“The child in nature is an endangered species, and the health of children and the health of the earth are inseparable.” – Richard Louv
On Homing and Healing: A Call to the Lifeblood and Marrow of Being
Walking alongside moss-covered, granite boulders, along the lake of Mustalampi and between the pine and silver birch trees of Nuuksio National Park, we watch the sky transform as its light adorns the dark, still waters with cerulean hues and ripples of sun-dappled...
Earth and Nature: On Integration and the Power of Place
Angelique Michaels, Return To Origin Leader, writes from her internship in Finland.Feb 27 2020For repatterning to occur, a certain unraveling is required, and most essentially, a period of conscious vegetation. Appropriated from the Latin vegetatus, to vegetate refers...
Baphumelele Fountain of Hope
The trees we planted here at Fountain of Hope are part of a holistic approach to healing our youth and the trauma that some of them have gone through. It’s also something that gives them a sense of responsibility, caring and taking care of this plant that started so...
Intlanganiso Secondary School on Heritage Day
Trees for Tomorrow @ Intlanganiso Secondary School on Heritage Day On a day devoted to honouring and celebrating shared legacies of cultural, material and symbolic attributes inherited from past generations, and as part of Return to Origin’s Trees For Tomorrow...
Cave work – with Jethro Boetman Louw
Return to Origin https://www.returntoorigin.org.za offered myself and my fellow leader Arnoldt Michaels, the opportunity to do cave work with khoi artist- Markus and bowmagician, medicine man and story-teller-Jethro Boetman Louw. Above the milkwood trees, with...
Baphumele Fountain of Hope
The ‘Trees for Tomorrow’ campaign forms part of a series of projects inspired by Return to Origin’s awareness of the great value and power in reconnecting Youth with Nature. In sowing seeds of promise and purpose today, we aspire towards leaving a legacy of healing...
Desert Tracking with the Khomani Bushmen
Through watching and tracking some small creature going about its life, you begin to see the way that Nature provides for its every need, and you can begin to feel the Love of the Divine that is inherent in everything in Nature. This is how Nature connects you to the...
The Rock Wizard
"How can we own the land when we belong to the earth? Each of us, whether we are aware of it or not, has a unique, sacred Earth calling via which we discover, assimilate and express aspects of Earth’s legacy that we have come to explore, both individually and...
Umfolozi Trail and Tales
‘Where the Spirit resides’ Angelique Michaels In the clacking world of unabating activities and tireless pursuits, a creature, though fashioned from its troubled soil, suddenly found herself a stranger to the familiar faces and places she had for so long known and...
Ocean and Devotion
"Children are born with a sense of wonder and an affinity for Nature. Properly cultivated, these values can mature into ecological literacy, and eventually into sustainable patterns of living.” Ernest Becker Return To Origin’s Guardians For Nature, (theme:...
Monsters, Heros and Liberation
The group that I facilitated during my Guardians For Nature was comprised of youth from the Baphumelele Fountain of Hope program, which provides orphaned youth of the Cape between the ages of 18-21 with a safe and nurturing environment to transition positively...
Earth Home and Belonging
Baphumele Youth Nature Connection Day On Saturday January 26, 2019 Return To Origin, https://www.returntoorigin.org.zatrainee leaders in the Indigenous Knowledge Leadership Program, were delighted to return to the young men and women of Baphumele, Fountain of...
Trees for Tomorrow, Mandela Day, Leave a Legacy, Vryground
"For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver." Martin Luther King Trees for Tomorrow is Return to Origins signature campaign. A significant symbol of our origins that...
Community, Nature and Culture
Sowing The Gifts We Reap- Angelique Michaels, Trainee Leader This month has been one of planting and of sowing seeds, and for me personally, one of remembering the value of community and connection. On July 15, Return to Origin hosted its annual fundraiser and we,...
There is Power in Presence and Healing in Listening
Blog Angelique Michaels, Return To Origin Trainee Leader, Indigenous Knowledge Leadership Program On June 16, Return to Origin facilitated another Guardians For Nature in Muizenberg with a group of kids from Capricorn Park, located on the Falsebay coast and referred...
Finding Elders and Friends in Nature
Guardians For Nature Youth Day South Africa June 16th. “The best part of the day was when I hugged and told my secrets to the tree” general consensus after our youth connection day. Please support our work and...
Storytelling, Memory and Food
“But there is nothing that can be hidden from the mind. Nothing that memory cannot reach or touch or call back” Don Mattera, quote from District Six Huis Kombuis: food and memory cookbook Return to Origin www.returntoorigin.org.za was honored to have Zayaan Khan,...
Nature’s Mirror -Vision Quest
“Something ancient in us bends us toward the origins of the whole thing. We either drown in the splits and confusions of our lives, or we surrender to something greater than ourselves.” Michael Meade Arnoldt Michaels -Trainee Leader Indigenous Knowledge Program Life,...
Nature Meets Culture -Art and Craft Market- July 15th.
Inspiring people to re-imagine their relationship to their world
Blog Post: Arnoldt Michaels Return To Origin Trainee Leader, Indigenous Knowledge Leadership Program. Our Guardians For Nature Day kicked off to a great start. As the school holidays take place during December, it afforded Return to Origin the perfect opportunity to...
WHAT YOU LOVE YOU PROTECT!
Thank you to all artists and buyers who sponsored our 1st Guardians For Nature project, by donating to our fundraiser “Origins” in October. Return To Origin Trainee Leaders, spent the day with 13 youth aged 10-13 years old at Silvermine Nature Reserve from the...
What the Heart Loves is the Cure. African Proverb
Blog Post: Angelique Michaels, Trainee Leader, Indigenous Knowledge Leadership Program. This month we, the leaders in training for Return to Origin’s signature program, had the opportunity to facilitate our own youth-nature connection day at Silvermine Nature Reserve,...
Supernatural in our mother city
We were fortunate enough to spend time at Lions Head, Table Mountain, with Jethro Boetman Louw, from Khoi Konnexion. Jethro has a wealth of knowledge about our deep heritage from the plants that grow on table mountain and many rocks and stones with which he appears to...
Origins – A community venture.
Blog Post: Lindsay Burch Trainee Leader, Indigenous Knowledge Leadership Program. In Service Training This month is the half way point in our second year as part of the Indigenous Knowledge Leadership Program (IKLP). It also represented our first opportunity for...
When we share our gifts the community thrives
The Art of Bow Making Workshop with Khoi Khonnexion. Angelique Michaels, Trainee Leaders in the Indigenous Knowledge Leadership Program. "With quiet bearing, they ignited in me a renewed sense of appreciation for the marvels of music and the intimately healing chords...
Craig Foster’s video
Scientists are now calling South Africa's Cape Coast the "cradle of the human mind". This is where humans with intelligence like ours today first emerged. So for "The Great Human Odyssey", we brought the world of the first coastal cultures to life in dramatic...
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