MATRIA – Reimagining How We Live Together

How does a society feel?

How does it feel to grow up in it, to make decisions together, to care for one another, to raise children, to share food, to celebrate, to resolve conflict, to belong?

And how might it feel if these everyday experiences were organised around different values?

These are the questions at the heart of MATRIA- a festival exploring ideas and practices of matriarchy.

Rather than presenting matriarchy as an answer or an alternative to our current system, we want to create a space to explore it together. What do we actually mean when we speak about matriarchy? What can we learn from societies organised around matriarchal principles? And what might these perspectives have to offer our lives and communities today?

We'll certainly think together. Through talks, conversations and shared inquiry, we'll learn about matriarchal societies and reflect on the systems we live in today. But just as importantly, we want to create space to experience these questions through the way we spend the weekend together: cooking, creating, playing, moving, listening, dancing, sharing meals and allowing a temporary community to emerge.

The programme is intentionally spacious. Rather than filling every hour, we want to leave room for conversations, integration and simply being together. Alongside contributions from invited guests, participants are welcome to submit ideas for workshops, circles, rituals  or creative offerings beforehand. From these, we'll curate a programme that remains intimate and allows us to share most experiences as one group.

A few practical things

• Deadline to apply: 9th of August, 2026
• Location:Kulturverein Neu am See e.V., Dorfstraße, Unterspreewald-Neuendorf am See (camping in your own tent)
• When: Last weekend of August, 28- 30 August, 2026
• Festival: Friday evening until Sunday afternoon
• Arrive:  by 4pm on Friday, Opening 5pm
• Strike together: Sunday afternoon  1.30pm-3pm, Closing: Sunday 3 pm
• Cost: 120 - 150 EUR *for NaS-mitglied we subtract 75 eur.
• Money process: you will pay a deposit of 100 EUR by August 1st and we will gather the remaining funds in a money process on Sunday as to experiment with solidary ways of co-financing
• Maximum 50 participants
• Everyone contributes through the shared build-up, strike-down and one kitchen shift.
• MATRIA is a non-commercial festival. Your contribution simply covers the costs of making the gathering possible.
• The festival is partly co-created and we are therefore looking for co-creators in the following areas:
  • 2- 3 people for kitchen team
  • 2 - 3 people for a childcare team
  • 2 -3 people for a music/ sound/DJ team
  • Your contribution to the program >> submit your workshop or other type of session here
• If there is a childcare team, the festival will be child-friendly.

MATRIA is being  initiated by Anna, Viki and Caro. We met through the Beehive community around KiezBurn—a place that has shaped our love for co-creation and playful community experiments. While MATRIA is its own festival, some of that spirit will certainly find its way into the weekend:-)  Bees, friends from other circles in and around Berlin, anyone curious about matriarchal principles — curiosity is your invitation in.

**There are many ways to understand matriarchy. For us, it is not about women ruling over men, but about relating to one another and the world through care, gifting, respect for nature, and power-with rather than domination and exploitation. We invite a reconnection with feminine wisdom, goddesses, matriarchal lineages, and a culture that places care at its centre.

 MATRIA Principles 

• Mutual Care
  Care is our main organising principle. We hold each other and hold ourselves - care flows in all directions. No one is a guest here; everyone is both cared for and a caregiver.
• Gift Economy (No Commerce)
  What you bring is not a transaction, it's an offering - food, skill, song, presence, all given freely and received without debt. Value here is measured in what circulates, not what accumulates.
• Embodied & Cyclical Wisdom
  We value the innate wisdom of the body and the wisdom within the cycles of nature-  life/death, inhale / exhale, day/ night, the 4 seasons,
• Reciprocity with the Land
  The land is not a backdrop for our gathering, it's a participant and a teacher.  We don’t leave a trace and give back to the earth through offering our presence, art and beauty.
• Non-Linear Time
  We experiment with the non-linear nature of time. Rhythms, cycles and spaces that challenge our linear thinking.
• Power With
  We seek to explore alternatives of the dominant power-over paradigm by inviting participants into co-creation and co-responsibility.