Survival Skills | joyfull awareness | Village Building
Mid North Coast NSW
ReWild Fridays has just finished it's first round. Here is what people had to say...
"I have had the fortune to attend four consecutive Rewild Fridays facilitated by Miles Holmes. In these workshops Miles holds a well-crafted container that is a remembering of our ancestral roots. Skillfully woven with fun, deep listening and storytelling and loads of practical guidance. Participants get to experience how easy it is to reconnect back to country and the village mind. I thoroughly recommend a walk in the Bush with Miles." Sonja
"Enjoyed it so much, if you ran it all year, I would come all year.
As mentioned spent a lot of my personal & professional life in the bush, however you gave me new eyes & showed me how to connect. Enjoyed each session, it was engaging, inspiring, & relaxed." Daz.
'"This was such an awesome experience! Miles is the real deal and a wealth of knowledge about all things rewilding. The blend of activities and reflection really helped me to connect even further to nature. It was also heaps of fun with a fantastic group of like-minded people. I'd highly recommend this programme. I can't wait until the next round!' Alex.
What else did participants like?
I enjoyed the community aspect.
Loved the variety in the programme and the warmth of the facilitator
Learning survival skills, appreciating nature, meeting/working/sharing with others
© Image by Gina Chick
Hi! Thanks for your interest in Rewild Fridays. Rewild Fridays is an invitation to explore ancient and contemporary survival skills, awareness techniques and village building in a small group. You don’t have to go back very far in time to find ancestors who lived close to the land, in touch with the seasons, the cycle of sun and moon. All of our ancestors knew the plants and animals and how to make the tools they needed to survive. All their needs were met from their immediate environment or village. Despite global domestication our underlying blueprint is still wild. So join us! We are hardwired to connection with nature. It feels great to reconnect with your original design and with each other.
Ready to make time for nature connection in your life?
This is the first round of Rewild Fridays in Bellingen (Gumbaynggirr country). It’s about doing the practice together in our own patch, supporting each other and seeing how much fun we can have. Group size will be small and places limited. I can promise that it will open up a new level of connection with self, others and nature, increase resilience and your capability as a survivalist. We will meet with a culture of allowance and with the deepest respect for diversity.
You will learn new survival skills, feel great, and get a grounding in the core routines of connection. Proven knowledge you can apply to your own life, your family or those you mentor.
Each Friday we will come together around Bellingen and the coast to explore activities together.
The program will run from 9.00am till 1.30pm each Friday.
Dates...note there will be no gathering on the 11th of November.
28/10/2022 - FULL (email me to go on the wait list and sign up below to be notified about the next round)
04/11/2022 - FULL (as above)
18/11/2022 - FULL
25/11/2022 - FULL
How much will it cost?.
This is a pilot program, so I'm keeping it cheap.
10 people. Limited places
$40 drop in session
$140 for the four weeks.
Contact Miles to join ReWild Fridays or get more information.
Ph:0427458045
I have learnt over the years that what you do in nature is more important than how long you spend there. Each week I will introduce you to some of the “core routines of nature connection,” proven and repeatable practices that fast track our natural awareness:
· bird language
· holistic tracking
· sensory awareness
· the quiet mind
· village building process
· nature games
· wandering
simple ceremony
We will also take a dive into survival skills. Survival skills deepen our love of nature: a tree is beautiful, but also has the potential of being a tool, tinder, or shelter. Survival skills give us confidence and help us stay calm when the aisles are empty of toilet paper! (remember that?) Here are some of the activities we may explore, in this and future rounds of the program:
cordage
Local Indigenous excursions
silent movement and stalking
stone tool making
fire by friction
weaving
primitive pottery
primitive footwear
hide tanning
primitive cooking
shelter building
camouflage
trapping and snares
wild foods
light, torches and candles
and so on!
How will you feel?
One of my long term mentors, the internationally acclaimed naturalist Jon Young, noticed that people who repeat these practices over many weeks and months develop the attributes of connection:
· happiness of a child
· vitality
· the ability to listen deeply
· compassion for people
· empathy for nature
· true aliveness
· helpfulness
· a quiet mind.
For me, that list is a life goal worth striving for, and it happens organically when we tune into nature, especially in a village setting.
Contact Miles to join the program or get more information
Ph: 0427458045
© Image by Gina Chick
Rewild Fridays will be facilitated by Miles Holmes, with special guest appearances from some of the highly skilled naturalists and survivalists living in this region.
Testimony:
Miles Holmes combines decades of extensive grounded experience in earth and survival skills with a gentle manner and gorgeous attention to those in his care. Whether it's adults or kids, and no matter their experience level, Miles will facilitate their journey into deeper nature connection in a way that is interesting and fun, but also packed with information and insight. He's solid, safe, compassionate and very knowledgeable. He facilitates a beautiful journey into bush awareness. If you're lucky enough to have the chance to do one of his programmes, take it. Gina Chick: Co-founder, Bluegum Bushcraft, home of Rewild Your Child
From Miles:
Hello! I have been facilitating groups in the outdoors for 25 years. My work in nature connection has been national and international, but this project in Bellingen is all about being local.
As a background, my introduction to survival, awareness and tracking was at the school of the renowned American tracker Tom Brown Jnr. Tom promised me that by learning what he was teaching it would be possible to walk into any museum in the world and copy the tools there. Likewise one of my later teachers Jon Young promised that it was possible to track the patterns of the birds anywhere on the world. This has turned out to be true, and I look forward to sharing these universal skills with you. I returned from Tracker school 25 years ago, and was utterly inspired to learn everything I could about survival and awareness. I haunted museums and trawled through old anthropology books, and soon found myself studying anthropology. So began a 20 year career as a social anthropologist. I have now worked with about 40 different indigenous language groups in nearly every state in Australia. I have co-created many projects and, where appropriate I’ll be sharing some cross-cultural insights. One project I am currently working on is called “reading the country,” co-creating a training framework with Warlpiri people in central Australia to pass on the ancient skill of animal tracking to the young indigenous rangers. This was another project I was particularly proud to be part of https://tracksdance.com.au/milpirri-banners-home-page
One of the strongest lessons I have learned from the desert first nations people is that “knowing your place” is a fundamental survival skills. You might be the best spear maker on earth, but it’s of little use unless you know where the kangaroos are! That’s why Rewild Fridays will focus on core routines of nature connection, practices that fast track a deep connection and familiarity with place and open us to peace and joy. The core routines are informed by another wonderful mentor of mine, Jon Young, who is an international expert in storytelling, tracking and awareness.
In a more mainstream space you can see more of my work at www.naturefix.life This venture is all about bringing the recently researched health benefits of nature into a mainstream health space. For example a big study in the UK by professor Miles Richardson found that increasing nature contentedness gave a well being boost 4 times greater than increasing your socioeconomic status (like getting a pay rise). Naturefix has wellness trails popping up all over the country, including hospitals. At Rewild Fridays we will practice some of the evidence backed, nature mindfulness techniques we are using at NatureFix. Check the out the students response to doing the program on the living lab page.
Miles
P.S. Here is a piece I recorded a few years ago, about what nature connection is and why we need it for planetary health.
FULL (email me for waitlist or subscribe) Week 1: FRICTION FIRE. Upside down fire, desert fire, tipi fire, box fire, one match fire, friction fire, fire saw. There is so much to know here! Let's dive into a sampling of primitive fire techniques and get you started on a friction fire journey. We also meet the core routines of nature connection.
FULL (Email me for waitlist of subsribe) Week 2: ACACIA SEED HARVEST. For a few hot summers in the Tanami Desert I helped the Warlpiri women start a bush food harvest business selling wattle seeds. Here on the mid north coast we have a species of edible acacia and it's ready to harvest NOW. Join us to look at this staple survival food and have a go at sustainable collecting, processing and sampling this delicious and nutrient dense food. (The season for collection is short, so I might have to move this week forwards or backwards). It's a good time of year to taste some other bush foods as well. Our journey into the core routines of connection will also continue.
Week 3: HOLISTIC TRACKING. I worked with an elder from the desert, Jerry Jangala, and every morning he would head out and do a lap of the camp looking at everything on the ground. He was reading the morning news. Let's learn how to do that, but also to notice things that aren't tracks. Learn about the core routine of seasonal mapping and how that helps drive our awareness of place and ability to track. Discover the 8 sacred questions of tracking and some fun tracking games.
Week 4: BIRD LANGUAGE – (with awesome guest facilitator, and expert Birdo, Andrew Turbill, www.andrewthebirdguy.com ) Want to change your entire perspective on nature in one session? This is it. Life will never be the same. You don’t need to know anything about birds, it’s all about pattern recognition and awareness.
email to join the program or phone me on 0427458045 for more information
What to expect
Expert facilitation providing hands-on practical experience and theory on range of topics
Practices cultivating nature sensitivity and sustainability
Introduction to natural crafts and traditional earth skills
Skills you can share with friends and family.
A safe emotional space that celebrates diversity, and a voice for all.
What to bring
Comfortable enclosed shoes/boots
Appropriate weather gear eg sunhat
3 Inch non-serrated whittling knife (no folding blades unless they lock)
Binoculars (optional)
Pen and paper
Lunch
Enthusiasm to learn and a willingness to provide feedback.
Contact Miles to join up or get more information
Ph: 0427458045