
Healing the Broken Links
When I asked a bushman a few years ago to tell me about his relationship to nature he looked puzzled “I don’t understand the question”, he said, ‘I am nature’. Making peace with Nature assumes we are at war with her. The genocide of consciousness brought about by colonialism, apartheid, and extractive practices were deliberate […]
Read More...
Exhibition as Storyteller
Angelique Michaels
04/05/2022
Candles flicker and coloured wax hardens in streaks across dark soil. Earth, scattered with seeds and adorned with flowers and fruit, tells a story of offering, honouring and abundance, of relationship to nature. In words encircling this earth-mound, the beginning of a Community Manifesto takes shape at the feet of anyone present to witness it.: […]
Read More...
Nature’s Mirror
Dominique Santos
04/05/2022
“Seeing the pictures like this, they’re waking up a hunger inside. You see, there is something inside, even way inside, down there, that is hungry for ways of the olden days. And seeing these pictures, it makes you remember where you come from.” Zanele spoke to the group as we gathered for a roundtable discussion […]
Read More...
Intlanganiso Secondary School on Heritage Day
Trees for Tomorrow @ Intlanganiso Secondary School on Heritage Day On a day devoted to honouring and celebrating shared legacies of cultural, material and symbolic attributes inherited from past generations, and as part of Return to Origin’s Trees For Tomorrow Campaign, we facilitated a day of tree planting at Intlanganiso Secondary School in Khayelitsha. Thanks […]
Read More...
Baphumele Fountain of Hope
The ‘Trees for Tomorrow’ campaign forms part of a series of projects inspired by Return to Origin’s awareness of the great value and power in reconnecting Youth with Nature. In sowing seeds of promise and purpose today, we aspire towards leaving a legacy of healing and abundance for the generations who are to inherit the world tomorrow. Thanks […]
Read More...
Desert Tracking with the Khomani Bushmen
Through watching and tracking some small creature going about its life, you begin to see the way that Nature provides for its every need, and you can begin to feel the Love of the Divine that is inherent in everything in Nature. This is how Nature connects you to the Divine. Oum Gert Khomani San Bushmen […]
Read More...
Ocean and Devotion
"Children are born with a sense of wonder and an affinity for Nature. Properly cultivated, these values can mature into ecological literacy, and eventually into sustainable patterns of living.” Ernest Becker Return To Origin’s Guardians For Nature, (theme: Ocean as Home) took us to our beautiful False Bay, neighborhood to many of the children […]
Read More...
Monsters, Heros and Liberation
The group that I facilitated during my Guardians For Nature was comprised of youth from the Baphumelele Fountain of Hope program, which provides orphaned youth of the Cape between the ages of 18-21 with a safe and nurturing environment to transition positively towards adulthood. I could not have had a more perfect group for […]
Read More...
Earth Home and Belonging
Baphumele Youth Nature Connection Day On Saturday January 26, 2019 Return To Origin, https://returntoorigin.org.zatrainee leaders in the Indigenous Knowledge Leadership Program, were delighted to return to the young men and women of Baphumele, Fountain of Hope. Last year we planted 10 trees there on their farm and the trees are thriving, we are pleased […]
Read More...
Trees for Tomorrow, Mandela Day, Leave a Legacy, Vryground
"For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver." Martin Luther King Trees for Tomorrow is Return to Origins signature campaign. A significant symbol of our origins that represents our work. Youth and nature connection, homecoming, healing, […]
Read More...