WAKA · In Nature We Believewaka.gaiaeducation.org/collection/group-object/
The Group Object
One thing, made by everyone, that holds the week
Give an intangible thing — this particular group, this particular week — a physical form that can be pointed at, added to and eventually let go of.
- Duration
- 30 min to start, revisited daily
- Group size
- 6–30 people
- Setting
- either
- Energy
- gentle
- Materials
- Whatever people bringA permanent place to keep it
Every good residential week produces an in-joke, a phrase, a shared reference. This gives that thing somewhere to live.
How it runs
- Day one, in the opening circle: each person places one object in the centre — something they brought, or something found on the way here — and says one sentence about it. No object is refused.
- Build. The group arranges them into one composition. Ten minutes, no deliberation.
- It travels. It sits in the middle of every circle for the rest of the week. Somebody carries it.
- It grows. Anyone may add to it at any time, without asking. Things found on walks, things made in sessions, a bad drawing from a session that went wrong.
- The last morning: each person takes back an object that is not theirs, and says why. What is left is buried, burned, or given to the hosts.
Facilitator notes
- Do not curate it. A group object that a facilitator arranges is a decoration.
- If it looks ridiculous by Wednesday, that is correct.
- The taking-back on the last morning is the whole design. Give it forty minutes, not ten.
A note on the word “totem”
This method is usually called a group totem. Totem comes from the Ojibwe doodem, and in Anishinaabe and other traditions it names a clan relationship with a specific being, carrying specific obligations — not a decorative object. Because this method is neither of those things, it is filed here under a plainer name. Use whichever word you like with your group, but if you use totem, say where it comes from.
