We protect what we love

FRIDAY . 16 . 07 . 21 .

Good morning and happy Friday 🙂

Wherever you are in Australia (or overseas), we hope you are staying safe, staying connected to family and friends and doing your best to stay positive during these trying times. Don't forget - time out in natural places can do wonders for the mind, body & soul 🍃

In this week's newsletter, you'll be hearing from Lena - Head of Impact from Clothing the Gaps Foundation - who reflects on the NAIDOC Heal Country virtual run and provides us with some incredible statistics regarding participation rates and the significant impact that the run has had on the organisation's purpose. We are also super-duper excited to announce the launch of FWP branded clothing, made in partnership with ioMerino. ioMerino love the environment as much as us, so a partnership with this amazing company was a no-brainer. Finally, Hilary provides an important update regarding the Pilliga Ultra.

So, grab yourself a cup of tea, sit in your favourite safe-space and enjoy this weeks good read.

NAIDOC WEEK VIRTUAL RUN RECAP & REFLECTION

Hello everyone, Head of Impact Lena here from Clothing The Gaps Foundation. Firstly, I’d like to say a huge THANK YOU to For Wild Places for their involvement and commitment to supporting our NAIDOC Heal Country virtual event. I’d like to also extend that thank you to all of those who participated in our event over NAIDOC. I hope you all enjoyed the time to connect and reflect about the Traditional Country of First Nations peoples.

I’m also just dropping by to share some insights and reflections of our Heal Country event. We are so proud to say that we had over 3000 people register in our event. What we are even more proud about is, that 40% of those registrations were made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants. This is amazing when we consider that we only make up 3% of the Australian population!

Every registration into our Heal Country event also supported 19 Aboriginal Organisations to create and deliver their own Heal Country event to their Community as part of our Mob Run This package. This really speaks to our purpose of not only adding years to Aboriginal people’s lives through physical activity, but also letting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people self determine health promotion in their Community. To see and celebrate what some of these Aboriginal Org’s and Community groups have been getting up to, check out our @ClothingTheGaps_Foundation socials: Instagram or Facebook.

Lena and her 42.2km medal

There’s something quite special and inspiring when participants share with us their training and participation in our events! We had an absolute ball being tagged in all the socials over the week so we could share and celebrate all the legends who got moving. We also loved seeing people reflect on their commitment to Healing Country and are proud that we have provided a platform for everyone to educate themselves on Aboriginal culture and history.

We can’t wait to do it all again. Speaking of which, we have our next virtual event happening in November! So stay tuned everyone!

Happy moving!

FWP BRANDED CLOTHING

We are excited to announce the launch of FWP t-shirts, made together with ioMerino.

We are proud and super excited to let you know that For Wild Places shirts are now available in some of the best merino wool you can find. Together with ioMerino we have launched a line of For Wild Places branded outdoor gear. Of course you want to know more about ioMerino, but you probably first want to see the gear!? Take a look here, but come back to learn more!

ioMerino are committed to making awesome merino gear and are just as committed to doing the right thing at every step of the production process. Whether it’s the farms their merino wool comes from, the people who help make their garments or the environment, they have made every effort to ensure it’s not just the people who wear ioMerino who are better off.

Beyond their great garments, they truly love the environment. ioMerino are big supporters of celebrating and protecting wild places. To help us deliver on our mission, they will donate $10 to For Wild Places for each piece of FWP branded FWP gear sold. It's a win, win - the us and the environment!

PILLIGA ULTRA UPDATE

Postponed until 16 October 2021

It's with a heavy heart that we decided to postpone The Pilliga Ultra. With the lockdowns in NSW and VIC, border closures and general widespread uncertainty, we can no longer gather safely on the sacred lands of Pilliga/Billiga on July 31st. Early this week, in consultation with event partners The Wilderness Society the decision was made - the new event date will be October 16th 2021.

The purpose of The Pilliga Ultra is to help the local community rally against the Narrabri Gas Project, and going ahead with the event would put the rural community at risk, which we are not willing to do. We are remaining hopeful that postponing will allow more time for runners and volunteers to spread the word about the plight of the Pilliga, and together we can raise more funds and awareness to protect this precious wild place.

On another positive note, spring in the Pilliga is a sight to behold, and given the wonderful winter rains they have been having, it will be a sensational year for wild flowers. With the warmer weather, we're hoping more people will be keen to pitch a tent under the expansive sky and join us for a weekend of wild and wonderful sports activism.

For more information on refunds, signing up or volunteering, please head to the event website. You can also reach out via email for any questions you may have. We sincerely hope you can join us in the Pilliga in October.

Hilary, Event Lead

🌞 🌞 🌞

Have a wonderful weekend folks.

And as always, thank you for taking the time for wild places

Lena, Elanor & the For Wild Places crew.

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We acknowledge the the First Nations people who have been custodians of land, waters and culture for tens of thousands of years. We pay respects to First Nations Elders past, present and emerging.

We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the lands where this newsletter was compiled.

Always was, always will be.

By For Wild Places

We're a group of adventurers who love to

protect wild places we run on