A show about relationships with the land
There are many ways to listen to the show: Listen live on CFRU 93.3 fm broadcasting from the University of Guelph Mondays at 6pm EST or listen to the podcast via Spotify, Apple, or just follow the rss feed.
Ep. 230 : In Conversation with Lisa Donahue
How do we aim to teach about a land which has been occupied through theft, displacement, war, and genocide? How can we say we work towards loving relationships with ourselves, with each other and the land when this is the past and present reality of the place we inhabit and the position of the states we are governed by?
I got to talk with a mentor, friend, and elder in my community, Lisa Donahue, about how we can struggle to do the work of bringing folks outside and teaching them alongside the land when the context is rife with harm. As always, Lisa shared from the heart with precision, passion and a poignant reckoning of the ongoing need to work towards justice, peace and good relations. I am so grateful for her wisdom, her humility and her care.
Ep. 210 : BIPOC Outdoor Gear Library
Over and over on this podcast (and through the blog) I have spoken to the need to be outdoors and the value for us emotionally, physically, spiritually and socially in participating with the wider wilder world around us. But when these opportunities are interrupted by white-supremacist narratives on who belongs outdoors, the BIPOC Outdoor Gear Library steps up and reminds us that everyone belongs outside!
BIPOC Outdoor Gear Library is a community-based lending library focused on providing access to outdoor equipment for the BIPOC communities of (so-called) Guelph and the surrounding areas. Their gear list includes snowshoes, kayaks, camp stoves, fishing poles, bikes, coolers, sleeping bags, and so much more. But it doesn’t end there. There are events like social hikes, yoga and meditation, archery, cross-country skiing outings, even an overnight camping and paddling weekend!
Ep. 197 : Sit Spots
It’s easy, pretty accessible and turns out to be a lot of fun and often full of learning. A sit spot, or magic spot, or secret spot or whatever else you might call it is simple. Just go find your sit spot, close to home, accessible and easy and then sit there, quietly.
Nature is everywhere, and we can notice it in all sorts of ways. Be it our balcony, backyard or a bench at the park. Find a spot you can go to reliably and find a nice place to sit.
Doesn’t really matter where you are even. Friends have done sit spots from their kitchen windows, from their prison cells, from balconies 9 stories up. It is an extremely valuable practice that I would wholly endorse to anyone seeking to learn more about the land.
Ep. 192 : Daniella Roze on the harm in our work
Daniella Roze lives this stuff. Seriously. She has spent years living off grid in a small community of folks learning how to live in closer connection with their land base out West. She has done month long adventures with a crew of women living with only the hides on their backs and whatever they could harvest from the land. She is also the founder, and was the former director and lead instructor at the Thriving Roots Wilderness School. Land based learner, educator, ecopsychologist, and PhD candidate, Daniella is well acquainted with the healing and possibility in the work of helping folks connect with the land, but she is also aware of the harms.
Together we discuss how can our nature based organizations work towards “justice” when we have blinders imposed by the dominant culture? When we replicate racist hiring practices, when we speak of the land in ways that erase the indigenous histories of the places where we work? How can we do the work to be more equitable, inclusive and welcoming to black, indigenous and other folks of colour?
Ep. 190 : Jenna Rudolph on the harm in our work
Jenna Rudolph has been running an nature school on unceded territories on the West coat of the continent. What does it mean to support students in developing connections to a land base that is stolen from indigenous people? It would be easy to shy away from the question, as many have for so long, but Jenna and her colleagues at Soaring Eagle Nature School are trying to explore this question directly, with humility, patience and deep care.
Ep. 184 : Nature Guelph
Nature Guelph was established in 1966 and since then has been promoting connection with the lands in and around the city I now call home. I have been attending their events for years, always drawn in by their knowledgeable speakers and presenters and great community. It has been a hub for naturalists in Guelph and I have been so lucky to get to know the broader community of humans and non-humans through their efforts.
Ep. 146 : Sophie Mazowita of Tracking Connections
The first show of 2021 is a great one. My guest is Sophie Mazowita, naturalist, educator, wildlife guide, tracker, storyteller and much more. We talk about her journey as a naturalist and a tracker, how she gets off the trail and gets into the wilder world around her.
When I talk to folks about creating cultures of connection with the land, putting in the time, effort and passion into the work of learning ourselves and teaching others, Sophie is right on that. She has been working hard, as evidenced all over the internet with her videos, her career as a naturalist and educator, and her ongoing work getting folks on board with paying attention to the wilder world around them.
Queer Nature (from the archives)
Danielle and I speak with Pinar and So of Queer Nature about how it might look feel and be to queer and decolonize our understandings of who we are in connection with the places we live. How can we interrupt the dominant narrative of ecologies viewed through the lenses of heterocentric, capitalist, white supremacis colonial narratives? Does the land make space for divergent identities, life ways and lifeforms? How do we as queer folks who seek to learn more about ancestral skills and the land bases we live on practice on lands we may not be ancestrally connected to?
Originally aired April 9th, 2018.
Prison Connections (from the archives)
Sometimes it is hard to find ways to connect with the landbase in our daily lives but imagine how it might be trying to challenge this disconnect while locked up?
Prisons are terrible places that don't really do much towards healing. They really just replicate the ways our culture hurts us. But there are renegades. Today we hear some of those stories.
Originally aired January 16, 2017.
Other platforms where you can listen to the show :
As well as : Breaker : Overcast : Pocket casts : RadioPublic