January 2024
Are you ready to empower yourself with a new skill set or to brush up on some of the skills you already have? To feel more deeply connected to the living world around you? To tend to your basic needs with your own two hands and the natural materials in your local environment? To learn and grow in a supportive community of like-minded people? Then you are in the right place!
Winter is a wonderful time to slow down and envision the coming year. Devoting January to learning the skills to make you a more whole and wild human is a wonderful wayinvest in and nurture a beautiful future
I am Woniya Thibeault, Wilderness and Ancestral Skills Instructor, and winner of the solitary wilderness survival challenge Alone, on the History Channel (runner up on Season 6 and winner of Alone Frozen). My passion is inspiring and empowering people by teaching them skills and practices to live their wildest, freest, most abundant lives. I hope you'll join me for this unique opportunity.
These skills and ways of being are our human birthright, but in today's modern world, they can be hard to come by. I am thrilled to announce that, for the first time since 2021, I will be hosting another Buckskin Revolution Online Gathering (BROG). With pre-recorded classes, an active community forum, and live interactive calls, the BROG is a good fit for people of a wide range of abilities and learning styles. You will deepen your connection to the living world around you and better understand how these practices relate to the human experience, now and throughout evolutionary history.
This unique online experience is a curated collection of classes with me as your teacher and guide in themes related to ancestral and bushcraft skills, wilderness living, wild foods, handcrafts, and more.
In 3 words, the goal of the course is to empower, inspire, and connect. We hope you'll join us.
A learning experience offering instruction in Ancestral and Land Based Living skills. Because there's never been a better time to boost your capacity, your resilience and your sense of connection.
4 weeks of supported, in-depth learning, running throughout January 2024
Includes classes, downloadable resources, weekly interactive Zoom Circles, and access to an ongoing online learning community.
More about what you get and what you can expect from the gathering.
Video lessons will be released weekly according to the four tracks of the gathering:
Wilderness Skills & Survival
Wild Foods & Medicine
Ancestral Skills: Hide Tanning Focus
Nature Awareness & Connection
While technically separate tracks and learning experiences, all tracks relate to the general themes of empowerment, traditional and ancestral skills, and reaching our full potential as wilder and better-adapted humans.
Students are encouraged to pick one track to focus on, their "home track," but have access to the classes on all tracks. View the pre-recorded classes on your own schedule. They will be available to watch as many times as you'd like throughout the gathering and for six months after.
Why limited instead of lifetime access? Because this learning experience is designed as a gathering, not a standard course. Interactive learning with your fellow students and Woniya is a key component, and that will only happen if you engage in real-time, not when you finally get around to it.
Get to know Woniya and your fellow students in live Zoom meetings with opportunities for Q&A and show and tell. The community connections and camaraderie with other students make a huge difference in motivation and in continuing to practice the skills.
There will be weekly live calls for the gathering as a whole, as well as break-out sessions for the individual tracks. These smaller groups allow opportunity for closer connection and a deeper sense of community within your focus track.
This year, we will have 5 calls, every Tuesday evening in January.
Tuesday 5pm PST January 2nd- 30th.
Registered students are also invited to fill out a poll voting for alternate times if the regularly scheduled calls don't work for them.
In addition to the live video calls, you'll have access to a private online community where you can connect with other students and experts in a friendly and welcoming space. Get the opportunity to ask questions and get personalized instruction on projects, to multiply the learning potential many fold.
Woniya Thibeault is best known for being the first woman to win Alone on the History Channel, and setting a new record for all participants- a cumulative total of 123 days living off the land by herself in the harsh Canadian wilderness on Alone Season 6 and Alone Frozen. Her focus, however, has never been survival, but rather surthrival- learning how to live well in a deep and reciprocal relationship with the natural world around her.
She has been teaching wilderness, ancestral, and land-based living skills for over 25 years. She has spent a lot of her adult life living off grid, growing and gathering as much of her diet as she can, tanning the hides for the clothes she wears, harvesting the willow for the baskets she gathers food into and more. She combines her decades of wilderness experience with a Master's Degree in Environmental Science, for a teaching styles that brings a knowledge of and love of the living world around her.
The release of her memoir Never Alone and her many media appearances have allowed her to reach a broad audience and she is thrilled to be able to give the many people she has touched and inspired an avenue to learn more themselves through the BROG and her other teachings.
In-person courses can be prohibitively expensive for many students, especially when the cost of travel and lodging is factored in. One of the motivations of the online gatherings is to make similar instruction accessible to as many people as possible.
Creating online courses and running high-quality online courses is a tremendous amount of work and a labor of love. We believe in the value provided and we hope you do too. The course is a wonderful investment in a future enriched by all you’ll learn!
Included:
Introductory lessons on the larger themes of Buckskin Revolution learning
4 weeks of video lessons taught by Woniya.
Weekly Zoom calls where you'll connect with Woniya, peer mentors, and other students.
An online community for 24/7 support.
Access to all course content online during the course and for an additional 6 months.
Downloadable resources like reading lists and other instructions
We believe these skills are important parts of our shared human heritage, but recognize that all people do not have equal access to them. Our goal is to help change that and our scholarship program is one way we do so, and creating a safe and inclusive learning environment is another.
We have 2 different scholarships: Inclusion and Needs-based.
Inclusion Scholarships are intended to increase diversity in the fields of outdoor, survival, and wilderness skills. These are areas in which people of color and people outside of the binary gender spectrum have typically been underrepresented and not always safe. In the spirit of equity and reparation, our inclusion scholarships are available for people of color and LGBTQ2Ia+ with particular emphasis given to BIPOC and transgender and gender non-binary participants.
Needs-based Scholarships are intended to increase access to people of all socioeconomic backgrounds by helping those with financial need be able to attend.
Buckskin Revolution funds several full and partial scholarships of each kind and also invites others to contribute to the scholarship fund to further increase participation.
Now that the BROG is underway, the application window for full scholarships is officially closed. You are welcome to reach out to team@buckskinrevolution.com to explain your situation and see is a special exception can be made.
What’s this gathering about?
The gathering is intended to give a foundation in fundamental skills for living a life more grounded in doing for yourself rather than relying on modern technology and industry. Wild and homegrown foods, practices for living a more deeply connected life, and related skills are just a handful of the topics covered.
What sets this gathering apart is that the physical skills are just one part of it. The bigger picture intention is to help you feel more connected to the natural world through being more in touch with your own hands and how they work with that world to help you find materials for food, fiber, shelter, and more. It is also very much about connecting you with a greater community of people interested in similar things so you have support and camaraderie in your learning journey.
It's an online class, why call it a gathering?
We call it a gathering because, while you can view the pre-recorded classes on your own schedule, the interactive live conference calls are a big part of the learning experience. They build a sense of community and group learning that multiplies the value of the course content.
In addition to the scheduled weekly live group conferences, you’ll be able to access the online experience any time you like. You can interact and ask questions on a range of topics, within or outside of the course content, and share projects, knowledge, and more.
It is a “gathering” as opposed to a focused “course” because it is designed as an immersive experience covering a broad range of topics, not a comprehensive course on just one topic.
I don’t know anything about wilderness living, is this right for me?
Yes! The classes are designed with beginners in mind with plenty of background on the skills and context to help you understand why we chose to include particular subjects. The live calls and online skills community are a wonderful resource for you to ask further questions of both Woniya and fellow students. The additional lessons, calls and online community are also a great place for more experienced students to get support in diving deeper. The community nature of the gathering means beginners benefit from the questions and experience of the advanced students and the advanced students benefit from the more detailed mentorship from Woniya, and from providing mentorship and advice to the beginners.
I live in a city without much access to nature, how will I be able to take advantage of the skills I learn?
Even if you live in an urban environment, there are a lot of ways to apply these skills to your life. That is part of what we mean when we say “it is about how you learn, not just what you learn, and how that learning changes you.”
I have a busy schedule. Will I be able to work this course around it?
Yes! The classes themselves are all pre-recorded, so you can watch them whenever works for you, and you’ll continue to have access to them for 6 months after the gathering itself. The interactive calls are scheduled ahead of time, so you’ll be able to plan for them, and if you can't make them live, they will be recorded and shared so you can still experience them. There is also the Online Skills Sharing Community, so even if you can't make the calls, you can still ask questions and interact with Woniya and the other students.
Does this course appropriate indigenous culture?
There is a big and important difference between using the resources in the wild land around us and appropriation. At Buckskin Revolution, we believe that being in right relationship to the land and connecting with it through tending, harvesting, and giving back is important and is part of our birthright as humans. That is different from appropriating specific traditions from specific indigenous people. We are very mindful of not doing that. There is no doubt that it can be a slippery slope, and all will have their own opinions about where to draw the line.
We are also committed to social justice and reparations. We offer scholarships to BIPOC (black and indigenous people of color), and transgender and gender non-binary participants. We also donate to groups working toward social and environmental justice like the Lakota Law Project, NAACP and others. Your donations towards the scholarship fund support both of these things.
How much time will this take?
It is up to you . Each week there will be 1-2 hours of lessons for you to do on your own time and two options for 60-90 minute live zoom call.
You will also get more out of the gathering if you put aside an hour or two a week to reflect on and/or practice what you’re learning.
Where does this information come from?
The information in these classes draws from Woniya’s experience of over 20 years studying traditional skills and making them a way of life. She has applied these skills in wilderness living situations, including 123 days living off the land in Northern Canada between her two season on Alone. She has spent decades living off grid in a variety of places and climates, growing, gathering and preserving a lot of her food and making her tools and material goods herself.
She also has a formal education in biology, including a Master's degree in Environmental Science, with a focus in Botany and Entomology.
She combines her science background and her hands-on living skills for a well-rounded, thorough, and engaging teaching style.
How do you determine the cost of this gathering?
Putting together such an event is a huge effort and a labor of love. We have priced the course well below the suggested value for courses of this kind because it is important to us to make it more accessible for more kinds of people. After the first Buckskin Revolution gathering, the students' feedback was that it was more information than they had expected and cost less than they would have expected to pay for such an experience. If the cost feels prohibitive to you, please read about our scholarship programs.
Do you offer scholarships?
Yes! We have 2 different scholarship programs. One is designed to help those with financial need be able to attend. The other is designed to increase diversity in a field in which people of color and people outside of the binary gender spectrum have typically been under represented. Buckskin Revolution is funding a minimum of 20 such scholarships, and is collecting donations toward more scholarships to increase how many we can offer.
We hope to not have to turn anyone away because of financial hardship and to have a student body truly representing the diversity of people in our culture.
You can apply for either category of scholarship using the same application. Scroll up for the link!
What happens on the live calls?
The live calls are one of the most potent parts of the gathering for those who participate. They are not only a way to connect with and get to know the other students and Woniya, but they offer an opportunity to dive deeper into the subject matter, get your questions answered, and hear the other students' questions.
Everyone is encouraged to attend whether or not they are up to date on the week's classes. It isn’t unusual for people to work through the course on their own timeline and still participate in and get a lot out of the weekly calls. They are a great way to learn more, be inspired, and be supported in your learning.
They are not required, and most students don’t make the calls every week or even at all, but those who do are those who get the most out of the experience and integrate most thoroughly into their lives.
How much interaction will I have with Woniya?
The full gathering Zoom calls will all be hosted by Woniya, and the track calls will be hosted by her or one of our peer mentors. Woniya also regularly checks and provides feedback in the online community, while encouraging students to engage with each other on these topics as well. That is part of what makes it a gathering!
The online community and calls provide an avenue for questions and feedback that multiple students can benefit from them. Since we typically get a high volume of messages and questions, this is the best way to ensure everyone is heard and the group can benefit from their question. It also provides a way for students to communicate with and get support from one another. This is one of the intentions and strengths of this being a learning community, not just a teacher and student learning experience!
Is this course appropriate for kids?
Yes! While the gathering was not specifically designed for kids, the subject material is appropriate for children, and we not only encourage their participation, but see it as very important.
Imagine how different your life might be if you had been given a foundation in these skills as a young person and had the sense of empowerment, capability, and connection that comes with them early on!
We have had children as young as 10 and as old as 16 participate in the gathering, and they have been some of our most enthusiastic participants, to the delight of their parents. The classes are also set up in a way that can dovetail beautifully with homeschool and distance learning curriculums. We already have some parents planning to incorporate the gathering into their children's schooling, so if you choose to do so, you’ll be in good company!
I see this isn’t the first time you’ve offered a gathering. Are they all the same?
No, each BROG overlaps with prior versions but with a different combination of topics and classes and some new and different material. Additionally, a lot of the value is in the live calls and student interaction in the community forum; these are always new with each gathering.
What if I don't have access to the kinds of materials discussed in the classes?
You don’t need anything at all to participate in the gathering. You will learn a ton just by watching the classes. If you want to take your learning to the next level and follow along with them in a hands-on way, that is great too! Students will receive a materials list after they register, as well as some suggestions on how to go about finding the more obscure materials.
In the past gatherings, some students have participated hands-on in only a few classes, and most have participated just by watching the videos. All have reported learning a tremendous amount regardless.
More questions?
Feel free to email us at team@buckskinrevolution.com if you have further questions. Keep in mind that we get a lot of email these days so it might take some time to get your reply!