About Me
Ashley was born on occupied Anishinaabe and Dakota land referred to as Minnesota. Her life at this time shifts with the seasons as she collects teachings, weaves community and spreads the seeds that she has been given to sow.
As a student of permaculture for the past 9 years she has had the privilege of learning from land based people throughout the americas, engaging with both traditional ecological knowledge and permaculture trainings. While immersed in the teachings of permaculture she found her niche in her practice as a Natural Builder.
Ashley approaches this practice with respect for the elders and traditional cultures whose exploration of ecologically responsible construction offers her the modalities she works with today. Her work combines both the modern and ancient into a building practice that aims to create community based resilience through bioregionaly appropriate construction.
Drawing from experiences in both the permaculture and natural building world she approaches sharing these skills from an informed place of pattern. With deep reverence for the natural systems that support our lives Ashley weaves song, story and practical knowledge into educational opportunities in the form of workshops and classes.
Check out this wonderful podcast hosted by ever amazing Allison Graham at Spirit Meets Science Podcast!
Click Here to Listen to Ashley Speak on Resurrecting Our Relationship to the Natural World.
Podcast Episode
The art of creation is known in our bones, to engage with our creative energy through the practice of natural building connects us more deeply to the core of who we are as people. Natural building gifts us the opportunity to experience profound trust in our capacity to care for ourselves at the most fundamental level. Rather than outsourcing our needs we reach into ourselves to take radical responsibility for tending our lives in a more sovereign way. In doing so we deepen our resilience and capacity to respond to the ever uncertain future.
It is an art that breeds freedom, it gifts us the ability to know our relationship to the great web of the world in a new way. Natural building is a primal practice that has been done for thousands of years by those who have come before us. Opening for us an opportunity to at once reach back to connect to our ancestors while simultaneously reaching into the future as we consider the generations to come in our creations. It is my prayer that all can experience the blessing of hand crafted homes imbued with meaning and significance.
May we occupy spaces that remind us who we are, that mirror to us, our beauty and our true nature. May we again be place based people who trust our bodies capacity to create knowing with certainty we can care for ourselves and this world in a good way. Through this may we all know what it feels like to belong. May we and the generations to come understand our place in the complex web of life, may we know how to nourish our relationship to all beings and understand the reciprocal nature of relating. The offer and receive. May all my work serve this vision.
A Note From Ashley
