The Common Ground Summit Experience
Outstanding experiences are waiting for you.
An amazing activity lineup is coming together for the 2024 Common Ground Summit! Register today to join the conversation.
The Common Ground Summit: In Community with Place is a unique invitation to experience place-based community, learning, and regeneration at a visceral level.
We want to take this opportunity to tell you more about some of this year’s confirmed activities and contributors. We are certain you will be excited about these unique experiences as we are.
Learn more about this year’s content tracks here.
Spotlight on: Chef Kealoha Domingo
Kealoha Domingo is the chef and founder of Nui Kealoha, a family-run company that offers food and education grounded in the traditional values and cultural practices of his Hawaiian ancestral roots.
Nui Kealoha’s work honors the spiritual connection between the ‘āina (land), kānaka (humankind), and mea ‘ai (food). The meals they prepare and serve express respect for traditional foodways, together with innovation born from contemporary creativity in the professional kitchen.
Born & raised on O‘ahu, Kealoha is part of a multi-generational lineage of Hawaiian practitioners with a genuine love for food. His aloha for the ‘āina of his home and the community that he feeds is informed by his grounding in Hawaiian perspectives, and has earned him praise and respect throughout the pae ‘āina Hawai‘i.
Spotlight on: Chef Sean Sherman
Chef Sean Sherman, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
He has become a leading advocate for Indigenous food sovereignty, focusing on revitalizing and promoting traditional Native foods.
In 2015, in an effort to make Indigenous foods more accessible, he founded the nonprofit NATIFS (North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems) and the Indigenous Food Lab, a professional kitchen and training center in Minneapolis.
Sean authored the award-winning The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen in 2017 and opened Owamni by The Sioux Chef in 2021, Minnesota’s first full-service Indigenous restaurant.
His work has earned him widespread recognition for his innovative approach to reclaiming and celebrating Indigenous culinary traditions.
Spotlight on: Quilting with Deimosa Webber-Bey
You are invited to join in this powerful community quilting experience.
Over the course of three days together, we will complete a single quilt at the Common Ground Summit. Deimosa will share her research on quilting during the era of slavery, as well as compare and contrast African American quilting, Native American quilting, and quilting in general.
These conversations will take place in circle, over the quilt, while we make it.
The co-creative process is simple and effective. No sewing skills required!
Spotlight on: Music Workshop with Billy Martin
Medeski Martin & Wood percussionist Billy Martin (aka illy B) will lead two bamboo music workshops.
You’ll play on locally-sourced bamboo instruments (specifically percussion and flutes) uniquely designed and built by Martin and explore various strategies on collective interplay, polyphony, improvisation, textural sound making and rhythmic harmony.
“With a career spanning over four decades, my artistry is characterized by my unique ability to blend diverse musical influences and my deep commitment to creative exploration. This narrative delves into my multifaceted career, highlighting my musical journey, artistic philosophy, and visual artistry, all of which contribute to my distinctive identity as an artist.” — Billy Martin
Spotlight on: Chef Mark Brand
The Dinner: Chef Mark Brand & Friends will be creating a very special culinary experience to open our summit with a powerful connection to place and purpose.
The Chef: Mark Brand is a pioneering chef and entrepreneur in the field of Social Impact and Community Development. Along with leading his five organizations, Brand is a Stanford fellow, Professor of Innovation and Design Thinking, has served as executive chef for the American Refugee Committee and Pope Francis's Climate Challenge, served as Entrepreneur in Residence for The City of Sydney Australia, and received Canada’s Golden Jubilee Medal for service to his country and community.
Brand also helps lead the United Nations Catalyst team focusing on food waste, poverty, and the impacts of current systemic structures on the most marginalized, traveling globally to learn and share best real-world practices and solutions from kitchens and stages alike.
At the root of everything he works on, he believes that only true partnership and collaboration can create the successes we need and that there is no “Us and Them,” only “Us.”
“Spending time on Kauai for the last 20 years, and the last handful at Common Ground specifically, has been transformational for my work. Each time I leave with a deeper understanding and commitment, along with a renewed peace. This dinner has been designed to reflect and evoke all of that, to challenge and to nourish simultaneously. I love Kauai, I love Hawaii, and I'm so honored to cook for you all.” — Mark Brand
Spotlight on: YERTA - A Virtual Reality Journey Back 20,000 Years
The Experience: This VR Cultural Education offers an innovative virtual reality experience that transcends time, transporting participants back 20,000 years to explore the ancestral lands of the Kaurna people in Australia. The immersive journey aims to enhance cultural awareness, foster empathy, and celebrate the rich heritage and achievements of the Indigenous peoples of Kaurna Yerta. Traversing through vast plains, participants journey into the sights, sounds, and stories of the traditional owners of the land.
The Creator: Professor James Charles (BPod, MthSci (Pod), PhD) is a very proud Kaurna man from the Adelaide Plains, South Australia. Currently the Director of the First Peoples Health Unit, Griffith University, Dr Charles has previously worked at the Deakin University, University of Newcastle, and Charles Sturt University. He was one of the first Aboriginal podiatrists in Australia, the first Aboriginal person to receive a Master of Podiatry, and the first Aboriginal Podiatrist to receive a PhD (Aboriginal foot health). Dr Charles has received several prestigious awards for his teaching, research and work in the Aboriginal community, notably a UNESCO achievement award for scientific education in 2019.
Spotlight on: Horse Breathing
The Experience: Join these equi-culture sessions in the early mornings to connect to the power of the beautiful rescue horses on the Common Ground Campus. Experience their presence through an awe-inspiring authentic connection and discover the quiet transfer of the horses’ natural power, spirit and heart through guided breathing exercises next to or on these gentle giants.
The experience mixes meditation, forest bathing and breath work to align body, mind and "mana" (spirit).
Common Ground Summit 2024 is an invitation to step Into Community with Place with us, celebrate connection, and discover the power of the collective. We hope to see you there.
In the coming weeks, we will be featuring other unique experiences and people who make the Summit experience what it is. Stay tuned.
Common Ground Summit is an immersive gathering designed to change the way you approach connection to place. Join us for a 3-day regenerative leadership summit featuring curated conversations, authentic experiences, ridiculously good food and meaningful relationships.
