (breathing practice)
Spaciousness (multisensory practice)

Invite opportunity to re-consent or witness

Game 1 (45 mins)

Introduce game 1
Script: There is a big scary monster in the swamp. Or at least that’s what many people think. You stumbled close to it without knowing and got spooked. Your phone fell near the monster as you ran away. The monster is awake now but not moving. How do you get your phone?

Rules of the game: One person sits in the middle with eye covers and the others circling them. The person with eye cover tunes into their other senses to notice others creeping slowly towards them to grab the item. They are to point at whoever they feel confident is there, and if they get it right, the other person steps back to the circle.

Assign roles for game 1
First round
Grounding

Second Ground
Grounding
Reflection

Game 2 (30 minutes)
Introduce game 2
Script: The monster is now looking for you but you have to get your friend who is trapped by vines! How do you help your friend without getting hurt?

Rules: One person with eye cover has a toy bow with one foam tipped arrow, they have to walk around and look for the rest of the group while the group avoids them. If they shot their arrow and missed, a new person takes over their place. If a person is hit by the arrow, they are out of the game.

Basic archery skill introduction: how to hold the arrow

Assign roles for game 2
First round
Grounding
Second Ground

Closing and reflection (10 minutes)

By the end of the activity participant may feel a heightened sense of awareness in their body, the community around them, and hopefully pleasure. No experience in archery needed. Let’s learn and play together!