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.
“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.”
“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.’”
