Live Your List - At One with Nature
Growing up in Maitland and Newcastle, this rewilding facilitator had a "love to do" list. Working at the Wilderness Society, she started studying survival skills and earth-based spirituality.
Looking to further her education, she heard about rewilding programs in the US and decided to make it happen in Australia. It then became "the most important thing I imagined doing in my life".
On 1 January 2010, Claire Dunn and five other people started a year living in the bush on a northern NSW property, which became an initiatory journey from girlhood to womanhood.
"It was an adventure in wild living and reclaiming the wild woman in me. After being addicted to busyness, it was a real task to discover myself through solitude, endurance, and challenges such as making fire without matches. It was, and still is, very formative," says Claire.
"I was so alive and excited about life. Every day, there was a feeling of freedom as I navigated my days."
Even though in a small tribe, Claire spent most of her time alone, focussed on shelter, food, fire, and nature. Claire built a one-room igloo for her shelter – with a thatched roof, door and an inside fire pit – to keep her warm and dry. The thatching took her several months to complete.
"I loved my shelter. It was beautiful and cosy. The forest was my other rooms for leisure, entertainment, relaxation," said Claire.
She also built a stand-alone outside kitchen with a paperbark roof and another external fire site. She collected bushfood of roots, berries, or shoots to go with her dry stores every day. Sometimes, there was meat from road kill or traps.
"The most delicious meal was wallaby with fresh-collected greens. It was the first animal I trapped using a hand-made snare. It was such a sense of achievement to live on the land and not survive on supermarkets."
She tanned the hide and made it into a bag for her fire tools, which were used instead of matches. Fires were made by two traditional methods – bow drill and hand drill. For three months, Claire had bow-drill fires until her first hand-drill, spinning a stick on a piece of wood to create enough friction and heat to ignite coal (ember), struck.
"It was a milestone. I felt ecstatic, powerful, and connected with something invisible within. It was a start of a new relationship with fire that is ongoing."
Although the fire symbolised self-reliance, igniting passion and her heart. It was also a potent, practical element for cooking, boiling the kettle, staying warm and companionship.
"It was my TV; I lit a fire most nights and in the morning for a cuppa. it took about 15 minutes to get it started, which helped me gain a new rapport with time."
Every day, Claire observed nature. For about an hour, she sat in the same spot at different times and watched the plants, birds, animals, and changes.
"I became a sponge absorbing the forest's patterns and started to be literate in nature's book – especially bird language, tracking animals and holistic landscape awareness."
While immersed in nature, Claire started to reclaim the wild woman within. Her dreams deepened, intuition strengthened, and her emotions intensified.
"It was an earthy sensuality – raw and authentic. Sometimes, it was dirty and messy, and other times, beautiful and feminine. It has stayed with me."
From this 12-month experience, Claire wrote her first book, My Year Without Matches; established her passion business (www.naturesapprentice.com.au), guiding people through rewilding; and trained in nature-based human transformational work at Animas Valley Institute in the US.
Still on her' love to-do list is a large permaculture garden, learn to spearfish, and live in the bush – for less than a year – to practice her skills.
Her next step is the launch of her latest book, Rewilding the Urban Soul, this month in Melbourne and in Newcastle in July.
