The Red Tent
Women's Circles
Welcome to the Red Tent.
A place to gather. A place to be held.
A place to remember you are not alone.
There is something ancient about women sitting together.
Before the noise of modern life. Before the constant productivity.
Before we were expected to carry everything quietly and keep moving.
Women have always found ways to gather.
To share stories. To tend to one another. To pass wisdom between generations.
To rest. To grieve. To celebrate. To make things. To laugh. To cry.
To simply be together.
The Red Tent is a contemporary expression of that old human longing:
to have somewhere to belong.
A sacred gathering for women to return to themselves
Red Tent is a monthly women's circle held across Southland, alongside an online circle for women who cannot join us in person.
These are intimate gatherings for women to come exactly as they are.
You don't need to arrive with anything figured out. You don't need to be healing something. You don't need to be spiritual. You don't need to be a mother. You don't need to be menstruating. You don't need to believe in anything in particular. You simply need to come as yourself. We sit together. We listen. We talk. We rest. We create. We share what is alive for us.
There is no pressure to speak. There is no fixing one another. There is no competition. There is no hierarchy of whose experience matters most.
There is room for you here.
The old wisdom of gathering
Across cultures and throughout human history, women have created spaces to gather, share knowledge, care for one another and mark important passages of life. The forms these gatherings took were different from culture to culture. The modern Red Tent is not an attempt to recreate one particular ancient tradition. Instead, it draws inspiration from something much older and much simpler: women gathering with women.
Sharing stories. Passing knowledge between generations. Making space for rest. Witnessing one another through the seasons of life.
The invitation is to bring that spirit of gathering into the present day, creating a living circle that belongs to the women sitting together now.
Here, in the south.
Each Red Tent has a gentle structure that gives the evening a sense of ritual, while leaving plenty of room for whatever the women in the room bring with them.
THE OPENING
We begin by arriving. A moment to settle into the space.
THREE QUESTIONS
Each gathering has three questions to guide our conversation. They might invite reflection on your life, relationships, creativity, womanhood, belonging, change, dreams or whatever is moving beneath the surface.
There is no right answer. And you are always welcome to simply listen.
THE TALKING STICK
We move around the circle with a talking stick. When it reaches you, the space is yours. You can speak. You can share. You can be quiet.
You can pass. The rest of the circle listens without interrupting, fixing or offering unsolicited advice. Your story belongs to you.
MEDITATION
We take time to come inward. A guided meditation creates a pause between the noise of everyday life and the deeper space of the circle.
THE CRAFT
Every circle includes something to make. A simple creative practice that gives the hands something to do while the mind settles. You don't need to be artistic. There is nothing to get right. We make for the sake of making.
THE WOMAN IN THE ROOM
Sometimes the circle welcomes a special guest. A woman with knowledge, experience, a story, a skill or a body of work worth sharing. Guests may speak about creativity, motherhood, business, wellbeing, nature, spirituality, relationships, community, culture, ageing, money, leadership or other areas of women's lives. And sometimes the most powerful thing a woman can bring is simply her own story.
A tent for every woman
This space is intentionally inclusive. Women of every age, background, culture, ethnicity, religion, spirituality and life experience are welcome. Whether you are deeply spiritual or not spiritual at all. Whether you are Māori, Pākehā, Pasifika, Asian, African, European, Middle Eastern, mixed heritage, or from somewhere else entirely. Whether you have children or don't. Whether you have a womb or don't. Whether you bleed or don't. Whether you've spent your life surrounded by women or have never really found your people.
You belong here.
We come with different histories, beliefs, bodies, cultures and ways of seeing the world. The invitation is not to erase those differences. It is to meet one another with curiosity, dignity and respect.
A place to put yourself down
Perhaps that's the real invitation. For one evening each month, you don't have to be the capable one. You don't have to be the mother. The leader.
The partner. The daughter. The business owner. The caretaker. The one who has it together. You can simply be a woman sitting among other women.
And perhaps, for a little while,
you can put yourself down.
Let someone else hold the space.
Let yourself be heard.
Let yourself listen.
Let yourself remember what it feels like to belong.
Upcoming Red Tent Women's Circles
Or email: steph@stephmac.org.
Held both indoors and outdoors. Locations Vary. Events are also posted on the Facebook Page.
Want to be a guest speaker?
Are you a woman with something meaningful to share?
Perhaps you have a body of work, a story, a skill, a business, a lived experience or knowledge that could nourish the women in the tent.
I'd love to hear from you.
Put your hand up to be considered as a Red Tent guest speaker.
