RITUAL ACTIVISM +
WRITING-AS-CEREMONY
Creative responses to the unspoken challenges
of escalating planetary change
Image credit: Sebastian Unrau
place-based practices for staying human in hard times
In mainstream public life, we seldom speak about the emotional costs of biodiversity loss, species extinctions, and climate breakdown. Yet confusion, fear, and grief aren’t abstract ideas ~ they show up in bodies, relationships, and daily life, and more people are carrying them year on year.
How do we keep going ~ emotionally, spiritually, collectively ~ when uncertainty feels heavy and the future seems increasingly volatile?
Through simple, non-dogmatic ritual and creative writing with place, ritual activism and writing-as-ceremony offer guided ways to steady, listen, and respond with integrity, creativity, and care.
Image credit: Colby Winfield
is this work for you?
This work is for people who seek to enliven their capacity to respond to a world in trouble, who are tired of green-washing, shallow gestures, or "quick-fix" measures, and who want a creative practice that can hold complexity, responsibility, and beauty:
-
Artists, writers, and creative practitioners seeking a rigorous, generative methodology.
-
Educators and learning leaders wanting place-responsive, values-led pedagogies.
-
Environmental / community / justice practitioners navigating burnout and ongoing commitment.
-
Arts, heritage, and cultural organisations working at the interface of community, history, and accountability.
-
Individuals in transition (postgraduate study, leadership shifts, life thresholds) who want practice rather than platitudes.
what you will gain
This work builds steadiness and agency in ecological times. It helps you to begin or continue meeting a world in flux with courage, love, and artistry. It does so by offering:
-
Creative practices for facing uncertainty, fear, grief, burnout, and moral injury ~ so you can live and work well, now and into the future.
-
A clear understanding of ritual activism ~ what it is, what it isn’t, and why it matters ~ so you can, with discernment, locate your work within ecological realities.
-
A grounded, repeatable practice of attunement ~ how to listen deeply within the world without extracting ~ so you can respond with greater clarity in daily life, creative work, and leadership.
-
Tools for working with loss and overwhelm ~ without collapsing or hardening ~ so you can sustain creativity, responsiveness, and joy over the long term.
-
A framework for designing ethical rituals and ceremonies that strengthen accountability, reciprocity, and respect ~ so you can meet, with integrity, the challenges and opportunities of decolonising practice.
-
A lived introduction to writing-as-ceremony ~ as an artistic practice (plural in form) and a co-creative method and offering ~ so your writing, speaking, or arts practice becomes both inquiry and contribution, moving beyond personal expression.
-
Practical prompts and processes you can adapt for personal practice, classrooms, groups, and organisations ~ so the work travels: repeatable, teachable, and suited to diverse real-world contexts.
ritual
place
story
accountability
about
A woman of Māori whakapapa (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Huri) and European settler ancestry (Scottish, Irish, English, French, and Scandinavian), Simone Gabriel is a creative practitioner, educator, and arts leader working at the interface of ritual, story, and ecological responsibility.
With over 30 years’ experience across the creative and performing arts, sustainability and environmental communication, and higher education, Simone designs learning, facilitation, and guided practice that help people meet ecological change with artistry and depth, discipline and care.
Her PhD research in Creative Communication develops place-based methodologies that support ethical attention, grief literacy, and accountable action. Through ritual activism and writing-as-ceremony, Simone offers soulful, co-creative wayfinding for artists, activists, educators, and organisations seeking on-the-ground practices for a time of uncertainty and change.
Image credit: Marc Morel
Story begins where the world listens back.
how it works
Sessions combine some or all of the following, depending on context:
-
Walking-with / field practice (close attention to place, sensory encounter, liminal and imaginal thresholds, more-than-human kin)
-
Ritual forms (simple, non-dogmatic practices: witnessing, offering, restraint, remembering)
-
Guided writing-as-ceremony (creative engagement, reflective inquiry, ethical vow-making, diverse artistic forms, accountable language)
-
Group facilitation (co-regulation, listening structures, co-creative / generative conversation)
-
Integration (how practices translate into daily life, leadership, pedagogy, or organisational culture)
ways to work together
Insights and practices for artists, educators, and purpose-led people who feel the weight of environmental loss and want grounded ways to keep going, personally and professionally.
formats available
-
Writing
-
Podcast
-
Group Learning (online/hybrid)
-
1:1 Guidance (limited places)
-
Retreats & Residencies (seasonal)
-
Speaking and Workshops
-
Organisational Facilitation
Image credit: Jonathan Borba
ethics & commitments
(non-negotiables)
This work is guided by an ethics of relationship, accountability, reciprocity, and restraint:
-
No extractivism ~ place and culture are not “content” to be mined.
-
Consent and care ~ human and more-than-human relations are approached with humility and limits.
-
Cultural integrity ~ this is not a portable “Indigenous ritual toolkit.” Where work intersects with Māori knowledge and tikanga, it is approached with respect, transparency, and appropriate boundaries, in alignment with Te Tiriti responsibilities and local context.
-
Trauma-aware facilitation ~ practices are invitational, choice-led, and paced; no forced disclosure.
-
Practice over performance ~ ritual is treated more as disciplined relation than symbolic theatre, though the two may work together.
Image credit: Casey Horner
what this is not
-
Not therapy (though it can be supportive)
-
Not a spiritual “hack,” trend ritual, or aestheticised appropriation
-
Not a replacement for local knowledge-holders or community-led cultural practice
-
Not activism-as-branding; it’s about living our commitment to respond ethically to change.
grounded in relational ethics.
attentive. slow. generative.
living-with, making-with.
the artistry of co-creative ritual.
Image credit: Sunbird
I really really enjoyed this course. You are an inspiring and passionate teacher who pushed me to transform my story. You are incredibly articulate and I came out of every session with new, fundamental nuggets of knowledge... Thank you so much!
Charlie, F.
Emerging Creative Practitioner
- Wellington Aotearoa New Zealand -
Simone Gabriel, you are the most incredible teacher, mentor, creator, and person. I am beyond grateful for your presence in my life.
Kelly M.
Creative Media Producer
- Anchorage Alaska USA-
That was amazing! I came away with so much to think about. I really loved the focus on ceremony as leadership...so inspiring and provocative.
Audience member
Celebrants Aotearoa Conference 2025
- Wellington Aotearoa New Zealand -
what people say
Feedback from past work
next steps
If you’re interested, we can begin with a short conversation to clarify: audience, context, desired outcomes, and ethical parameters ~ and determine the best format (talk, workshop, course, retreat, or organisational facilitation). Please email to get the conversation started.