Radical Access and Liberation Statement

The intention of this document is:

1. To make explicit our principles, so that we may bring them into practice.
2. To help people make an informed decision about whether to come to camp.
3. To inform camp organizers in our decision making process.

Free Cascadia Witchcamp is committed to Radical Access.  As such, we have created the Liberation Working Group, which focuses on issues of accessibility to camp.  We hold containers for collective discourse and education around power, class, race, gender, sexuality, physical ability and disability, and financial status, among others.

We help camp make conscious choices about what experiences we center. We help to articulate camp’s explicit and implicit values around power and access to power. Succinctly, we help people be at camp freely.

What does “Radical Access” mean to us?

Radical Access is Love in Praxis. Supporting the free expression of difference nurtures our Magick.

Radical Access means mutual support, and making effort for each other, because we are deeply grounded in love.

We want people who want to attend Free Cascadia Witchcamp and who are willing to abide by our gate agreements, to have free access to all of camp’s structures and activities. We intentionally welcome a diversity of ages, sexual orientations, races, gender identities, classes, dis/abilities, spiritual experiences and heritages, histories, and legacies of oppression.

Radical Access means we expect a variety of needs to be present for people, and we celebrate those needs.  We engage in meaningful conversation about needs, and honestly and clearly communicate what we are available to provide, what we are not currently available to provide. We also honor that all needs matter to us, even if we are unable to meet them.

Radical Access means we cultivate awareness by thinking clearly about our words, choices and actions and about how the spaces we create and utilize systematically invite and include some bodies, identities and experiences, and erase others.  We work to consciously create systems through which more people are systematically included, and we are meeting the needs of more people.

Radical Access means we are willing to do the hard work of making space and making effort for each other and our needs.  We realize it is not enough to say we don’t discriminate on the basis of XYZ. Sometimes, it means we make choices to prioritize the attendance of people with certain marginalized experiences to our camp, because we recognize, value and desire diverse perspectives and experiences. This is an on-going conversation.

Radical Access means we are continuously in a process of engaged self-critique of our policies, practices, demographics, outreach and do not accept our defaults as our desires.

Radical Access means we do not expect people of marginalized experience to do ALL of the work to make their attendance possible, to educate camp about their needs, and to create a space for themselves. Instead, we expect a collaborative and reciprocal relationship, so that we can work together to help people be at camp freely.

Radical Access means designing our camp, our systems and our Magick so that we welcome a plethora of needs, because we know diversity is central to our resilience as a community and to our activism in the world.

In the spirit of acknowledging that we all experience a tapestry of privileges and oppressions, we ask Free Cascadia Witchcamp attendees who typically enjoy more access to spaces, social status, power, voice and comfort to take it upon themselves to learn, notice, care and make choices that support the attendance of folks with less access to those privileges.

The Radical Access Commitment of Free Cascadia Witchcamp

Whereas, because we are grounded in deep love for ourselves and for each other;

• We recognize that able bodies/minds are often temporary human experiences;
• We recognize that oppression is intersectional, and that our collective freedom is bound in our individual liberation;
• We recognize that as Changemakers, we are our own responsibility;
• We commit to an ever-evolving process of Radical Access;
• We commit to embrace difference, confront privilege and challenge what is considered “normal,” because our vision is of an interdependent world;
• We commit to making conscious decisions about camp location, registration policies, at-camp support, develop processes to consider logistically challenging needs, and to hold clear boundaries about our obligations and capacity as organizers;
• We recognize that as an all-volunteer organization with a de-centralized power structure, we will be imperfect in our praxis, and hold ourselves with loving compassion as we grow and learn.

This is hereby signed by the following witches of the April, 2014 Face-to-Face Meeting, San Francisco, California.

Signed by:

Sag Reaps, Ari Zadel, Briar Sparkle Sparkle Sparkle Birdcall, June Bug Jaybird, Pavini GlitterHeart Moray, Eliot LeFiend, Penske Pocketknife, Jacin Glitterdirt, Cy Mugwort, Sid, Scout, Glimmer BlueDragon Skuld, RainCrowe, Julie Dragonfly, Song