We are delighted to announce the official launch of the Masiyembo Association. The Organisation for Noetic Ecology serves as both a driving initiator and institutional host for the Association.
The Masiyembo Association is working toward becoming a thriving, cohesive and collaborative group of professional outdoor guides, facilitators and practitioners that utilise direct experience to revitalise people’s relationship with earth and each other.
Specifically, its Members are:
1) Bonded by a commitment to care, contribute and deeply connect with all life.
2) Motivated by a desire to genuinley learn and share our passion, experiences and knowledge.
3) Inspired to create more opportunities for people to find optimal health and wellbeing through nature.
The Masiyembo Association, sees its core purpose as:
1. Creating rich opportunities and experiences for people to find meaning and wellbeing through nature – for the benefit of society, humanity and, ultimately, the future of earth. #NatureForAll (to which Masiyembo is an official partner)
2. Establishing a dynamic peer-driven standard for facilitated nature experiences that allows people to reawaken, remember and rediscover their connectedness with all life. #RememberingOurNature
It intends to do this by:
1. Encouraging embodied engagement with our natural surrounds. We invite slowing down and opening up the senses to allow for rich immersive experiences.
2. Learning with nature, not only about nature. We embrace animate nature as mirror, medium and medicine for holistic psycho-social wellbeing.
3. Advocating for nature connectedness as fundamental to public health and social cohesion. We commit time and funds toward nature experiences for disadvantaged communities.
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“Masiyembo” is a Xhosa word that simply translates as:
“[Let’s go] back to our roots”.
“T’cik’xam” is the equivalent in Khwedam (a Khoe-dialect) and translates as:
“Onthou ons stam” [“Remember our roots”]
Yet as several traditional elders/healers have shared, it has a deeper resonant meaning – a profound remembering of the human spirit and our origins within nature.
