Retreats


Our retreats create the most immersive learning spaces for developing new, meaningful practice.

Live it.

Learn how our perception of the world is formed and where ethnoecology enables us to develop meaningful relationships with the more-than-human.

Learn it.

Develop an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of ethnoecology. Recognise its role, methodology and impacts.

Grow it.

Adopt a practice towards community-based conservation and sustainability, around how we experience, understand, and relate to the natural world.

Join A Retreat

Our retreats are based around the important notion of ‘research’. We have prepared a series of workshops during the course of the retreat to help you extend into a new direction for your practice.

Our goal is to create both an experiential and experimental space in which we learn new approaches to our practice. Not only will we have discussions, but we will explore local places, interact with local communities, as well as develop mini-research projects to conduct during our time together.

During the retreat, we will also form a Community of Practice that will continue long after the retreat has ended. This will create an ongoing hub for you to check back in with and explore further elements of ethnoecology linked practice.

All of our retreats include the following;

  • ✓ PRE-RETREAT MENTORING WORKSHOP

  • ✓ PRE-RETREAT ONLINE COURSE

  • ✓ PRE-RETREAT PREPARATION WORKSHOP

  • ✓ TEAM OF SPECIALIST RESEARCHERS AND PRACTITIONERS

  • ✓ CURATED GROUP OF MAX. 12 PARTICIPANTS

  • ✓ 3 DAYS OF IMMERSION WITHIN A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

  • ✓ RESEARCH-INFORMED AND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING BASED

  • ✓ NOURISHING ORGANIC VEGAN MEALS

  • ✓ POST-RETREAT INTEGRATION WORKSHOP

  • ✓ POST-RETREAT MENTORING WORKSHOP

Upcoming Retreats

Place-responsive Practice

Develop your practice to include how communities recognise, share and act upon their relationship with ‘place’. Learn to understand the rich and diverse ways the land has meaning through various methods. Discover how to create value-driven conservation and sustainability by including human and non-human communities that share the Land.

  • Place-based identity - recognising the role of the land for communities.

    “Ethnoscape” - investigating how perceptions of place inform a sense of place.

    Watersheds - identifying the role of catchment areas in bioregionalism.

    Multispecies - recognising the importance of connecting with other species within watersheds.

    Materiality - examining the relationships between people and the affordances of the land.

    Guest facilitator topic - TBC.

  • Dorm room (with option camping or yurts nearby)

  • Understand deeply held perceptions of the local environment.

    Learn how to support the sharing of a community’s ‘sense-of-place’.

    Create meaningful conversations and explore place-based identity.

    Discover how materials, other beings and the Land influence the human experience of ‘place’.

    Learn fun and insightful approaches to exploring ‘place’.

    Develop a Theory of Change based practice that recognises and includes ‘place’ as an important consideration.

Movement and Place

Delve into understanding how movement shapes how we experience the world. Learn how to recognise the conversations between people and places towards a more profound sense of how places are ‘embodied’. Learn how to use movement to change perceptions of and relationships with the natural world.

  • Walking - being transgressive and bimbling towards ‘place’.

    Embodiment - understanding how we ‘embody’ the world.

    Intimacy - recognising the role of the senses in how we perceive the world.

    Perceptions - exploring how place changes along with viewpoint.

    Project Visit - a trip to experience how movement is used to explore ‘place’.

    Guest facilitator topic - TBC.

  • Group Accommodation (with local alternative options)

  • Understand deeply held perceptions of the local environment.

    Learn how to support the sharing of a community’s ‘sense-of-place’.

    Create meaningful conversations and explore place-based identity.

    Discover how movement shapes experiences and perceptions.

    Recognise how movement is a route to influence ethnoecology practice.

    Develop a Theory of Change based practice that recognises and includes ‘place’ as an essential consideration.

Urban Ethnoecology

Learn to read and interpret urban spaces and observe the layering of human and non-human design that co-create places. Discover how to recognise the many roles that green spaces play within communities. Develop how approaches such as urban foraging can radically change how urban spaces are perceived.

  • Psychogeography - using prompts to re-discover landscapes.

    Green Spaces - ‘spaces’ as multiple ‘places’.

    Urban Foraging - exploring the affordances of the city.

    Multispecies - exploring how we share spaces with other beings.

    Project Visit - visiting a local project to learn about their ethnoecology.

    Guest facilitator topic - TBC

  • Group Accommodation (with local alternative options)

  • Understand deeply held perceptions of the local environment.

    Learn how to support the sharing of a community’s ‘sense-of-place’.

    Create meaningful conversations and explore place-based identity.

    Discover how urban spaces layer human and non-human ‘places’.

    Recognise how urban spaces create unique opportunities for ethnoecology.

    Develop a Theory of Change based practice that recognises and includes ‘place’ as an essential consideration.

Place-TEK.

Learn how deep kinship can be nurtured by considering the natural materials within your watershed. Develop an understanding of how traditional skills and knowledge can foster a tacit and embodied relationship with the more-than-human world.

  • Craft - experience tacit and embodied lifeways.

    Kinship - recognising how multispecies geographies emerge.

    Place - discover how watersheds connect communities within the land.

    TEK - learn the foundations of subsistence living.

    Guest facilitator topic - TBC.

  • Group Camping (with local alternative options)

  • Recognise the role of materials in creating ‘place’.

    Understand the role of kinship and regenerative futures.

    Identify how watersheds define the ecoscape.

    Develop an understanding of the role of TEK in forming kinship.

    Guest facilitator topic - TBC.

Borderlands

Explore how we can weave animal biosemiotics and multispecies communities into new ethnoecological practices. Learn the art of tracking and explore how this changes how we consider ‘place’, ideas of dwelling and personhood.

  • Tracking - learn to trail other species and read their stories.

    Biosemiotics - recognise how signs and meaning are perceived.

    Geographies - explore the layering of multispecies lifeways.

    Place - understand the different kinds of places and how they are created.

    Dwelling - discover a different form of living ‘with’ the land.

    Personhood - explore different perceptions regarding what is living and has agency.

    Guest facilitator topic - TBC.

  • Group Camping (with local alternative options)

  • Be able to trail various species and understand the signs they leave.

    Understand different forms of communication amongst different species.

    Read the geographies of other species within shared places.

    Experience living amongst a multispecies community.

    Recognise the role of place in developing personhood and ‘self’.

    Guest facilitator topic - TBC.

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A research-based organisation specialising in understanding culture and its relationship to sustainable futures.

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