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Nature Apprenticeship Program
Learning from Nature’s University with WENA
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Table of Contents
Introduction
How does it work?
The Role of Parents
Evaluation
How to Apply
2013 Schedule
Helping people to develop a long-term relationship with nature is one of the main goals of Whole Earth Nature School. In traditional cultures the knowledge of how to live was passed down from generation to generation through mentoring from the community elders as well as all the aunts, uncles, and neighbors that were part of a young person’s life. The youth were allowed to explore and discover on their own. They wandered, experimented, made mistakes, and sometimes got hurt. But they came home to a community of mentors that listened to their stories, asked them questions, and encouraged them to keep discovering and learning. Today many young people don’t have those mentors in their lives. In fact many young people never take the chance to go exploring on their own or to make their own mistakes.
We call it the Whole Earth Nature Apprentice program, or simply WENA (pronounced way-nuh). In the Sotho language of South Africa, “Wena” means “You.” This is a perfect description of what this program is entirely about: You and your desires for your own growth in nature connection and skills. WENA seeks to recreate the way that we used to learn. We created this program to give kids who are passionate about nature and indigenous living skills an opportunity to pursue that passion with the support of a skilled mentor. Students may decide to pursue interests such as animal tracking, basketry and fiber arts, archery and bowmaking, bird language, survival skills, herbalism, or virtually anything else in the realm of nature and bushcraft skills. Apprentices will be given the guidance to choose whatever skills they are most passionate about developing and the support to pursue those skills to the highest level.
“He told his Uncle Steve that he hangs out with this ‘really cool guy named Rees’ and he knows everything about the outdoors. And he gave him the whole rundown about where the philosophy for Whole Earth Nature School came from and how Rees and Matt and Anna slept on the ground and studied and experienced the outdoors in so many ways, etc. etc. Max obviously loved telling his uncle about each of his camping trips and Big Bear Village camp and everything that he has learned. Steve told me later that he was really impressed with everything that Max was learning and how we were able to get him so connected to the outdoors while living in Eugene. Thanks for everything you all do