Kinship 2025: a round-up and review

main image description: a colour photograph – under grey/blue skies sits a circle of outdoor-clothed humans on a hill of long grass in front of a Summer forest valley. The group look intently towards the camera.

Dear workshop participants, wild wanderers and friends of land and sea,

It’s coming to the end of the Gregorian calendar year, and we have already passed the Winter Solstice… the light is returning!

I can’t quite fathom all that’s happened this year in the world: war, genocides, starvation, destruction, degradation – though much of which, through privilege and good fortune, I have not experienced in any way firsthand. It feels heavy and desolate. And it feels like we are nowhere near the light at the end of the tunnel.

However, earlier this month, as I walked for a couple of days on plastic-strewn winter beaches, amongst the detritus of farming, fishing and capitalism, I felt enraptured by the land and sea in their everyday glory. And that’s just one instance among so many this year where I feel more and more steadfast in the belief that all is nowhere near lost.

colour image description: the sun sets over the horizon outline of the Isle or Arran (next to Bute). A pink tinged dark cloud above jets into the orange sky at a jaunty angle

My commitment to this living world is deepening and, looking to the future, I am convinced that deep, embodied nature connection will (and does) contribute to the generative change we so need in these times.

Where we’ve been & who we’ve met

Alongside workshops on Bute, in Hebden Bridge, Epping Forest and Abercych, there have been a number of other projects we’ve been involved in that are worth mentioning…

Cultural Reforesting

We continued our longstanding relationship with the Richmond Arts Service at Orleans House Gallery in South West London. We contributed some work to the Cultural Reforesting exhibition. Cultural Reforesting asks the big question: How can we renew our relationship with nature? This artist led, long term project initiated by Orleans House Gallery asks how each of us might respond to the ecological crisis. Following the Nature-centred Wellbeing Programme that we ran with Richmond and Wandsworth council staff members last year, artist and filmmaker Simon Ellis made a documentary film about those staff members’ experiences of nature connection. This formed part of Kinship Workshop’s exhibit. Katye and I also made some new nature connection audio guides. We are looking for an opportunity to share these in 2026. SUBSCRIBE! to hear more.

WildBiome Project

For myself in May and for Katye in June, we joined about 100 other foragers across the UK and further afield on the WildBiome Project initiated by expert forager and herbalist Mo Wilde (@monicawilde). We ate ONLY wild food for a whole month as part of a study into how wild food affects our health and wellbeing. For me, this was less about the scientific study (although some interesting data is coming out already!), but more about an opportunity to live a deeper connection to the land and sea around me. There is no question that this challenged both Katye and I to the edge of our knowledge and practice, but the feeling of accomplishment and connection at the end of the month was worth it. I even did another 10 days of eating only wild food this October to see how the different season would change the foods I was collecting and eating.

Wild Food Weekend pilot

During May, I also piloted a Wild Food Weekend workshop on Bute with a few friends. I wanted to see what it would be like to invite a group of people to learn some foraging, processing and cooking techniques in a shared experience. In brief, it was a fantastic weekend and I am planning a Wild Food workshop as part of next year’s programme.

image description: 2 colour images – Tom collecting wild garlic / participants looking out over the Firth of Clyde

Kinship Council

Last year we gathered a group together as a Kinship Workshop council of expert peers to help advise us on direction and decision making processes. The areas we are working with the council on are: social justice, decolonisation, liberation, anti-genocide; organisational growth; and right relationship.

We met twice this year to discuss plans and ideas for 2026 and beyond. We are very grateful to the many wise voices in this group.

Pilgrimage

This summer, Katye and I visited Ynys Môn/ Anglesey for a few days of walking and camping. I then stayed for another week to make a pilgrimage from the Menai Straits to Holy Mountain on Holy Island which gives way to the Irish Sea and Ireland beyond. I roughly followed the Druids Way which tracks the path the Roman forces took in the Druid massacres on Anglesey in the 1st century AD. Along the way I visited ancient burial grounds, standing stones and roundhouses. I was deeply touched to experience these places that hold such significance to the Celtic history of the British Islands.

image description: a collection of 6 colour photos laid out in a mosaic format from the island of Anglesey… a roundhouse footprint, a part-foraged wildcamp supper, a Roman tower footprint, twin standing stones, the opening to a stone burial chamber, Tom walking a coastal path.

Winter practice group

Practice group is a monthly online meeting for those wishing to maintain and deepen their practice of connection to their local landscape and ecology. It also supports Katye and I to continue our practice with good company over the colder, darker months. We don’t run a practice group every year, but we are both so pleased to be joined by a brilliant bunch of practitioners this winter. I have been inspired to brave the cold in search of the company of various water mammals close to where I live… and I have been in luck!

image description: 2 colour long distance photos – a surfacing seal in a rocky bay, 2 silhouetted otters on a small rock in coastal waters

Ape Action Africa

This year, we sent the donation from our net facilitation fees to Ape Action Africa to support their incredible and essential work with at-risk primates in Cameroon.

2026

In conversation with our council members, we have been dreaming about a year-long programme for the purpose of deepening relationship with the living world through prolonged periods of exposure to wilder places, of time together, for reflection, solo and group processing and integration. In preparation for this programme in 2027, we are offering a few new workshops with some new guest facilitators.

We are still building the 2026 programme, but it will likely include:

introduction to Kinship Workshop
nature and the human unconscious
wild food & right relationship
developing movement practice for deeper nature connectedness
deep rest in nature

To be the first to hear about the upcoming workshops in 2026, we invite you to subscribe to our website newsletter. Any time we release a new workshop or offer a discount to subscribers, you’ll receive an email from us. Head over to the SUBSCRIBE! page to join.

Thanks…

Thank you to Katye for all her support, flexibility, patience, contributions, wisdom and love.

Thank you to the people: the participants who have joined workshops this year. We met fantastic participants both locally and from further afield. I personally learned so much this year about inclusion, communication and celebration.

To Simon Ellis for his amazing film reflecting what we do in Kinship Workshop.

Orleans House Gallery (particularly Andy and Dawn) for their collaboration and support in the Cultural Reforesting exhibition.

Wild Food Weekend pilot participants Amy, Aya, Hana and Kieran.

The ecosystems of Bute and Hebden Bridge for sustaining Katye and I during our wild food months

Kinship Council members: Chand Starin Basi, James Beresford, Joan Clevillé, Andy Franzkowiak, Ali Malvern, Camilla Nelson, Kyra Norman, Poh-Eng San, Petra Söör, Holly Thomas, Maisie Tomlinson, Flora Wellesley-Wesley.

And I want to send deep gratitude to the generosity of this living world – to islands, caves, wild waters, forests, woodland, mountains and weathers. There is nothing without you.