Rewild Portland is a subsidiary of Mythmedia 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Our mission is to foster cultural and environmental sustainability through arts and education. Using the philosophy of rewilding as our model for sustainability, this mission comes to life through the implementation of social networking events, educational workshops and the production of multimedia, with a special focus on film production.
What is rewilding?
Rewild, v; to foster and maintain a sustainable way of life through hunter-gatherer-gardener social and economical systems; including, but not limited to, the encouragement of social, physical, spiritual, mental and environmental biodiversity and the prevention and undoing of social, physical, spiritual, mental and environmental domestication and enslavement.
Philosophy of Rewilding
The term rewilding refers to the action of participating in the social and economical renaissance of humans who use the preexisting social and economic models of our hunter-gatherer-gardener ancestors to recreate the sustainable relationship that humans had with their ecosystems for millions of years before the recent advent of agriculture, empire and civilization. This critique emerged from modern ecological and anthropological studies which show how civilization, agriculture and empire inherently destroy the land base for which we depend for our livelihood. Rather then trying to fix a model built on unstable ground, rewilding creates a new culture using an ancient recipe.
Rewilders recognize that as long as empire exists, it will force people into domestication and prevent rewilding from taking place. In order for rewilding to occur, empire must not exist. This reveals one of the complexities of rewilding in comparison with say, the idea of “simple living” or “getting back to nature”. The removal of empire stands as a pivotal topic in rewilding and the basis of many conversations that revolve around what to do about empire and how to dismantle it so that rewilding can occur.
In order to accomplish rewilding, “rewilders” practice a multitude of skills such as innovative team building skills, storytelling skills, martial arts and ancient hand crafts like brain-tanning deer skins into buckskins and making tools from stone, bone and wood. In order to create a holistic culture empathetic to the land and our other-than-human neighbors, an emphasis is placed on storytelling and sensory exercises that provide experiences in animism. Animism, which lies at the heart of rewilding, refers to a way of seeing and experiencing the world and its other-than-human members as persons who demand respect and not inanimate objects put here for humans to exploit.
Creating and maintaining wild or feral cultures marks the goal of rewilding. Although, rewilding does not denote an end point but rather a continuing cultural process of learning how to relate to the land, people and other-than-humans in a sustainable way. Even wild or feral cultures practice the art of rewilding.
Educational Philosophy
We believe that education should not cost money. As we believe that water, food, shelter and warmth should not cost money. Unfortunately we live entrenched in a capitalist world. We have found the balance for this as a non-profit organization. We offer something better than classes that we give away for free: social networking. Through social-networking people are more apt to meet and connect with other inspired individuals to share knowledge and skills together as a community. We refrain from using the word community in our own events, and yield to social networking instead, as community seems to both be over used and watered down by so many organizations these days it’s hard to remember what it even means anymore. We help you make friends who can show you stuff for free. We do this as a means of “un-locking” the information we need to live less dependent on the failing economic system.
After creating the foundation of social networking, we run classes that cost money. Our educational philosophy is one of building fluency. Many educational programs will teach you how to do all kinds of things in one week, filing you with lots of quality information but minimal experience. Once you get home and really delve into one of those projects, most fumble through learning more advanced techniques and eventually giving up. We limit the number of items covered in our classes and instead focus on building fluency in particular skill sets. We believe that fluency does not come from information, but from doing.
Business Philosophy
Rewild Portland is like a ship, a vessel for making a living. Owned and operated by Captain Urban Scout, who in turn, answers to the Board of Directors. We don’t have a stationary crew manning the ship for every quest we go on. It’s more like, Urban Scout rents out the ship for freelance instructors to use for the non-profit purpose of creating cultural and environmental sustainability through arts and education. It’s not a tribal business in the Quinnian sense of the term, but it functions more like hunting party: each project is like a temporary band of hunter-gatherers who have come together for the duration of the hunt in order to make their living together for the moment. Once the hunt ends, each person takes their share and moves on. Some people might head out with us again right away on another endeavor. Others might leave for a time and come back, while still others way wander off never to be seen again.
Acknowledgments
We owe a great debt to a lot of teachers who have influenced our philosophy about rewilding as well as the way we teach. We would like to send our greatest thanks to Tom Brown Jr. and the Tracker School, Daniel Quinn author of Ishmael, Jon Young and Wilderness Awareness School, Derrick Jensen author of Endgame, Martin Prechtel and Bolad’s Kitchen, Nancy Turner author of the Earth’s Blanket, M. Kat Anderson author of Tending the Wild, Jean Leidloff author of The Continuum Concept, and Evan Gardner creator of the “Where Are Your Keys?” learning system.
