In October 2022 I joined 8 other artists and writers for a week at the Wild Ways residency in the beautiful Collemacchia, a remote village in the Molise mountains in Italy. Wild Ways made a space for me to focus, connect and learn from and with others also interested in collaborating with people and place – and discover more about creative walking practices.

It’s interesting to reflect on the multi-ways we learnt together about Collemacchia’s rich landscape story; through voices, objects, texts and imagery  – but also through the experience of making connections with the place through our walking bodies.

This shaped my reading/conversations that week, asking: how do geographies interact with all our bodily senses and how does that translate into how we make sense of our environment and our idea of self and belonging within that? How can I use more embodied approaches to support my place-based work with young people?

Wild Ways shifted my thinking and helped develop a new strand of practice/research. It’s also introduced me to some wonderful, creative people with several opportunities to continue the connections we began.

Wild Ways was curated by Tracy Mackenna from The Museum of Loss and Renewal, co-hosting with Dee Haddon and Misha Myers from The Walking Library. I contributed to the Wild Ways 2023 online Padlet publication which can be found via the link below.