Ancestral Skills Initiative

About the founders/teachers:

Tupelo Glodeck: A life long lover of the outdoors, Tupelo grew up in the hardwood forests of Michigan. This is where he built forts and caught frogs, turtles and snakes and walked the trails for hours and hours. As a young adult Tupelo found Tom Brown Jr.'s book The Tracker. He was hooked, and over the years he has even had the opportunity to take a number of courses through The Tracker school. He learned the skills and art of friction fire, shelter building, brain tanning, wild food foraging and so much more. His next adventure brought him home to Canada. Where he assisted in leading a 1000 km canoe trip in Northern Ontario. Over the years Tupelo has been honing his skills and also his education. He attended Northern College and studied in the Natural Resources program and graduated in 2009. All the while, his passion for the traditional and ancestral skills kept growing. He and his wife Camille started a community group based on the ancestral skills. He offered free workshops and gained experience in the passing down of this important knowledge. Tupelo has also worked with great mentors like Mark Morey form The Institute for Natural Learning. He finished the Personal Mythology Quest program with Mark and Krista in June of 2013, and attended Ring 1 at the 2013 Art of Mentoring in Ontario. In 2014 and 2015 he was part of the Village Hearth acorn for the art of Mentoring in Ontario. Knowledgeable, skilled and experienced. .

Camille Glodeck: Camille grew up in the Northern Ontario forests. This is where she played, got dirty and scraped up her knees. Where she built little boats and sent them down the stream, stretched her edges, and learned her first few wild edibles. Where she spent many a summer canoeing the rivers and lakes with her dad. As a young adult she met her husband Tupelo, who opened her eyes and heart to the skills handed down from generations before. Camille has crafted and worked with her hands from a very young age. She has applied this well to the ancestral skills of basketry, fire by friction, leather work, wildcrafting and wood carving. She is very driven and passionate, and has picked up most of her skills from books, experience and trial and error. She and her husband Tupelo started a community group based on the ancestral skills. She offered free workshops and gained experience in the passing down of this important knowledge. Camille has also worked with great mentors like Jon Young and Nicole Young from the 8 Shields Institute, as well as Mark Morey from Institute for Natural Learning. She attended Ring 1 at Art of mentoring Ontario in 2012 and Ring 2 in 2013. In 2014 she was part of the programming team and in 2015 co-facilitated the second nature immersion program at the Ontario Art of Mentoring. She completed the Celebrating You, Sharing Your gifts program with Jon, Nicole and Mark in March of 2013. She finished the Personal Mythology Quest program with Mark and Krista in June of 2013. She has also been part of the Bird Language workshops here in Ontario. In the fall of 2014 she worked with a team to put on a 3 day intensive with Jon Young and then again in June of 2015. She continues to sponsor this work through offering free community bird sits monthly. These course and programs have helped her deepen her connection and understanding of herself, her family, her friends, her community and the natural world. These courses and programs have also given her tools and skills required for creating new, or nurturing existing mentoring relationships. Passionate, driven, skilled and experienced.