Annual Northern Organizer Summits
The Northern Organizers Summit is an annual camp that brings together Alaskan community organizers from a spectrum of advocacy issues together to share knowledge, rejuvenate, and build stronger relationships. Each year’s camp follows a different theme. We have heard over and over again from participants who felt that the Northern Organizers Summit was the first space many of them had been in where they could truly be their “full-self.” Each year following camp, the connections formed translate into sustained partnerships that have become the backbone of much of our statewide action and advocacy work.
Traditionally held at the Howard Luke Gaalee’ya Spirit Camp on the banks of the Tanana River, the most recent Organizer Camp took place at Native Movement’s new space, Nankat Liberation & Wellness Center outside of Fairbanks, AK.
2026: Nankat – Lineages of Resistance
Nankat means “On The Land” in Gwich’in. The first Northern Organizer Summit to be held at Nankat Liberation & Wellness Center, the 2026 camp focused on how we stay connected and support our communities on a local and national level, through ongoing threats of climate change and authoritarianism. We spend time deepening our relationships, learning about each other’s home regions, and sharing tangible organizer processes and useful resistance skills.
2025: Prepping the Cache – Coming together during climate adaptation
The camp focused on how we stay connected and support our communities through ongoing climate change. We spent our time getting to know each other, learned about others’ home regions throughout the state, explored tangible organizer processes and skills, and practiced useful on-the-land skills. This gathering was hosted at Howard Luke Gaalee’ya Spirit Camp.
2024: Ceremony as Resistance
Native Movement offered a 2.5-day organizer learning space in 2024 for communities interested in deepening relationships and skills to build collective power. We spent time deepening into our theme of Ceremony as Resistance and how ceremony has built collective power and shaped Indigenous communities. We listened to and learned from elders in an intentionally intergenerational space. We formulated collective understandings of organizing skills and ways of building people power. All with the intention of sharing skills to empower each other, our communities, and lead us to collective liberation.
2023: Orca-nizer Camp
Due to the huge growth in our organization, Native Movement recognized the need to train new staff in how to organize Northern Organizer Summits. We had not held camp in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This camp focused on chore rotations, training for trainers, and holding collective responsibility at Howard Luke Gaalee’ya Spirit Camp. We carried the spirit of the orcas defending their waters in 2023!
2019: Gender Justice, Healing, & Action
The camp focused on Gender Justice, Healing, and Direct Action. Intended for active and engaged Alaskan community members who have some understanding of or experience in Decolonizing and Just Transition frameworks. Community organizers, activists, artists, and allies participated in the 2019 Northern Organizers Summit. We believe it is essential for community organizers and leaders to build respectful and equitable community organizing practices, root-cause analysis, intersectionality, and self-transformation.
2018: Art in Action!
2018’s camp focused on Art in Action! Art can be both a reflection of the world surrounding and a critical tool for re-shaping worldview. As we work to build a better world, we must dig our hands and our hearts into the essential creation of art — Art that Reflects and Art that Reshapes! 40 Alaska community organizers, their children, and an amazing support team spent four days together at the beautiful Howard Luke Gaalee’ya center on the banks of the Tanana River outside of Fairbanks, AK. The camp is designed to be a healing space, grounded in Decolonizing & Just Transition frameworks. Additionally, participants choose from one of three art tracks: Visual Arts, Theater Arts, & Digital Media.
