Courses

Earth Living - 12 Month Programme

• Prerequisite: None
• Duration: 12 months
• Cost: £2200

This course is designed to enhance and expand on the skills taught in Native Skills 1 and 2 as well as teaching new and advanced skills. It is for those who are committed to immersing themselves in the subjects of primitive survival, tracking and awareness. Each session will focus extensively on a subject and we will be concentrating on implementing these skills into our everyday lives. The course will be very experiential, as our aim is for the students to come away with not just vast knowledge but also the ability to use it.

The programme spans the four seasons of the year with ten structured sessions and three online seminars. The ten sessions will vary in duration, ranging from two days to a seven day class. Throughout the year there will also be an element of supported self-study available to enhance the student's survival skills and naturalist studies.  We will be encouraging students along the way with a private Earth Living Programme forum.

Below is the basic outline of the programme. There will be additional topics included and the subject matter may vary slightly. Two of the sessions, those of Tracking and Camouflage are open to other advanced Native Awareness students. We feel that this is a good way to keep you involved with the other mainstream students and for them to be inspired and learn from your experience.

Advanced Skills 1

Date 20^th - 22^nd April 2012

Duration 3 days

Topics covered (50% of these topics are covered in Advanced Skills 1 and the remaining 50% in Advanced Skills 2)

• Pottery
• Advanced friction fire
• Weaponry
• Cordage
• Caretaker
• Crafts
• Baskets -  coil, withy, bark
• Wet scrape buckskin
• Awareness

 

Tracking (Guest Instructor, Bill Mcconnell) 

Date 28^th May - 01^st June 2012

Duration 5 days

Topics covered

• The Sacred Question
• Macro and Micro pressure releases
• Track ageing
• Night Tracking
• Tracking as a group at speed
• Track ageing
• The Tracking stick
• Energy Tracking

 

Flint Knapping (Guest Instructor, Bill Mcconnell) 

Date 02^nd - 03^rd June 2012

Duration 2 Days

Topics covered

• Stone tool production
• Pressure flaking
• Percussion flaking

 

Camouflage and Awareness

Date 13^th - 15^th July 2012

Duration 3 days

Topics covered

• Primitive- earth pigments
• Clothing
• Night time/ day time camouflage
• Mental and spiritual camouflage
• Positive, negative space
• Movement, animal forms, mimicry etc

 

Wild Food

Date 25^th - 27^th August 2012

Duration 3 days

Topics covered

• Water collection, purification
• Edible/ medicinal plants
• Jerky
• Pemmican
• Deer butchery
• Aboriginal cooking
• Storage

 

Physical and Mental Conditioning for Survival

Date 05^th - 07^th October 2012

Duration 3 days

Topics covered

• Stalking and movement
• Survival challenges
• Awareness

 

Traps

Date 16^th - 18^th November 2012

Duration 3 days

Topics covered

• Ethics
• Advanced traps
• Baiting

 

Online Sessions

December 2012 - February 2013

The winter months are a quiet time and one for reflection. We encourage our students to use them to perfect the skills that they have thus far acquired on the Earth Living Programme. To aid this development, to maintain motivation and to provide our students with even more information, we are offering three monthly online sessions using video link.

 

Advanced Shelter and Camp Crafts

Date 22^nd - 24^th February 2013

Duration 3 days

Topics covered

• Group shelters
• Fire lays
• Bedding
• Primitive lighting

 

Advanced Skills 2

Date 05^th - 07^th April 2013

Duration 3 days

Topics covered (Some of these skills will be covered in Advanced Skills 1)

• Pottery
• Advanced, friction fire
• Weaponry
• Cordage
• Caretaker
• Crafts
• Baskets -  coil, withy, bark
• Primitive lighting
• Wet scrape buckskin
• Awareness

 

Survival Immersion

Date 06^th - 12^th May

Duration 7 days

The climax of the class will be the Survival Immersion and this will be a time to test the skills that the students have developed. The majority of the week will be focused on the students going out onto the landscape as a small tribe. They will carry with them very little equipment apart from the tools, crafts and provisions that they have made during the year.  The Survival Immersion will also be a celebration of their journey during the year.

 

Prerequisite

The prerequisite for this course is Native Skills 2 but we permit Native Skills 1 students to attend if they make the commitment to take Native Skills 2 within 2012.

To Apply

Please fill out the standard application form as well as completing a short letter outlining your reasons for wanting to take the class. Within this letter please remark on what brought you to want to learn the skills as well as your hopes for the course.  We ask for a deposit of £400 before the course starts in April 2012 and we can arrange for the remainder of the course fee to be paid in instalments during the course.

For those who take the Earth Living programme we offer generous concession on other classes within the year.