The Wilding Project

Restorative nature connection in the heart of the city.

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"YOU ARE THE PROJECT"

MOVE

• Movement is essential to life

• We explore movement culture, nature connection & the feeling of being alive in our motion-sensing body

• Sessions blend: Animal Flow, Rope Flow, breath-work, Fighting Monkey, beginner Wild (-mild-) Parcours, nature therapy & nature appreciation practices.

• We practice in urban greenspaces to connect with nature & restore vitality

• All ages - we're intergenerational, inclusive & Interspecies! All beings are welcome.

• Movement IS a perspective - 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

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FEEL

• Feeling through movement is the way we experience the world

• We explore eco-somatic movements that enhance multi-sensory perception & expand the sense of self

• We explore how the 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'

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CONNECT

• Feeling connected to place, to earth, to others - this lies at the heart of the feeling of wholeness."

• We guide to inspire a connection with the natural world because we know that when we nourish & care for our bodies in partnership with nature we come to realise how important it is to care for the source of that nourishment: our Earth-home.

• We gather to celebrate our moving-motion-sensing-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

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Origin Story: a feeling of wildness (TEDx)

The Wilding Project (TWP): was founded in 2016 by Damien Norris, BA, MA, JD, PhD (Candidate). It all began in the woods of Canada and a moment that changed Damien's life forever. Watch the story on TEDx.

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Evolutions: a movement journey

1. Returning to Natural Motion

A decade ago my curiosity with human rewilding began with a few simple questions: 'Why did I feel 'wild' moving in nature?' 'How did my ancestors move in the natural world?' 'Is this ancestral movement important to me now?'My journey began as a pursuit to find an authentic fitness—to break free from the confines of gyms and manufactured exercise equipment to rediscover the movements that evolved as we did.I learned that unlike conventional fitness approaches that isolate muscles and movements, a rewilding movement practice embraced integrated and adaptive movement patterns that emerge whenever humans interact with natural environments. In that context, climbing trees, balancing on fallen logs, lifting stones, or crawling on varied terrain was more than exercise, it offered a way to reconnect -through movement- with our evolutionary terrestrial 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 crawling up a rocky slope or fox-walking through a stream—creates a dialogue between the 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 the language of connection.

3. Deepening the Practice: Movement from purpose

As my movement practice evolved, deeper dimensions emerged. I began to realise that humans had always moved in nature with purpose—movement was never recreation. Exercise, as we think of it today, is a truly modern phenomenon.We walked attentively to observe.We ran, crawled, climbed, and swam to explore, forage, hunt, play, care and connect.We mimicked other species 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 through movement.As I moved through nature I learned of other rewilding ways to move with nature. I heard that nature herself was a teacher and became curious. I found guides and through their tutelage developed a new (for me) intimacy with plant and animal species through learning ancestral skills:

Each activity opened a 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 movements I called "wild parcours"—or what others term "parkour”,  ”la méthode naturelle” or "Animal Flow"—all emerged from a purposeful approach to living in harmony with place, land, & neighbouring species.I noted that somewhere along the way of human "progress", we had removed -extracted- the cause of the movement, severing the link between human-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.

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While learning ecological skills, and moving in mature purposefully, I think I found the heart of my movement—the heart of my ancestral, terrestrial origins. I found it in the flow of purposeful, motion-sensitive nature connection practices that are embedded within traditional ecological knowledges.Each skill reinforces the other, creating a tapestry of embodied knowledge of an ancient wisdom & nature connection.My hands that gripped tree branches could also weave baskets from dried Lomandra (mat rushes).My eyes that searched for handholds and footholds also became skilled at identifying edible plants, medicinal herbs, & natural crafting materials.Through all of these experiences, I now believe that the essence of human movement—one worthy of calling itself a rewilding movement practice and which might 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 right relationship with our biotic community—our native home.

The Mission

The goal of The Wilding Project (TWP) is to transform urban-life-pathways into nature-informed-pathways. To (re)wild and (re)connect people to place and to nature through restorative immersive experiences.TWP brings -to the urban, corporate world- natural movement, ecological skills, nature therapies, and practices to show through experience how a holistic connection with nature restores concentration, improves wellness, and makes us better people.