Rewilding the Urban Soul

We’re a famously nature-loving nation, yet 86 per cent of Australians call the city home. Amid the concrete and the busyness, how can we also answer the call of the wild?

Once upon a time, a burnt-out Claire Dunn spent a year living off the grid in a wilderness survival program. Yet love and the possibilities of human connection drew her back to the city, where she soon found herself as overscheduled, addicted to her phone, and lost in IKEA as the rest of us. Given all the city offers — comfort, convenience, community, and opportunity — she wants to stay. But to do so, she’ll have to learn how to rewild her own urban soul.

Join Claire as she sits by and swims in the brown waters of the Yarra River, forages for undomesticated food in the suburbs, and explores many other practices in a quest for connection. To make our human hearts whole, she realises, we’ve all got to pay attention and learn to belong to our cities — our land. This is where change begins. For ourselves and for the world.

‘Looking for what’s untamed and true, but you’re ensconced in the city? No need to leave town. The wild is all around you — and in you, and as you — and you could not have a more seasoned, engaging, or big-hearted guide than Claire Dunn, she who has devoted years to wandering trail, thicket, and waterway, as well as the urban wilds. No matter your address, this deeply wise and spellbinding book is your portal out of the Matrix and into the Real, into the windswept world as beloved, into the mysteries of both nature and your own psyche, a siren’s song you cannot afford to resist.’

RICHARD LOUV, AUTHOR OF OUR WILD CALLING AND LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS

‘Love makes us move to the city. Duty makes us stay. But how do we create a livable habitat for our bodies and spirits and relations in these murderous places? You might find the answer in this book.’

TYSON YUNKAPORTA, AUTHOR OF SAND TALK

‘In this beautifully written book, Claire Dunn encourages the reader to welcome back the fox woman with her untameable pelt and unfamiliar woody scent, to cherish numinous encounters, to fall in love with the world, to be enchanted once again. She inspires the possibility to wildness, both inner and outer, for all those living within city limits and beyond. Rewilding the Urban Soul will stir people’s souls, for sure.’

MIRIAM LANCEWOOD, AUTHOR OF WOMAN IN THE WILDERNESS AND WILD AT HEART

‘Claire Dunn, author of the classic My Year Without Matches, takes her next step into rewilding — the process of waking to the sit spot we call Earth. Even in cities, where the majority of people now live, we can still become indigenous to our universe. I was deeply moved by the eloquence of each page and the soul that fuels her words.’

BILL PLOTKIN, AUTHOR OF SOULCRAFT, WILD MIND, AND THE JOURNEY OF SOUL INITIATION

In Rewilding the Urban Soul, Claire asks an important question, “How can I expect us to fall in love with the world in the way that’s so needed if it’s dependent on going bush for a year? No, it has to be possible, right where we are.” A cliffhanger from that point on, Claire’s wonderful storytelling, research, and perspectives make it clear it’s not only possible, but it’s incredibly healing and fun! This book is essential for our times.’

JON YOUNG, AUTHOR OF COYOTE’S GUIDE TO CONNECTING WITH NATURE AND WHAT THE ROBIN KNOWS