Trustees and Management

TRUSTEES

The Forest of Dreams is a small charity which relies on volunteers and is run entirely by volunteers. The charity is overseen by our Trustees who are dedicated to the vision of the charity, which grew out of decades of summer camps held here by Spirit Horse. The forest is a sanctuary for all wild things, including the nurture of deep-rooted culture and natural community that continues to flourish, experiment and consolidate here.

ERIKA INDRA - Healer, counsellor, mother, women’s leader and proven veteran of community building. Co-creator of Spirit Horse, she has seen many such projects through from tiny beginnings to full flowerings.

ROBIN AARONSON - Economist and tree-planter. He is a former partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers and has sat on a number of government regulatory bodies. He also manages a woodland and wildflower-meadow at his home in Devon and volunteers with the Woodland Trust. His mother’s family are Welsh speakers from Ceredigion.

FIONA COLLINS - Storyteller, grandmother and teacher. Fiona is passionate about supporting children and young people. She lives in North Wales and Welsh is her second language. At Wales' National Eisteddfod Genedlaethol of 2019 she was awarded the title Dysgwr y Flwyddyn / Welsh Learner of the Year. As a result, she will be honoured with admission to Gorsedd Cymru, the association of those who have made a distinguished contribution to Wales, its language, and its culture.

ANDREW HEAD - Once a university lecturer and Head of School of Sport Sciences, now a peripatetic mathematics teacher and full-time parent to three under 6s; Andrew has been coming to the valley for close to 30 years...he has even been known to hug the occasional tree.

GAIL STORR - Former primary school teacher, accountant and university lecturer, presently deputy chair of Mid-and-West-Wales Fire Authority standards and ethics committee, trustee of an animal and wildlife charity, freelance caterer, born and living in Ceredigion. Quiet, gentle powerhouse committed to supporting true nature, in land and all beings.

CATHERINE DUTTON - Community worker, making a difference to people's lives, for example by organising extra security, food packs and advocacy for the most vulnerable. Chairs a newly-formed dementia group.

EMER LYNAM - Émer is a harpist and promoter of Celtic culture, music and language. She is Chair of AFRI (Action from Ireland) a registered charity devoted to promoting peace, sustainability and human rights. Émer is a trainee solicitor; prior to this she was Judicial Assistant to the High Court of Ireland and Judicial Researcher to the President of the District Court. Émer enjoys helping out at Funseoige Farm, a local organic producer. She graduated from University College Dublin in 2015 and holds a bachelor’s degree in law. Émer is interested in rewilding, conservation, seed sovereignty environmental law, sustainable planning, crimes against the environment and ecocide.

MANAGEMENT SHIVAM O'BRIEN The forest is left wild, unmanaged. The protection of that ethos and the rooting of this sacred outlook is carefully held by the ceremonial village of Spirit Horse, out of which the Forest of Dreams blossomed. This remaking of culture is spearheaded by Shivam, originator of Spirit Horse with Erika Indra. The two of them first discovered this valley and nurtured the dream of a truly wild place of retreat from the start in 1990.

SECRETARY - Andrew Head.