I am passionate about the earth and the rights and protections to life for all her beings. My work actively seeks to protect remaining resources, ecosystems, and to continue to focus on sustainable practices that foster good stewardship of our planet. I engage this focus in many ways.
I was a zero waste educator for Lopez Solid Waste Disposal District where I was actively engaged in building our local circular economy. In 2018, I initiated a Year to Zero, engaging our local community to move towards zero waste in many materials. In 2021 though my work at LSWDD, I applied for an received a $50,000 grant from the Washington Department of Ecology to found the Lopez ReMakery, a maker space dedicated to the local creative reuse, repair and remaking. Here is a great showcase video of products made and produced at the ReMakery.
Through my Zero Waste work, I am founding member of Plastics Free Salish Sea and was https://player.vimeo.com/video/304725709?h=2c438ec6a4” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener” data-wplink-url-error=”true”>featured in this mini documentary.
I am also a member of Next Cycle Washington‘s Governance circle for both their Accelerator program and their seed grant program to help increase the statewide circular economy while increasing equity and justice.
I believe in both local and global reach. So to continue to increase my scope beyond my bioregion, I am an Instructor for Terra.do in their Learning for Action course where I teach global cohorts of fellows about Climate Change to help them take action and use their existing skills to pivot to climate work.
I have also been combining my yoga and mindfulness work with helping folks get immersed in nature. I have made these short, nature based meditations that use physical landscapes to create metaphors for holistic healing. These are wonderful used in conjunction with the Ecoutearth work that is included in the link below.
Most recently, there has been a wild, feral being that has wanted to come forth in performance. Like many feral creatures, she hasn’t given up her secrets to me… yet. I am letting them live, sniff around a while, dream me into being and slowly hint their meanings to me in good time.
What I do know is that there is a fierceness inexorably linked to the fierceness of the changes happening on this dynamic body of earth. She is wild, she is feral. We think we can contain and cultivate her, predict her moods, soften her ire at our rampant consumption.
But I believe she has other feelings on the matter….
- Ecoutearth Facilitation: a practice of mindfulness, Ecopsychology, and Expressive Arts Therapy co-developed with Karina Colliat and Kayla Hochfelder. To learn more about click here: Ecoutearth.
- Please join us in honor of Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary, for
Ecoutearth: Connect Where You Are
We are welcoming you to join us for an embodied practice of Ecoutearth from right where you are. More than ever we need deep connection to ourselves, each other and nature. In this time of anxiety and uncertainty, we welcome you to come back into deep connection through a lovely afternoon of expertly facilitated connection.
Ecoutearth is a combined practice of mindfulness, Ecopsychology and Expressive Arts and is accessible for anyone, anywhere.
We invite you to a Zoom call where you will be introduced to the practice, and then have ample time for a deep drop-in to your own native environment: whether that be outside, or with a view of the out of doors. In Ecoutearth, we listen through our senses, and form a reciprocal relationship with the larger body of earth through the arts in the form of an aesthetic response. This is different from a traditional work of art: it is an offering, not a product. No artist experience is required for this use of the arts as a sacred offering– a sound, a movement, a few words, a breath. All these are offerings and ways to give back to the earth, in gratitude, in play, in reverence, in sacred relationship.
Please join us for this soul nourishing time to connect with each other and the world through mindfulness and the arts. Feel free to share this invitation with others, and pass on the zoom link. We are offering this workshop as our offering, but will also happily receive any donations via Paypal or Venmo.
Join Zoom Meeting:
Time: Apr 25, 2020 02:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
https://zoom.us/j/338073867?pwd=cHVBenVrTjF5YnFYTWJkVEVsazBkQT09
Meeting ID: 338 073 867
Password: 622259
Ecoutearth 6th Sense Meditation: https://soundcloud.com/user827190768/ecoutearth-6th-sense
- If you are interested in learning more please visit https://ecoutearth.weebly.com/
- or email nikytapalmisani@gmail.com
Other Environmental Projects and Involvement:
- San Juan Island Youth Conservation Boards: Nikyta is an active board member of both Lopez Island Youth Conservation Corps (formerly LICC) and San Juan Island Youth Conservation Corp formerly under the Madrona Institute, and now under San Juan Island Conservation District.
- Board Member of Madrona Institute whose mission is to encourage community dialogue and leadership on climate issues, and to engage current and future generations in the conservation and stewardship of our local ecosystem Madrona Institute.
- In 2008, Nikyta collaborated with Critical Beats and the Tropical Forest Group at the United Nations Climate Change Convention and created a body of work photographing 115 people’s hands capturing what they were doing to save the rainforests in their native languages and hand writing. See the photos here: Rainforest H&nds
nikyta palmisani 