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Wisdom for Wildlings Worldwide
THE WILDLING TRIBE
An in person and virtual alternative and autonomous learning community advocating for educational freedom
FIND US ON FACEBOOK YOUTUBE AND INSTAGRAM
The WISDOM OF WILDLINGS
Children are blessed with an innate desire to learn even from before they are born. The insatiable curiosity with which they experience the world from birth is not something that has to change as they grow. Modern education is set up with such a narrow set of success criteria, it allows no room for burning curiosity and the desire to experience rather than “be told”. Not even room to "have an idea" said one child! Children are born with a “blueprint” of ancestral wisdom deep within their psyche, generational knowledge somewhere deep in their subconscious, waiting to be awakened. These two factors shaped the way we designed The Wildling Tribe to be experiential and exploratory, driven by children’s inner knowing and innate desire to learn, explore and experience. While our sessions and award program do have necessary structure, we advocate for autonomous and self-directed learning experiences and so mentorship is at the forefront of what we do, rather than instruction. We aim to support children to foster self-awareness, a connection to each other and our planet and a sense of belonging and self-worth which is why we employ a holistic approach to all we deliver.
Keeping the wisdom alive
Wisdom preserved unchanged for generations passed down through stories and in tribes is in danger of disappearing forever through lack of connection and separation from self, each other and our beautiful planet. As societal systems start to crumble and fall, we believe that now is the time to not only imagine a more beautiful world, but to support our children to develop the skills, awareness, wisdom and confidence to create that world for themselves. We aim to build a bridge to wisdom and knowledge perhaps initially passed on around a crackling campfire as a wise old woman showed her grandchildren how to cook foraged food and weave baskets, or from an elder to his apprentice as he gathered plants to make medicine for his tribe. We hope to instil deep gratitude, empathy and appreciation of and for the world around us into the heart and soul of every child we are fortunate enough to meet! After all, we are sure you will agree that our children are the most precious gifts of all. Let's give our kids a chance to create the more beautiful world we all know is possible.
How it all started
The concept of the tribe was conceived many moons ago, when I returned to the UK after spending the first quarter of my life travelling the world and noticed that there was something different about life in the UK. It felt less connected, people were isolated from each other, and children seemed to be disconnected from themselves, each other and the world around them. After running outdoor sessions and events in the local area for a number of years, and working with families in the community who struggle to attend mainstream school for a number of reasons, I was lucky enough to be offered the lease of a small patch of disused woodland on the outskirts of Liskeard in South East Cornwall in May 2024. We held our first event that month, a Survivor event, surrounded by 6 foot high nettles and brambles and the kids loved it! A small group of home educating families then started to attend our Wisdom Seeker sessions and with lots of clearing, rubbish removal and hard work, the Tribe Woods started to come to life! I didn't want a manicured woodland with ready made facilities, a car park and no convenient bus routes - I wanted the Tribe Woods and our sessions and events to be accessible to everyone, even those who relied on public transport. At the beginning our sessions were really rough and ready with just a tarp, no seating and food prep was mainly on the ground but slowly the Tribe started to grow and Wildlings and their families started to take ownership and make the woods their own. We installed hammocks, swings and a platform, Wildlings helped us discover paths, making sure we left at least 80% of the woodland untouched so as not to damage delicate ecosystems. We found that we have not only a family of foxes, but a family of deer who kindly let us use part of their woodland and hope to soon install trail cams to capture footage of some of the wildlife we share the woods with! We put up a zip line at the edge of the woods which is popular with all who visit us and have started making a learning food forest, where we can grow some of the food we have for our lunch at our sessions and learn all about soil, food security and the wisdom of the plants. We are fortunate enough to help the help of Joe Hurley, one of our Tribe parents, who has made amazing changes to the woodland. Joe put up the zip line and made our HUGE bean tipi with the help of some of our Tribe Guides and his wonderful fiancee (and our committee chairperson), Georgia-May. He has built a platform for our zip line and is currently working on our indoor space, The Tribe Hut! We moved inside for the winter and hired Liskeard Scout Hut for our Tribe Inside sessions, but are now back out in the woods full time again for the Spring and Summer months. The website started due to me needing a way for people to book sessions and events and developed rapidly into what it is now! I wanted to be able to share Wildling Wisdom with children and families who are unable to attend our sessions and events and so learned to create content and the website in order to do so. I want to keep most of what we do in the Tribe free of charge to everyone, but we do need to cover the costs of creating the content and running the site, which is why we developed the membership option. Connection is what we value rather than profit, and all who work with our Tribe do so completely free of charge. The Wildling Tribe has developed and grown, both in our little corner of Cornwall and in our online community and we hope to soon formalise ourselves as a social enterprise so that we can reach more Wildlings seeking wisdom and support them on their adventure! Our Tribe is a community, everyone helps each other, we go "on tour" together and even have camp outs and celebrate Wildlings birthdays. We are told all the time how beneficial our sessions are to both children and adults alike, providing a safe and nurturing space for both children and adults to learn and play, but more importantly to connect with themselves, each other and our wonderful world. Our Tribe YouTube channel is growing fast and was started to share our Tribe Story, The Quest for the Lost Wisdom. Watch the video to see how our brilliant community started..
autonomy and freedom
We are often asked why we allow young children to freely use “dangerous” tools, explore the woodland without supervision and at times out of adults’ direct line of sight, come up close to our fire pit and take what appear to be unmanaged risks At the Wildling Tribe, we do things a little differently to most traditional forest schools or outdoor providers. This is why: Since time began and in tribes throughout the world, real and, at times, life threatening risk has been and is a part of every day life. As soon tribal children can move independently, they are taught these real life risks through experience and modelling, through stories and witnessing the consequences of not appreciating the dangers and risks, rather than having these risks removed or managed so that they are no longer real risks or dangers at all.
You can download a copy of our full Pedagogical Approach here
This is our Tribe story, The Quest for the Lost Wisdom. It takes Wildings on a journey of self-discovery, teaching them Wildling Wisdom and self-awareness as they are guided by Rorrim and Fles into Undal, The Forgotten Realm to find the Pages of the Books of Lost Wisdom! The story was originally intended to be a book, and still may be one day in the near future, but the videos do the important bit, getting the messages and wisdom out there to our children, needed more than ever in these unsettling and strange times! The story can be made interactive by downloading and printing the resources and we soon hope to sell Tribe Story related bits and pieces in the Wildling Shop. The story pulls in all the Wisdom Quests and award content as well, and so is a great supplement for any children completing Wisdom Quests and awards. We have been approached to turn the story into an online game, a board game and an animation, so watch this space!