WiseEarth Education

*Ecological Despair and Empowerment workshop: Saturday March 25th at Northey Street City Farm

* Outdoor Learning and the Curriculum workshop: Saturday 25th May at Northey Street City Farm.

* The Work that Reconnects weekend: October 20th to 22nd at Mt Barney Lodge.

*’Rewild and Reconnect: Learning with Nature’ 1-day Workshop: Date TBC.

Stay posted on these events and more via the WiseEarth Education facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WiseEarthEducation

2022 Offerings include:

*Outdoor Learning and the Curriculum workshop: Saturday August 13th: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/outdoor-learning-and-the-curriculum-tickets-260704232377

*’The Work that Reconnects’ workshop: Saturday September 3rd: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-work-that-reconnects-tickets-372585241487

*’Rewild and Reconnect: Learning with Nature’ 1 day Workshop: Saturday 5th November 2022. Tickets here.

Stay posted on these events and more via the WiseEarth Education facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WiseEarthEducation

*Outdoor Learning and the Curriculum: A Professional Development Workshop for Educators, October 31st, 2020.
Facebook event HERE 
Tickets HERE

*Work that Reconnects Immersion weekend + facilitator training, with Emma Brindal and Em Maltby.
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic we have postponed this event until 2021. More information TBC.

Stay in touch with upcoming events via the WiseEarth Education facebook page.

Some of the offerings we have coming up in 2020 include:

*Autumn Equinox Water Blessing, 5pm, Friday June 20^th, Windsor.

*Work that Reconnects Immersion weekend + facilitator training, with Emma Brindal and Em Maltby, June – July 2020. More information TBC.

*Outdoor Learning and the Curriculum: A Professional Development Workshop for Educators, date TBC.

More information on these will be available soon.

* Outdoor Learning and the Curriculum:
A Professional Development Workshop for Educators
With Emma Brindal
Saturday 2nd November 2019, 9am – 4pm
Northey Street City Farm, Windsor.

This practical workshop will demonstrate how the Australian Curriculum cross-curriculum priority area of Sustainability can be addressed while taking learning outdoors.
Workshop participants will:

• Learn how outdoor experiential activities can be linked to the curriculum, and be applied to Learning Areas including Science, English, Humanities and Social Sciences and the Arts.

• Experience approaches that support students to increase critical and creative thinking, and have the knowledge, understanding and skills to engage in creating a more sustainable world.

• Take home a resources list, activity descriptions with links to the Australian curriculum, and a certificate for 6 hours of professional development.

Cost: $140 school-funded/waged | $90 student/unwaged (GST included) Includes morning tea. BYO lunch
Bookings here
Facebook event here.

The Work that Reconnects Weekend Workshop  

With Emma Brindal and Em Maltby. 

Date 4pm Friday 20th October – 3pm Sunday 22nd October

Location: Mount Barney Lodge, Scenic Rim, South East Queensland. (2hrs drive from Brisbane CBD). 

Join us for an extended experience of the Work that Reconnects in the beautiful setting of Mount Barney Lodge. 

The Work that Reconnects (WtR) is a supportive framework to reawaken our connection to ourselves, each other and the world. It was developed by deep ecologist, activist and scholar, Joanna Macy, as a way to understand people’s feelings and empower them in the age of nuclear proliferation in the late 1970s. In recent years, WtR has become increasingly relevant to other contemporary issues including climate change crisis, loss of biodiversity, pollution and other environmental and social crises.

WtR provides an opportunity to understand and express both our concerns and our love for the Earth and our societies, and to (re)discover and give shape to our hopes. Through our remembering, we are able to go forth with new eyes and renewed purpose to continue contributing to a Life Sustaining Society.

This is a participatory workshop that will involve solo processes, as well as conversational and group processes. Emma and Em also bring their love of the natural world into the workshop by integrating nature connection experiences into the Work that Reconnects – Mt Barney Lodge and surrounds will provide us with abundant opportunities to do this!

For those interested in learning more about facilitating WtR, the weekend will include a small facilitators’ component with some reflection sessions from a facilitators’ perspective. There will also be opportunities for one-on-one conversations with experienced WtR facilitators.

Participants are asked to attend the full experience from Friday afternoon through to Sunday afternoon. 

Places are limited so please make a booking as early as possible to ensure you can join. 

Price for the weekend (not including accommodation) 

This includes food for the weekend, except breakfast which is to be self-catered. 

Full fee (general) $470 | Full fee (early bird) $440 (early bird applies until 19th August). 

Concession (general) $390 | Concession (early bird) $350

Work trade* $170 *Work trade will involve providing assistance with meal preparation and coordinating clean-up after meals.  

Price for accommodation for 2 nights per person

Boolamoola $110 (shared with 1 other person) |  Boolamoola $220 (single room)

Foresters Hut $90 (shared with up to 3 other people) | Foresters Hut $180 (single room) 

Camping $40 | Deluxe Camper Trailer $300 (this price is for 2 people). 

More info about accommodation at Mt Barney is here:
https://www.mtbarneylodge.com.au/accommodation/

About the Facilitators:

Emma Brindal is the founder of WiseEarth Education, which was established to nurture and build respect for our planet, through experiential earth connection programs. Emma is inspired by the ideas and practices of Deep Ecology, Place-Responsive Education and the Work that Reconnects; and believes that understanding the interconnectedness of all life through experience is key to bringing about a Life Sustaining Society for all beings.

Em Maltby has worked with community groups, adults and young people to create opportunities to enjoy, connect with, and support the Earth and each other. She approaches her work and life with a deep awareness that our personal and collective wellbeing are intertwined with the Earth’s wellbeing. Em first encountered the Work That Reconnects in a friend’s bookshelf, and has been passionate about sharing its wisdom and strength with others for over 10 years.

Emma and Em have co-facilitated many WtR workshops together and have an ease of collaboration that infuses the experience. They have been dreaming of offering a weekend experience for several years.

Emma Brindal Em Maltby

30^th November, 6 – 9 pm: The Work that Reconnects Introductory Workshop, Herston.

The Work that Reconnects is a body of experiential work developed by Deep Ecologist Joanna Macy. This workshop will provide an introduction, touching on the four stages of the Work that Reconnects which aim to:
– Deepen our appreciation for the gifts of life;
– Provide a space for recognising the feelings we have about the environmental and social problems that concern us;
– Enable us to see from new perspectives;
– Deepen our understanding and awareness of ourselves
– Empower and inspire us to take new action or be able to sustain the work that we do.

The workshop will run from 6pm to 9pm, and a simple dinner will be provided for us to share at the start.
Suggested contribution: $25 – $35 according to your means. 

For bookings, go here. 

To stay up to date with latest offerings, see the WiseEarth Education facebook page, or subscribe to the e-news here:

PART 3: Grieving routines for Nature Connection and Culture Repair

This is the third part of a four-part series in which I discuss the four elements that Jon Young from the 8 Shields Institute says are needed for deep nature connection and culture repair. I decided to write about these four elements as a way of sharing my experience of attending an ‘Art of Mentoring’ (AoM) course in the Californian redwood forests with Jon last year. The third element that I am focusing on in this article is ‘effective grieving routines’.

The concept of having grieving routines was not unfamiliar to me before AoM as I have been involved in participating in and facilitating Joanna Macy’s ‘Work that Reconnects’ for the last 10 years. A core part of Joanna’s work is ‘owning and honouring our pain for the earth’ – be it confusion, overwhelm, sadness, fear, anger, numbness, or whatever feelings may be arising as a result of what is happening in our world today. She talks of these feelings being a completely rational response to the environmental and social problems that we are collectively facing.  Just a few examples of the kinds of events that may be engendering these feelings are the war in Syria; the Trump win and subsequent actions he has been taking; fossil fuel addiction of governments in the face of climate change evidence and predictions; and the Australian government’s horrendous treatment of refugees. Sadly this list could go on for some time…. Add to this our personal pain and intergenerational trauma, leaving us all with much grief within us. Jon Young noted that many of his advanced students in nature connection seemed to be hitting blocks preventing them getting to the next level of connection. Over time he put this down to unprocessed grief, and this is why he now says it is essential for deep nature connection and culture repair.  

Joanna Macy’s  book, ‘Active Hope: How to face the mess we’re in without going crazy’[i], written with Chris Johnstone is a wonderful antidote to these feelings and provides simple processes that we can do on our own or with a friend to support us with processing and releasing these feelings. While there is a lot more I could say about Joanna’s work, what I will now share here are some of my experiences at the Art of Mentoring (AoM), and what those experiences taught me in relation to grieving routines.

One way that we were invited to process and heal grief at AoM was by attending the sacred fire. This was held in the traditional way of the Lakota when someone in their community passes on. The sacred fire is lit at dawn one day and then lasts for 4 days and nights, with certain protocols having to be observed throughout. At our AoM sacred fire, each dawn and dusk there was a special ceremony with singing which was very beautiful. The rest of the time, and at all times of day and night, people could come to sit and talk, sing, share, cry or simply sit in silence. It was a place for people to grieve people they had lost in their lives, or anything that was present for them at that time. Many of my friends (there were a group of 21 Australians attending) came often to the Sacred Fire, and deeply appreciated the sacred space it provided for grieving, healing and connection.

Spontaneous expressions of grief were also very welcome at the Art of Mentoring course. The most moving experience for me was sending the teens off on a 3 day hiking trip to the coast and back, and the conversations that transpired after this.  The send-off involved the whole 250+ community of people gathering around the young people. The youth each spoke of their intentions for the trip ahead, and then the elders in the community gave them some words of wisdom. Then the whole group sang a beautiful song ‘When I was young’ as the young people picked up their backpacks and set off on their adventure. The group kept singing until the teens were out of sight, and I found myself shedding some tears. I was quite surprised at this sudden emotion as I didn’t know any of the young people heading off on their journey. It turned out I was not the only one. Shortly after, the group gathered around to debrief the experience. Many people revealed they had also felt emotional, and we talked at length about why this was, and the significance of holding youth in a space where they can be independent, and yet also part of a connected and loving community. What many of us grieved for was that we had lacked this in our own journey of becoming adults. The deep sharing that happened here culminated in the group standing with arms interlinked singing ‘Amazing Grace’. I would be surprised if there had been a dry eye in the open-air space in which we gathered.

What these experiences at AoM confirmed for me that there is always pain to (re)discover, having ways to express these feelings is incredibly healthy, and that this in turn enables deep nature connection and culture repair. One evening after telling us as a short version of the incredible story of ‘the Great Law of Peace’ of the Haudenosaunee nations,  Jon told us that we all have to heal our own grief in order to be peacemakers. For me this concept of peacemaking is about living in peace ­with the earth as well as with all people – caring for the earth as we care for our loved ones.

 I think that all of us need to find our own ways to feel and express both our personal pain and our pain for the world (and sometimes it is not obvious which of these is the source of the feelings, or whether it is a mixture of both).  For me, nature is an incredible healer, and receiving the gift of healing from nature solidifies my connection to, and desire to protect this beautiful planet.  Having regular nature time is therefore a wonderful journey of reciprocity and healing and can be a time and place to allow ourselves to grieve.  However I think nature time alone is not enough to process the grief we hold, so having other ways to do this such as taking part in men’s or women’s groups, seeing a regular therapist, having our own healing ceremonies, taking part in Work that Reconnects processes, is really valuable . What are your ways? I’d love to hear about them.

Later this year (likely in September) I will be running a Work that Reconnects (WTR) workshop in Brisbane for those of you who are interested in this work.  I am also part of a group that meets every second month and takes turns to facilitate WTR processes. Please get in touch if you’d like to know more.

And stay tuned for the final part of this series which is about being exposed to role models who have the 8 attributes of connection. Until then, take care.

[i] Macy, J. and Johnstone, C. (2012). Active Hope: How to face the mess we’re in without going crazy. Warriewood, NSW: Finch Publishing Pty Ltd.

PART 2: Conscious competence in the Art of Mentoring:

This is the second part of a four-part series in which I discuss the four elements that Jon Young from the 8 Shields Institute says are needed for deep nature connection and culture repair.  I learnt about this in part by attending an ‘Art of Mentoring’ (AoM) course in the Californian redwood forests with Jon last year, and decided to write about each of these elements as a way of sharing some of that experience.

In this post I am writing about ‘Conscious competence in the Art of Mentoring’. This is a huge topic and one that I will just be skimming the surface of here.

The 8 Shields Institute uses a model of teaching – ‘coyote mentoring’ that Jon learnt through his mentor Tom Brown Junior, author of ‘The Tracker’ (perhaps here in Australia we could call this approach ‘dingo mentoring’).  For me this is an approach which is about encouraging people to learn for themselves by asking questions that support curiosity and the discovery of answers through observation and sensory awareness. It is about supporting people to connect to the life that exists around their home and bioregion, developing relationships and a sense of empathy with other beings.

A great example of this approach that I experienced at the ‘Art of Mentoring’ course was when a small group of us spent one afternoon with a herbalist named Erin. Rather than reeling off information about various plants, Erin first invited us to spend a few minutes with a plant and then come back to the group and use just a few words to describe the plant we had been with. Then, as a group, we spent time with a couple of these plants; one of these was a plant that none of us except Erin recognised. Erin invited us to describe the plant, drawing out adjectives from us and inviting us to use our bodies to show what the plant was like. It was beautiful to watch the elegant poses that people adopted, and to contrast these with the poses people made to imitate the redwood trees towering above us. Words that people used to describe the as-yet unnamed plant were ‘elegant’ ‘graceful’ and ‘flexible’, while words describing the redwood were ‘strong’ ‘serious’ and ‘solid’.  Soon after Erin revealed that the plant was a willow – a plant used for basket making because of its flexibility. She pointed out to us how much we all intuitively knew about this plant just by observing it. Erin’s approach of asking questions to draw out the answers from us was wonderful, and her enthusiasm for the plants, contagious. It sure was a better way of learning than just hearing about the qualities of a bunch of plants.

Jon offers advice for developing skills in the art of questioning – to practice asking questions every day, saying that we can do this for ourselves by journaling questions to ponder through the day. We can also be asking questions to the children in our lives, supporting them to have a curiosity which can spur them on to discover the answers for themselves. In ‘The Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature’[i] the authors say that “when people experience a concentrated amount of Coyote Mentoring they will reach a point of nature connection where their awareness grows to include the impact of their personal lives on all others. A values-shift occurs, and people with fresh, new awareness begin to seek strategies of living that match their ethics”[ii].

The 8 Shields approach to mentoring goes beyond using Coyote Mentoring alone, and the authors of Coyote’s Guide say that ‘Cultural Mentoring’ is its partner. They say that having a healthy culture to support children in their journey of nature connection is essential in order for them to thrive. Cultural Mentoring is about having and being long-lasting mentors through people’s lifetimes, with each of us having a number of mentors who themselves are connected to nature. The authors of Coyote’s Guide say “consider how you might shape … culture so you cultivate not only the hearts and minds of our children, but the very soil in which they grow”[iii].

A starting point could be to think of the people that you could be a mentor for, and the people who could be mentors for you. At the AoM course Jon told us that it is rare for parents to be effective mentors for their own children, and that aunties, uncles, grandmothers, grandfathers, and other older people are better in this role.

A fundamental part of creating this healthy culture is to have your own deep nature connection routines (see part 1 in this series) so you can be an effective mentor for nature connection.

Jon talks about a healthy model for life that supports people through all transitions, including rites of passage that prepare youth to become adults. Jon talks of a two year process to prepare for a Vision Fast, one such initiatory process (and one that many adults in modern society are seeking more and more). This length of time impressed me as it demonstrates a deep commitment by the mentors to the people going through it, and no doubt ensures a well-supported and transformative experience, that enables the participants to feel valued as a part of society and to discover their own unique gifts.

This is just one aspect of cultural mentoring; if you are interested to learn more there are online courses run by the 8 Shields Institute, and hopefully Jon Young will be back for a visit before too long. Stay posted on this via the ‘WiseEarth Education’ facebook page or the ‘Mind of the Mentor Australia’ facebook page. I also highly recommend the Coyote’s Guide, for anyone teaching or mentoring kids (or wanting to!).

The next post in this series will be on the third element needed for deep nature connection and culture repair – having effective grieving routines.

[i] Young, J., Haas, E., & McGown, E. (2010). Coyote’s guide to connecting with nature. Shelton, Wash: OWLLink Media.

[ii] Ibid. p492

[iii] Ibid. p493

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Creating Deep Nature Connection and Culture Repair

PART 1: Deep Nature Connection Routines

Recently I was lucky enough to participate in a week-long ‘Art of Mentoring’ (AoM) course in California with the 8 Shields Institute. I was inspired to attend this course after doing two weekend courses with Jon Young when he visited Australia last year. At the first weekend I was blown away by the depth and breadth of Jon’s nature connection work, so having the opportunity to participate in AoM was a real privilege.

As a way of sharing a taste of Jon’s vast body of work I thought I would like to share a little about each of the four elements that Jon says are needed for deep nature connection and culture repair, and how I experienced these at AoM, the workshops last year and in my life in general. These elements are: deep nature connection routines; conscious competence in the art of mentoring; effective grieving routines; and being exposed to role models who have the eight attributes of connection.

In this post I will focus on the first of these – deep nature connection routines. There are many different (and interconnected) nature connection practices, including doing sit spots, sharing the ‘story of the day’, tracking, wandering, journalling, listening for bird language and doing sense meditations. As Jon simply and aptly put it, “We go into nature to remember we are nature”, and this is the core of why we do these practices…. and in doing so, we are living an antidote to ‘nature deficit’ as outlined by Richard Louve in his book ‘Last Child in the Woods’, becoming more connected and more able to live in a way that is in balance with the Earth and her cycles.

We did several sit spots at the Art of Mentoring, and Jon talks of this as an essential routine for connection. A sit spot is a special place in nature that you visit regularly and get to know intimately over time. My sit spot is a 10 minute walk from my house, right by an inner-city creek.  My experience of this practice is that each sit is different – perhaps there is a new plant that has popped up, a bird call I haven’t heard before, an insight to be had, or simply an experience of coming back to myself.  Invariably I also tune into my senses and become more open to perceiving in ways I don’t consciously do in everyday life.

Sharing stories of sit spots and other nature connection practices with others  is a way to build a collective knowledge and connection. When I participated in the Bird Language weekend with Jon last year, we would go out in groups and share our observations with our small group first and the larger group later, building a bigger picture of what was happening in the bird world by putting our stories together. At the AoM our ‘stories of the day’ drew out some very special experiences, with several participants sighting a family of river otters. Also the evidence of bear scat, claw marks and tracks all painted a picture of the movements of our bear neighbor.   

One day at the Art of Mentoring we went wandering in groups, bringing in several nature connection practices. We were each given a task, and as the ‘south’ representative in my group, I was tasked with paying attention to evidence of mammals, and in particular bears. As the only Australian in my group, I had to ask for my group members to help me with bear signs, and they found some scat for me (and a scat book also came in handy to identify coyote scat that we came across).  I did manage to spot bear claw marks on a tree so was impressed with myself for that! Other tasks included catching a lizard, following a deer trail and ambushing another group.  My group completed most of the tasks given to us, but it was certainly the case that the point was not to make sure we ticked all of these off a list, but to be open to the experience as it unfolded, keeping our senses open to the forest, and what we could discover in doing so. As well as having a lot of fun that day I think everyone in my group learnt something; connecting to each other as well to as the rest of nature.

If you are curious to know more about these deep nature connection routines, Jon is likely to be returning to Australia next year, so stay tuned for that. The Coyote’s Guide to Connecting in Nature’  by Jon Young, Ellen Haas and Evan McGowan is also a wonderful resource for anyone wanting to learn more.

And stay tuned for the next three monthly posts on the other elements that create deep nature connection and culture repair.