The Rainmaker is the one who works with hidden forces and flows of nature to restore balance and harmony into the world. Through making beauty, through repair of damage on the earth, through subtle attunement, deep listening, careful allurement and humble propitiation, the important work of co-creating, healing and making new is done.
In African traditions, the Rainmaker would send people onto the land to create beauty, to paint tree stumps with ochre, to replant where the earth was exposed, to make offerings at the rivers and springs in gratitude for the rain. By making art in this way, even in damaged places, the earth would become so beautiful that the clouds could not help but be charmed and release their waters from the sky returning balance and healing to the land.
In this time of transformation and potential, a time when we need to repair damage, make beauty and allure the powers that bring the restoring rain, we invite you to summon the Rainmaker within. We invite you to step beyond the known, into the liminal spaces of spirit, ancestors and the creative force of nature herself, to make art, to create ephemeral installations, to craft words of magic and beauty to bring down the “rain”.
This is a retreat for artists of all kinds, for those who wish to make beauty on the earth – with no experience required. We will be exploring art-making as a way of restoring balance and creating beauty in order to call for harmony and healing. It will take place within an overall container of ritual and ceremony that will help us make ourselves more permeable to the place and the forces and flows that run through it.
What to Expect
During our time together we will be working alone and together to create ephemeral art, within an overall container of ritual and ceremony. Our process is collaborative and emergent, created in relationship with the places within which we work.
This is a deep exploration and place-based retreat for art and beauty making for all artists regardless of your chosen medium or your level of experience. It is for those who wish to deepen into a conversation with the unseen forces of nature and creativity, and explore how those are expressed through making beauty, with the overall intention of restoration and healing.
The retreat will take place at Siama, the traditional Tswana ancestral home of Colin and Niall Campbell, just outside Gaberone in Botswana. It is a wonderful opportunity to study the art of the Rainmaker on the land within which this tradition was created.
“Siama is a small holding about 10 kilometres outside of Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, where Colin grew up. The old Victorian homestead is surrounded by a combination of cultivated garden and indigenous bushveld.
About a 10 minute walk from the house, within the bushveld, Colin and his brother Niall built a traditional African Lodge for training their students and for ceremonial events. Although much urban development has taken place around the farm (and it is now far from the uninterrupted wilderness it once was) it still is home to a myriad of wild birds, reptiles and some Vervet monkeys.
We are excited about receiving you here where we will be able to practice African ritual with Colin on his home soil, visit the local villages and commune with the major sacred sites within a short drive from the farm.” Hanien
