Episode 10: The Choice to Re-Wild (with Claire Dunn)

This one’s a treat for you lovers of wild lands, you who are curious about wilderness survival, my dreamers and dreamworkers, and anyone seeking out their path in a world of so many possibilities, and so many needs.

I knew that in conversation with Claire Dunn – who lived alone in the bush for a year, spent almost a decade in grassroots environmental activism, has authored two books, and facilitates vision quests, re-wilding, and the Work that Reconnects – there would be so many directions we might go. And that was even before I found out she loves dreamwork.

Though our time went by quickly, it was a delight to find such depth and richness in our wander. Click Play above to hear us talk about:

• what Claire loves (there are flying foxes…) and what breaks her heart 
• her path from childhood on a farm, to an eco-awakening as a young adult, becoming an activist, and then devoting herself to re-wilding
• the choice to change her focus from “holding actions” (protecting forest and marine ecosystems) to “shift in consciousness” work
• Claire’s time in the bush, practicing the skills of survival, and surrendering to the unknown
• a recent dream of mine (and being “enlivened by uncertainty”)
• and how healing the rift between ourselves and the more-than-human world brings each of us into deeper contact with ourselves, fostering “a culture of initiated adults” who can bring their own gifts to the world.

Claire Dunn is a writer, speaker, barefoot explorer, rewilding facilitator and founder of Nature’s Apprentice. Claire is passionate about human rewilding and believes that a reclaiming of our ecological selves and belonging is key to regenerating wildness on the planet. For the last 15 years, Claire has been facilitating individuals to dive deeply into the mysteries of nature and psyche through the pathways of deep nature connection, ancestral earth skills, deep ecology, ecopsychology, soulcentric nature-based practice, village building, dance, ceremony and contemporary wilderness rites-of-passage. Claire is the author of memoir My Year Without Matches, which tells the story of her year living wild. Her soon to be released memoir Rewilding the Urban Soul explores how we might embody wild consciousness within a modern city context. Claire lives in Melbourne where she lovingly tends her garden, community and her own wild heart.

Connect with Claire on her website: https://www.naturesapprentice.com.au/

Check out Claire’s books in the Turning Season Bookshop:

And the books by Bill Plotkin that Claire mentions in this episode:

Music by East Forest.