Books, Podcasts, Websites, Programs and Videos
We believe in continuing our individual and community education. Please let us know if you know a resource or program that you think we should share!
Books
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Movement Matters: Essays on Movement Science, Movement Ecology, and the Nature of Movement
If you could fit our culture of convenience into a petri dish, what would it look like? Movement Matters is a series of essays in which biomechanist Katy Bowman continues to explain the mechanics of a sedentary culture and the deep complexity of the phenomenon we call movement. By exposing convenience as a way of outsourcing movements, Katy's groundbreaking work in the relationship between movement and nature expands to models that have evolved from thinking of the body as a single structure to considering it to be a cluster of a trillion bodies, and how those trillion bodies are being loaded by our habitat and how we move to interact with it. From movement nutrients to forest school to the problems with investigating parts, our culturally conditioned preference to be sedentary is explored from many angles. Thought-provoking, inspiring, and always entertaining, Movement Matters is a collection of essays conducting a deep exploration of movement and its role in science, community, work, and social responsibility. Deftly deconstructing sedentary assumptions that underlie much of our research into human health, Bowman works to reclaim our space in and responsibility to nature and ourselves. With essays on foraging, the nearsightedness epidemic, and the limitations of a parts approach to health, Bowman's gaze is sweeping and incisive, always with the underlying message that moving is powerful and important, and perhaps the most joyful, freeing, and efficient form of activism there is. 
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Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times
"The world is in a terrible mess. It is toxic, irradiated, and full of injustice. Aiming to stand aside from the mess can produce a seemingly satisfying self-righteousness in the scant moments we achieve it, but since it is ultimately impossible, individual purity will always disappoint. Might it be better to understand complexity and, indeed, our own complicity in much of what we think of as bad, as fundamental to our lives? Against Purity argues that the only answer—if we are to have any hope of tackling the past, present, and future of colonialism, disease, pollution, and climate change—is a resounding yes. Proposing a powerful new conception of social movements as custodians for the past and incubators for liberated futures, Against Purityundertakes an analysis that draws on theories of race, disability, gender, and animal ethics as a foundation for an innovative approach to the politics and ethics of responding to systemic problems. Being against purity means that there is no primordial state we can recover, no Eden we have desecrated, no pretoxic body we might uncover through enough chia seeds and kombucha. There is no preracial state we could access, no erasing histories of slavery, forced labor, colonialism, genocide, and their concomitant responsibilities and requirements. There is no food we can eat, clothes we can buy, or energy we can use without deepening our ties to complex webbings of suffering. So, what happens if we start from there? Alexis Shotwell shows the importance of critical memory practices to addressing the full implications of living on colonized land; how activism led to the official reclassification of AIDS; why we might worry about studying amphibians when we try to fight industrial contamination; and that we are all affected by nuclear reactor meltdowns. The slate has never been clean, she reminds us, and we can’t wipe off the surface to start fresh—there’s no fresh to start. But, Shotwell argues, hope found in a kind of distributed ethics, in collective activist work, and in speculative fiction writing for gender and disability liberation that opens new futures." |
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Balanced and Barefoot
"Today’s kids have adopted sedentary lifestyles filled with television, video games, and computer screens. But more and more, studies show that children need “rough and tumble” outdoor play in order to develop their sensory, motor, and executive functions. Disturbingly, a lack of movement has been shown to lead to a number of health and cognitive difficulties, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), emotion regulation and sensory processing issues, and aggressiveness at school recess break. So, how can you ensure your child is fully engaging their body, mind, and all of their senses? Using the same philosophy that lies at the heart of her popular TimberNook program—that nature is the ultimate sensory experience, and that psychological and physical health improves for children when they spend time outside on a regular basis—author Angela Hanscom offers several strategies to help your child thrive, even if you live in an urban environment." |
Websites
Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State Curriculum
"a ground-breaking curriculum initiative made possible through federal, state, and tribal funding. This project seeks to build lasting educational partnerships between school districts and their local tribes via elementary, middle, and high school curriculum on tribal sovereignty."
By the time Washington State students leave elementary school, they will understand:
ACORNS NW seeks to incorporate this curriculum into our programming.
"a ground-breaking curriculum initiative made possible through federal, state, and tribal funding. This project seeks to build lasting educational partnerships between school districts and their local tribes via elementary, middle, and high school curriculum on tribal sovereignty."
By the time Washington State students leave elementary school, they will understand:
- understand that over 500 independent tribal nations exist within the United States today, and that they interact with the United States, as well as each other, on a government-to-government basis;
- understand tribal sovereignty is “a way that tribes govern themselves in order to keep and support their ways of life;”
- understand that tribal sovereignty predates treaty times;
- understand how the treaties that tribal nations entered into with the United States government limited their sovereignty; and
- identify the names and locations of tribes in their area
ACORNS NW seeks to incorporate this curriculum into our programming.
Podcasts
Check out this rad podcast with Katy Bowman: Move Your DNA
"Katy Bowman and two teachers from Olympic Nature Experience talk about how to get more nature—and more wonder—into your life."
Katy discusses how movement and seeing ourselves as outside and apart from nature contributes to capitalism. By outsourcing our movement and engagement, we contribute to ideas of being separate from nature and relying on the labor of oppressed peoples.
"Katy Bowman and two teachers from Olympic Nature Experience talk about how to get more nature—and more wonder—into your life."
Katy discusses how movement and seeing ourselves as outside and apart from nature contributes to capitalism. By outsourcing our movement and engagement, we contribute to ideas of being separate from nature and relying on the labor of oppressed peoples.
"Pinar Sinopoulos-Lloyd is the co-founder of Queer Nature, a nature-connection, rites of passage, and ancestral skills project serving the LGBTQIAP+ community. They also guide vision fasts for queer and/or women-identified folks. In this episode they and Eric talk about what drew Pinar to ancestral skills, what it’s like growing up with a sensory reality that differs from the ‘consensus’ reality, suicide as an attempt at initiation, resilience, and the capacity to heal trauma as a survival skill." - from podcast website
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"terrestrial explores the choices we make in a world we have changed. Host Ashley Ahearn travels the country to bring listeners stories about people making personal choices in the face of environmental change."
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Programs
Rites of Passage Journeys
Duwamish Territory, 'Seattle, WA'
"Rite of Passage Journeys mentors youth, adults, and elders through life transitions, initiating soulful leaders for the next generation. Our programs use "experiential learning to foster self-discovery, connection with others, and connection with the natural world. In the spirit of creating community and increasing the availability of rite of passage experiences, we train others in rite of passage program development, methodology, and mentorship. " - from website
The Estuarium
Steh-Chass Territory, 'Olympia, WA'
"The Puget Sound Estuarium was founded by the South Sound Estuary Association (SSEA) in 2007. We encourage community members to EXPLOREanimals and plants in their local estuaries, where freshwater and saltwater meet. We CONNECT people of all ages to what is unique about this delicate, vibrant ecosystem. Our educational opportunities INSPIRE individuals to take better care of our shared natural resources."
-from website
Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge
Nisqually Territory
Queer Nature
"Queer Nature is a Colorado-based project that creates a decolonially-informed queer futurism through earth-based skills. Queer Nature recognizes that many people, including LGBTQ2+ people and womxn, have historically not had easy access to the culture of outdoor recreation on Turtle Island. Pursuits like hunting, fishing, camping, and tactical or survival skills have been very difficult to access or relate to for anyone who didn't grow up hunting, in Boy Scouts, or in the military.
Additionally, LGBTQ2+ community has historically formed in urban America—in places like bars and clubs—the wilderness has not necessarily been a welcoming place for us. To create a space for women and LGBTQ2+ people to access their natural human right to these skills is a revolutionary act in today's world. This program envisions and implements ecological relationship as a vital and often overlooked part of the healing and wholing of populations who have been systemically silenced and marginalized, such as the LGBTQ2+ population, and especially trans and queer people of color and two-spirit folks. Ecological literacy is deep relationship building with living and non-living earth systems through ancestral-futurist resilience skills including naturalist knowledge, so-called ‘survival’ skills, natural crafts, and local cultural/natural history."
Duwamish Territory, 'Seattle, WA'
"Rite of Passage Journeys mentors youth, adults, and elders through life transitions, initiating soulful leaders for the next generation. Our programs use "experiential learning to foster self-discovery, connection with others, and connection with the natural world. In the spirit of creating community and increasing the availability of rite of passage experiences, we train others in rite of passage program development, methodology, and mentorship. " - from website
The Estuarium
Steh-Chass Territory, 'Olympia, WA'
"The Puget Sound Estuarium was founded by the South Sound Estuary Association (SSEA) in 2007. We encourage community members to EXPLOREanimals and plants in their local estuaries, where freshwater and saltwater meet. We CONNECT people of all ages to what is unique about this delicate, vibrant ecosystem. Our educational opportunities INSPIRE individuals to take better care of our shared natural resources."
-from website
Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge
Nisqually Territory
Queer Nature
"Queer Nature is a Colorado-based project that creates a decolonially-informed queer futurism through earth-based skills. Queer Nature recognizes that many people, including LGBTQ2+ people and womxn, have historically not had easy access to the culture of outdoor recreation on Turtle Island. Pursuits like hunting, fishing, camping, and tactical or survival skills have been very difficult to access or relate to for anyone who didn't grow up hunting, in Boy Scouts, or in the military.
Additionally, LGBTQ2+ community has historically formed in urban America—in places like bars and clubs—the wilderness has not necessarily been a welcoming place for us. To create a space for women and LGBTQ2+ people to access their natural human right to these skills is a revolutionary act in today's world. This program envisions and implements ecological relationship as a vital and often overlooked part of the healing and wholing of populations who have been systemically silenced and marginalized, such as the LGBTQ2+ population, and especially trans and queer people of color and two-spirit folks. Ecological literacy is deep relationship building with living and non-living earth systems through ancestral-futurist resilience skills including naturalist knowledge, so-called ‘survival’ skills, natural crafts, and local cultural/natural history."
