Eco-Restoration | Indigenous led Education | Online Courses | Nature Reconnection | Transformation
Eco-Restoration | Indigenous led Education | Online Courses | Nature Reconnection | Transformation
Upcoming Courses
YOUR DONATION
By donating to the Fulkaxo Guardians, you are supporting their relocation to Pacatuba Estate and therefore:
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The preservation and regeneration of 550 hectares an area of highly endangered Atlantic Forest. Less than 10% of this forest's original cover survives today in Brazil.
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The continuation of their ancestral traditions that are deeply related to the land and the forest, where they can find medicine and food; and where they can practice their spiritual rituals, living in traditional villages.
Guardians Worldwide and Wild in Washington present
LEARNING with THE SEASONS
a journey into human and forest health
A transformational online course
+ forest camp in Sussex Downs National Park
Seasonal eating | Seasonal food | Medicinal plants Forest medicine | Ayurvedic medicine | Forest sensing Laban Movement harmony | Forest bathing
Forest well-being and mental health | Forestry work Seasonal ceremonies and festivities | Healing
COST
Online course £75
Including Discord sessions, materials and recordings
Three week online course
May 3 - 18
Spring camp
May 20, 21 and 22
Autumn camp
October 14, 15, 16
Camp: £220 per season
Including 3 meals per day/ not inclusive of tent
THE TEAM
Sharon Blackie
Award winning author
Nic Salazar Sutil
Director Guardians Worldwide
Mahesh Mahapati
Ayurveda medicine expert
Wild in Washington
Forest guardians
Course timetable | online sessions
The course will be held on the Discord platform and all sessions are delivered via Zoom. The course is made up of 6 online sessions + 2 participant led sessions to be arranged on Week 2. You will also receive video recordings of 10 one-hour live sessions to be held during the forest camp in South Downs National Park, which you can watch in your own time: 3 sessions on Movement harmony, a session on Ayurveda medicine, three sessions on medicinal plants and seasonal eating, and 3 sessions on forestry.
Session 1 Tuesday May 3 5:00-6:30pm British Summer Time BST (via Zoom)
Learning with the Seasons: health, healing and holism with Nicolas Salazar Sutil
Session 2 Wednesday May 4, 5:00-6:30pm BST (via Zoom)
The Seasonal Forest, with Lee Walther and Nicolas Salazar Sutil
Session 3 Tuesday May 10, 5:00-6:30pm BST (via Zoom)
Understanding Seasonal Plants and Fungi: cycles, changes and rhythms, with Emma Beard and Sarah Whitford
Session 4 Wednesday May 11, 5:00-6:30pm BST (via Zoom)
Group led session: Meditation and Concentration
Session 5 Tuesday May 17 5:00-6:30pm BST (via Zoom)
Food, Nurture and Subsistence: Indigenous understanding of seasons, with Mahesh Mathapati
Session 6 Wednesday May 18 5:00-6:30pm BST (via Zoom)
Festivity and Ceremony: the importance of honouring and celebrating seasons in the Celtic tradition, with Sharon Blackie
Pete Seeger
To everything
There is a season
And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late
Turn, turn, turn
What will you learn in this course?
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Affective ecology i.e. ecology understood through senses, thought, feeling & interpersonal human-forest relations
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Woodland stewardship and forestry
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Seasonal eating and seasonal foods
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Seasonal flora and fauna
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Ayurvedic Seasonal medicine
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Movement Harmony and Colour Therapy (Laban)
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Seasonal festivities, song and storytelling
ABOUT THE CAMP
LOCATION
COURSE TIMETABLE
CAMP ACTIVITIES
OUR APPROACH
TEACHERS
WHAT TO BRING
About the camp: Old Beards Wood, Fittleworth
The course will be taught from a hearth campsite at Old Beards Wood. Old Beards Wood is a seven acre mixed forest owned by National Trust ranger Lee Walther and forest school practitioner Emma Beard.
The camp is nestled in the ancient Greensand Ridge, in Sussex Downs National Park, in the country of the Weald. Old Beards is less than one hour's drive from Brighton and an hour and a half from London. The woods are surrounded by farmland and National Park protected areas.
The surrounding country is full of story and ancient human land use. Many flora and fauna thrive here.
Location
Old Beards Wood
Fittleworth
Pulborough
R20 1HS
Nearest rail station: Pulburough
About Learning with the Seasons
The health of forests and humans are entwined.
In this unique course and camp, we explore the importance of the turning seasons for our understanding of health and wellbeing. We learn how to change and transform our way of living by paying close attention to the cycles and rhythms of the seasonal land,
Seasons teach us how to live in harmony with the natural and ever-changing world. Learning with the seasons is a process of personal and communal transformation that will enliven your understanding of forest and human health. You will better understanding the rhythms of eating and fasting, work and rest, life and death.
Would you like to be a guardian of the seasons, and learn to protect our forest?
Camp Activities
The campsite will include a main hearth and group area with table and chairs protected by a parachute tent. You must bring your own tent and sleeping bag. Please tell us of any food allergies. No dogs are allowed.
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Woodland stewardship with Lee
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Laban Movement workshops with Nic
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Ayurveda medicine workshop with Mahesh
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Storytelling and Sensory journey with Emma
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Walk in the extraordinary Wynkcoombe Arboretum containing 600 species of rare trees from around the world
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Medicinal plants and seasonal eating with Sarah
How we learn
with the senses
We want to tune our senses to connect with other forest beings, in order to open our understanding to the natural and manmade changes affecting Old Beards woodland.
along the ages
We want to share time in the forest with people from across different ages, young and old, aligning the forest's seasons with the seasons of human life.
over time
We wish to connect with a particular place-- Old Beards Wood-- over different seasons, in order to understand the forest over a long period of time.
with poetry
We want to celebrate seasons with song, movement and story, drawing on memory and lore in order to connect with the seasonal land.
Sharon is an award-winning writer and internationally recognised author and teacher whose work sits at the interface of psychology, mythology and ecology. Her work is underpinned by the old myths and folk traditions of her native Britain and Ireland.
Emma Beard is a forest school expert, director of Wild in Washington, a trainee tracker and storyteller.
Lee Walther is a ranger, forester, and land expert working for the National Trust, also co-director of Wild in Washington.
Mahesh grew up as a tribal in Tamil Nadu, India. He trained in Ayurveda Medicine in a remote forest in India. He is currently a Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Nic is an award-winning action researcher, author and community builder from Santiago, Chile. He is the founder and director of Guardians Worldwide.
About the course teachers
DR SHARON BLACKIE
EMMA BEARD
LEE WALTHER
DR MAHESH MATHAPATI
DR NICOLAS SALAZAR SUTIL
What to bring to the camp
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Plate, bowl, cup and cutlery.
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Sleep system. Tent, hammock or bivvy bag.
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Mat, sleeping bag, blanket, pillow, hot water bottle if you need.
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Pencils, pens, pads
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Snacks
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Sit mat if you have one.
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Wellington boots as we have an area of wet woodland.
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Waterproofs and warm clothes and anything else you need to be comfortable.
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Clothes for the weekend and a towel.
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Torch
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Musical instruments if you wish.