Earth Time:
Choosing the Wild World
Saturdays 22nd, 29th August, 5th September, 9:30am-3:30pm
Westerfolds Park, Melbourne
Photo by @LENSOFORION
I’ve reconfigured the 9-part series Earth Time: The Lost Art of Being Human into 3 full-day events. The program works best if attended as a whole series, but sessions can be attended individually.
What is it to live an unmediated life? A life in direct contact with the physical, wild world, rather than through the intermediary of our devices?
Earth Time: Choosing the Wild World is an invitation to step out of screen life and into real life. Into the wild, sensual and fascinating world of nature, humans, and real connection. Here we awaken our ancient capacities for intuition, enchantment, adventure, discovery, wonder, joy, and the beauty of small things.
Photo by @LENSOFORION
This program is born of both a sadness that some of our ancient capabilities are being lost, and a passion to reclaim them. We explore such questions as: Rather than always use google maps to navigate, how might we create connections with the wild world to help us find our way? What other avenues are available to remember, integrate and embody significant moments and places and beings, than photographing or recording them? How might we learn to listen to the voices of nature and synchronicity when we have questions, and not always need to ask the internet? If it is part of our humanness to use tools, what does it look like to be in right relationship with them?
And so, through ancestral practices of deep nature connection, rewilding, deep listening and curiosity, we will start to engage in sacred, mutually beneficial ways of interacting with our natural world that are neither extractive to the landscape nor self-destructive to the human, but regenerative, restorative and enlivening.
Photo by @LENSOFORION
Over the course of the series, we will:
build slow connections with real beings, human and non-human
open our senses, including our intuition
practice routines of nature observation and awareness that root us deeply in place and time
allow life to be an adventure
learn skills to replace reliance on apps and enable more time offline
PLUS: Making peace with your phone: physical and spiritual practices for befriending your pet rock
Week 1: August 22nd: Getting out in the world without a phone:
Enchanting ways to navigate, understand what’s happening in the natural world and remember things without photographing or recording them.
Apps we will replace: Maps, Camera, Sound recorder, Bird ID apps, Plant ID apps.
Week 2: August 29th: Entertainment and stillness without a phone:
Make and play your own instruments. Explore what keeps you tethered to the rectangle. Love the world again.
Apps we replace: Spotify, Soundcloud, Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok
Week 3: September 5th: Restoring awareness and intuition:
What might you be losing if you always ask Google? Reconnect with the part of you that already knows.
Apps we replace: Google search, Youtube, ChatGPT, Phone torch.
Program info
Saturdays 22nd August, 29th August and 5th September. 9:30-3:30pm, Westerfolds Park
This is for adults or older teenagers. Babes in arms welcome.
Please arrive from 9:20am as we will start promptly at 9:30am.
FAQ:
Do I have to book?
Yes! To avoid disappointment, please book in advance.
I am a complete beginner, should I still come?
Yes! All levels of experience are welcome.
Can sessions be attended individually?
Yes! Each day is a full journey in itself.
Facilitator
Emily Coats
Emily Coats has been with Nature’s Apprentice since 2021 and is a facilitator of deep nature connection practices, ancestral skills and soulcentric nature-based ceremony. Recently returned from seven months alone in the wild, she brings passion for practices that awaken full sensory awareness, quieten the mind, and enliven body and Soul, and feels that a reweaving of these capabilities back into our culture is essential medicine for these times in which we live. Emily's teachers include master tracker Tom Brown Junior, nature connection expert Jon Young and Australian bird language teacher Andrew Turbill, as well as Nature's Apprentice founder Claire Dunn, who set her on this path some seven years ago.
Emily has a complex relationship with technology, having previously worked as a policy analyst researching a circular economy for consumer electronics, and as a software developer in a renewable energy company. She is an advocate of open-source software, a Linux user since 2010, and yet even as a programmer, never liked computers and wished she could write her code with pen and paper. Emily was also co-director of the UK Tar Sands Network, a grassroots organisation partnering with First Nations Canadians battling oil developments on their lands. Emily has a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and a MSc in Nature, Society and Environmental Policy, both from the University of Oxford. More recently she has completed an Advanced Diploma of Transpersonal Counselling, and is a trained Vision Quest Guide.
Photo by @LENSOFORION
Testimonials from previous Earth Time programs
“I am taking away soo much from Earth time with Emily! Earth time has deepened my connection with nature and helped me build a healthier relationship with my phone. Thank you Emily for facilitating the group so beautifully with your incredible knowledge and awareness of the natural world.”
—Bella, 2026
“This was one of those rare days where you completely lose track of everything else and just get to be present. I came away feeling calm, more grounded and with a real sense of connection - to nature, to myself and to a group of people I'd never met before. Emily and the volunteers created such a welcoming environment, and every activity felt thoughtful and purposeful. Emily's depth of knowledge was evident, but what I appreciated most was how she shared not only her own experience, but also the wisdom and teachings she'd gathered from others. I genuinely can't recommend it highly enough.”
—Shan Maxwell, 2026
“Emily is a great guide into undoing the snagged mess that my relationship with my phone has become.”
—Clare McDonald, 2026
“Emily has a deep knowing and understanding of the land. Her expertise in the natural environment and the means to engage organically are extraordinary. I’m pleased her guidance has led me to the profound wisdom within nature alongside the ways to continue my rewilding journey.”
—Paula Saltalamacchia, 2024
“Earth Time was a powerfully embodied learning experience. I was guided into new ways of tuning deeply inwards while at the same time strengthening my connection to the living world, with all of my senses. Our facilitator Emily (a remarkably embodied and perceptive storyteller) generously shared with us myriad ways to further belong and be in right relations with nature as a lifelong orientation, in a way that is grounded in wisdom.”
—Kim Lam, 2024
“Thank you Nature's Apprentice and Emily for sharing your knowledge and wisdom helping us to connect deeper to the more than human world with our senses, weaving in the power of these skills with imagining and intuiting you have provided a powerful container to help us reconnect to the wild anywhere we find ourselves.”
—Rosie, 2024
“Earth Time was sacred, and helped to bring the magic of nature into my busy urban life. I highly recommend this, especially if you are one who doesn't feel like you have time for this.”
—Belinda, 2024
“I signed up to this because I wanted support to connect to nature more than I was doing on my own. I got that in spades, as well as connection to a like minded group of people who also inform and inspire me in their own ways… I've been able to engage more with nature in my regular life, even as the cold of winter has descended!”
—Rachel Bucknall, 2024
“Thank you Emily.
For creating space, holding space.
For sharing and receiving.
For being so generous with yourself, your knowledge and your heart.
Thank you.”
—Samantha Patterson, 2024
“I always go home from rewilding activities feeling warm and nourished. It’s so nice to meet people who share similar yearnings. One of the group activities gave me a full on belly laugh - such joy. Plus a tree we met almost moved me to tears. Such a day 🌻”
—Peta Keown, 2026
“Highly recommend if you’re looking to connect more deeply with yourself and the world around you and develop curiosities about things you didn’t even know you might have had.”
—2026 participant
Photo by @LENSOFORION
Cost:
Three sessions (early bird up to August 3rd): $225
Three sessions (after August 3rd): $240
Two sessions: $185
Single session: $105
Or attend sessions individually
Cancellation Policy
Refunds are available until 7 days before event starts, minus $25 admin fee.
Fewer than 7 days before event, refunds are not available, unless your place can be filled from the waiting list, which will incur a $50 late cancellation fee.
If you can no longer make it you may onsell or gift your ticket at no extra cost. Please let us know the name and email address of the person who will be taking your place.
Note that there are a number of scams on facebook at the moment with people pretending to sell tickets. Please only buy tickets through the Nature's Apprentice website or from someone you know.