Show Notes
Hello! I have been away in the bush for three days and three nights with just a tarp, sleeping bag and water to my name. No tent, no pillow, no torch, NO BREAKFAST. Off the back of this deeply moving ritual (which I'll tell you about soon), I wanted to release this equally as moving and foresty interview with Tessa Campisi.
Tessa is a writer, poet, audio visual artist, activist and radio host who speaks with the timbre of an old growth tree and tells stories that will rustle your leaves.
In this chat:
🌳 What it's like to live through a catastrophic flood
🌳 How anarchic networks can rise to meet a crisis, fast
🌳 What happens when forest conservationists are at loggerheads with traditional owners?
🌳 Strawman vs. steelman arguments
🌳 A new approach to deep listening to those you disagree with
🌳 What traditional activism gets wrong and how to be a more effective change agent
🌳 How and why to love the scraps of our beautiful, broken world
🧙♀️ LINKY POOS
Tessa's home on the web [https://www.tessacampisi.com/home]
Tessa's (online) exhibition ~ Framings of Wombat Forest [https://www.framingwombatforest.com.au/]
Article of interest ~ Reflections on forest gardening by Cam Walker [https://www.melbournefoe.org.au/galk_galk_dhelkunya] https://www.melbournefoe.org.au/galk_galk_dhelkunya
Paper of interest ~ History of Environmentalist-Indigenous alliances and conflicts [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299345081_Unstable_relations_A_critical_appraisal_of_indigeneity_and_environmentalism_in_contemporary_Australia]
Essay of interest ~ The Trouble with Wilderness by William Cronon [https://www.williamcronon.net/writing/Trouble_with_Wilderness_Main.html]
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More from Reskillience
I tell a story about a freak storm that flattened our summer crops before sharing a super inspiring convo with Chris Gilmour [https://www.chrisoutdoors.ca/], an emergency and disaster preparedness expert who believes that deep nature connection is key to surviving and thriving through uncertain times.
I tell a story about my inability to change before chatting with a guy who's obsessed with changing everything! Dr Shane Simonsen of Recombination Nation [https://recombinationnation.substack.com/] is a biochemist, research scientist and experimental farmer who is shaking up agriculture-as-usual by breeding plants that require ZERO INPUTS. No fertiliser, no pest protection, no weeding, no watering! We talk about how to run your own kinky plant breeding experiments at home, as well as:
Planting guides and sow-what-when calendars are great and all, but what happens when the seasons don't play nice? When spring arrives earlier, frost hits later, or heatwaves burn your crops to a crisp? There's no controlling the weather, but with tools like phenology, you can make better predictions and grow more food!
NOTE: I've done breathwork every day since this interview and – you gaias! – it's really helping me human.
"In a time of fracturing seasons, when everything's going awry, there are still cycles that we can set our hearts by."