At Wisdom of the Earth, Nature and Connection are the Heart of everything we do.
OUR MISSION
We believe that deep connection with the natural world and a sense of belonging in community are foundational to our innate human blueprint, our original design. We are committed to providing nature and connection-based mentoring programs and experiences for all ages, to nourish and respond to the heart’s deepest longings, to draw out and nurture each person’s unique gifts, and to contribute to a regenerative culture for many generations to come. Scroll down to Meet our Team.
OUR VISION
We envision a world where people are fully connected to their gifts, to each other, and to nature; a healthy culture within a thriving ecosystem where every being’s needs matter, and where gratitude, health, awareness, peace, joy, mutual care, and connection thrive.
TERRITORIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge that we live on traditional unceded Coast Salish territories, specifically the W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich), Quw’utsun (Cowhichan) and Stz’uminus (Chemanius) First Nations territories. It is a privilege for us to be here on their ancestral lands. We thank the caretakers of this land who have lived, and continue to live here, since time immemorial.
Wisdom of The Earth Wilderness School strives to reconnect people to nature, self and community; to cultivate wholeness. We advocate for the reunion of humans and nature as a necessity for all nations and people. We wish to acknowledge our place as settler descendants; that many of our ancestors came to these lands through the ongoing process of violent dispossession and colonialism. We recognize that we are not immune to past and ongoing colonial processes. As an organisation, we are on our own learning journey in an effort to identify and challenge the dominant colonial narratives and dynamics that can exist within this work. We aim to avoid acts of appropriation and to respect the traditional people on whose land we live. It is our hope that reuniting with nature, as our first home and foundation, will lead to deeper personal and cultural healing for all.
*Indigenous students, once accepted into the program, automatically receive a scholarship, *independent* of need, in the spirit of reconciliation and reparation.
GRATITUDE FOR OUR LINEAGE
At Wisdom of the Earth, we are working to co-create a culture rooted in the cycles and rhythms of Nature and anchored in traditional mentoring lineages from Earth-connected cultures around the world. We are part of a greater world-wide movement of deep nature connection, following a time-tested mentoring model based on the work of Jon Young and the 8 Shields Institute. Half of this model focuses on regenerating deep nature connection; the other half on deep people connection–Nature and Culture supporting each other for health and full aliveness, for a thriving future.
We have a deep gratitude for all those who have walked before us. We acknowledge and honour those who have inspired us, and given lovingly of themselves in order to preserve the skills and wisdom from ancient times for future generations, in particular the following ancestors and teachers: Ingwe, initiated member of the Akamba tribe of Kenya; Jake and Judy Swamp, Wolf Clan Elders of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation; traditional Lakota Elder Gilbert Walking Bull. We offer our profound gratitude to Jon Young and to Tom Brown Jr., for their work and deep commitment to the future generations. We give thanks to the many generations of mothers and grandmothers whose commitment to nurturing life supports ours now. We also want to acknowledge Jean Liedloff, Marshall Rosenberg, Inbal Kashtan, John Bowlby, and Masanobu Fukuoka, as having deep influence on our work.
Without all your steps before us, we would not be walking the path we are now.
“My family is fortunate to have participated in several Wisdom of the Earth programs. It’s a rare treasure to be whole-heartedly welcomed, both children and parents, into a community imbued with such meaning and kinship, play and curiousity. Each time I depart, I carry with me a deeper connection to the natural world, to my children, and to my own story. Thank you so much!”
~ Yael Wand, Singer-songwriter and Co-owner of Western Splendour Tours
Meet Our Team
The Wisdom of the Earth team is comprised of unique and incredible humans. Click on the names of our team below to learn more about each one.
"In wildness is the preservation of the world." — Thoreau
Jean-Claude Catry
Co-founder, Director and Core Immersion Instructor
Jean-Claude Catry is the co-founder of Wisdom of the Earth Wilderness School and has been studying, practicing and teaching wilderness connection skills for over 35 years. Originally trained as a physical education school teacher in his native France, Jean-Claude left the beginnings of a career as a professional soccer player when he almost died from a serious illness. This awakened him to a path of meaning and nature connection, and he spent over a decade as a mountain wilderness guide, leading groups of children, at-risk youth, and adults on horse, ski, and foot through the French Pyrenees, to support them in connecting to their inner Wild Nature. He established a remote mountain equestrian centre with over 150 horses, now run by a woman he mentored when she was a teen.Jean-Claude has been an instructor at numerous wilderness schools and primitive skills camps throughout North America over the past 25 years. He lives and teaches through the Art of Mentoring, “coyote teaching,” and the work of 8 Shields, developed by naturalist and tracker Jon Young, by whom he continues to be mentored, among others. Having spent extended time alone in the wilderness, including mountain and coastal expeditions on foot and horseback, and a solo winter expedition traversing Yellowstone Park on skis, Jean-Claude has built a profound personal connection with the wild. “JC” is committed to designing programs and rites of passage to create a culture based on equal partnership for all beings, in the circle of interdependence. For the last four years, he has been designing and leading a French long-distance program as well as returning to France annually, to bring Deep Nature Connection mentoring and the 8 Shields model to educators and community leaders there. He is deeply committed to the work of cultural repair and village building, and to the well-being of future generations. He has a reputation for holding a passionate vision, for laughing easily (especially at himself), and for gentle, crazy wisdom.
Ingrid Bauer
Co-founder, Director and Core Immersion Instructor
Ingrid Bauer is the co-founder of Wisdom of the Earth, and has been working with and sharing deep connective practices for over 30 years. The mother of 4 children aged 14 to 35, Ingrid is committed to growing peace from the roots by addressing how we practice compassion with ourselves and each other, how we nurture and educate children, and how we embody interdependence in creating communities that nourish and care for each living being within the whole web of life.Ingrid has taught at various wilderness skills gatherings over the past 25 years. She is also a sought-after International Trainer in Nonviolent Communication (CNVC), with a special focus on supporting parents and families, and community leadership. She holds a combined Honours B.A. in Languages, Literature, Theatre, and Women’s Studies, and left behind her Masters in Child Psychology to spend more time with her children and in nature. She has also completed studies in herbalism, and various healing practices. Ingrid is also the author of a best-selling book which sparked a world-wide movement of natural infant care and has been translated into 8 languages. Ingrid brings these influences, as well as her understanding of anthropological child-rearing, attachment theory, neurobiology, peacemaking, and a practice of deep intuition, to her work.
Ingrid is passionate about supporting next generations and cultural repair, the power of storytelling, ceremony, music and humour, plants, embodying the sacred wild/wise woman, and healing the rift between feminine and masculine, as well as addressing other impacts of colonization. Ingrid especially loves creating deeply connective village experiences, and has facilitated dozens of gatherings, camps, and events to help families and individuals connect more deeply with themselves, each other, community, and nature.
Ingrid has had many adventures, including long canoe expeditions on remote rapids, braving sand storms in the Sahara, parachuting out of an airplane, and sailing a Chinese junk across the Atlantic. She has discovered, however, that her greatest challenges and growth inevitably happen right at home, in her own heart and environment, endeavoring to live simple daily life with compassion, authenticity and mindfulness. She’s not sure how she would have survived without a strong sense of humor, and a willingness to embrace despair, forgiveness, and hope.
Matt McKinney
Core Immersion Instructor, and WOLF Kids mentor
Matt McKinney grew up on the edge of metropolis on the suburban outskirts of Chicago, Illinois. Climbing oak trees, fishing for crawdads, catching lightning bugs, and being mystified by thunder storms occupy the natural memories of his childhood. He came from a musical and artistic family where creativity was just part of growing up. While in art school, Matt had a realization and decided to enter into the wilderness to “remember what it means to be a human being.” This quest led him to Wilderness Awareness school in 2010 where he became deeply versed and experienced in the 8 shields mentoring model for deep nature connection and cultural repair.Matt is a full-time mentor for WOLF Kids and guest mentor for adult programs. Matt has been involved in studying and delivering nature connection mentoring to youth and adults over the last 10 years. He has worked as a Youth and Teen Programs Instructor for Wilderness Awareness School, Vashon Wilderness School and Right of Passage Journeys in Washington State, and was a part-time instructor for Thriving Roots Wilderness School in Victoria. He continues to study personal, spiritual and cultural repair with Sal Gencarelle and the Helpers Mentoring Society and offers life coaching through his private business.
Matt’s talent and passion for music has led him all over the world, capturing the musical story of his journey as he goes. He has published two solo albums of original music: “Folk and Soul Songs” in 2016 and “The Songline” in 2018. We’re so happy that he has joined us on Salt Spring, to bring his passion and gifts for supporting nature connection for children, adults and community.
Ayden Catry-Bauer
WOLF Kids/Teens mentor, Wild Teens Instructor, Adult Immersion Guest Instructor
Ayden Catry-Bauer is grateful to have been immersed in nature-based mentoring and ancestral skills communities since before he could walk. He attended the WOLF Kids outdoor program on Salt Spring Island for seven years, where he was mentored in nature connection and wilderness skills. Ayden has continued to be mentored, as well as mentoring others, through the Wilderness Awareness School (WAS) near Seattle , and through Twin Eagles Wilderness School in Idaho. He trained as a Mentor-in-training for two years with Twin Eagles, at various programs at WAS, including Wild Within and wolf tracking expeditions, and at the Art of Mentoring in Sandpoint Idaho, Santa Cruz California and on Salt Spring Island. Ayden is a graduate of the the Anake Outdoor School at WAS (now the Immersioin program), with additional certificates in naturalist studies and tracking. He is also a graduate of the Anake Leadership Program where he was an apprentice for the Anake adult immersion, and has a Level 3 CyberTracker certification.
Ayden has been an instructor at Wisdom of the Earth for the past 11 years, since his teens. He has been a full-time instructor for the WOLF program for 6 years, where he finds meaning and joy mentoring children aged 8-14 throughout the school year. Ayden is also a core instructor for the Wild Teens Expeditions, has been a lead instructor for several years for the Art of Mentoring teen program, and is a guest mentor for the adult Immersion and other adult programs. He has been a popular instructor at Earthkin and Firemaker primitive skills gatherings, as well as the Nonviolent Communication Family Camp in Washington, and other gatherings.
Ayden is passionate about fire making, bird language, tending the wild, music, and deepening his tracking skills. He is appreciated for bringing both a grounded, caring presence, and a very energetic, youthful playfulness to his work, particularly in his interactions with children. Ayden loves exploring nature by himself and with other people, practicing primitive skills, building and inventing stuff, ocean sailing, natural navigation, discovering new skills, reveling in humour and shenanigans, and making music with his fiddle, guitar and voice.
Katie Fisher
WOLF Kids mentor, WOLF Teens Mentor
Katie Fisher grew up in Uxbridge Ontario, where you’d find her climbing trees, playing sports, spending summers at the lake, building forts and exploring the forest with her brother and friends. Katie was a dedicated distance runner in high school and University, and earned a scholarship to study Environmental Science and Geography at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. After university, Katie branched out of academia to travel and farm, and gave her time and energy to native pollinator research, and working on vegetable, flower, and medicinal herb farms. Through this exploration Katie’s soul called for the outdoor lifestyle, and she began working as a facilitator at Forest Schools in Ontario and studying Herbalism through Wild Rose College.
The Wisdom of the Earth Immersion program brought Katie to Salt Spring Island in 2022, and she is very grateful to call this island home. Katie completed the Wisdom of the Earth Apprenticeship in 2023-2024, and during that time also worked as a mentor with the Friday Cahoots Program, WOLF teens, and Cedar Roots Learning Society.
Katie is committed to fostering a nourishing, life-long connection with nature and helping others see their world in this light. Katie is especially passionate about foraging/growing medicinal plants, community building and communication skills, forest walks, bow drill fire, cordage making, learning new crafting skills, and taking on challenge with a smile. Katie is excited to be mentoring the WOLF Kids and WOLF Teens, bringing her dedication to and gifts in connection, empathy, grace, kindness, joy, and curiosity.
Laryssa Toroshenko
WOLF Kids Mentor, Social Media
Laryssa Toroshenko is a 2nd generation Ukrainian-Canadian with roots in big Sky prairie country. Thanks to the welcoming and generosity of Hul’q’umi’num and Sencoten speaking people, she gratefully feels a sense of home in this coastal place, especially near the Quw’utsun townsite of Xwaaqw’um.
Being raised in community with traditional songs, dances, foods and faith offered a taste of village life from childhood. Since, Laryssa has been gathering and weaving experiences and teachings from around the world with the prayer for revival of healthy, whole, community oriented culture. She is especially lit up by tending the wild, languages and polyphonic singing, storytelling, earth-based ceremony, Slavic artisan crafts, animal processing, bird language, scouting, making and sharing plant medicine and dance of any kind. She is devoted to peace-work and right-relationship with all our human and other-than-human relatives. Laryssa brings a sense of playfulness and fun, as well as compassion and strong communication skills to her work with WOLF Kids.
Laryssa completed 3 years of the Adult Immersion program with Wisdom of the Earth in 2024. She has apprenticed and mentored with the WOLF Kids since 2022 and co-led the Wild Child program, all while using her creativity to make inspiring content for the school’s social media presence. She is currently studying with Sal Gencarelle and the Helper’s Mentoring Society and gives thanks to her teachers and mentors Ingrid Bauer, Jean-Claude Catry, Matt McKinney, Gary Dillon, Elfi Shaw and Elizabeth Cristen, among others.
Eric Petitclerc
WOLF Kids Mentor
Eric Petitclerc has always been very curious and creative. In his younger years, he was intensively into soccer, and then his creativity transitioned into a passion for music, playing guitar, and piano. As he matured, his deep passion for art found a new path, and his deep love for wood carving emerged.
As a teenager, Eric had the opportunity to participate in weekend camps with Les Jeunes Leaders, in Quebec, where he is from. Those camps were about helping people to know themselves, to build trust and to learn to communicate. These experiences changed his life and he became a mentor for that organization for the next 10 years, leading camps for teenagers and adults.
In his young adult life, Eric was writing poetry, working as a sound engineer, writing his wisdom book about quotes from all ages from all around the world, and discovering meditation, Qi Gong, and finally nature connection, which would open a new door to the next chapter of his life.
He then started to participate in primitive skills classes with the schools Les Primitifs and Sagesse Tribale, learning about fire making, shelters, medicinal plants, tracking… as well as other classes such as ancient philosophy, timber framing, and knife sharpening.
His inner compass then led him to continue to deepen into the ancestral skills and learn a new way of living. That’s what brought him to Salt Spring Island, to be part of Wisdom of the Earth Immersion program, followed by the apprentice year, after which he continued his journey in Montana to do a primitive skills immersion with the Green University.
Eric is deeply committed to the nature connection path, to supporting the healthy development of future generations, and to cultivating wisdom, joy and peace.
Alice Frayne
WOLF Pups Mentor, Wild Child Mentor
Once upon a time, Alice Frayne was a curious and artistic child who spent every moment she could outside adventuring, swimming, or befriending local dogs and other animals. She grew up in Ottawa, the unceeded territory of the Anishanabe people amongst the white pines and lovely lakes, in addition to visiting family on the east coast where her love of the ocean began. She has fond memories of being coyote mentored by her clever naturalist grandma named Helen, and spending time at overnight camps in the summer under the stars.
Alice eventually studied creative industries at Toronto Metropolitan University with a focus on storytelling in media, and studied abroad in New Zealand. This was followed by travelling the world for a few years and also doing her yoga teacher training. Due to some wonderful timing and synchronicities, Alice then began to work for Earth Path Programs in Ottawa for 2 years as a nature mentor with kids, and found that the work there really combined her strange collection of passions beautifully.
To deepen her naturalist journey and pursue her dream of moving out west, Alice joined and completed the Wilderness Awareness school 9 month Immersion in Duvall, Washington. Similar to the Wisdom of the Earth Immersion, this was an intensive program focusing on wildlife tracking, plants, survival skills and bushcraft, community leadership, birding, cultural studies and more. The following year, she completed the Nature Instructor Training Apprenticeship for the same immersion program to deepen her mentorship skills.
Alice’s passions in the world of nature connection involve stealthcraft, singing, tracking, intuition practices, storytelling, community building, stewardship, any craft she can get her hands on, and more. Alice is currently working on her first Hickory bow and is excited to become a budding archer! She can’t wait to bring her imagination and share her passions with the WOLF Pups and the Wild Child families.
Bailey Dalton
WOLF Kids/Teens mentor, Adult Immersion Guest Instructor
Bailey Dalton took her first survival course at Wisdom of the Earth over a decade ago in her teens. Since then Bailey has studied and taught at various wilderness schools in Idaho, Washington and British Columbia, including the Wilderness Awareness School, Wisdom of the Earth, Thriving Roots, and Twin Eagles Wilderness School. Bailey is a graduate of the Anake Outdoor School at WAS, with additional certificates in naturalist studies and tracking, as well as a graduate of the Anake Leadership Program where she was an apprentice for the Anake adult immersion. She studied under master basket maker Lionel Demandre and is our resident basket making expert. Bailey has achieved certification in Level 3 Cyber Tracking, kayak guiding, and is a skilled carpenter and builder, currently designing and building her own (not so tiny) tiny home.Bailey is a beloved core mentor for both the WOLF Kids program and the Wild Teens Expeditions. She has also been an instructor for the Wild Child program, and for the Art of Mentoring teen program, and is a guest mentor for the adult Immersion and other adult programs. We’re thrilled to have her as the WOLF Teens mentor for 2021-22, as Fern is moving away.
Bailey is known for her kindness, deep listening, playfulness and humour, and serious skills, from wielding big power tools to fine detailed handwork. Bailey is passionate about caring for the land and for humans, growing food, compassionate communication and inclusion, fire making, bird language, music, and deepening her tracking skills. She loves exploring nature by herself and with other people, building stuff, discovering new skills, laughing, and making music with her guitar and voice.
Candace Miller
Summer Camps
Candace Miller was born and raised in the Fraser River Valley, BC, where she happily spent her free time adventuring outside with the neighbourhood kids. After schooling, she travelled for several years, falling in love with the many faces of Earth; desert, jungle, forest, mountain, glacier, and sea. She moved to Salt Spring Island in 2014, where she dove into bird language and survival courses with Wisdom of the Earth Wilderness School, and began to develop a relationship with ancestral and naturalist skills, and earth based living.
Candace is a graduate of the Wisdom of the Earth Immersion adult program, and completed her second year as an apprentice in 2019. She continues to enrich the community with her commitment to and experience in nature connection.
With a profound devotion to a life, where all beings are living in harmony and a commitment to the future generations, she offers her gifts of music, compassion, joy, curiosity, empathy, and deep nature connection. She brings her deep love for children, enthusiastic play, exploration and the joy of family to her days with Wild Child, and to our summer camps.
Frank Doss
Youth Summer Camp and WOLF and Adult Guest Instructor
Frank Doss has been part of Wisdom of the Earth adventures since the beginning, when we were just starting out and he was living on Ingrid and Jean-Claude’s land. Back then, he helped lead a regular Friday program for youth as well as other programs, and taught about edible/medicinal plants, fire making, navigation, living outdoors long-term, as well as martial arts and the ever-popular outdoor Ninja Camp. Frank has extensive knowledge and understanding of living connected to nature, both self-taught and from mentors in his youth and beyond. He now lives in the Comox Valley, where he runs the Matsukaze Dojo, when he is not wandering the forests or walking the length of Vancouver Island. He is a popular guest instructor when he’s in the area, and has helped the WOLF Kids make beautiful bamboo flutes.Frank has trained in many forms of Japanese martial and healing arts and has studied Ninjutsu for over 25 years. His focus in the past few years has been the use of martial arts principles as an effective way to bring about health to the body/mind/spirit by moving in harmony with the environment and rhythms of nature. He has trained everyone, from U.S. Special Forces groups, to 3 year old children. His favorite form of entertainment is philosophy, especially when expressed through playing music or sitting still and watching things go by.