You often hear me speak about my rewilding 101 classes on the podcast. In this episode I’m speaking with my long time friend Calen Kennett, about our current project, which involves turning my class into an 8 part documentary film series and online companion course. We launched a kickstarter on April 1st to fund the project. We recorded this epsiode via instagram Live, so the audio is not as good as my normal podcast. If you want to help propel cultural rewilding to the forefront of public consciousness, please become a backer of our film series. You can find the link in the show notes, or simply go to kickstarter.com and search Rewilding 101.

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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/villagevideo/rewilding-101-a-survival-strategy-for-humanity?ref=discovery&term=rewilding&total_hits=214&category_id=30

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Rewilding is a community effort. Many ancestral skills today are created with an individualist mindset, friction fire being one of them. But in older times, people worked together to create fire, understanding that community and togetherness was an important part of their survival. Such methods were known as the Neid Fire, Fire Churn, Tine Éigin, among others. Apprenticing to fire is a humbling experience, and learning to do it in tandem with others is a magical experience. To talk with me about this, I’m chatting with Ian Walton Larner and Aoife Ni Lodainn (Lowden) .

Ian is passionate about rubbing sticks and started the Sacred Hearth Friction Fire project in 2016 to share skills and knowledge. Ian's primary focus is using friction fire within ritual and holistic practices drawing upon folklore, traditions and story. Fire has been key in the evolution and development of our species and Ian feels fire deserves to be welcomed in a respectful and honouring way. Ian is based in Bristol, South West England, UK

Aoife is a facilitator of ancestral & land-based courses, workshops & ceremonies. A big part of Aoife's work has been in uncovering & remembering the old traditions & relationship between people and fire in Ireland & Scotland.She is a devoted apprentice of fire, having tended sacred fires all over Ireland, the British Isles & beyond for the last 10 years. Aoife is an advocate for the healing, purifying & unifying nature of fire, how it can directly heal us, and create a space naturally for community to be formed. She is a Director & steward of the Shieling Collective, a grassroots project focused on reviving traditional skills & ancestral lifeways in the Highlands of Scotland.

Show Notes:

Ian's Links

Sacred Hearth Friction Fire Website

Sacred Hearth Friction Fire Instagram

Aoife’s Links

https://linktr.ee/aoifededanann?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio

https://www.instagram.com/aoifededanann/

slinasinsear.com

theshielingcollective.com

Other Notes

Hearth and Campfire Influences on Arterial Blood Pressure: Defraying the Costs of the Social Brain through Fireside Relaxation

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10429110/

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Every once and a while I am happy and stunned to find an educational organization that makes me feel envious at the clear impact they are making on kids' lives, and the fun they are having along the way. For me, finding inspiration in other organizations that are keeping ancestral skills alive is an important part of running your own organization. Particularly, those that serve the next generation. In this episode I chat with Neal Ritter, a co-founder of the Laughing Coyote Project, a non-profit teaching earthskills in Colorado since 2007. Neal is happily a generalist, aiming to be above average in as many skills as possible. He is known for playing capture the flag with exuberance, and laughing loudly. Most importantly, he lives with his wife and two kids (who homeschool) on a twenty acre homestead they have the privilege of caretaking.

Notes:

Laughing Coyote Project

Boulder Outdoor Survival School

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