We are Invocation: A Woman’s Frame Drum Collective

We are a group of women following the frame drum path and traditions brought through into modern times by Layne Redmond, who was teacher to one of us for a time before her passing in 2013.

Our Collective was established in 2023. Each member comes to the frame drum from her own unique path . . . through many synchronicities each one finding her way into this collective of women, drawn together by the pulse of the ancient women’s frame drum and all it richly symbolizes.

You can read about each woman’s condensed journey with the frame drum below.

Salish Sea Puget Sound Langley Seawall Park showing a pebbled beach, calm water, and distant forested shoreline under a cloudy sky.

We are based on Whidbey Island in the Pacific Northwest US. We gather to practice the ancient and sacred path of frame drumming on the ancestral homelands of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the Suquamish, Snohomish, Swinomish, and Lower Skagit tribes, who have lived here since time immemorial. We honor their enduring care for this land and pay respect to their elders past and present.

We pray that our drumming will be of benefit to all our relations. We honor ways of knowing through the land and through the balance of masculine and feminine energies and the Elements, choosing in these days to bring forward the too often forgotten and undervalued wisdom of the Feminine and the sacredness in all matter through our drumming.

Multiple frame drums arranged on a wooden deck, with a lit candle in a star-shaped holder in the center.

Our Collective meets every other Friday afternoon in Langley to join in and enjoy frame drum practice.

New members who have a level of proficiency are invited to join us.

In-person beginners’ classes and individual lessons are available by arrangement.

We are available for local frame drum and tambourine processions, rituals, gatherings, and ceremonies.

Please reach out through the Contact form.

Who We Are

Lisa Fladager

DRUMMER / FOUNDER / TEACHER
Lisa’s love of frame drumming flows from her innate love of embodied practices that reconnect and re-member living flesh (Matter, our bodies, the Earth) with the sacred (Spirit/Soul) and community.
She was introduced to the frame drum through her leadership training with the Dances of Universal Peace (DUP) in the late 1990s and especially through dance leader Ginger Nuria Lee (an original student of Layne Redmond) in 2001.
In 2003 Lisa was fortunate to study directly with Layne Redmond at Mt. Madonna, CA where ritual, processing with tambourine and tar, and the Bee Priestess path were taught. After Layne’s passing in 2013, Lisa continued study with senior students of Layne’s.
For over twenty years she has been a frame drummer and dance leader with DUP and has shared the drum at community festivals.
She began teaching frame drum in 2023 at the request of one of her long time friends. She loves sharing the frame drum with beginners, drumming in nature, and using the drum in ceremony and ritual to invoke well-being, deep states of rest, coherence, confidence, and community.
Gina Ames

DRUMMER
Gina has sung into the wind for most of her life. Twenty years ago she bought her first frame drum with the desire to weave the soul of her voice with the heartbeat of the ancient song.
The drum fills her heart with joy as she finds freedom, strength, power, and courage in her authentic expression, depth in her connection with source, and inspiration to reach for love in joining her heartbeat with others.
Gina plays the drum to inspire and remind us of our relationship with nature, beauty, spirit, and one another.
“The drum calls forth the essence of who I am and my interconnectedness with all of life.  The drum inspires people to gather and reminds us that we are all one heart.”
Toni Marthaller

DRUMMER
Less than 2 years into the unraveling of retirement, Toni was organically drawn to explore rhythm and creativity through frame drumming. Always intrigued by Layne Redmond’s book, When the Drummers Were Women with its historical and spiritual perspective of rhythm, and equally inspired by Micky Hart’s, Drumming at the Edge of Magic, A Journey into the Spirit of Percussion, Toni was lucky enough to finally meet Lisa (after years of being on the edge of each others professional orbits) and a dedicated group of frame drumming sisters. She has found frame drumming to be a magnificent unraveler that has provided her with the creative spark for a joyful new way to take time out for herself and be in co-creative PLAY and PRAYER with her frame drumming sisters, and community.
Patricia Rohan

DRUMMER
Patricia Handrich Rohan has been playing the frame drum for 25 years, off and on.
Patricia began by playing conga drums when she was part of an Afro-Cuban jazz dance troupe in the 1980’s and has been drawn to drums ever since. While her children grew up, she would drum and sing to them at bedtime. After they were older, she played only occasionally until 2024, when she had a numinous dream about reuniting with a frame drum which was her Soul Friend. She joined Lisa Fladager’s class right after that!
The frame drum is a special part of Patricia’s spiritual practice; she drums and sings to greet each day, sending prayers and healing to the earth and the beings of earth, as well as drumming for seasonal celebrations with friends and family. She is grateful to be able to drum with other women in community and looks forward to more!
Marilyn Strong

DRUMMER
Marilyn Strong has been a drummer most of her adult life, starting in 1987 when she got her first drum, a Native American style Fire Drum. She has used this in her work leading women’s spiritual growth groups, for the past 35 years, beginning each session with drumming and chanting to help a group energy come together, and to create ritual space for ceremonial work.
Her interest in the frame drum came more recently through her introduction to the work of Layne Redmond. Layne’s book and research project, When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm, explores the historical prevalence of women frame drummers in the ancient Mediterranean world and their connection to ancient priestesses and goddesses. This resource was invaluable to her exploration of and subsequent pilgrimages to the Black Madonnas in France.
Although Marilyn was never able to study directly with Layne, she is thrilled to be learning Layne’s style of playing the frame drum with Lisa Fladager. She has been studying with Lisa for a year and a half. While only a neophyte on the frame drum, she aspires to deepen her skills and be able to use them in her love of leading song and ceremony.
Kim Robinson

DRUMMER
Kim fell in love with frame drumming about 20 years ago when she took a weekend workshop. She bought herself a drum and a tambourine, hung them on the wall, and admired them for the next two decades without ever playing a stroke. Fortunately, she was inspired to pick them up again about two years ago. Kim feels very blessed to restart her drumming journey alongside this beautiful collective of women. She has learned that the energy and connection created by playing together is powerful, no matter how simple the rhythm. Even when playing alone, Kim feels she is part of something much bigger than herself, and feels the connection to every woman drummer through history. It is both humbling and exhilarating.
Tamara Walker

DRUMMER
In the spring of 2025, Tamara participated in a small community ritual where frame drums were played during the invocation. She had never heard of frame drumming before, but was immediately enchanted! A few months later, she began lessons and is slowly learning the basic techniques and rhythms. Tamara is discovering that practicing the frame drum, going to lessons, and drumming with other women creates a space in her life for an embodied self-care practice that continues to surprise her almost daily by its depth and potency. Tamara hopes to continue to gain proficiency and to become an ongoing contributing member of the women's frame drum collective.