'Ancient skills for resilient futures'

We believe that heritage building and craft skills are important for a number of reasons. Until relatively recently we were able to meet all of our material needs within a local area, and a community. We have lost our relationship with being able to house and cloth ourselves and produce the objects we need for daily life, making us feel dependent on large companies and global extractive systems. Re-learning older skills gives us a way to explore what self-reliance and more ecologically aligned ways of living could look like today. 

The loss of these skills and activities also means that many people have lost the role and purpose they had within their community. Regaining these skills is also about rebuilding our relationship with dignified labour, purpose and our role within community. 

These skills are part of our collective heritage and should be for everyone, connecting with history (whether yours or the place you have moved to) gives most people a greater sense of belonging, connection to the land and communities they are part of. 

Heritage building and craft are generally only available to people through expensive hobby courses, internships/work experience which require you to move to out of the way places and don’t offer things like accommodation, and are not very well paid. We would like to create learning opportunities which are financially and physically accessible, which talk about how these skills relate to social issues and our lives.