Birthing a drum is an incredibly powerful process. It is a journey within where you have an opportunity to witness, to receive insights with clarity, to deepen your understanding on how you navigate your internal and external worlds. It also provides us with the tool of the drum, to work with whilst we are traversing our own individual journeys. The rhythm of the drum beat need not be complicated, you need no musical background. Just the simple creation of a heart beat can help regulate your nervous system, bring you into a moment of sacredness around prayer or meditation. You can use it in song, or to take you on a journey if you so choose to use it in that way. That is the beauty of the drum - it can be utilised in whichever way you choose. Drums (specifically hand drums) have been around across all cultures for millennia. They were prominent pre-Christian instruments along with the tambourine and sistrum in the worship of the goddess. A book worthy of reading is When the Drummers were Women by Layne Redmond, who has explored and documented the global cultural history of the drum. As part of the drum making workshop we will be connecting to the makers birth story. There are a series of questions that each participant will be asked to journal around in the lead up to the workshop. Paying attention to dreams, random thoughts, all can become relevant in the drum making process. Many drum making teachers come from a spirituality focus, including from a place of ‘shaman’. That is not me, and if that is what you are after there are many out there, I would urge you to seek one of them. I am just a person who has found the drum an incredible tool in my own healing journey and I want to share what I have learned with others. I take a unique approach in that I am a Psychology student, and through the utilisation of drums in my own process I am very interested in how the creative process highlights the way we approach life and this same process often mirrors how we navigate our internal and external worlds. The sense of community that is created in a shared intensive experience is a beautifully supportive one, and it also highlights behaviours that come to surface when navigating groups. By paying attention to those things, we can learn more about ourselves and deepen our relationship with our ‘self’, this then opens us up to deep our relationship to others and, to life. The first day begins with a welcome circle, where we take a moment to really arrive, we spend time in gratitude, acknowledging all the gifts we are blessed with, acknowledging ourselves for stepping forward on the journey and also acknowledging the hard times and that courage that is required to say yes to self. We then take part in a walking meditation to assist in dropping in to the creative, intuitive space. Participants are asked to select their skins intuitively, and then guided to stencil and cut out their drum from raw hide. We eat a delicious lunch whilst working and sitting in community and then return to complete the cutting out of the skins. We place the skins in their tubs of water to soak before moving onto the final experience for the day. An effective way to process societal conditioning is through play, so we will spend the afternoon with Emily Cooper from Hands, Heart and Feet. Emily utilises West African drums and has a wonderful light and energy which helps alter the beliefs/fears that we might have surrounding our ability to 'play' the drum. Emily is also fabulous story teller which she sometimes uses to accompany her drum playing. On day two we begin with a movement/yoga workshop to loosen our bodies up in preparation for birthing the drum. Participants are then guided on the process of making the drum. Whilst birthing the drum, participants will be supported by both Shar and Vic. A full vegetarian lunch and snacks will be provided all weekend to help nourish your body. Please note no refunds will be offered - if the workshop does not go ahead on the specified date, enrolments will be transferred to another workshop date. Final payments must be made no later than 6 weeks out from the workshop.
