The Family Yearlong has officially begun and they have completed their first quarter moon (week) together in their new wilderness home. Seven days ago, 42 people (including 17 children), arrived here in the Northwoods from Austria, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, and across the United States. They began their yearlong with a day of settling in and organizing their gear.
Meeting and greeting their clanmates for the year, the seekers showed right away their intention to join in and support each other. They prepared their first dinner together over the open fire, greeted new arrivals, helped get them settled in, organized gear, and rested from their travels.
On their second day, they sat in a circle for an orientation on their first days of this adventure. Topics included camp routine, the hike out to camp, hygiene, food, how to handle bodily waste, circle consciousness, and the importance of using a common language. They then readied their packs for their trek out to Nishnajida, their new wilderness home. Even though it was over half a sun’s hike (one sun=one day), much of it through roadless wilderness, everyone went, including children of all ages (which ranged from 18 months to 14 years). The adults and older children fasted on this day, to give their digestive systems a needed rest before settling into a new environment.
The clan split into thirds, to create more manageable units, with each one making the trek on a succeeding day. Everyone did well, including our filmmaker Michel, who went on all three hikes! Marcus, Brum, and Scott, who acted as guides, did double mileage times three: they hiked back to the support center (Nad’mad’ewening) from camp, only to turn around and lead each group back into the wilderness.
Their first few days were taken up with settling in to the new surroundings and getting to know clanmates. Tent sites were chosen, hearth tasks were arranged and divided, a place in the bog to store food was chosen, and firewood gathering–an essential matter–has begun in earnest. Each day the Seekers walk nearly a mile to the trailhead to pick up their food drop. Only they agreed that they would start the experience with no containers for transport. Need stimulates inventiveness, so right away they are motivated to make baskets and pack frames.
We are pleased to see that the children’s culture is thriving. Even though the kids speak different languages, they got together immediately and played from dawn until dusk. They invented a game where a child who speaks one language repeats with the child who speaks another language, and it’s amazing how quickly they are learning.
Already the seekers have so many stories to tell of what they have learned about group process, drinking wild water, and the variety of skills they are learning to thrive in the wilderness. Much of what they’re learning is from experience, such as the Seeker who gave himself a good knife cut just a day after the tool safety workshop. Necessity is the mother of invention—it was an excellent time to begin learning about wilderness first aid. The cut was well tended using what the Earth provided, which included treating it with antiseptic balsam fir pitch after allowing it to bleed—a natural cleansing process.
We’ll be posting again next week, so stay tuned to see how their second week goes, what they’re learning, and what new challenges they will face. Just a day ago, two of them wandered off separately and got lost. They each made it back, much relieved, and with great lessons to share with their campmates. We’ll be giving them a lostproofing workshop very soon!