The Wilding Project
Restorative nature connection in the heart of the city."
"YOU ARE THE PROJECT"
MOVE
Movement is essential for life
It's how we explore the feeling of being alive -the feeling of being your body
Sessions blend functional fitness, breath-work, Animal Flow with nature therapy & nature appreciation practices.
We move in urban greenspace to connect with nature & restore vitality
We're intergenerational, inclusive & Interspecies! All beings are welcome.
Move more - Move better - Move longer
“The connection with the trees at the start and end of the session were beautiful moments for me. 🌳 You're an amazing facilitator Damien.” - Participant
"EcoFitness"
Weekly nature-connection movement - Carlton Gardens, Melbourne - $22 per session
(Re)connect your minded-body (or embodied-mind) to self, others & ecology through movement, nature-therapy, play, gratitude, attunement practices & ecological awareness. You'll move better, smile wider, feel connected to self, others and an animate living world.
Explore the joy of feeling alive.
FEEL
Feeling is the way we experience our world.
Eco-somatic movement practices train multi-sensory perception that expands your sense of self & how your embodied-mind is 'woven' into self, other & nature.
We move to feel. Move to expand. Move to evolve.
“Sensory perception is the silken web that binds our separate nervous systems into the encompassing ecosystem.” -David Abram Author 'Becoming Animal' and 'Spell of the sensuous'
"Barefoot & Grounded"
Every Wednesday 12:15PM - In an urban greenspace in Melbourne's CBD - Tickets from $7.50+
Each week trained guides explore the science of nature therapies such as 'grounding' or earthing, forest bathing, fox walking & other nature inspired immersive practices. Guides are NLBT trained and certified forest therapists with the ANFT
"Nature is the healer, we're solely a guide."
CONNECT
Feeling connected to place, to earth, to another, to community - that's the human feeling of wholeness."
We inspire people to connect with the natural world, everyday, in so many ways, to nourish & care for our bodies and realise how important it is to care for the earth that provides the nourishment.
We gather and celebrate as a community- inspired by our connection with nature.
We are "networks of relationships" & these alone matter - Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenologist
Your body is in the world as the heart is in the organism - Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenologist
"Ecological Knowledge"
Private fire & crafting workshops are delivered with passion and skill - Personalise your experience - Priced on booking
Unite friends, groups & family, & learn to weave, make fire, forage & craft using natural materials harvested in the city.
Weaving a basket using ancient techniques reveals a human connection to land that predates time.
Learning to make fire without matches teaches us about humanity's profound relationship with fire.
Finding an edible or medicinal plant outside your door will cure your plant blindness forever.
These older, pre-digital ways of being & living with the land deepen our relationship with nature. It's all based on a local knowledge of plant species & materials that everywhere surround us but remain anonymous … until you have a guide.
"What we are restoring, while crafting with locally harvested materials, is our relationship with the place we live. We learn, once again, how to be native to place. To be caregivers to land & to participate in the spiritual & physical renewal of the earth & of ourselves" - Damien Norris**
Join & Connect
The Wilding Project is a growing community of movement-curious, motion-sensing, nature-connecting biophiliacs.
Membership is free and when you're one of tribe you receive:
Early Bird Access: Be the first to know about events, workshops, & special offerings
Exclusive Content: Receive newsletters filled with nature connection practices, grounding techniques, & seasonal eco-wisdom
Community Discounts: Enjoy special pricing on events & partner products like Vivobarefoot Shoes
Connection Opportunities: Join community gatherings & meet like-minded individuals, each on their own nature (re)connection journeys
Unique Services: we'll send you a list of everything offered to our wild tribe
Welcome to the tribe
Stay WILD! We'll contact you soon.
Origins: a feeling of wildness
The Wilding Project (TWP) was founded in 2016 by Damien Norris, BA, MA, JD, PhD (Candidate).The goal of TWP is to transform urban-life-pathways into nature-informed-pathways. To (re)wild and (re)connect people to nature through immersive encounters with nature.TWP blends movement, ecological skills, nature therapies & practices to experience a wholistic connection with self, body & the more-than-human.The origin story of TWP began in the woods of Canada; a moment that changed Damien's life forever & was shared on the TEDx platform.*
Evolutions: a movement journey
1. Returning to Natural Motion
Over the past decade, my exploration of human rewilding began with simple questions: 'Why do I feel 'wild' moving in nature?' 'How did our ancestors move in the natural world?' This journey started as a pursuit of authentic fitness—breaking away from the confines of gyms and manufactured exercise equipment to rediscover the movements that evolved as we did.Unlike conventional fitness approaches that isolate muscles and movements, rewilding embraces integrated, adaptive movement patterns that emerge when humans interact with natural environments. Climbing trees, balancing on fallen logs, lifting stones, crawling and traversing varied terrain are not just exercises but reconnections to our evolutionary heritage.
2. Beyond Exercise: Movement as Relationship
What began as a physical practice gradually revealed a deeper truth: movements are not merely mechanical actions but motion-sensitive moments of intimacy with our surroundings. Each interaction with the natural world—whether scrambling up a rocky slope or fox-walking through a stream—creates a dialogue between body and environment.This realisation transformed my understanding of movement from a means of achieving fitness goals to a way of developing a relationship with place. My body, I discovered, was an instrument of perception, and movement was its language of connection.
3. Deepening the Practice: Movement from purpose
As my movement practice evolved, deeper dimensions of my motion-sensing relationship with nature emerged. I started to realise that humans had always moved in nature with purpose—movement was never recreation; exercise is a modern phenomenon.We walked attentively to observe. We ran, crawled, climbed, and swam to explore, forage, hunt, play, care and connect. We mimicked animal in our dances and in our movements because we are animal. And what better way to understand and feel our kin than to become it.As I moved through nature I learned of other rewilding ways to be with nature. I heard that nature was a teacher. I became curious. I found guides and through their tutelage developed a new (for me) intimacy with plant and animal species through learning ancestral skills:
- I learned to craft using natural materials sourced near my city apartment. I made rope, wove baskets, created fire without matches, carved wooden tools, and tanned hides into leather goods.
- I tracked and traced animals, learned to read their stories in soil, scat and vegetation. I listened to birdsong and eavesdropped on their conversations.
- I created shelters using only what the landscape provided.
Each activity opened new relationships to place, connecting me with stories from elders whose knowledge of these technologies was older than time.Within every traditional technology I practiced, I noticed that the natural movements I called "wild parkours"—or what others term "natural movement" or "Animal Flow"—had all emerged from these purposeful approaches to living in harmony with place, land, and species. Somewhere along the way, we had removed -extracted- the cause of the movement, severing the link between the motion and its purposeful connection with the more-than-human world. We called this disconnected version of movement "functional fitness", "exercise" or worse, “natural movement”.In learning ecological skills I think I found the heart of my movement—the heart of my ancestral, terrestrial origins. It was to be found in the flow of purposeful, motion-sensitive nature connection practices embedded within traditional ecological knowledges.Each skill reinforced the other, creating a tapestry of embodied knowledge of an ancient wisdom and nature connection. My hands that gripped tree branches now could weave baskets from dried Lomandra (mat rushes). My eyes that searched for handholds and footholds also became skilled at identifying edible plants, medicinal herbs, and natural crafting materials.I now believe that the essence of a human movement—one worthy of calling itself a rewilding practice and which can help restore our sense of place with land and the more-than-human—lies in these purposeful, nature-connected activities that weave our bodies back into the right-relationship with our biotic community -our native home.
"Feet are THE major sensory organ of the human locomotary system, and we make that system 'mute' wearing traditional shoes" - Damien Norris
VIVOBAREFOOT
Book a free advice, fitting & sales session
Sales | Fittings | Advice for members
Improve proprioception, balance, foot strength & more.
TWP Members receive pre-sale advice & discounts on Vivobarefoot shoes
It is amazing how feet become significantly stronger & balance improves simply by wearing footwear that does not interfere with the natural ability of the foot.
Watch Shoespiracy ⬇️ to understand why you want a Vivo in your wardrobe.
More than a shoe - a Vivo is a training partner!
There is a Vivo for every occassion: casual, trail, hike, train, performance
We will help you choose
Become a member and contact us directly for a fitting & advice
