RDNA Native Eyes Program
If you trace your lineage back far enough, you’ll find ancestors who were natives — somewhere. To these indigenous ancestors, holistic awareness of the natural world (tracking) and land tending (permaculture) were so important that they became entwined and engrained in their biology. We can hardly guess what this relationship to land, creatures, and each other meant to our ancestors since we have come so far from it.
Using cultural mentoring, the tool that our ancestors used to teach this awareness, the Native Eyes Program will help you reclaim your human birthright to be an integrated and critical member of the natural world. This training, as outlined in Jon Young's new book, Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature, is not being offered anywhere else in the world — because the Bushmen aren’t taking applications! Join us for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
How to Apply
Tuition
Schedule
Frequently Asked Questions
The Remedy for Nature Deficit Disorder
In his best-selling book, Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv writes about “nature deficit disorder," and how our lack of nature connection is leading to a wide variety of stresses and negative outcomes in our physical, mental and cultural health. Depression, attention deficit disorder and obesity, as well as species loss and ecological collapse, are taking on epic proportions — and they all can be linked to a lost relationship with nature that our modern experience has stolen from us.
How many of us can walk into our back yards or around our neighborhood and know each plant by name, know if it is edible or medicinal? Do you know how animals use your back yard and where to find them? How to find clean water or to make fire without matches? We have become people who don’t know how to connect with nature authentically, and we have lost a critical piece to our development and sustained health as a species.
What will we need to get through the challenges that lie ahead? How can we again become stewards and tenders of the land?
The answers lie with the cultures around the world who still have the wisdom needed to care for the wild places. These cultures — like the Kalahari bushmen, the Australian Aborigines and other historic nomadic hunter gather cultures from Asia, South America and Europe — still experience a deep cultural understanding of how to be in harmony with and how to relate to the land and its inhabitants.
This course is based on the methods and wisdom gained from those cultures. Using the same methods, you'll experience how this kind of learning is the most powerful way for adults today to make an authentic nature connection.
Ancient Routines for Awareness
During this 9-month journey, you’ll practice an ancient set of routines that will reawaken your sense of awareness — exploring bird language, “tending the wild,” advanced awareness, earth living skills, the “Eight Shields” of holistic tracking, and the way of the Native Scout. You’ll learn to walk like the fox, quiet the mind, move among the animals and listen to the stories the land tells. You will discover your place as an integrated member of the natural community, develop an intuitive sense of care giving, feed your adventurous spirit, come to know the animals and plants as friends, and experience the wilderness as home.
You’ll practice:
- Holistic wildlife tracking, track identification, gait analysis, landscape tracking
- Bird language
- Modern wildlife inventory techniques and technologies
- Plant identification and medicinal/edible uses
- Earth living/survival skills as a gateway to awareness
- Core routines of awareness
- Animal form and the power of imitation
- The strength of unity and the scout lifestyle
- The timeless way of the wanderer
- Inner tracking and the internal landscape
- Knowledge of and true connection to place
- Storytelling, music, art and the creative mind
- The power of curiosity, imagination, and adventure
As part of the program, you’ll also receive weekly mentoring with the RDNA staff.
This intensive experience requires commitment, stamina, and curiosity. We like to say, “the learning is in the doing,” so be prepared to camp on-site every Tuesday and Wednesday night to withstand all local weather conditions, and to provide for your own meals (although meal sharing is encouraged). Dinner will be cooked over a campfire, so please bring your own cookware and utensils.
Although all are encouraged to apply, we are giving priority for our limited enrollment to RDNA, WARP, IATS, VWS, and Native Eyes graduates!
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2010 - 2011 Program Schedule, coming soon...
RDNA Native Eyes starts in late August and runs weekly through mid-May, with five breaks.
We begin with a week-long Mind of Mentoring workshop (Week 1), followed by a week-long Cultural Mentoring intensive training (Week 2). There is also a week-long Bird Language Intensive in April (Week 23). These three trainings are required for all RDNA Native Eyes students.
The normal weekly schedule is from 10am Tuesdays through 10pm Wednesdays.
Current 2009-2010 Program Schedule
Wk 1 Aug 29 - Sept 4: Weeklong Mind of Mentoring
Wk 2 Sept 6 - 11: Weeklong Cultural Mentoring Training
Wk 3 Sept 15-17: Orientation – RDNA, Native Eyes and Cultural Mentoring
Wk 4 Sept 22-24: Mentoring Nature Connection
Sept 25-27: Optional – Mentoring of Nature Connection, continued
Wk 5 Sept 29-Oct 1
Wk 6 Oct 6-8
Autumn Break
Wk 7 Oct 20-22
Wk 8 Oct 27-29
Wk 9 Nov 3-5
Wk 10 Nov 10-12
Wk 11 Nov 17-19
Thanksgiving Break
Wk 12 Dec 1-3
Wk 13 Dec 8-10
Wk 14 Dec 15-17
Winter Break
Wk 15 Jan 19-21
Wk 16 Jan 26-28
Wk 17 Feb 2-4
Wk 18 Feb 9-11
Wk 19 Feb 16-18
Late Winter Break
Wk 20 March 2-4
Wk 21 March 9- 11
Spring Break
Wk 22 April 13-15
Wk 23 April 18-24: Bird Language Weeklong Intensive
Wk 24 April 27-29
Wk 25 May 4-6
Wk 26 May 11-13: Graduation
How to Apply
Requirements
Although all are encouraged to apply, we are giving priority for our limited enrollment to RDNA, WARP, IATS, VWS, and Native Eyes graduates.
Application and Deadlines
Applications forms for the RDNA Native Eyes program will be available soon.
To apply, you will download an application form and return it to us with a $45 application fee.
Tuition
RDNA Native Eyes
(with approved prerequisites)
$9650 Full tuition
$9200 Early Bird tuition, paid in full by June 1
RDNA Native Eyes
(with completed RDNA Essentials)
$7700 Full tuition, after RDNA Essentials
$7350 Early bird tuition, paid in full by June 1
Additional discounts for RDI veterans. Please contact the office for more information.
Tuition Payments
Once accepted into the RDNA Native Eyes program,
please register online and pay tuition via credit card or check.
For questions or additional information, contact:
415-868-9681 or email us
Course Cancellation Policy
The cancellation policy is outlined in the Finacial Agreement document included in the online registration form.
Frequently Asked Questions
1.) How does Native Eyes differ from RDNA?
Both programs are based on the principles of coyote mentoring and cultural mentoring and use holistic tracking as a foundation.
The Native Eyes participant immerses themselves in the sacred questions of nature awareness and then reports back to the RDNA community, mimicking the scout society present in many indigenous cultures around the world. This advanced nature awareness journey will help prepare the participant for the certified tracker evaluation. Native Eyes immerses you into a hunter-gatherer experience, helping you to become a better tracker. The curriculum is based on the core routines of Jon Young's Animal Tracking Basics book.
In addition to basic nature awareness skills, the RDNA program focuses more intently in regenerative design skills, community development and leadership. It immerses you in village life, helping you develop your own gifts to contribute to the village. RDNA teaches you how to apply your nature awareness skills to the community and to the landscape through regenerative design practices.
2.) How does Native Eyes prepare someone to be a Regenerative Designer?
The best designers are often the people who have strong naturalist, bird language and tracking skills. Native Eyes is not aimed at making you a designer; it is aimed at making you more aware, which in the long run helps you to become a better designer.
3.) Who should take this course?
Native Eyes is for someone who is seriously considering becoming a wildlife professional, an inventory specialist, or someone who has a key understanding of their nature awareness goals. The course will prepare you to be effective on the Cybertracker evaluation's sign and track identification, while helping you maintain a balanced connection to all aspects of tracking skills.
Ideally you will have passed through previous trainings such as RDNA, Tom Brown courses, Wilderness Awareness School courses, etc. and are looking for more "dirt time," a community of learners, diverse talented mentors, and a deeper immersion into your nature awareness journey.
Native Eyes may also be appropriate for you if you are someone with a strong desire to deepen your connection to the natural world and to experience a hunter-gatherer culture, even if you have not completed any previous naturalist training. Please contact our staff to find out if this course is a good fit for you!
4.) Will I need to do home study in addition to my time spent at the course?
The mentoring structure of Native Eyes requires extensive independent study on your own time, both in and out of class. You often supervise your own learning journey, so it is ideal for you to have a key understanding of your nature awareness goals.
5.) What will the typical day look like?
Hunter-gatherer nomadic routines make for the best trackers. Because the Bushmen aren't taking applications, we have to create Bushman-type experiences as a core routine. You will be hunting and gathering all the time, trapping animals with cameras, trapping with live traps, gathering roots and sticks and branches, constantly scouting for the village, investigating what was actually making the noise in the bushes during the bird sit, and more.
