Primitive Skills Day with special guest Jim Robertson @ Private residence & Sisar Canyon Trail, click Upper Ojai Valley
Spend an amazing day — and night if you choose — with me and my special guest Jim Robertson. Jim is one of the most highly regarded and in-demand teachers of primitive skills in the western U.S. This will be his first class held in Ojai.
This class is for beginning to advanced students of Aboriginal Skills. No prior experience is necessary.
You will learn to build a fire using the aboriginal hand drill “friction fire” method with native plant materials, capsule grind acorn meal in a traditional stone mortar and pestle, and practice archery. An Herb Walk up Sisar Canyon is included in the day’s schedule for a first-hand experience of the plants that the indigenous Chumash people and modern survivalists use. Other activities are planned if time permits.
The official time for the event is on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. but our hosts have graciously invited us to stay for a campfire and even camp overnight if we choose to. Everything after 5 p.m. is optional and offered at no additional charge. We will break camp Sunday morning.
ABOUT JIM ROBERTSON
Jim Robertson was born in Oakland, CA on August 12, 1939. His mom, dad and two older brothers lived in a little house at the base of the Oakland foothills. By the time he was five years old, he was already an avid hiker and explorer of the wild open spaces around him that began just behind their backyard fence. He and his brothers built shelters, hunted and fished along with other neighborhood friends.
When Jim was 11 years old his family moved to La Jolla, CA where he explored the surrounding hills and played many sports. He and his brothers spent almost every day at the ocean either surfing or skin diving for fish, abalone, lobster, etc., having made their own sling spears, abalone irons, and lobster/crab/fish traps.
After a short professional baseball career, a stint in the military, and a long and diverse career life ranging from insurance salesman to certified nutritional counselor, Jim became a naturalist and avid student of Aboriginal Skills. Drawing on his childhood experiences, he quickly became a master teacher himself.
Much of Jim’s popularity as an instructor can be attributed to his approach as much as his skill set: ”I find this practice of Aboriginal Skills and the deep-rooted connection — and relationship it fosters with our mother earth — is just what we all need for a healthy, happy life. It is deeply satisfying for me to share these skills, this way of being, with all who are interested. The learning never stops for any of us … we simply continue our journey into a deeper, more joyful, harmonious way of being.”
Jim enjoys teaching people how to become more “in touch” with nature, putting an emphasis on Aboriginal Skills such as:
- Friction fire making,
- Primitive foods (including how natives lived off plants and animals in their environment),
- Acorn processing,
- Cordage making,
- Hide tanning,
- Primitive shelter building,
- Plants for medicine and utility purposes,
- Primitive animal trapping, stalking and hunting
- And much more including general stewardship of the land.
ABOUT LANNY KAUFER:
Lanny Kaufer has been leading informative and entertaining Herb Walks and Nature Hikes in Ventura County and the surrounding area since 1976 for groups of all ages. His expertise is in edible and medicinal uses of indigenous and naturalized plants. Lanny acquired much of his knowledge in field study with well-known herbalists and ethnobotanists. He studied with the late William LeSassier and has co-led workshops and expeditions with noted herbalists such as the late Chumash plant expert Juanita Centeno, the late Michael Moore, Michael Tierra, Amanda McQuade Crawford, Dr. Fred Siciliano, Dr. James Adams, and Chumash educator Julie Tumamait.