Offerings
Ancestral Skills
Wild Awake runs classes for individuals and groups which aims to draw you away from the city and the pressures of modern-day life, back to the land where you are freely able to explore your own connection to place. At the heart of these skills lies the real treasure: community building, grief-tending, cultural regeneration, and rewilding.
We firmly believe that it is through practicing the skills of our ancestors, those who knew the land so intimately and recognized their place within it, that we can strengthen our connection to the earth and all its inhabitants. Through practicing these hands-on, creative skills we can flex our own ancestral muscle memory and recognize ourselves as the creative, problem-solving and resilient beings that we are.
Through these classes, we aim to provide authentic, transformational and immersive experiences which contribute to personal growth, community building and real skill development.
“Plants are also integral to reweaving the connection between land and people.
A place becomes a home when it sustains you, when it feeds you in body as well as spirit.
To recreate a home, the plants must also return.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.
Ethnobotany
Ethnobotany is the study of the relationship between people and plants.
We offer foraging walks & workshops across the country, tracking the ethnobotanical landscape of Ireland through the seasons. These can range from a simple 2-hour walk & talk, with tastings at the end, or a more immersive exploration of how plants, trees, fungi, or seaweeds can be processed into food, medicine, or craft.
Reciprocity with nature is at the heart of what we do.
We aim to explore and contribute regeneratively to this land whilst creating something unique that we can be proud of.
In our classes, you may learn:
How to safely, sustainably, and respectfully forage from plants, seaweeds, fungi, and trees.
Understand where your food comes from, access to more nutrient-rich foods, and to consume fewer chemicals and pesticides.
Learn how to track the landscape so that you can anticipate what you might find in any given landscape.
Creative ways to transform your harvest into food, medicine, and craft.
Rekindle your creativity and return to a more wild or natural state.
Break free from urban domestication and reconnect to local natural heritage.
“Stalking allows people to drop their everyday personae until the forest no longer realizes that they’re there.
When you become the forest, when you’re silent inwardly and outwardly, the forest starts to wake up, to move.
It’s amazing what can happen.”
- Paul Rezendes, The Wild Within
Wildlife Tracking & Trailing
“Many tracking books use the analogy of the earth as paper, the animals as writers, and the tracks and trails as the letters and words left behind for those who are fluent in the language and willing to pause and read. Tracks and trails are truly a script for those with trained senses, and they tell many stories rich in drama, suspense, mystery, love and sometimes horror.”
(Mark Elbroch, Mammal Tracks, and Sign)
Being a Tracker is so much more than just looking at tracks on the ground. It is about understanding and interpreting animal behavior, developing empathy for the more-than-human world, and embedding ourselves within the story of the living landscape.
Chances are, at least one of your ancestors was an amazing tracker; it’s what has got you here today. Wildlife tracking is known to be both an art and a science and our classes focus both on the practical and authentic skill development of tracking, as well as leaving space for the wonder, curiosity and connection that inevitably arises from practicing this ancient skill.
Wildlife trailing is that extra step on the journey. It involves combining all the knowledge of tracking to learn how to interpret the landscape and the behavior of the animals you wish to follow and hopefully see! In Ireland, deer are the animals we are most able to successfully trail.
“Most of us think of belonging as a place outside of ourselves, that if we keep searching for, that maybe one day we’ll find it.
But what if belonging isn’t a place at all, but a set of skills, or competencies, that we in modern times have lost or forgotten.”
- Toko-PaTurner from ‘Belonging: Remembering ourselves home’.
Rites of Passage
A Rite of Passage is an intentionally designed experience that supports people to transition through pivotal or difficult times in their life and tends to their relationship with Self, community, culture, and more. Our programs are specifically designed to support young people aged 13-18 in the journey from childhood to young adulthood in a supported, mentored way. We work closely with parents & guardians to support them to support their young person in this transformative experience.
“I don’t want you to stand and listen, I want you to experience all that this land has to offer with all of your senses fully engaged. I want you to clamber through rock pools with me, dig roots from the ground with your hands, wade in waters for cat tails, and lie in the deep aroma of a medicinal meadow.
I want you to be immersed so that you’ll never forget”.
- Lucy O’Hagan, Founder of Wild Awake + Phoenix Forest School
Forest School
Forest School is an ethos of learning which seeks to support resilient and creative learners through regular and on-going relationship building with the natural world. Free play and supported risk-taking is central to this ethos of learning.
Forest School is defined by six guiding principles and is led by qualified practitioners who are continually reflecting on and building upon their practice. We have offered Forest School for schools, youth groups and family support centres.
We also offer introductory training to Forest School for teachers, colleges, universities & individuals.
Lucy works as an associate trainer for Circle of Life Rediscovery in delivering Forest School level 3 adults training with Forest School Ireland.
Collaborative Offerings
Organisation Collaborations:
Consultancy
Creating and developing Forest School or outdoor learning opportunities.
Ecological surveys of your land through skills of Wildlife tracking and Ethnobotany.
Designing and Developing Rites of Passage for your family or community.
Pathways to rewilding your life, your family, or your organization.
Consultations for cultural and heritage projects.
Talks
Lucy is increasingly being called to speak online or in-person for various podcasts, symposiums, conferences, and events. She has spoken alongside influential speakers such as; Richard Louv, David Sobel and Mary Reynolds.
Lucy loves to speak and share about her work in Rewilding, Forest School, Rites of Passage, Ancestral living experiences and restoring Ancestral life ways in Ireland. Please get in touch if you would like Lucy to speak at one of your events, either online or in-person.
Custom courses
I can provide custom made classes for your college, community group, or friends.
This could be a day long celebration for you and your friends, involving firecrafting and wildcrafting, or a class to be held at a festival or event.
Please get in touch to see what I can offer you.