Earth Time:
Into the Wild World
Saturday 18th April, 9:30am-3pm
Westerfolds Park, Melbourne
Photo by Max Roux
This is a one day 'taster event' on a similar theme to the 9-part series Earth Time: The Lost Art of Being Human.
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: Into 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.
The inspiration for this program comes as an exploration of questions such as: What does it mean to be human in an age of instant gratification? If I always use google maps to navigate, what opportunities to connect with the wild world are missed? If my only way to remember is to photograph, can I still learn to hold a place in my body? If my questions are always answered by the internet, how might I learn to listen to the voices of nature and synchronicity? If it is part of my humanness to use tools, what does it look like to do so consciously?
This course invites us to consider what right relationship to technology, and nature, look like in the 21st century. Through ancestral practices of deep nature connection, we will start to engage sacred, mutually beneficial ways of interacting with our natural world that are not extractive to the landscape or self-destructive to the human.
Over the course of the day, 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
learn psychospiritual and practical tools for more mindful engagement with technology
We will explore different nature connection practices as alternatives to a common app, such as:
Natural navigation and songlines (alternative to google maps)
Bird language, mimicry and multi-year mysteries (alternative to Merlin ID app or voice recorder)
Plant observation and drawing (alternative to plant ID app or camera)
Sense meditation and silence (alternative to scrolling)
Wandering with questions and intuitive tracking (alternative to googling)
PLUS: Making peace with your phone: physical and spiritual practices for befriending your pet rock
Program info
Saturday 18th April, 9:30-3pm, 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.
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.
Testimonials from Earth Time 2024
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
Cost:
EARLY BIRD (before Dec Mar 19): $95
Full price: $105
Or save $20 when you purchase both this program and Wild Belonging, a day-long nature connection introduction.
Book both this program and Wild Belonging, a day-long nature connection introduction for $185
Cancellation Policy
Refunds are available until 14 days before event starts, minus $25 admin fee.
Fewer than 14 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.