The Kamana Naturalist Training Program

Kamana Books

Kamana is a supportive, structured program for learning the language of nature. I found it opened my awareness and deeply changed my perceptions. I highly recommend it to all who want to learn to be a home in the natural world.
Starhawk, Author, Activist & Kamana One graduate

  • Understand the language of the forest and see more wildlife
  • Learn outdoor survival skills that could save your life
  • Learn to use the medicinal and edible plants of your area
  • Discover the mysteries of wildlife through tracking
  • Learn to move safely and with confidence outdoors

If you want to experience all of this and more, The Kamana Naturalist Training Program is for you!

The Kamana Naturalist Training Program is an experiential four-level home study course through which you gain a comprehensive naturalist training background. You learn wildlife tracking, bird language, survival and native living skills, traditional herbalism, naturalist mentoring and more.

It is the ultimate blueprint for your time spent in the field and in conducting nature-related research. You become a confident naturalist, melding modern field ecology with the skills of a native scout. It was written by naturalist and tracker Jon Young, who uniquely designed it to model the process in which renown naturalist Tom Brown, Jr. mentored him as a boy.

Kamana is completed "at your own pace and at your own place." It may take one to four years total to complete all four levels of the program.

Kamana One: Exploring Natural Mystery embarks you on the Kamana journey and it only takes about a month to complete. You move through two weeks of awareness exercises and six areas of ecological study using a field guide and audio series narrated by Jon Young. It will help you see if the entire Kamana program is for you, as well as beginning to see the world through "native eyes."

  Kamana Two: Path of the Naturalist

Kamana Two

Kamana One embarks you on the Kamana journey and only takes about a month to complete.

Kamana One Program Pack - $149.99
Save $25 by buying Kamana One along with the two required resources: Seeing Through Native Eyes CD audio series with Jon Young and the Readers Digest: North American Wildlife field guide.

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Digital Kamana One Program Pack - $139.99

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Read More about Kamana One

Ready for Kamana Two? This course begins in-depth routines of awareness & study of your place.

Kamana One is highly recommended, but there are no pre-requisites - students may start at Kamana Two.

Kamana Two - $135. Includes binder with the Nature Awareness Trail, and a pad of journal pages.

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Digital Kamana Two
- $79.99.

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Read More about Kamana Two

To read an expanded history of Wilderness Awareness School and the Kamana Program, take the Tourist Test, or sample a couple of Kamana Two exercises, see the Kamana Samples section!

Kamana Facts

  • Jon Young and Wilderness Awareness School have spent more than 25 years in research and development to bring the current version of Kamana Home Study Course to you!
  • Kamana level Two, Three and Four include personal correspondence with Wilderness Awareness School instructors via mail, phone and email. It is Wilderness Awareness School's unique system of learning that will mentor you with the help of our trained instructors.
  • Thousands of people worldwide have joined Kamana in its many-year history. We have students in all 50 states, Canada, Germany, Austria, Ireland, Japan, the Czech Republic, and even Estonia!
  • Kamana’s unique system of learning stems from the core routines it builds into the students life over a period of time. For those who REALLY want "dirt time", there is no more effective or efficient learning method available.
  • Kamana has a large on-line community of students who regularly communicate with each other all over the world! Join them at The Wilderness Awareness Village
  • The Kamana Home Study Course has been recommended by Tom Brown, Jr and many other wilderness schools as the perfect compliment to their own students learning and development between in-person classes.

30-Day Sit Spot Challenge
The 30-Day Sit Spot Challenge

The 4rd Annual 30-Day Sit Spot Challenge runs from May 1-30. This challenge is a powerful way for you to connect with the natural world through one spot in nature. The Sit Spot is the core routine of the Kamana Naturalist Training Program. It's simple: go to one place in nature for at least 20 minutes per day. Sit and observe what happens. Anyone can join and it's free to participate!

Jon Young on "Kamana"

Wilderness Awareness School co-founder Jon Young talks about the meaning of the word "Kamana"

Ingwe

Ingwe
“The wilderness holds all truth and knowledge.” –Ingwe (1914-2005)

The choice of the term Kamana carries weight in the lineage of our school. Our Co-founder and Grandfather, M. Norman Powell, known to his family, friends and students as Ingwe, brought this term to us. Ingwe was raised on a colonial plantation in Kenya, Africa, where he grew up under the tutelage of an older boy, Ndaka, a member of the local Akamba community. He was eventually initiated into Akamba society, and carried those traditions with him through all his life, bringing them to Jon Young and the Wilderness Awareness School in New Jersey in 1984.

The word kamana comes from the Akamba Tribe of Kenya. It translates to "the bearer for the warrior." The "warrior" refers to the society of people who defended the traditions of the tribe and took care of the people.

In our own times, we need "warriors" who will learn and pass on the knowledge of the natural world. Thus our own people will be taken care of as we learn to live in balance and harmony with nature.


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