My first memories involve a love of and deep connection with the natural world and I built up relationships with the nature spirits in my garden as a young child. I was blessed to have the freedom to roam over fields leading to a medieval village and beyond, to the sea. I lived not too far from Hengistbury Head in Dorset and spent many hours getting to know that wild landscape of sea and heather, twisted oaks and old burial mounds.

As I grew up, I watched many of my favourite places become lost in housing estates, roads and huge development projects. I witnessed the destruction of many of the natural spaces around me and the route to Hengistbury Head was now only accessible by road. I deeply grieved this destruction and could not find solace amongst the sea of concrete that had sprung up all around.

I ran to the sea and to the woods for time alone, where I made friends with the trees, birds and nature spirits. I wanted to understand why the world didn’t seem to care about nature and why I didn’t care about capitalism and aspects of modernity. I made friends with ancestral spirits at ancient sites and felt more at home in these places, and in the wild places, than in the city. This feeling of home and connection within nature has been central to my life.

When I was 21 I went to Ruskin College in Oxford, which was an incredible left-wing political college and centre of political radicalism; living there changed my life.

At Ruskin I studied history and learned about women’s liberation, black liberation, British working class history, slavery, and all the intricacies of Britain’s colonial history. I spent days in the Bodleian library in Oxford, reading all that I could get my hands on, trying to understand the world. I wrote my dissertation on animal rights; exploring its philosophy and history and our disconnection from nature.

At Sheffield University, I studied archaeology and anthropology where my focus leant into the transition to farming. However my dissertation was titled “New Age appropriation of Native American spirituality” continuing themes of power and colonialism, perceptions of the “other” and the nature - culture dualism.

After I graduated, I worked as a field archaeologist before continuing my studies at Cardiff University, within a Masters in European prehistory. My dissertation researched the religion and ritual of prehistoric Avebury.

After the Masters Degree, I went to live on a narrowboat, battled with chronic fatigue and depression for a couple of years whilst working with young people, neuro-divergent groups and people struggling with their mental health. I cruised to Oxford where I taught short courses in anthropology at Ruskin College (and later at Bristol University) and I started (though didn’t complete) a PhD in anthropology, exploring the travelling boating communities in Britain.

At the time, I embraced the life of a nomad, feeling that it not only reflected my soul’s urge and longing but was also the most sustainable way of living on the planet. I lived on a narrowboat for 7 years, travelling much of the southern inland waterways, often alone, rejoicing in the peace and connection to the natural world which the boating lifestyle enabled.

All the while the lifestyle was frequently attacked. Between 2005-6, whilst I was teaching anthropology at Ruskin, I participated in a high profile protest of the development of a boatyard in Oxford, integral to the large local boating community. We took over the site and tried to show how important it was to maintain a working boatyard rather than build flats. When we were evicted, I was pregnant. The boatyard remains boarded up and inaccessible to this day, but undeveloped. Everyone lost.

After leaving the boating life, I moved with my son and partner to a land-based community in Somerset, which produced organic food and hosted events. Whilst there I created and managed events, including Frack Free Festival, which was a 3 day political fund-raiser. Many of my favourite musicians came, there was a thriving children’s area, campaigning area, talks, healing area, theatre and circus field and more. Below are some photos.

One of my life goals has been to be self-sufficient and live in deeper connection with nature, just as our ancestors would have done. Living on a boat undeniably taught me many skills in this area and, when I left, I turned to the world of bushcraft to maintain and deepen some of these skills. I attended different weekend courses, started foraging and learning herbalism.

I decided to train in forest school and this was one of the best decisions of my life, as working with children became a huge and joyful part of my path. I set up Wild Thyme Forest School for home educated children in Somerset and ran it for 7 years, alongside home educating my son and working as a mentor in other home school settings. When I left Wild Thyme in 2022, I passed it on and the project continues to thrive.

To deepen my skills, I attended a year long course in Devon in 2019 called “The Old Way”, focused on learning foraging and hunting skills, nature connection and some of the craft techniques that our ancient ancestors would have worked with, such as basketry.

The immersive course also focused on deep connection, with both our human and more-than-human kin, and set an intention to learn to live in the old way, learning skills from our indigenous ancestors.

A part of the course offered what was, for me, the fulfillment of a dream involving a trip to Namibia to live, for a time, with a group of indigenous people and learn their ways. The visit to the San Bushmen had a profound impact on me and I am still processing the experiences of my time there. It was an incredible privilege.

Soon after coming back from Namibia, Covid-19 took over the world. I spent lockdown immersed in nature studies and in particular a programme called Kamana, by Jon Young and the Wilderness Awareness School, which I continued over the next 18 months.

Keen to maintain and continue some of the land-based skills I was learning, I completed a year-long training course in wilderness rites of passage, including a 4 day and night vision quest, with WildWise in Dartmoor. Additionally, I completed two years of a monthly foraging course, taught by some of the team who hold The Old Way Immersion, called the Wild Practice.

Between 2020-2023 I helped to establish a ground-breaking NHS funded ecotherapy project, helping people who were struggling with their mental health. A mixture of forest school activities and listening skills, the feedback from people was incredibly positive and shows how a simpler, more connected, way of life can have a massive impact on our mental health.

During lockdown, it became clear that, for my own mental health, I needed to have greater access to wildness. My permitted walks took me to countless “no entry” signs, igniting a passion for land justice that led to my recent enrolment at Exeter University to research for a PhD in this subject. It also led to a move to South Devon, to be closer to the wild places around the coast and on Dartmoor.

Our world is changing at such a fast pace and me with it. When I first created this website and this page 6 years ago, life looked very different to how it looks now. Yet, its useful to view the path I have taken as I read these words, in early 2026. It shows me that the decisions we make along our lifepath’s have meaning and purpose which perhaps we do not recognise at the time. I have a mix of hope and concerns for our future and quite a lot to say… If you have read this far, I would encourage you to read some of my journal and get in touch if any of this has inspired you.

Love Samara