Ignite: An 8-Week Immersion in Primitive Fire

Are you yearning for vibrancy, personal fulfillment, and a deeply embodied connection to the local landscape?

Through this 8-week fire immersion, you’ll ignite more than just a flame—you’ll develop hands-on survival skills, awaken your resilience, ancestral memory, and sense of belonging to place and to yourself.

Are you ready to gift this to yourself and the world?

THIS PROGRAM IS FOR

🔥 The curious beginner ready to reconnect with ancient, ancestral ways
🌿 The bushcraft enthusiast seeking deeper roots, practice, and community
💛 The sensitive soul yearning for meaning, confidence, and real connection
🌏 The modern human who wants to feel at home in the wild again

Whether you’re picking up a fire stick for the first time or revisiting your skills, you are welcome here.

This is a space of inclusion, respect, and growth. We honor diversity, celebrate personal sovereignty, and welcome each person’s unique path.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

Three traditional methods of fire-making:

• Ferro Rod
• Hand Drill
• Bow Drill

Hands-on bushcraft skills:

• Knife and saw safety
• Making natural cordage
• Crafting rock blades and stone tools
• Identifying and ethically harvesting local plants

Inner transformation:

• Grit, patience, humility, and resilience
• Joy, warmth, presence, and laughter
• Belonging—to community and Country

INDIGENOUS WISDOM & CONNECTION TO COUNTRY

Ground your practice with a Welcome to Country and talk from Gumbaynggirr Elder Uncle Micklo Jarret.

We honour Gumbaynggirr Country and its First Peoples. This offering is guided by a deep commitment to care, reciprocity, and reverence for the land and its stories.

THE DIRT TIME CHALLENGE

In Week 4, you’ll begin a 28-day Dirt Time Challenge: 30 minutes a day of personal fire practice. This container will rocket your confidence and give you a quantum leap into anchoring your skills into your bones.

You'll move through frustration, flow, breakthroughs, and mastery. This is where the real magic happens. Where you begin to embody your connection to fire. 

WHAT YOU RECEIVE

• 8 x 3-hour immersive firecraft workshops
• 3 traditional fire-making methods
• Welcome ceremony with Uncle Micklo
• Learn plant ID and harvesting ethics
• Rock blades and natural tools
• Natural cordage for bow drill
• Private WhatsApp group + 24hr support
• 28-day Dirt Time Challenge
• Knife and saw safety training
• Lifelong friendships

Limited to 20 Spots — Early Bird Ends May 25th

$750 – First 5 Humans Only!
$800 – Early Bird (Save $160!)
$960 – Full Exchange

WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO BRING

• Bushcraft knife (Full Tang preferred) — Mora Knife Recommendation
• Folding Saw — Bahco Laplander Recommendation
• Ferro Rod — Dragons Breath Recommendation
• Paracord — Atwood Rope Recommendation
• Backpack, first aid kit, food/water, and weather-appropriate clothing
• Notebook and pen (optional)
  
  

Workshops go ahead rain or shine. There is no bad weather—only inappropriate clothing.

Course Schedule:

Week 1 – The First Flame
Sunday, June 15 | 9:30am–1pm

• Welcome Ceremony with Uncle Micklo

• Ferro Rod | Tinder Bundle | Fire Structures (Platform, Teepee, Cross Fire)

Week 2 – Tools of the Ancestors
Sunday, June 22 | 10am–1pm

• Knife Safety & Sacred Use

• Hand Drill + Baseboard Construction

Week 3 – Breath of Fire
Sunday, June 29 | 10am–1pm

• Bow Drill + Handhold Crafting

• Introduction to the 28-Day Dirt Time Challenge

Week 4 – Earth Skills Activation
Sunday, July 6 | 10am–1pm

• Dirt Time Challenge Begins

• Local Plant Identification & Uses

• Fire Method Review & Deepening

Week 5 – Stone & Spark
Sunday, July 13 | 10am–1pm

• Rock Blade Crafting

• No-Knife Fire Creation

Week 6 – Weaving Flame
Sunday, July 20 | 10am–1pm

• Natural Cordage & Bow Drill Prep

Week 7 – Hands of the Ancients
Sunday, July 27 | 10am–1pm

• Pecking Stone Handhold Crafting

Week 8 – Embers of Belonging
Sunday, August 3 | 10am–1pm

• Program Integration

• Closing Ceremony & Celebration

Location

This immersion takes place in Thora, just 15 minutes from Bellingen, on a beautiful property by the Bellinger River.

Exact directions will be provided upon booking.

About Your Facilitator - Michael Connell

Michael is a passionate student of fire, nature connection, and ancestral skills. His journey into bushcraft began with a simple curiosity and a longing for something more real — more connected. Over time, that curiosity has become a daily practice and a way of life, especially through working with fire.

He doesn’t claim to be an expert or to have all the answers — rather, Michael walks this path alongside those he shares it with. He believes that by learning together, practicing together, and being on the land in community, we can remember parts of ourselves that modern life has forgotten.

Rooted in Bellingen on Gumbaynggirr country, Michael approaches this work with deep respect for the land, its traditional custodians, and the wisdom of the old ways. Fire has been a powerful teacher for him — not just a tool, but a mirror and a guide. It’s helped him find more confidence, connection, and purpose, and it’s these gifts he feels called to share.

This journey isn’t about perfection — it’s about presence, practice, and remembering. Michael is here to offer what he’s learned so far, and to hold space for others to find their own way into deeper connection with the natural world, with themselves, and with community.

READY TO CLAIM YOUR PLACE BY THE FIRE?

Message @bellingenbushcraft on Instagram or email michael@bellingenbushcraft.com.au to ask questions or arrange a free discovery call.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

I acknowledge the Gumbaynggirr people as the traditional custodians of this land. I pay my respects and hope to honour the First Nations people and regenerate what was stolen. I honour the elders past, present, and emerging. I honour the plants that will be used in this course, and it is my prayer that they deepen connection between us and the natural world.