What Does It Mean to Be a Male in a Matriarchal System? A Year-Long Leadership Development Cohort for Men

Facilitated by gkisedtanamoogk, with Maija West as advisor and facilitator (click to learn more)

Registration available for Initial Exploratory Session: October 8, 2026 at 9:00am PT (click here or scroll down to the form below)

Full Cohort begins January 22, 2027 Fridays | Once per Month | 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM (PT)

We are living inside a fear-based system. That is not an opinion — it is a description of the structure itself.

For many men, that fear does not always show up as fear. It shows up as anger. As frustration. As a low hum of resentment that is hard to name and harder to shake. It shows up as exhaustion from performing a version of strength that was never really yours. It shows up in isolation, in the sense that something essential is missing, and in the quiet suspicion that the way things are is not the way things have to be.

This is what five thousand years of patriarchal structure does. It narrows what men are allowed to feel, permitted to need, and expected to become. And right now, in this particular moment in history, that pressure is intensifying. The old systems are straining. Men are being asked to hold up structures that are visibly failing — and many are doing so without language, without community, and without a different story to reach for.

This cohort begins there — with honesty about what the structure is and how it lives inside us.

What Does It Mean to Be a Male in a Matriarchal System?

This is the central question this cohort is built around. Not as a political question, but as a lived one.

Before patriarchal systems took hold, life was organized differently. Men held real and meaningful roles — as hunters, defenders, stewards, and elders — withincommunities centered on the feminine principle of life itself. The longhouse. The land. The continuity of generations. That is not ancient history. It is a memory of what is possible.

This cohort invites men to re-examine the narratives they have inherited and to ask: what else can there be? What becomes available when men consciously reorient toward values of care, reciprocity, reverence for the Earth, and right relationship with the women and communities around them? Can we bring a communal style of life — rooted in mutual responsibility, shared belonging, and intergenerational care — into the way we live in North America today?

These are not small questions. They take time. That is why this is a year-long commitment.

Led primarily by gkisedtanamoogk, a Wampanoag elder and practitioner of traditional Indigenous governance, this cohort draws on Indigenous teachings, the map of consciousness, and practical relational tools to support men in doing this work over time. Maija West joins as advisor and facilitator when needed, bringing her background in matriarchal governance and organizational change.

The structure includes one monthly group session plus a weekly accountability call with a partner in between — a dedicated rhythm designed to support real integration, not just reflection.

This is not a course about acquiring more information. It is an invitation to look clearly at the system we are living inside, to understand what it has cost us, and to practice — together — a way of living that honors the feminine all around us: in the land, in community, and in ourselves.

No one is turned away for lack of funds. A sliding scale contribution of $40–$400 per session is suggested for those who are able.

Sign up for the Exploratory Session (October 8, 2026) now by filling out the form below.

Questions? Contact the team at maijawest.com or email info@maijawest.com

Meet The Facilitators

Maija West

Maija Danilova West is a business consultant, mediator, and peacemaker with fifteen years of practice as an attorney in land use, business law, philanthropy, and nonprofit governance. She has advised nonprofits, foundations, Tribal Nations, businesses, and public agencies across all three sectors on governance, conflict resolution, and organizational change.

A dual citizen of Latvia and the United States, Maija's governance work is informed by the matrilineal cultural traditions of her Latvian heritage and by twenty-five years of practice alongside Indigenous communities, including her work as co-founder of the Healing and Reconciliation Institute.

She disclaimed her law license as an act of conscience, having concluded that the current US legal system — in all three of its branches — structurally supports patriarchy. She now works to help practitioners build governance structures that hold what the triangle cannot: lineage, community, ecological accountability, and the long future.

She is the author of Matriarch Makeover: A 30-Day Invitation and the forthcoming From the Triangle to the Circle: Matriarchal Governance Design.

maijawest.com

gkisedtanamoogk

gkisedtanamoogk is Wampanoag from the Native Community of Mashpee located on cape cod south of boston, massachusetts; he is family member of Nkeketonseonqikom, the Longhouse of the Otter, and T8nuppatonseonqikom, the Longhouse of the Turtle; married to Miigam’agan, together with three Children and four Grandchildren. He was one of five Commissioners on the Maine Wabanaki State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission and taught for 10 years at the University of Maine, Orono Campus as an Adjunct Instructor and lecturer in the Native American Studies and the Peace and Reconciliation Programs. Since 2016 gkisedtanamoogk joined the faculty of the 6-day Upstander Academy, a summer teacher professional learning program highlighting Indigenous Peoples’ challenge to false narratives of american education.

His applied occupation includes Cultural and Legal Theory with particular interests pertaining to the social, political, legal, scientific, and spiritual Life of Wampanoag and Wabanaki Nations; he also engages in many activities of advocacy and interest to Indigenous Peoples including, Indigenous Law, Science, Linguistics, and Education.

Presently, gkisedtanamoogk is a member of the Kairos Indigenous Rights Circle, Kairos initiated climate change program, For the Love of Creation, and a faculty member of the Upstanders Academy

gkisedtanamoogk resides with his Family at Esgenoôpetitj on the Burnt Church Reserve, occupied by new brunswick canada.