Turtle Island Bioregional Congress

TIBC11 — the 11th Turtle Island Bioregional Congress — will gather approximately 300 participants for five days at Camp Cedar Ridge in Vernonia, Oregon (September 15–19, 2026) on the lands of the Chinook peoples and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. The Congress brings together Indigenous knowledge keepers, land stewards, watershed advocates, permaculturists, artists, and community organizers from across the continent to strengthen the movement for place-based resilience. The Congress pursues three interconnected goals: 1) nurturing relationships to grow the continental movement for place-based resilience; 2) educating participants through story-sharing and skill-sharing workshops on topics including Rights of Nature, bioregional and Indigenous-led finance tools, technology for organizing, community building, and permaculture; 3) co-creating a coordinated Bioregional Action Plan that participants carry home and implement within their local bioregions. TIBC11 is designed as a living demonstration of bioregional community-building. Rooted in Indigenous leadership and traditional land practices, the Congress cultivates collective stewardship by bringing people into direct relationship with each other, with the land, and with the broader movement. Participants leave not just inspired but connected, continuing their work through an ongoing community on Hylo, where they support one another in pursuing shared bioregional action efforts. TIBC11 produces durable educational impact beyond the five days of gathering. Workshops and presentations will be video-recorded, with content edited and distributed widely so the learnings can reach communities who cannot attend in person. The Congress will also publish a Bioregional Action Toolkit — a practical, open resource distilling the collective priorities and strategies developed at the Congress, available to anyone ready to join the movement. Funding from this round will support the full delivery of TIBC11: honoraria for Indigenous cultural stewards, facilitation costs, and venue and logistics. Together these make possible a gathering that is both genuinely inclusive and widely impactful.