It is with great pleasure that the Native Awareness Team can announce our 2012 course schedule. We are especially excited about offering our family camp, The Native Family Experience, as this is how we initially began. It is with great anticipation that we can run this class and expand the Native Awareness community to the next generation. Over the next couple of months we may be able to introduce other new classes to the schedule. Watch this space!
The Earth Living Programme schedule is also available and we have been fortunate enough to begin to take bookings for this year long course. If you are interested in taking the Earth Living Programme then do please contact the office to guarantee your place.
As the festive season approaches some of you may be struggling for gift ideas. We cannot think of a better gift than that of sharing the woods with your family and friends. Native Awareness are pleased to announce that we sell Gift Vouchers to any value should you like to purchase one.
The Native Awareness team would like to thank you all for your support throughout 2011 and to wish you Seasons Greetings. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2012.
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Great anticipation is now present within the Native Awareness team due to the Native Skills 3 class that is to be run in October. We have the pleasure of John Lord's company as he will be passing on his experience with stone and other primitive tools on the class. For those who are not familiar with John, we believe he is the most respected flint knapper in the UK and James has known him for many years as John has helped him understand the art of knapping. In fact it was John who helped put Native Awareness on the internet by designing the first website. Each meeting with him and his wife Val brings many fascinating insights into our European prehistoric ancestors and how we can use their skills today.
James is very excited about teaching many new skills on Native Skills 3. As he states, from the first class you take with Native Awareness our vision is to enable people to walk out into the woods unaided and have the confidence to find resources and make tools directly from the natural world, allowing one to feel at home where ever they might be. Native Skills 3 is a hugely positive jump towards that.
It won't be long now until the 2012 schedule is published. We are presently working on the scheduling of the more unique classes. The usual main stream courses will be run as well as some of the more specialist. We will be running our first Native Skills 1 of next year in the late March or early April and are hoping to be teaching Native Gift in the spring as a thank you to you for your support for this year.
We have had many enquires about the Earth Living Programme and yes, as promised, we are running it in 2012. As for the main stream schedule we are also working a few dates out for the year programme. If you are interested in taking this class please contact us. We are in the fortunate position of having a list of students who want to take the class already so please let us know as we only have a certain amount of spaces available.
Last spring Native Awareness was asked to participate in a feature written by The BBC Country File Magazine. For the day we were joined by presenter Jules Hudson and photographer Rob Scott. We spent it giving them both a flavour of the skills that we teach at Native Awareness as well as discuss ideas about prehistoric Britain.
It was an enjoyable time even despite the frigid temperature. The day before the interview we went up to the Elmley Castle estate to set up camp. The hill was beautifully still and really quite warm for February. The next morning we had a northerly wind that blew the warmth out of us all. I tell you all this to apologies for how silly I look in my hat. It was so needed, but no one told me of the jaunty angle I was wearing it at! All jokes a side, it was great to meet Jules and Rob, they seemed to grasp what Native Awareness is about.
If you missed out on getting a copy of the article, you can read it on line on our articles page, http://www.nativeawareness.co.uk/articles/
We officially commence mainstream classes this year with Native Gift. In March we will be teaching one of our most anticipated classes. Native gift is as the title suggests, a Gift for those students who have taken Native Skills 1 and above. We very much appreciate the support of our students and so we only charge a minimum cost for this class; it also provides us with the opportunity to meet up with old friends from previous years and share skills. We whole heartedly encourage you to come and bring with you skills that you might be working on for others to see as well as to offer advice.
In May we are running two intensive classes as a back to back - a Fire day and Wild Food day. These two intensive classes are wonderful ways to introduce those who have yet to take a class with us, as well as friends and family of present Native Awareness students. It is also a great way to brush up on your knowledge if you need a little more practice with friction fire making. These classes stand alone but if you would like to take both, please feel free to camp on site. The classes will conclude at about 4pm on the first day so students will be asked to bring their own provisions for their evening meal and breakfast, lunch is of course provided.
At present I am re-arranging Native Skills 2 so that we can include even more crafts and information within it. If you have taken this class in previous years please feel free to come along as a volunteer and see the new ways we are going to be teaching these inspiring skills.
Native Skills 3 will be ran for the first time this year. I'm really excited about revealing the many secrets of making and using primitive tools. And for those who remember the fire making challenge in Native Skills 2... well in this class you will be privy to learning how to master and complete the challenge within minutes. During January and February a few more classes will be announced so please keep referring to our 2011 schedule.
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I believe that a large part of this year's success is a direct result of the venues which we have used. The owners of both Ravens Hill Woodland and the Elmley Castle Estate have been very supportive of the classes that we have run. The venues are abundant with wildlife which helps to make teaching nature studies a breeze. A couple of memorable moments include, seeing goshawks fly through camp at Ravens Hill and badgers and deer walking through the students' sit spots at Elmley Castle.
Camouflage, Native Scout, Vision Quest and Expanded Awareness were new to the schedule this year and they have surpassed our hopes. It was wonderful to see the way in which they enhanced the students' abilities in particular areas. They also generated a great sense of excitement in me as we have recognised just how we can develop other courses from them.
We are now half way through the first Earth Living Programme and it has been a great honour to work with the same group intimately for the last 6 months; this is especially due to the commitment which the students have shown, in relearning and preserving the skills of our ancestors. The dedication made by those who live in other areas of Europe to visit the UK so many times during the year must also be mentioned.
We are busy constructing next year's schedule which we hope to announce by the end of November. You will be pleased to know that we will be offering our core classes such as Native Skills 1 and 2, Native Scout etc but be prepared to see some surprises! For those interested in next year's Earth Living Programme, please contact the office as soon as possible so that we can begin to plan the programme in terms of dates and locations. At present we are not certain if we will run the programme annually or every other year. If the latter, Native Awareness will be able to commit the time to pursuing other projects in terms of its student offering. We do still have places open for the Bow Making class to be held in the November at Ravens Hill if any of you are interested.
Native Awareness is to spend this winter in the development of our online shop. The aim is to be able to provide a variety of goods such as flint knapping tools etc so that you can continue to practise the skills of our ancestors. We will of course let you all know when this is complete!
]]>This year started for Native Awareness as it did for many of us under a blanket of snow! The prolonged weather has been a gift for the study of tracking and I often think about the skills of survival when faced with extreme conditions.
It was whilst walking our dog, when conditions were at their worst, that I stopped and looked at my surroundings. At first the biting wind and drifts of snow made it hard for me to distinguish objects other than their shapes and textures. I thought to myself, what would I do if I got stranded? How would I survive these conditions? At first I looked across this bleak landscape seeing little salvation, but it only takes a slight change in attitude for one to realise that the earth will provide. I scanned the landscape again; I looked at the snow and saw shelter, insulation and water. I also looked deep into the hedges and found the old stalks of burdock and willow herb which meant, fire, tinder and cordage. The ground also revealed the tracks of deer, rabbit, fox and mice or as I thought...food!
The news at the time was filled with stories of people panic buying and how travel routes had come to a standstill. Troubling times indeed but it is good to know that we still have the ability to take care of our basic needs of shelter, water, fire and food.
Each January I like to reflect on the year before and consider the one ahead and as each year goes by I get more and more excited about the future of Native Awareness. I think this year will go down in the school's history as one being of the most significant in it's development.
In May we are to launch Earth Living, our twelve month programme. The team at Native Awareness are thrilled about offering this curriculum of learning and having the opportunity for continuous contact with a group of dedicated students. We are also looking forward to expanding on some of the subjects found in the mainstream courses as well as going into great depth with new and inspiring skills. If you are interested in the Earth Living programme we recommend you book as soon as you can as we are limiting the number of students attending.
Native Awareness is also offering a varied choice of mainstream courses and I'm particularly excited about Expanded Awareness. When I first began building the school, this course was one which I looked forward with great anticipation to teaching. I can't wait to further stretch the boundaries of our perceived senses. The Camouflage and Native Scout courses are also going to be ones to remember! For those who have taken classes before with us, I'm sure you can imagine the fun and excitement that we will have during these sessions!
Last but certainly not least, I would like to formally welcome Hana Jones to the Native Awareness team. Some of you may have met her during the 2009 Native Skills 1 and 2 back to back. For those who know her, I'm sure that you will agree with me, in that she is going to make a wonderful and extremely knowledgeable addition to the team.
I very much look forward to spending some time around the camp fire with you.
James
]]>The festive season is approaching and what better gift to give than to reconnect people with Nature. Why not make use of our voucher scheme. We can arrange vouchers to any sum of money for a course. This works as a great way to introduce your friends and family to Native Awareness or for them to help you pay for your continued study.
As a gift from us we will be giving a 10% discount on all festive vouchers. This means that if, for example, you purchase a £50 voucher, your total to pay will be £45 but the voucher will entitle you to £50 towards a course.
We are working towards releasing the 2010 schedule within the next couple of weeks as well as the course description and dates for our new and exciting year course. We at Native Awareness are so excited about 2010, and are looking forward to gathering around fires with familiar and new faces.
Sorry for the gap between news announcements but this summer has been absolutely jam packed for Native Awareness. We spent the school summer holidays teaching youngsters which covered many skills, from primitive camouflage, to creating a giant bow drill set! (see photo) It has been great seeing children returning to the woods to learn many of their ancestor's survival skills.
The tanning class was also quite an adventure. When it was planned we dreamt of beautiful sunshine with a gentle breeze, ideal for softening deer hides. When the class arrived we faced the worst tanning conditions, torrential rain. We actually had to postpone the class for half a day as lightning struck our camp, twice, one strike hitting only 40 feet from a student! It was a hair raising experience! We ploughed on and managed to get the hides softened with the aid of a wood burner in a spacious yurt.
A few weeks ago we ran Native Skills 1 and 2, back to back. I have to say that I feel deeply honoured to have helped create these classes, they were our finest to date! The level of community created and peoples growth, with their individual relationship with Nature, was staggering. The two classes also conveyed to us that Native Awareness students are ready for us to run more advanced classes.
One of our main discoveries was our students interest in us running a class of one year duration. Within the next couple of months the new schedule will be announced including the year course description. I'm presently writing the course and planning many exciting topics but would love to hear from you on what you would like to see in a year's worth of training.
For those graduates of Native Skills 1 and above, there are still a handful of places left on the Native Gift class in November. If you are intending to come to this class please will you reserve your place as soon as possible. We see this occasion as a gift to our committed students, therefore we have not asked for course fees, but only a small charge that covers costs. It's going to be quite a session! Leave the pegs at home!
Looking forward to being in the woods with you all once more,
James
]]>Due to the global financial instability that prevails, we are to run a free class for our committed students. It pains us to think such vital education is being sacrificed due to matters that are beyond our control. Time and time again we receive comments from folk who are struggling to make ends meet and who otherwise, would have joined us in the woods, to learn more of the ways of the Earth.
We at Native Awareness are so very committed to the passing on and preservation of the ancient wisdom and skills we feel this will help!
The Native Gift class 13-15 November,will be free of tuition fees! It will be run slightly differently to other Native Awareness courses. The teaching time will be over two days and will be self catering. This is to keep the costs down. We will only be charging a modest amount for camping and insurance, that we believe that all can afford. Unfortunately our financial aid will not apply to this course as it does with others, as your payment will go directly to covering the cost of the venue etc.
The course content will be diverse to say the least as they will be subjects that the instructors have been eager to teach, we will not be re teaching skills that you have had in the standard Native Awareness courses but are going to be sharing advanced skills and teachings.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
James
]]>Thank you to all who sent your answers into us concerning the last Natural Mystery Quiz and yes, it was a badger latrine!
For this month's quiz we thought we would like to ask something a little more challenging! This is a skull taken from a road kill, it measures approximately 60mm long and 35mm wide but to whom did it belong?
Please send your answers to: contact.
]]>Last month we ran the bow making class and in my mind the week was truly perfect. As we had great weather we scraped on wood in the deep heat of the sun and created some beautiful bows from native timbers. We also sinew backed, rawhide backed and snake skin backed three different bows. The week was jam packed and as always we had time to share many jokes and conversations. The company was excellent!
As we were packing up the owners of the venue, an American bison farm, informed us that sadly one of their calves had died that morning and they offered us the animal. As a group we set about skinning the calf and removing its sinew, we were all involved; holding a leg, peeling away the skin etc. It was a beautiful and fascinating time. The calf was only a couple of days old but was as big as a roe deer. Feathers and I have dedicated ourselves to turning the hide into something beautiful for the Native Awareness school, to mark the great gift and the short life of the calf.
After skinning the calf, Feathers and I were anticipating the tanning. The act of changing a fleshy wet hide into something beautifully soft is a life altering experience. The feeling experienced from wearing the hide cannot be explained with words. Feathers has been fantasising about a buckskin hoodie for some time, so we have decided to run a primitive tanning class next month. Not only are we going to be tanning deer hides into buckskin but we are also going to start scraping an adult bison skin which is an opportunity not to be missed!
Over the next few months Native Awareness is going to announce the new and exciting projects that we are moving towards, one being an apprenticeship program starting in 2010.
Thank you all for your support in these trouble financial times, and please know that if you need help with funding etc, we will do our utmost to assist you.
I look forward to spending time with you around the slow burning fires.
James
]]>Welcome to the new Native Awareness website. We are delighted with our new site and would like to give great thanks to student and friend Emily Heath and her partner, North, from Whitespace Design for creating it for us. We hope you enjoy navigating around it. There are now many more exciting pages to view.
I would like to mention a few new changes on our site. We now have things for you to get involved in. Each month we will have an item called Natural Mysteries. This will be a fun way to develop and test your eye as a tracker. We will display a photograph for you to interpret. This could be of a partial track, a feather, leaf etc. We will also be producing a monthly page called, What To Look Out For In The Woods. I know personally that when I started studying survival skills I would kick myself when, a month later, I realised that I'd missed the window of time when I could have harvested a resource or seen a natural mystery. We are hoping that this section will help keep you on track!
The next few years are going to be extremely exciting at Native Awareness. We intend to develop the school in numerous ways, to encourage people to find their way back to wilderness. There are great plans afoot! We will be writing a regular blog to keep you informed with the direction and news of Native Awareness.
We look forward to spending time with you around the camp fire.
James
This photograph was taken in March. The hole is approximately 15cm wide.
What created the hole and what lies within it?
Please send in your answers. Contact
]]>As do many, I find the beginning of a new year to be the ideal time to firstly review the previous year, then plan and develop new ideas based on what I have learned. Thinking back to 2008 and the courses run by Native Awareness, my abiding memory has been of the dedication to the old skills new and returning students brought with them to class. I am filled with enthusiasm when I receive emails and letters from students that are full of excitement about the new projects they are working on. Only recently a student came to dinner with a bag of wooden spoons, a beautiful length of rosebay willow herb cordage and a couple of deer hides he was working on. I could see in his work that he had not only made an eating utensil but also had created a work of art! What a great way to give thanks to the tree that they came from.
We have been so impressed with the abilities of our students throughout last year that we have both developed the existing classes as well as writing new ones. Due to popular demand we are to run a class entitled, Awareness. People have been amazed with the awareness exercises given in our introduction class, Native Skills 1. Imagine how far we can develop our awareness in a three day course!
The bow making class has been totally redesigned. Graduates well know that Native Awareness not only teach a skill but teaches the principles behind it. The new class is not only to build a bow but to fully understand the bow making process. We are, therefore, going to teach multiple bow design, long bows, flat bows, re curves and sinew/rawhide backed etc. This will allow participants to learn from each other's bows as well as create their own.
A first for Native Awareness and we think perhaps the UK, is that we are running a birch bark canoe course! We are fortunate to have friends in the USA who are professional, traditional, canoe makers. John will be coming over this summer to teach how to create a wonderful piece of art that symbolises the apex of earth living skills. We are presently tying up loose ends, so full details are not yet on the website. Of course, you will be the first to know!
We have many more plans to announce in due course, but must now tell you of an important way we intend to assist both previous and new students. We realise that due to the current financial climate, paying for classes may well be difficult, but at Native Awareness we intend to help as much as possible as we firmly believe that if a person has the passion for learning, nothing should prevent that. On our new website we are going to offer different payment schemes, recommendation discounts etc. If you would like information on this before the new website is launched, we would be happy to send you the details.
If you have had snow this winter, I hope you all got the opportunity to go tracking. I love tracking in the snow. To easily see the multiple species that were out and about is a great gift in developing ones tracking. For me it was also interesting to see what animal scent my dog was picking up on. It was great watching him follow with his nose the straight line of the fox and the random movement of rabbits.
This is going to be a great year and I look forward to spending time with you around the camp fire.
James
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