Orientation
Ancient Forests, Lifeways & Stories · Off-grid systems & camp craft · Indigenous storytelling methods
Before any research rigor or technical ambition, students build a trusting expedition team and a shared language for the six competencies. Orientation front-loads relationship (to each other and to land) and psychological safety, so that the harder demands of later blocks land on a stable foundation. Students establish camp on Vancouver Island, practice shelter, fire, water and food-management skills, and begin field observation and documentation. Invited Elders and teachers introduce local histories, place-names and protocols. Shared duties, leadership rotations and group agreements prepare the cohort for later expeditions. Students also complete baseline assessments and record their initial learning goals.
- What can the ancient forests and local histories tell us about environmental change over different timescales, including human influence in the Anthropocene?
- How do traditional ecological knowledge and scientific studies describe the forest and its use? Where do their observations, methods and interpretations agree or differ?
- How does my own story intersect with this place, and what responsibilities does that relationship ask of me as a learner and guest? How might my background affect what I notice?
- What ways of knowing does this forest invite from me, and how does my cultural lens shape what I perceive and value here?
- What does 'success' look like when the classroom is an old-growth forest and the teachers include Elders, salmon, and 500-year-old cedars?
- Deep immersion in Vancouver Island's ancient temperate rainforest and coastal edge: old-growth western red cedar and Sitka spruce, mycorrhizal networks, salmon-forest nutrient cycling, and keystone species (salmon, bear, wolf) as an interdependent system students will keep meeting all year.
- Invited Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth Elders and teachers lead sessions on local histories, oral traditions and protocols.
- Foundational off-grid camp craft and expedition living: tarpology and knots, fire management in a wet maritime climate, water treatment, food hygiene, Leave No Trace, and the daily rhythms (cook rotas, debrief circles) that build immediate team cohesion and a safety culture.
- Sensing practice: forest bathing, dawn sit-spots, phenology journaling, sound mapping, and artistic response, training the noticing that underwrites field observation later.
- Short challenges, peer-leadership rotations and structured reflection circles introduce the six competencies and provide practice in self-assessment and feedback.
- Cold-water immersion and progressive physical challenge cycles (challenge → recovery → reflection) that begin building the recovery habits central to Grit across the year.
- Core inquiry: How do oral histories and storytelling function as ecological archives and ethical frameworks for living in reciprocity with ancient forests — and how might my own way of knowing shift by listening?
- Baseline field methods, introduced gently: phenology and biodiversity observation, human-use mapping of the immediate camp landscape, and structured nature journaling as the raw material for later, more rigorous inquiry.
- Epistemological bridge-building: naming and holding in tension oral tradition, Western science, and personal narrative as three ways of knowing: the questions each addresses, the evidence each uses, and the limits of comparisons between them.
- Each student drafts a positionality statement describing their social background, relative advantages and assumptions, and how these may affect research. The statement is revisited before later research blocks.
- Baseline evaluation: students complete self-assessments on the six competencies and selected validated measures of nature-relatedness, self-efficacy and grit. These form part of the program's evaluation, which considers how outcomes might differ without participation.
- Establish expedition behavior as lived practice — communication, cooperation, self-awareness, judgement, tolerance for adversity and uncertainty, and shared responsibility for group welfare (Impact, Judgement).
- Understand the six Pelion competencies and complete an initial self-assessment for later comparison (Rigor, Awareness).
- Understand local consent and participation protocols, the territory's unceded status, and the OCAP® Indigenous data-governance principles introduced in the block (Judgement, Awareness).
- Develop foundational off-grid competence — shelter, fire, water, Leave No Trace, camp rhythm — to a standard where the group can live safely and lightly for extended periods (Grit, Judgement).
- Practice observation and description through sit-spots, phenology journals and sound mapping, distinguishing recorded observations from interpretation (Awareness, Rigor).
- Articulate a personal 'why' and initial theory of change — what brought me here and what I hope to become — as an anchor for the year (Audacity, Awareness).
- Begin a documentation practice (journal + photography) with basic consent ethics that will run the length of the program (Rigor, Impact).
Natural sciences. Temperate-rainforest ecology: succession, disturbance, nurse logs, the salmon–forest nutrient cycle; baseline biodiversity survey methods.
Human sciences. Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth governance, potlatch economies and the colonial history of British Columbia; oral history as archive.
Epistemology. Oral tradition, instrument data and standards of evidence; the influence of researcher background and assumptions; protocols for working as a visitor; recognition — our hosts as authorities over their knowledge and their relationships with this place (Atleo).
Field Ledger. Baseline concepts: resilience, disturbance, succession. Field Ledger opened — old-growth as carbon & climate archive.
Resource Atlas. Timber & salmon economies — Resource Atlas case #1.
Ways of Knowing Journal. OCAP® Indigenous data-governance principles introduced; epistemological stance v1 and the positionality statement drafted — whose authority the student must recognise, what they can reasonably claim to know, and what responsibilities follow from being a guest.
- Expedition Behavior fundamentals: the seven EB principles, group agreements and daily debrief practice.
- Technical camp foundations: knife/axe safety, tarp and shelter craft, wet-climate fire, bear-aware food storage and camp layout, shoreline and tide awareness, and introduction to Indigenous tools/techniques where shared.
- Reflective practice: the daily journaling protocol (Observation · Emotion · Insight · Action), competency self-scoring, and facilitated debriefs using the What? / So What? / Now What? frame that recurs throughout the program.
- Local procedures for consent, reciprocal arrangements and working with participants. Introductory discussion of trauma-informed and decolonising approaches to research practice.
- Documentation craft (entry level): field photography basics, consent-based image-making, and audio capture — with an explicit ethics of representation.
- Physical and psychological resilience: cold-water immersion, early rising, recovery routines (sleep, nutrition, warmth), and somatic regulation tools introduced for use across the program.
| Days 1–2 Arrival & Community Agreements | Safety, belonging, agreements | Welcome circle and land acknowledgment led with (not about) local protocol. Kit check, camp set-up, cook-rota and buddy systems. Co-create the cohort's community agreements and safety culture. Prompt: 'What brought you here, and what are you hoping to become?' |
| Days 3–5 Camp Craft & Rhythm | Off-grid competence, EB | Progressive skills: shelter, fire, water, LNT, bear-aware camp. Introduce the seven Expedition Behavior principles and tie each to a real camp task. First peer-leadership micro-rotations (each student owns a chore-system for a day). |
| Days 6–8 Awareness & Place | Observation, phenology | Dawn sit-spots, forest bathing, sound mapping, phenology journals and artistic responses. Invited Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth teachers introduce their accounts of forest relationships and history. |
| Days 9–11 Competencies & Baseline | Self-assessment, positionality | Introduce the six competencies experientially via challenges; students complete honest intake self-scores and validated instruments. Draft first positionality statement. Cold-water immersion + recovery cycles. |
| Days 12–14 Story & Commitment | Documentation, personal 'why' | Produce the block storytelling deliverable (see below). Story circle sharing. Each student writes a personal 'why' + initial theory-of-change note, sealed to revisit in Solo & Synthesis (Block 6). |
Primary (recommended). 'Voices of the Ancient Forest' — a 10–12 image photo essay with a 600–800 word reflective narrative exploring positionality, observation, and Coast Salish & Nuu-chah-nulth storytelling as ecological knowledge. Includes a reciprocity note.
Alternatives (from menu). Old-growth soundscape composition with voiceover; a facilitated story-circle recording arranged with its contributors, with agreed attribution, access and use.
Narrative-craft guidance. Distinguish personal observations, interpretations and accounts supplied by others. Use specific sensory descriptions, identify sources, and explain permissions and agreed use of material. Emphasis on personal voice and sensory documentation.
Competencies emphasised. Researcher assumptions and representation of participants (Judgement, Awareness); descriptive writing and photography (Awareness, Rigor); introductory documentary techniques and consent practice (Awareness, Judgement).
Integration w/ Exploration & Research. Draws directly on Exploration's sit-spots, forest bathing and off-grid living, and on Research's baseline observation, oral-history listening, and epistemological bridge-building.
Individually-accountable output. Intake competency self-assessment + first positionality statement + personal 'why'/theory-of-change note (baseline artifacts for the value-added evaluation).
Storytelling deliverable. 'Voices of the Ancient Forest' photo essay assessed on the 6-criterion Storytelling Rubric (Craft axis), with emphasis on positionality and consent.
Primary competencies evidenced. Awareness and Impact foregrounded; Judgement (ethics/consent), Rigor (observation) and Grit (cold/immersion) emerging.
Substance vs Craft. Craft axis (storytelling) live; Substance axis introduced but lightly assessed — this block establishes the baseline rather than generating transcript-grade research.
Evidence for portfolio. First journal set, baseline scores, positionality statement, block story reflection (200–400 words), competency self-scores.
Moderation. Faculty calibrate intake scoring against anchored exemplars; baseline instruments logged confidentially for later value-added analysis.
Students practice phenology and biodiversity observation, human-use mapping and structured journals. The research component establishes baseline records and the distinction between observation and interpretation.
Baseline biodiversity observation, phenology records, human-use mapping and validated intake instruments for nature-relatedness, self-efficacy and grit produce the term's first numbers.
Oral-history listening, facilitated story circles, a daily journal kept on the observation–emotion–insight–action protocol, and a first positionality statement naming social location and assumptions.
Students learn shelter construction, knots, wet-climate fire, water treatment, knife and axe safety, bear-aware food storage and field photography, then practice them in daily camp routines.
A ten-to-twelve image photo essay with a 600–800 word reflective narrative, taught alongside consent-based field photography and audio capture, with rainforest soundscape and story-circle alternatives.
Seminars compare oral tradition and instrument data and examine researcher assumptions and standards of evidence. Students learn guest protocols and OCAP® principles, and dawn sit-spots, phenology journaling and reflection circles run daily.
Invited Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth Elders and teachers lead sessions on oral histories, place-names and protocols during the two-week camp. Students prepare for the sessions and follow the teachers’ guidance on participation and the use of shared knowledge.
Invited Elders and teachers lead scheduled sessions during the two-week camp. A story-circle recording, where arranged, is a separate project with its own contributors and agreed attribution and use.
The block exists to build the expedition team: the seven expedition-behavior principles as daily habit, cook rotas and debrief circles, peer-leadership rotations, conflict-navigation basics and shared responsibility for group safety.
Each student coordinates the camp chore system for a day. Short challenges and facilitated reflection circles provide further leadership practice during the fortnight.
The program is fixed — timetabled arc, prescribed practices and a front-loaded faculty ratio — with student choice limited to how each rotation leader runs the chore system and to the storytelling medium.
Cook rotas, buddy systems and bear-aware camp layout allocate daily duties, and the seven expedition-behavior principles are tied to real camp tasks as shared responsibility for group welfare.
Two weeks of camp living with progressive physical challenge cycles, cold-water immersion, early starts and daily camp labor. Sustained effort without loaded multi-day travel.
Wet maritime conditions in temperate rainforest, with fire lighting in rain, shoreline and tide exposure, and scheduled cold-water immersion. Summer coastal weather rather than extremes.
Fourteen days at an off-grid base camp in old-growth rainforest, running its own shelter, fire, water treatment, food hygiene and Leave No Trace waste systems.
Cold-water immersion is scheduled during the introductory camp program. Coastal observation and water-safety routines provide further limited aquatic experience.
Dawn sit-spots are timetabled as time alone, and each student writes a personal statement of purpose individually. No solo overnight or extended silent practice.
Students observe old-growth forest and shorelines, practice tide awareness, and take part in dawn sit-spots, sound mapping, forest bathing and local discussions by invitation.
Old-growth western red cedar and Sitka spruce, mycorrhizal networks, salmon-forest nutrient cycling and keystone species — salmon, bear and wolf — studied as one interdependent system, with phenology and biodiversity observation.
Salmon-forest nutrient cycling, mycorrhizal networks and old-growth systems are taught alongside Leave No Trace practice and low-consumption camp routines for water, food and waste.
Seminars introduce Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth governance, potlatch economies, oral histories and colonial history. Place-names and protocols are considered in their social and historical context.
Students study the territory's unceded status, consent and reciprocal arrangements, and OCAP® Indigenous data-governance principles. They draft statements of researcher background and assumptions before working with Elders and teachers.
Seminars introduce potlatch economies and the history of resource use. The first Resource Atlas case examines the timber and salmon economies and their relationships with governance and land.
Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth Elders and teachers lead sessions on local histories, oral traditions and protocols. Seminars compare forms of evidence, and students write a personal statement of purpose to revisit in the final block.
