Week 7 winter quarter

Week 7 was predominately focused on putting together the final pieces to the report back. Together and Heron and I gathered the materials to make seed balls, compost and clay and then had our interview on The Free school radio show. We discussed going to EAT and our new perspective in light of it. We were asked the question. "With the amount of environmental degradation and world market we have set up in our current system do you think it is possible to heal the land and have enough resource for everyone in the USA?" my answer was yes! and more. One thing I learned at EAT was how easy it could be to change the world just by changing your mentality to it. Instead of seeing chemically treated grass, yard after yard, imagine each green square as a garden providing most of the nutrition for the family that lives there. In cities imagine it being mandatory to install rain water catchments and food forests on the tops of buildings. There is no scarcity of land and human power in the USA to provide for the needs of all of its citizens and share the abundance with neighbors. As for the toxic soils from chemical and mono-crop farming, I learned how possible it is to restore damaged land naturally and create a diverse eco-system once again. Knowing these tools gives me hope that we can get out of this mechanistic thinking and start seeing the land and nature as alive and something we want to care for because we are part of it and we feel healthy when it is healthy.

I spent the rest of the week imaging more ideas for my art installation and gathering materials for building the labyrinth. My goal for next week is to create a flyer to invite people to see it and start crafting the sprouted figures for the center of the installation. After watching many art 21 video interviews I have decided to take some inspiration from Kiki Smith's work and create something in honor of the witches that burned in Europe during the witch trials. I think that this is very relevant to my work at EAT and is an honor to my elders and mentors in earth based spirituality. The piece is not quiet done in my head but I think it will be a good start to a greater idea.

I spent this weekend at the "Wilderness Re-Wilding Skill-Share" In Bellingham Washington. This was a camp out on a friends land where 50 people taught each other skills related to living simply with nature and learning different ways of connecting to the land. It was a fun weekend of doing sensory awareness exercises, playing games, learning how to identify winter twigs, I will take this knowledge back to my secret spot and I.D. the trees and shrubs there, making fermented food for preservation, tracking, making fire with a bow drill and trapping. Overall I had a sweet time being there and feeling like I have the skills to live a simpler life in connection with the land. I felt especially empowered by the bow drill workshop, this technique allows you to make fires with materials you find in the woods and not use matches. I want to practice this more when the weather warms and I can start camping again.