Reskillience Catie Payne

Elisa Rathje lives on a small farm, on a small island, telling microscopic stories of resilience. 

She's an artist, writer, filmmaker, podcaster, unschooler, grower, permaculturalist,  goatherd and goose mistress whose work has fed me, and so many others, for years.

From Appleturnover Farm on Salt Spring Island (in the Strait of Georgia between mainland British Columbia, Vancouver Island and Canada), Elisa documents slow, simple approaches to skilling up and rooting down, normalising the pursuit of tiny joys.

This conversation roams between life as art, the illusion of security, community sufficiency, how to call on your inner grandma, decolonising the mind and becoming a propagator of small, ancient patterns of regeneration.

I hope you find much to savour in this sweet, soulful audio morsel. Check out + support Elisa's work!

Appleturnover online! [https://appleturnover.tv/farm/]

Elisa Rathje/Appleturnover on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/appleturnover/?hl=en]

Appleturnover on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/appleturnover]

Permaculture Principles [https://permacultureprinciples.com/]

Elisa on The Accidental Gods podcast [https://accidentalgods.life/the-art-of-living-well-a-creative-life-on-the-land-with-elisa-rathje/]

Joseph Beauys [https://www.artnews.com/feature/joseph-beuys-who-is-he-why-is-he-important-1234580650/]

The Inner Mentor [https://www.taramohr.com/book/inner-mentor-signup/]

Tara Mohr ~ Playing Big [https://www.taramohr.com/]

Ken Page on the Simplify Podcast [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ken-page-meet-your-inner-mentor/id1255922966?i=1000539991435]

Su Dennett ~ Do With Su [https://hub.holmgren.com.au/lp/do-with-su/season-one/online-permaculture-series/]

Joanna Macy [https://www.joannamacy.net/main]

David Holmgren [https://holmgren.com.au/]

Jade Miles is a very special mate of mine. I turned up on her doorstep as a WWOOFer in 2018 and we got on like asparagus and eggs, which is what we had for dinner that night if I recall correctly. 

You probs know Jade as the host of the Futuresteading podcast, keeper of Black Barn Farm and writer of the most personal and compelling instagram captions in all the land. 

I love that Jade is consciously bridging the personal/professional schism, exploring ways to bring her whole, complex self to her roles as CEO, farmer, speaker, writer, facilitator, mother, friend and bush rat. 

In this conversation, Jade gets more personal than ever — which is saying something because we love a juicy yarn. From her approach to podcasting, the creation of household rituals, how seasonal imperatives shape her schedule and why she is the way she is, this is one intimate Reskillience experience. 

Jade has a new book on the cook called Huddle, coming next year, and if you don't already have the Futuresteading handbook in your hot little hands I can highly recommend it.

Black Barn Farm on Insta [https://www.instagram.com/black_barn_farm/?hl=en]

Black Barn Farm's home on the web [https://www.blackbarnfarm.com.au/]

The Futuresteading Podcast [https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/futuresteading/id1507885629]

The Futuresteading book! [https://www.futuresteading.com.au/book/]

Beau Miles ~ Get Over Yourself [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfriT4LirxA]

Anthony James ~ The RegenNarration [https://www.regennarration.com/]

Tyson Yunkaporta on Futuresteading [https://podcast.futuresteading.com.au/896866/9664524]

Casper ter Kuile [https://www.instagram.com/caspertk_/?hl=en]
Cecilia Macaulay [https://www.ceciliamacaulay.com.au/]

Claire Dunn ~ Rewilding the Urban Soul [https://www.naturesapprentice.com.au/]

Richard Powers ~ The Overstory [https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-overstory-9781784877910]

Indira Naidoo ~ The Space Between the Stars [https://www.murdochbooks.com/browse/book/Indira-Naidoo-Space-Between-the-Stars-9781922351616]

HUDDLE is out Autumn 2025

I just polished off my last jar of blackberry jam and it's only April, which is why I need today's guest to assist me in the finer arts of sustainable homesteading. 

It's Mara Ripani of Village Dreaming and Orto cooking school, a force of and for nature with a passion for greening cities, growing food, permaculture, preserving food, baking bread and sowing seeds. 

Mara is about as earthed as its possible to be while still having a social media presence, propagating skills of from-scratch cooking, foraging, fermenting, soap making and seasonal attunement from her breathtaking solar passive farmhouse here in Central Victoria. 

In this conversation, you'll hear Mara's alarm go off a couple of times telling her she needs to tend the bread, and you might too hear us chewing on dried plums, sipping on fragrant bay leaf tea that Mara poured for me on arrival. 

This chat feels really apt as we move towards the colder months, one last hurrah of abundance and colour and harvest before we drop all our leaves, exposed and ensconced for winter.

Mara's home on the web ~ Village Dreaming [https://www.villagedreaming.com.au/]

Mara's upcoming workshops [https://www.villagedreaming.com.au/workshops/]

Floral syrup recipes (including Mugolio ~ pine cone syrup) [https://www.villagedreaming.com.au/in-the-garden/sweet-and-wild-sumptuous-syrups-from-foraged-flora/]

Take a tour of Village Dreaming [https://www.villagedreaming.com.au/event/private-tours-for-two-of-orto-permaculture-farm/]

Tanya Loos ~ Daylesford Nature Diary [https://tanyaloos.com/daylesford-nature-diary/]

Wintering ~ Katherine May [https://katherine-may.co.uk/wintering]

Mara's Futuresteading interview [https://podcast.futuresteading.com.au/896866/8570239]

Are you keen to join the dots between parenting and activism? Want to grow a beautiful parallel paradigm in and through and with the yoof? 

I'm not a parent, but I am someone who believes that our "impact" starts at home; that the work of our times begins with ourselves and the beings in our orbit. 

So I reached out to one of the greatest women I know who also happens to be a parenthood black belt. Her name is Devon Harris and she's here to school us in Aware Parenting, which is a thrillingly disruptive alternative to parenting-as-usual. 

Devon is a parenting coach, consultant and mother who helps just as many kiddos as she does adult people, because the Aware Parenting approach is relevant to everybody – especially, as I discovered, to our petulant civilisation that's stuck somewhere been the terrible twos and  teenage angst. 

We talk about compassion and non-punitive discipline, power reversal games and listening partners, community childcare and schools as feedlots. 

I loved this conversation and feel great about bringing it to Reskillience – and grateful to Devon for being such a wise and hilarious guest. Syd, Devon's kid, was also hanging out as we recorded so you'll have the pleasure of hearing from him too. So, without further ado, here's Devon Harris to show us just how radically rewarding raising children can be.

Devon's home on the web [https://www.devonharris.com.au/]

Contact the marvellous Devon [https://calendly.com/upsidedowndevi/invitation?month=2024-03]

Tyson Yunkaporta [https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/people/tyson-yunkaporta]

The Continuum Concept ~ Jean Leidloff [https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-continuum-concept-9780141962474]

Hand in Hand parenting [https://www.handinhandparenting.org/]

Daylesford Dharma School [https://dharmaschool.com.au/]

Leaves and loam, feather and bone, it's Patrick Jones from Artist as Family! 

Patrick is Meg Magpie Ulman's partner in permaculture neopeasantry, father of Blackwood and Zephyr, creature of Tree Elbow, songsmith, wordsmith, goatherd, grower, speaker, radical homemaker and reverential rubbish collector, most often seen on two wheels towing a load of scrap wood as one might bear a royal being, carried in a scared procession. 

In this conversation Patrick shares a really special story about how he came to be Blue Wren as well as tales of anger, renewal, goddesses and content creation. It's a gentle and beautiful thing which I'm really excited to share with you.

Artist as Family's home on the web [https://artistasfamily.is/]

Artist as Family's blog [https://artistasfamily.is/blog/](READ IT)

Artist as Family on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@artistasfamily] (YOUTUBE SUX)

Happen Films ~ Creatures of Place [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCRukvZE2Vk]

Martín Prechtel [https://floweringmountain.com/] ~ Long life, honey in the heart [https://floweringmountain.com/product/long-life-honey-in-the-heart/]

Castlemaine Rites of Passage [https://castlemainerop.org/]

Natural Beekeeping with Adrian Iodice [https://www.beekeepingnaturally.com.au/adrian-iodice-bio-courses/]

Vandana Shiva [https://vandanashivamovie.com/]

Paul Cudenec on Substack [https://substack.com/@paulcudenec]

W.D. James on Substack [https://wdjames.substack.com/]

G.K Chesterton [https://www.chesterton.org/category/discover-chesterton/chestertons-selected-works/the-distributist/]

It's all very well to forage weeds and track wombats, weave baskets from willow and walk barefoot cross country... but how do you stay wild in the city? With kids? With a face-sucking phone in your pocket?

Claire Dunn is a good person to ask about these things, being a key figure in Australia's rewilding movement and uncommonly balanced advocate for undomestication. 

If you don't know Claire, she's a writer, speaker, barefoot explorer, rewilding facilitator and founder of Nature's Apprentice -- and, as hands down one of my favourite people, it was a joy to wander with Claire around the conversational compass from her personal mythology, wild motherhood to what's up with introverts? to making peace with the concrete jungle.

Claire's Books:

My Year Without Matches [https://www.naturesapprentice.com.au/the-book]

Rewilding the Urban Soul [https://www.naturesapprentice.com.au/rewilding-the-urban-soul]

Claire's home on the web:

Nature's Apprentice [https://www.naturesapprentice.com.au/]

NBLT ~ Nature Based Leadership Training [https://www.naturesapprentice.com.au/events/nblt-2024]

Joanna Macy ~ The Work That Reconnects [https://www.joannamacy.net/main]

Jon Young [https://www.jonyoung.org/]

Paul Hawken ~ Blessed Unrest [https://www.penguin.com.au/books/blessed-unrest-9780143113652]

The Tourist Test ~ Kamana Wilderness Awareness School