The Ecology of Belonging

Our Facebook page has in the past been the target of extensive attacks from hate groups and trolls. Many of these people misguidedly think we are an anti-white organization or think we are representing place-based skills in general as belonging to specific groups of people. This couldn’t be further from the truth. As an interracial couple representing European backgrounds as well as backgrounds Indigenous to South America, the creation and reach of Queer Nature is obviously multi-racial and cross cultural, and does not claim that earth-based skills in general are the birthright of any one group of people. However we do work hard to acknowledge the histories of specific technologies that we might work with, and we believe it is important to put earth-based skills and skill communities in conversation with whatever histories of oppression and repression exist on that land (and yes, this includes of course Indigenous histories, but it also includes talking and learning about histories of poverty/economic crisis and pollution on lands that affect people across many races). Practicing place-based skills on land with such complex histories is never totally neutral. This doesn’t mean it’s impossible, nor does it mean that engaging in this is ‘bad,’ it means we believe that doing it takes ongoing care, humility, and awareness. This is simply our choice with how to proceed in these practices. We do not wish to engage in any coercion of others to do the same and generally distance ourselves from coercive political rhetoric. The natural sciences and the outdoor community have started to realize that natural history and cultural history are one in the same—Histories of harm and impact are literally part of natural history, and tracking doesn’t end at examining footprints.

“We cannot be good trackers if we are not keeping track of our own perceptions.” - Martin Lockley, Paleontologist"

Queer Nature is a nature-based/naturalist education project focusing on LGBTQ2+ learners in the ecological arts and sciences. We recognize that many people have for various reasons not had easy access to outdoors pursuits. We envision and implement ecological awareness and outdoor self-efficacy skills as vital and often overlooked parts of resilience-building for populations who have been silenced, marginalized, and even represented as 'unnatural’ (and also, as an arena to connect people across difference!) Our curriculums try to go beyond recreation in nature to creative and critical engagement with the natural world to build inter-species alliances, ecological solidarity, and an enduring sense of belonging, even in strange and scary times on earth. We are committed to balancing these objectives with awareness of our impact and good land stewardship practices, but we don’t claim any mastery in such commitments. This hands-on, slow, person-to-person (+ cross-species) type of relationship building both serves to promote ecological fluency, better environmental stewardship, and also nourishes and resources human souls in changing and tumultuous times. We strongly believe this is a beautiful exchange, and though we can’t always explain why despite our many worded efforts, we consistently see it bear such magical fruit. We also utilize skill-building and naturalist knowledge as a window to revitalizing our connection with all the ancestors and humans (and other animals!) who came before us in their lives on this planet, as well to enter into a relationship of awareness and respect for the ancestral lifeways of First Nations people and current, living lifeways present in the land. In that vein, we strive to understand further how this work can support Indigenous communities.

Many nature-lovers know that it is personally empowering to learn survival and earth-based living skills on both physical and emotional levels, and gaining proficiency in these sorts of skills also can offer peace of mind in uncertain times. Empowerment and preparedness are undeniably part of what we do, but our overarching vision is for a deep sentiment to take hold in our hearts, and that is the sentiment of solidarity. As LGBTQ2+ people and advocates for equity, we tend to have some understanding of the value of human solidarity, but in these times of rapid habitat and biodiversity loss, continued displacement of Indigenous peoples, and extreme political antagonism, it is clear to us that an even larger 'ecological' notion of solidarity is called for that defies easy political categorization. We don't pretend to have ultimate answers about what that looks like, but we do believe that the more we discover about our ecosystems and our place within them, the more we can grow our definitions of solidarity, allyship, humanity, and animality, while also growing our inner resources for personal resiliency. Recently (in 2022), we have also started to explore the practice of offering spaces that aren’t full “affinity” spaces, in order to acknowledge the very real and supportive relationships we have (and can have in the future) with mentors, partners, and close friends who may not share these specific identities/bodies of experience that we do. This is also a critical practice for rural community building.

Skills like wildlife tracking, trailing, learning bird language and behavior, and situational awareness training in particular lend themselves to an expansion of our ability to feel oriented in the natural world, because these skills are essentially about training latent abilities for perception, awareness, and pattern recognition that allow us to literally see, hear, and feel more because we are expanding our repertoire of what counts as information. Such skills also comprise the nuts-and-bolts of wayfinding behavior and navigational capacity, which are core-skills of place-based dwelling. This is not only valuable to us personally on a ‘tactical’ level, but it means that we can translate what we're seeing to our wider human communities and increase ecoliteracy and intergenerational/community memory of Land. Natural crafts like basket-weaving, wood carving, and leather-making allow us to realize our vital roles as creators and collaborators with the natural world, rather than just consumers of it. Moreover, as we learn from the other-than-human world, we maintain skepticism at the modern (and colonial) idea that nature is perfect, harmonious, or predictable. Ecosystems and living beings do what they need to do to survive, and this doesn't always correspond to idealistic visions of what nature is like. Queer people often have diverse and varied experiences of survivor-hood, and it is powerful to have that reflected back by the natural world. There are many mysterious and beautiful ways in which nature reflects queerness.

There is a growing 'market' for survival and earth-based living skills programs, and re-skilling yourself in this modern context can be pricey! Since its inception, Queer Nature has committed to offering affordable skill-shares for those who otherwise might not be able to access similar curriculums. In our former grant-funded workshop series through the 501(c)3 Women’s Wilderness, we typically charged a nominal registration fee of $10. In our current Pacific Northwest location, we operate under a new fiscal sponsor, Youth Passageways, and receive grants to continue these types of workshops and immersive experiences on a donation-only basis, or low sliding scale fee for more complex multi-day courses.

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