A summaryAttendance:
You can come to as many weekends as you wish over the next two years, every weekend is available to drop in on, and you can come back to the ones you missed in the future.
This year's camps are primarily focused on hunting and wild food , the back bones of survival living.
This two year course will give you an advanced knowledge of your place in nature, you will discover what your own personal medicine is and what gifts and talents you want to bring forth to the world and to this tribe and planet. We will cover a huge amount of subjects giving you a huge tool box and encyclopedia of knowledge, so you can go on to specialise in any of these skills as a career or just as a hobby. There will be 8 weekends of practical and hands-on experiential learning, expanding our capacity to face new challenges and push through our fears of the wild and the unknown frontiers of the wilderness. Our minds and spirits will be purified and strengthened and in peace by the end of the year, with a feeling of overwhelming bliss and belonging, to the people on the course, to all of humanity and to all the other species living with us on this earth
It's also a school that is deeply woven with indigenous wisdom and spiritual work. We put a great emphasis on the spirit skills that are also completely aligned with the physical skills, you cannot have one without the other we believe, that's how these teachings have been passed down .
These skills activate character traits of self reliance, confidence, knowledge, empathy, strength and wisdom.
WildEarth wants to reunite the world with their birthright which is to be able to live comfortably with the earth and all the animals within it.
What we'll doApril 22-24 th - May Hill,Gloucetershire
Skills covered over the weekend :
Wild Food Knowledge - Going over 15 plants to eat in the Spring , plus adding a few more . 2 nd year students will teach 1 st year students what they know and identification points.
Crafting a bow from Hazel or Ash - learn how to make a flat/long hunting bow of around 25-35 pounds , this is the crudest form of a bow and is the easiest, quickest to make and is very important to learn when you are in dire circumstances!
I will give a full axe and draw knife safety lecture, and explain proper use of them. Then you will start to work on your own piece of wood, and i will take you through all the processes of layering out the bow ,shaping the profile,and tillering. Under full guidance ,you will slowly wittle away your own bow . We will endeavour to give you a solid foundation of bow making from start to finish so you can go home and make more!
Arrows - Learn the fine art of arrow craft . We will go through a lot of different ways of how to make arrows for every eventuality or survival situation that you find yourself in . Studying the sourcing of the right sticks / saplings , bending and scraping the shaft , the making of flint, glass, coin and tin arrow heads, fletching with feathers and learning how to wrap the feathers and arrowheads onto the shafts with natural cordage or sinew .
We will spend more time on flintknapping as its such a difficult skill to master.
Intuitive Archery practise with 3d animals and professional foam targets .
Sunset 'mock hunting' expedition into the forest with bows and arrows - utilising the skills of spirit and the physical skills of tracking, stalking and camouflage.
Rites of passage initation - night games, fires and storytelling.
JUNE 3-5 - May Hill , Gloucetershire
ATLATLS- We will harvest the spears and atlatls, the most ancient of weapons for hunting , that took down wooly mammoths . Learning to experiment with all weapons are necessary to work out the best size and type of wood.
TRAPS - We will go over 3 of the best traps for small and large animals .
Tracking - The art of tracking and sign tracking is essential for anyone wanting to thrive in the wild . These are both linked with awareness training to .
BAITING - This is a subject of great art , science and deep nature connection , we will go over some of the most important tricks for baiting spiritually and physically .
CATAPULTS - Target practise and shooting of catapults .
JULY 29-31 st - Devon Coast
Beach plants and roots, hedgerow plants and river estuary plants- we will explore the edible roots , leaves, stems of all the plants along the river estuaries, beaches and hedgerows on the coast.
Primitive and modern fishing- making cordage and bone hooks , then we will make some primitive fishing rods and try them out at the beach .
Harpooning- If my friend is available to teach us we will go swimming at one of his favourite places for harpooning , swimming between the seaweeds , coral and fish is a unforgettable experience .
Primitive cooking - As always we will feast on what we have caught and foraged .
October 15- 17 th - May Hill,Gloucetershire
SHELTER - We will delve into shelters, winter and summer one's , learning the art of insulation, comfort and uses of fire . We will make a mini tipi shelter , from the saami tribes with sticks and birch bark , then mud and clay ,then more sticks .
Wild food - Mushrooms ,berries, roots , nuts, how to pocess all this for the winter months .
Baskets - Make a willow basket - (if we have time)
Clay - Learn how to work with clay.
