With the number of Covid-19 cases rising, people and businesses are feeling the effects of isolation and fear. We are all adjusting to these new circumstances. There is no better time than now to remember our ties with each other, the land, and our ancestors.
Through connection with nature, we find authentic connection with ourselves and each other. Nature’s inspiration fuels the mission of The Healing Nature Center—a branch of Teaching Drum Outdoor School—and gives shape to our newest project in the making: The Northwoods Natural History Museum! The museum will offer visitors the opportunity to connect with the wildlife, the history of this land, and the lifeways of our predecessors, the Eastern Woodland Indians, including the Ojibwe people. A walk on the adjacent Healing Nature Trail enlivens the senses and integrates this unique exploration of the Northwoods into the present. The combined gifts of the Healing Nature Trail and the Northwoods Natural History Museum will enrich your experience of this exceptional region. And it may even change the way you look at nature.
Visitors to the museum will be invited to step into a living, breathing Northwoods before the logging era. The museum will showcase the stories and artifacts of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, made present through appreciation, use, and the encouragement of the Native Elders who guided us to keep the voice of these teachings alive.
A canoe exhibit will feature a bulrush boat, wooden dugout canoes, a moose-skin boat, a birchbark canoe, and a contemporary lightweight canoe side-by-side, demonstrating the evolution of the canoe into modern times. The museum will feature a display of hand-carved paddles, sticks used for harvesting wild rice by canoe, and winnowing baskets for cleaning the chaff from the rice—all representative of the boats and tools once used by the indigenous people of the Eastern Woodlands.
Also on display will be a collection of traditional bows and arrows, birchbark and willow baskets, buckskin clothing, fur parkas, stone tools, and friction fire kits, giving visitors a feel for how people once lived in a mutually nurturing and gifting relationship with nature. The region’s most extensive collection of animal skulls, feathers, and bird skins will further enrich the experience.
The Northwoods Natural History Museum will be a destination for students, families, natural history enthusiasts, biologists, Northwoods locals, and all who yearn to grow in relationship with nature. This museum will be under construction throughout the winter and open to the public in 2021.
This Giving Tuesday, we are putting out a call for help to finish this addition to the Healing Nature Center-Trail complex. See our Mightycause page for an overview. Like many non-profit organizations, we’ve been greatly impacted by Covid-19, and we know that what we’re offering can help people during these times to feel happy, healthy, and connected.
If you feel called to give to a non-profit this season, please consider the Healing Nature Center! Contributions of any size, shape, and form will be directly and efficiently put to work on this labor of love. There are many ways to participate, including: financial donations, carpentry skills, video/photo documentation, outreach presentations, grant writing, donations or discounts on materials, a percentage of your business’s profits on Giving Tuesday, and donations of new or used items from our wish list of materials. We take Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle to heart, so your donations go a long way toward the completion of the Northwoods Natural History Museum.
Perhaps most importantly, you could help by extending our reach. Consider passing this along to someone who may be excited to support this dream. Together, we make a difference.
We hope you’re all well and finding ways to feel connected and creative during these times.