Speakers

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  Wali Via
  

  Wali Via

  Wali David Via (Experienced Farmer and Ziraat Vice President 2021 – 2024) has been following the Sufi path since 1978 and serves a number of roles within the Inayatiyya, including as a past Dar-us-salem (Vice President) of Ziraat in North America/Oceania, retreat guide, and senior teacher. Wali spent his adult life farming organically and biodynamically on a commercial scale. He is now retired from farming, though the farm continues on in good hands (wintergreenfarm.com). He spends as much time as he can in the wilderness, hiking, backpacking, climbing mountains, and kayaking, and playing with his grandchildren. Wali is dedicated to providing opportunities for people to deepen their spiritual lives including their relationship with the natural world.

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  Jamia Haqq Eila Paul
  

  Jamia Haqq Eila Paul

  Jamia Haqq (Experienced Farmer and Ziraat Co-Vice President 2024 – ).
  Jamia Haqq (Eila Paul) of Tainui descent has been walking a spiritual path all her life. Introduced to the Inayatiyya in 1997 she was soon initiated by the late Murshida Halima McEwan at the Sharda Centre, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Through her Maori heritage, having a strong connection with nature drew her to the Inayatiyya’s annual Summer Camp in Switzerland in 2002, where she was initiated into Ziraat by Pir Zia. In the last 15 years she has been a trustee, and at times custodian and kaitiaki/guardian, of the Sharda Centre, caring for the beautiful natural native forest, stream and visitors with an outward expression of her inner path.

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  Aziza Charlotte Barker-Stanton
  

  Aziza Charlotte Barker-Stanton

  Aziza Charlotte Barker-Stanton has been involved with the Sufi path since taking bayat in the Healing Order with Himayat Inayati in 1980, in the Sufi Order with Pir Vilayat Khan in 1982, and subsequently with Wahhab Sheets and Shahabuddin Less, her longtime guide and friend. A Sulūk Andalib graduate, Aziza is a Representative and Inner School Retreat Guide, Ziraat Farmer, Knight of Purity, Healing Conductor, and Healing Retreat Guide. Aziza has served on the Ziraat Council for four years. She lives with her husband where the Rio Grande River meets the Gulf of Mexico, on the ancestral lands of the Coahuiltecan Peoples. She has a yoga and healing practice on South Padre Island. Website: https://lagunamadreyogaandwellness.com

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  Nehmat Kyan
  

  Nehmat Kyan

  Nehmat Bev Kyan (Experienced Farmer and Ziraat Co-Vice President 2024 – ) was initiated as an Experienced Farmer by Pir Zia in January 2023 and has held the Ziraat Activity for the Australian Message Council since 2011. Her curiosity and interest in Ziraat was kindled through the Salutations Ritual and the Words of the Lodge Ceremony in the Herb Garden at the Abode where she lived for 15 months in 2007/8. She has been involved in Inayatiyya activities for over 20 years, and is a graduate of the Alif and Na-koja-abad Suluk classes. She is an active member of the Healing and Universal Worship Activities. She lives on the Central Coast a little north of Sydney and brings the Australian and Oceanian Ziraat family and friends together once a month for a Lodge by zoom, sharing her love of nature, contemplation of the elements and natural cycles of life and inner guidance from elemental beings, with a uniquely Australian flavour.

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  Hadi Yves Saint-Pierre
  

  Hadi Yves Saint-Pierre

  Hadi was initiated in Ziraat in the early 2000s, but Ziraat took on more importance in his life in 2020, when his wife suggested they start farming organic fruits and vegetables — bringing real connection with the birds and insects in their field, with the daily and monthly cycles of the sun and moon, and with the living soil. Ziraat is a thread that ties farming to his long-lasting interests: a strong connection to the watersheds of the Ottawa and Rideau rivers, and youth environmental activism. As a former swimming teacher and a kayak enthusiast, Hadi is of the lineage of the water element, with a connection to air as a singer and woodwinds player. Grounding in the earth is more recent. Hadi lives in Canada’s capital. You may have seen him as a translator (English to French) on Inayatiyya programs.

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  Zebunissa Overeynder
  

  Zebunissa Overeynder

  Zebunissa Paméla is a long-time Murid, initiated in 1992 by Shahabuddin David Less, who continues to guide her. She currently serves as a Representative, Retreat Guide, Knight of Purity, Cherag and Farmer in the Ziraat Activity. She offers nature-based retreats grounded in Ziraat teachings and practices. She’s passionate about being of service to the Earth and the human and more-than-human beings who are our kin and, on whose existence our own lives are grounded. She is also an author with a new book: Sacred Kinship: Hearing the Call of the Earth published in the fall of 2024, available on Amazon or through her website: www.onesacredearth.com.

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  Ata‘allah Bill Meacham
  

  Ata‘allah Bill Meacham

  Ata’allah is a long-time murid, initiated by Shahabuddin David Less. He has for many years been a practitioner of spiritual disciplines. He credits those pursuits, along with emotional healing through Re-evaluation Counseling, good diet, good exercise, and a positive outlook on life, with his continuing good health. He finds great inspiration in the Ziraat ceremony and in spending time in nature, and hosts an in-person Ziraat lodge four times a year. He is also an independent scholar in philosophy and the author of How To Be An Excellent Human and How to Exert Free Will, as well as numerous essays on philosophical topics as applied to everyday life. Website: https://bmeacham.com

• Kabira Sarah Miller
  Kabira Sarah Miller

  Kabira discovered Ziraat after finding inspiration while spending a summer at a local botanical garden. She was initiated into Ziraat as a Worker in 2012 by Felicia Norton, and then as a Farmer in 2026 by Jamia Haqq Paul. The Dances of Universal Peace introduced her to the Sufi path in the 1990s. Kabira resides near Lake Michigan with her husband and several cats. She appreciates how nature and the elements present themselves throughout the four seasons, and enjoys exploring nature both local and distant. Professionally, she works in financial services, providing compassionate administrative support to grieving families and the elderly.

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  Sharifa Oppenheimer
  

  Sharifa Oppenheimer

  Sharifa Oppenheimer has been graced to be a student of Sufism for fifty years. The daughter of a midwestern farmer, she has always been drawn to Murshid’s Ziraat teachings on the Sacred Manuscript of Nature. Her book of poems A Litany of Wild Graces: Meditations on Sacred Ecology explores humanity’s biological and spiritual inter-being with our other-than-human relations. She offers Kinship with Nature: Sacred Earth ~ Sacred Self gatherings both online as well as amidst the leaf-litter at the foot of the hickory and poplars that bless her Virginia forest land. These classes are based on her most recent book Rewilding the Human Heart ~ A Journey of Reunion. She is interested not only in Nature’s growth, but also the growth of small human beings. She is the author of several books on Waldorf Education including Heaven on Earth and With Stars in Their Eyes: Brain Science and Your Child.