First, we want to acknowledge that many of the methods and approaches we use and draw from were learned in white, psychology-oriented contexts, while much of this knowledge originally comes from Black and Indigenous communities.

We are in an ongoing process of becoming more aware of this, and of unlearning and learning how to engage with this responsibility in a more appropriate and accountable way.

At the same time, there are many wonderful people from Black and Indigenous communities whose work inspires us and from whom we continue to learn.

After founding our “Rest in Resistance” project, we were made aware of the work of Tricia Hersey, who wrote the book Rest Is Resistance. Tricia Hersey is a poet, performance artist, and educator, and founded “The Nap Ministry,” a project highlighting the importance of rest within systems shaped by performance pressure and speed.

As a BIPoC, she emphasizes that this pressure and lack of rest and sleep particularly affect Black and Indigenous communities:
“We believe rest is a form of resistance and name sleep deprivation as a racial and social justice issue.”

The similarity of our name and thematic focus to Tricia Hersey’s work and her book Rest Is Resistance initiated an internal reflection process regarding our positioning and practice, as our team consists of white people.

Through this process, we have come to the conclusion that it is appropriate for us to change our name.

In addition, our work is no longer limited to retreats at Haus in der Blume. We have grown, different people focus on different areas, and we are developing new offerings in the field of educational work for regenerative activism.

“re:collective” makes us more visible as a collective and brings together our core themes in its first syllables: resilience, regeneration, retreats, revolution.

We are looking forward to a new chapter.