For millennia human beings walked the earth as hunter gatherers, people of the Stone Age. A mere 10,000 years ago a great change occurred by which the roaming gradually ceased and agriculture took a foothold allowing storage of food and subsequent population growth. In the last century, industrialisation of most of the world has led to an unbalanced relationship between species and life supporting systems. Today we see the accumulated effects of this trajectory and digitalisation stealthily, silently and invisibly disrupts the magnetic forces of the Earth itself.
Many years ago I began to ask myself “Why do we continue to separate ourselves from nature and the wild when it is so obvious that we cannot exist without it? Why do we push indigenous peoples out of their homelands that they have successfully ’managed’ on their own to create wildlife preservations devoid of the last wild humans?”
What would happen if we could protect large tracts of land from further exploitation and allow the species on it to find their natural rhythm? What would happen if we would allow modern people to start to live there, reintegrating themselves as rewilded humans; People of the Stone? I have not been alone in this speculation and as concern grows for the wellbeing of the planet and all its inhabitants many protective measures are being implemented to slow and halt the destruction but the separation of humans and the wild continues to grow, further isolating us from our natural place within the web of life.
Together with a number of other Stone Age practitioners and enthusiasts throughout Europe the concept of Lithica- Rewilding Humans has finally birthed. In cooperation with Living Wild school and other schools, programs and associations around Europe, the new Lithicans are ready to promote our vision of a world in which wild and rewilded humans may once again take their place in a wild and rewilded land. We recognise that this is a process and invite you to assist us as members, donators and supporters.
We are currently in the process of creating our own association in order accept financial assistance in the form of grants, private donations and crowd funding. We require legal assistance and people who can help establish the association so we can purchase land and implement our vision of protection and rewilding. We are looking for properties to purchase in Northern and Southern Europe and have already found some likely locations in Spain, Portugal, Norway and Sweden.
– Lynx Vilden, founding member
NEWS & MEDIA
In January 2022, La Nouvelle République published an article about our project (in French) for which two of our founding members, Alexis Albert and Marion Bourdin-Faussereau, were interviewed. You can access the article under following link: https://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/thouars/projet-lithica-deux-thouarsais-veulent-vivre-dans-une-reserve-d-humains-sauvages
LITHICA’S FOUNDATION
Vision Statement
Creating a sustainable future by means of rewilding land and people
Mission Statement
- Providing space and guidance for human beings to reconnect to their innate wildness
- Developing primal, ancestral, natural skills and wisdom to become stewards of the land
- Researching and adopting holistic approaches to environmental sustainability to develop a way of life that honors and protects nature, fosters cultural togetherness
Core values
- Connecting humans and nature
- Learning through direct experience
- Being guided by mind, heart, integrity and passion
- Living according to the principles of sustainability and self-sufficiency
- Being accountable to all relationships
- Living in Oneness
- Protecting the rights of nature and wild humans
- Supporting indigenous cultures, practices, values, stewardship and rights worldwide
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Current project goal
To achieve the missions of rewilding land and people, education and research, our current project goal is the legal purchase of a large tract of land (minimum 500 hectares) through private and grant donations, crowd funding and memberships.
The land shall have clean drinkable water in the form of springs, lakes, streams and/or rivers. It may be inland or coastal, with mountainous or undulating terrain, mixed forests, meadow lands and existing biodiversity. It may have parts that have been exploited and need tending and rewilding. Ideally it will be located adjacent to a national park or another kind of protected area to increase the available, continuous wild habitat for plants, animals and fungi.
We are primarily focusing to purchase land in Southern or Northern Europe, specifically in France/Spain/Portugal or Norway/Sweden/Finland.
The purchase of land is vital to move to the next phase: to actively start rewilding humans.
Strategic objectives for 2022
- Creating a legal body (association, land trust fund, foundation) for Lithica
- Setting up a website for Lithica
- Raising money through private and grant donations, crowd funding, and memberships to be able purchase a tract of land for Lithica
- Searching for available, fitting land on-site in Northern and Southern Europe
- Promoting the documentary of a Lithica model filmed on Lynx Vilden’s land to share our vision and raise money
- Inviting new members to join Lithica who resonate and agree with our core values, our vision and our mission statement
HOW WE ENVISION THE LAND OF LITHICA
Organization
Once the land has been purchased through the Lithica association/land trust fund/foundation it will be partitioned into three zones of varying degrees of modernity and wildness.
Zone one will comprise of the modern zone, zone two will comprise of the transition or rewilding zone, and zone three will comprise of the wilderness zone or the land of wild beings.
Zone one: Modern facilities and Interpretive Center Area
- This zone is designated modern. It contains modern facilities, equipment and services based on the most sustainable, ethical and renewable energy as possible. It is equipped with independent solar, hydro, and/or wind power. It is accessible by road and has a parking area
- The modern zone is a bridge to the rest of the world and a place to communicate about the project to others, specifically in regards to:
- Educating humans on the necessity of rewilding and re-thinking our past actions and behaviours
- Promoting awareness for and protection of the environment and the Earth’s remaining Indigenous tribes
- For Lithica visitors the modern zone is a place to learn about and come in contact with the idea of rewilding humans. It is a point of reception that offers a library and a museum as well as rooms for research
Zone two: Rewilding (Transitional) Area
- This zone is designated transitional and is equipped with compost toilets, rudimentary sanitary devices, a kitchen with open cooking fire, and potable water. A camp site for visitors is also part of this zone
- This zone offers the space for the rewilding process of human beings
- This zone comprises the workshop area where Lithica members can perform experiments and conduct research. Lithica members may hold classes in Stone Age skills, rewilding, and traditional crafts
- In this zone, there is room for communal permaculture gardening, forest gardening, farming, animal husbandry and outdoor recreation
Zone three: Wilderness Area, or the Land of Wild Beings
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- This zone is designated wild, indigenous – of things and beings springing from the land
- Every being may enter the Lithica Wilderness Zone in their wild state. One may enter with clothing made of animal or plant fibre, manufactured by hand and with natural processes. One may carry with them their person lithic material (Stone tools) brought from this or another region. One may modify the environment with Stone Age technology only
- In this zone you find and see no human structures (buildings, roads, fences etc.) unless made with Stone Age technologies
- As Rewilded Lithicans, as Wild Humans, we enter the Wilderness Area respecting and honouring the beauty and sacredness of the earth. Together with all other beings, we may:
Compete for sunlight
Breathe and fly in the air
Drink and swim in the waters
Harvest and consume wild plants
Catch and consume wild animals
Reproduce
Die and rot back into the Earth
- The largest portion of the land comprises the wilderness area