Land & Sea is our third (!) project grant application so far this year. Sharon and I are hitting our stride as writing collaborators, and making the most of new technology to do it. We’ve evolved a mode of working on the same document simultaneous, watching each others’ cursors flick over the page, bits of text appearing and disappearing as we think out loud through our little Skype windows on each other. I’ve been accused of being a Luddite, but this way of working feels more natural to me than pen and paper now.

If we get funding for this project, Tracy Williams, Sharon, me, Lori Snyder, and Kamala Todd will come together to form a body of research work on materials and techniques that is guided by First Nations sensibilities and concerns; host Weaving~Conversation Circles with community stakeholders; and lead workshops that introduce natural materials and foraging to the broader community in terms of environmental justice. As the impulse towards nature connection grows, we’re aiming to find a way of tempering genuine, but often uncritical, enthusiasm for foraging and all things ‘rewilded’ with a more sophisticated understanding of its social and environmental implications.