Chris (he/him) is a storyteller and experiential guide with a passion for learning the ways of the ancestors and connecting with nature. Chris grew up exploring the rocky beaches and Camas bejewelled Garry Oak meadows of LƏK̓ʷƏŊƏN (Lekwungen) territory on the Southern tip of Vancouver Island. 

After being slapped in the face by mortality in his 20’s, Chris realised that the life he had envisioned for himself was at odds with what his heart had always known would be his true work. The question yet remained though, what would that work be? Heeding a faraway call, Chris set out on a decade-long search for the echoes of nature-connected culture in the stories, songs and crafts of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Chris studied with Alastair McIntosh at the Centre for Human Ecology in Scotland and spent time studying permaculture at Schumacher College in Totnes, Devon.

The journey also took Chris through fields, orchards and forest gardens along hedgerows and into ancient copses. In a leafy Somerset valley, Chris discovered the sheer joy of listening to an ash branch for the voice of the spoon hiding within. At the Galgael Trust’s boatbuilding program in Glasgow, Chris witnessed the transformative power of working towards a common goal as at-risk youth peeled away layers of trauma with each steam-bent plank copper nailed in place. Eventually, a longship would set sail for Ireland, crewed by strong young people singing songs of the hero within us all. Involvement in traditional craft, led Chris into the deep-time world of ancestral skills – friction fire, hide-tanning, landscape awareness and more. 

After tracking his ancestors through the mill towns of England and the hill villages of Wales, and now influenced by the work of Bill Plotkin, David Abram and many others, Chris was picked up by the wind and blown back to the Victoria beaches where he spent his childhood. Walking the Dallas Road waterfront on a moonlit night, you might just catch him slipping into the water to join his Selkie kin.