Tamara Wilder

Tamara has been learning, researching, experminenting with and teaching ancient living skills since 1989.

She currently offers
hands-on
Ancient Living Skills
Overview Programs
for schools and groups
&
Topical Workshops
for adults
all around Northern California

These classes vary depending on the interest and age level of the group but usually include quite a focus on hands-on activity and are very well received by both the teachers, youth and adults alike.

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Tamara originally began sharing skills with others as an assistant teacher for the Santa Cruz Mountians Natural History Assn (SCMNHA) Old Ways Seminar Series in Felton beginning in 1989, the Rabbitstick Rendezvous Skills Gathering in Rexburg, ID beginning in 1989 and the MAPOM California Indian Living Skills Seminar Series at Pt. Reyes National Seashore beginning in 1990.

Through regular participation in the growing number of skills gatherings, she was fortunate to learn from, share with and co-teach with numerous skilled practitioners, anthropologists, archaeologists, professors, enthusiasts, inventors, and re-enactors who are now part of her extended community of colleagues, friends and co-workers.

She has dedicated her life to exploring and sharing the “pandemic” & “universal” ancient technologies that have formed the basis for everything that we now utilize in our daily lives. This “tree of technology” has roots which reach back over a million years, but which are still forming the structure that supports the lives of humans all around the world. The arts of shaping stone tools, twisting fibers in to string, processing the skins of animals into rawhide & leather, making tools out of bones, shells, antler, wood, etc… and throwing sticks through the air are all essential technical skills that were figured out by our ancestors so that they could survive and thrive. If they had not figured them out, then we would not be here today.

Her main focus through the years has been to figure out how to effectively teach “the basics” of tool-making, fire-making and string-making to youth and adults alike. These skills which form a strong foundation in further exploration of ancient technologies are essential but often not easy to figure out and getting some supportive instruction in the beginning can be quite helpful.

See scheduled classes for present schedule.

Current locales for Workshops and Programs include:

Acorn Gathering near Santa Barbara, CA
Between the Rivers Gathering near Spokane, WA
California School of Herbal Studies in Forestville, CA
Camp Bohemia in Occidental, CA
Echoes In Time Gathering near Corvallis, OR
Fall Gather in Laytonville, CA
Heartwood Mountain Sanctuary near Garberville, CA
Northern California Women's Herbal Symposium
in Laytonville, CA
Not-So-Simple Living Fair in Boonville, CA
Occidental Arts & Ecology Center in Occidental, CA
Saskatoon Circle Gathering near Carlton, WA
Sharpening Stone Gathering near Grant’s Pass, OR
Sonoma Horticultural Nursery in Sebastopol, CA
Spirit Weavers Gathering in Cave Junction, OR
UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens in Berkeley, CA
West County Herb Company in Occidental, CA
Winter Count Gathering near Pheonix, AZ

She regularly demonstrates many of these skills at a variety of fairs and for groups, schools, museums and "living pre-history" events, which often includes replicating artifacts and/or making displays so that the public can better understand the processes by which they were produced as well as have the opportunity to handle and touch a particular item.