Machik Fest

Thank you to everyone who joined us online for seven days of the 2021 Machik Fest!

We truly appreciate your enthusiasm, curiosity and spirit! The topics were broad and the conversation was plentiful. Together, over several days, we explored and discussed the creative arts in Tibet, STEAM, status of women in Afghanistan, animal welfare, the launch of the new Machik website, an introduction to MERI, and much more. If you missed Machik Fest, you can look through this site for an overview of the speakers and topics.

A warm thank you to all the incredible, talented volunteers who made Machik Fest possible this year. A very special note of gratitude to the brilliant speakers who joined us from Tibet, sharing their wonderful, creative work. It was a meaningful and insightful opportunity for all participants to learn.

We have already begun to look towards the 2022 Machik Fest with a return to an in-person gathering! If you have ideas and suggestions, please do get in touch at info@machik.org. Until then, please stay safe and we look forward to staying in touch with you!

how can we collectively contribute to creating a
safe haven for all?

MACHIK FEST 2021 | Haven

For the past 14 years, we've convened an annual gathering for those who are passionate about civic engagement, social transformation and the future of Tibet. From the beginning, our program called "Machik Weekend" has been a conversation about what it would take to build alternative futures in the imperfect world in which we live.

Around the world, just as we all seek safe haven from the pandemic, many people are facing tremendous barriers to finding the same.

In seemingly every part of the world, there are those who are welcome and those who are sharply excluded for their race, gender, cultural practices, income level and so on. People by the hundreds of thousands every day are seeking refuge, even as the pandemic pushes on.

Last year, an invisible pathogen turned the world upside down and highlighted extreme inequalities within our systems. Now more than ever, we have become sharply aware of the fundamental need for safe haven for all - safety from pathogens, collapsing economies, political turmoil and the raging effects of climate change.

For Machik Fest 2021, beyond merely being aware of our interdependence, we urgently need to cultivate a commitment to sheltering one another - for people and the creatures with whom we share this planet.

The idea of haven is the fundamental need for the safety of shelter, whether as one's home, as refuge in another's homeland, as sanctuary for homeless animals, and so on.

Thank you for joining us at Machik Fest 2021 and exploring what it means to seek and create safe haven.

Topics at a Glance