The Fire Within 2025 (DUNCAN)

I am an educator and mentor in earth-based skills and ancestral ways. My family has been in the land that we now call Canada for five generations and I am grateful to be a settler, held in the arms of rivers, mountains, oceans, and deserts. I am a lover of wild places and my life is nourished by sharing in community, food, song, and story. As an ongoing student of Martin Prechtel’s, I am fascinated with the beauty and complexity of myth and it’s existence in the unfolding of our daily lives. I have had the honour of studying with the Animas Valley Institute, The Haven Institute, The Tracker School, and with my mentors Annie Bloom, Jade Sherer, and Florence Dedame. I have learned a tremendous amount about the natural world and human culture while being a Senior Instructor and Director at nature schools across Western Canada. The kids, families, and adults that I have worked with have touched my heart and each one leaves a lasting imprint that enriches the tapestry of my life. I am currently passionate about wildlife tracking and following the signs of animals across the land. To know that my feet are treading on ground where wolves, mountain lions, grizzly bears, and many more have tread, fills my whole being with awe. I believe in the wild animal and wild soul that lives in all of us. It is a life practice to follow the trail of that being in such a manner that one day, we might be so lucky as to catch a glimpse of their magnificent form.