THE NATURE CONNECTION - INSPIRING A CONNECTION WITH WILDLIFE & WILD PLACES
Many years ago, writer and wilderness advocate Laurens van der Post wrote ‘Every human being has a two million-year old man within himself; if he loses contact with that two million-year old self, he loses his real roots…’ and through my work, my thoughts, my musings and daily adventures I contemplate these words, finding resonance in my own intuitive connection with the earth and the sense of being part of the great unfolding human story, millions of years in the making.
An area that I explore frequently in my work is the deep sense of connection that we inherently feel for the earth, an ancient memory that takes us back to our most primal genetic blueprint, to a time when we lived in close harmony with the cosmology, the land and her creatures. And then the immense home-coming, when we immerse in nature, feeling ourselves reawakening, remembering, re-acquainting with our original selves.
Through the Nature Connection, I create visual displays and publications that touch on the world of wild nature with the vision of inspiring a closer connection with wildlife and wild places. I sense that a life lived close to the earth, ever-mindful of the other lives that share our planet home, will engender a collective re-awakening of that aspect of ourselves that once lived in harmony with the wider living world around us.
Over the years I have been privileged to work on a range of diverse conservation initiatives and the links below touch on a few of these projects -
- Sustainable solutions for baboons | Beast or Blessing
- Reconnecting with Nature | reconnecting_with_nature_-_press_release_2011.pdf
- Exposing the porcupine quill trade | The Porcupine Report
- Inspiring wilderness conservation | Wilderness Visionaries
- Living with urban wildlife | Wild Neighbours
- Sacred Ocean anti-whaling campaign | http://www.noelashton.com/sacred-ocean/
- Conserving the Western leopard toad | http://toadnuts.ning.com/photo/farm-village?context=latest
-
Unity in Diversity, a celebration of earth cultures | unity_in_diversity_-_a_celebration_of_earth_culture_-_belinda_ashton_2011.pdf (This display was presented as a concept to Survival International UK incorporating narrative from the work of anthropologist Wade Davis)
Visit the new Wild Neighbours website at http://www.wildneighbours.co.za
As the natural world continues to diminish beneath the vast human footprint, I sense that increasingly people and wildlife will be forced to coexist alongside one another and if we are to live in harmony together, then we need to apply our minds, our hearts and souls to finding mutually-beneficial solutions to problems that might arise through incidents of human/wildlife conflict. I am saddened that through a lack of awareness and the age-old human paradigm that asserts a moral prerogative over nature, we create conditions of intense comprise for many species around the world.
I genuinely believe that at some point in the foreseeable future, if most of the animals are gone and our wild lands are diminished, we will experience a loneliness and loss of self that will be lasting and irreparable…
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar,
I love not man the less, but Nature more.
(Lord Byron)
Contact me if you are interested in my nature writing or displays.
