Wild + Alive Wrap Up (2024/25)

How do you wrap up a year of ongoing joy, connection and depth?
What does it mean when tears come, and you're not sure if you're crying because of how happy you are to have had such a great time or sad because it's ending?

This year's Wild and Alive cohort has been through such a rich year together. Rain or shine, 31 participants between ages 22 and 80 committed to camping out together one weekend per month to re-member and re-embody what it means to be a part of nature again, to awaken to being fully alive. It's surprising how simple it is: building fires, foraging for wild plant foods, learning ancestral skills like hide tanning, bushcraft, aidless navigation, carving, slowing down enough to really hear the birds, sharing poetry and music... Daring to engage in making culture with nature at the centre, daring to be even more authentic, daring to challenge ourselves to grow our resilience and belonging.

In April, after a year of building skills, community and resilience together, each participant went out for an overnight solo experience on the land - 20 hours in their own special place in the forest with nothing but the distant sounds of the Chorus frogs and Saw whet owls singing into the night. Participants came back with a sparkle in their eye and deep personal stories and lessons to carry forward.

This final weekend in May we celebrated by deepening our relationships with plants - including wild foraging and cooking on the fire. Over 20 different plant species came along for the journey - Stinging Nettle, Licorice Fern, Nootka Rose and more! Forest tea, biscuits and soup were all on the menu and the joy of cooking together felt like the most natural thing in the world. Our final night was our annual "Feral Theatre" where participants are invited to share a passion or talent. Some chose to roast the facilitators through a parody skit. Others chose to recite poetry or share a personal song.. We finished our time with a final blindfolded forest navigation challenge and a ceremony of giving thanks, acknowledging our foundational place, the unique contribution we each are making in the fabric of re-culturing for the past, present and future generations.

We're excited to have many of this year's participants back again next year in Ring 2 and look forward to meeting the courageous souls who will start their journey with us in Ring 1 in September. Huge thanks to all the mentors on the facilitation team who keep returning to make the program richer and richer every year.

It takes heart, vision, connection, trust, vulnerability, grieving, everyone's unique gifts and lots of duct tape to build a village.