Meet the Team
Nature and dirt time is the greater teacher, we are co-facilitating a space for women to connect with the elements, in particular the element of fire.
Meet MARIE WHIMSY. She is known for her humor, mischief, loving nature and deep listening. Marie grew up on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, where the salty air fills the lungs and the ocean horizon is abundant. In her youth she would run up steep mountains, embed herself in the mossy bluffs and unfurl in cool lakes. She grew up with her twin sister at her side, they would live in imaginary worlds of homemade modeling clay toys and catching insects.
Studies:
Marie brings a rich background in nature-based mentoring, embodied arts, and clowning to her work. For over a decade abroad and in Vancouver, she worked with young people, blending her deep love for nature with her years of clowning experience, honed under the guidance of David Macmurray Smith in Pochinko-style clowning (http://www.fantasticspace.com/). Today, she continues to perform and share the transformative art of clowning.
In 2021, Marie began her studies in nature-based education, apprenticing at Thriving Roots Wilderness School in their youth programs(https://www.thrivingroots.org/). She later graduated from Wisdom of the Earth’s 2-year Immersion and Apprenticeship.(Wisdom of the Earth Salt Spring Wilderness School) She currently is a dedicated mentor at Thriving Roots Wilderness School and Lila music’s Youth Nature Program (https://cariburdett.com/wilderness-day-program/)
Marie can often be found crawling through the forest or lighting the central fire to gather the children. Marie is passionate about fire making, the sweet smell of bow drill coals, processing animals and unveiling their inner colors, tanning the skins of animals giving them another life, foraging plants to eat, and the health of our water. She is often called to support community events and ceremonies. Full of music, she loves song circles, storytelling, and theater. Marie treasures every moment spent in connection to the land.
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CLAUDELLE CHARETTE (SHE/HER) was blessed with a childhood of catching frogs and playing in nature under the canopy of sugar maple and birch trees, in the countryside of Québec. She always has been close to the earth spending hours by the creek or climbing up trees and swinging with the wind. She was raised with two parents, lovers of the earth. It is natural for Claudelle to see the waters like living beings and the fire as a teacher.
Studies:
When she got a bit older she studied Fine Arts at Cegep de Marie-Victorin in Montreal, Qc, and devoted a lot of her time to the understanding of healthy soil, permaculture, organic and natural farming. It is in 2018, in Quebec, with the coyote program ( Welcome! - Coyote Programs ) that she discovered the magnificent world of deep nature connection and coyote mentoring. Her devotion to nature was growing and she started studies in Bioecology. Half way through, the longing for deepening the way of living in harmony with nature was so strong that she drove across Canada to do the 2 years program of Immersion and Apprenticeship at the Wisdom of the Earth Salt Spring Wilderness School About Us. Since then, she has found a deep sense of belonging with the surrendering nature and the human ones, here on the Coast Salish Lands. She also recently completed the 20h Wilderness First Aid with Wilderness First Aid Course (20 Hr) Remote - Alert First Aid.
While keeping her hands busy gardening, she mostly mentored children, and now, the vision is calling her to bring women together and connect deeply with mother earth and the ancient wisdom of fire. In the quest of finding balance and harmony, Claudelle is holding the moon in one hand and the sun in the other hand. She is known for her natural “old wisdom”, her deep presence and quiet mind held in balance with her playfulness and mischievous energy. Dream work is also playing an important part in her life, learning with Dallal Oliver.
She is passionate about land tending, foraging, scouting, play, dream work, music, creativity, hide tanning, fire making, spirituality, community building. She absolutely loves to spend time with the River, while foraging and tracking elks and bears.
