● VISION ●
Arcadian Futures
The United Kingdom has a long, deep, and dying tradition of animal symbiosis. Drovers routes, Scottish sheiling practices and seasonal movement formed communities that were strong, connected to the land. Remnants of this culture still live today, but animal rearing has become centralised and industrial. All industrialisation has insidious ripple effects, and in the context of animal tending, it means we are disconnected from what we wear and eat.
Resilience must be local. When we outsource our calories and clothing, we are vulnerable!
My vision is to see the land-based culture thrive again in the U.K. In communal nourishment, seasonal ceremony, and our reliance on the land and each other deepening, our reliance on extractive systems lessening. I see tribes rediscovering our native harvest, new costumes for old ceremony, new songs being sung, an ancient resilience being revived, slowly and joyfully, by many hands.
This revival needs many folks, of many gifts. Tanners, singers, scavengers, sewers, hedgelayers, weavers, seers, mothers, fathers, seed keepers, storytellers… and shepherds! To contribute in some way to a pastoral revival on this Island would be my greatest honour.
This project, Red Shepherd Folk House, simmered in my belly for years, only taking name in last year's winter hibernation. I envision a thatched building with spinning wheels, looms, and dye pots simmering... a kitchen dedicated to wild food preservation and butchery... a place for these skills to thrive in active, genuine context, and a warm place for people to gather, to stay, to make tribe again.
These workshops fund that dream in the making. Thank you.
