Dr Gina Maffey

I am a weaver of words, willow and wildness.

 

Born on a farm in Warwickshire, England, I have worked as an environmental researcher and science communicator in the Scottish highlands, the Brazilian wetlands and the Dutch lowlands. I have woven my career across disciplines, including Astronomy, Anthropology and Ecology, to gather a theoretical understanding of the natural world and our relationship with it. 

 

However, when those theories meet practice it offers an opportunity to bring nature back to life. In 2016 I embarked on a Wild Year - sleeping outside for 365 nights in a row in an effort to find wildness in a land without wilderness. Bunking on friends' patios, camping at academic conferences and stringing hammocks between trees ensured that the year had a lasting impact. The story of the Wild Year has captivated audiences, and resulted in the publication of chapters in the Routledge Handbook of Rewilding and Rewilding in Nederland, and the book Wild Jaar (Dutch) by Koen Arts. The legacy of impact from that year persists, and I am always looking for creative ways to explore nature. I deliver specialised talks and workshops and often using basket weaving as an analogy to understand our individual relationship with the natural world. I continue to live outdoors amidst the construction of a rewilded home in the Netherlands. 

 

I have been involved with a number of international movements inspiring change. I am a cofounder of Astronomers for Planet Earth - an organisation working to address the climate crisis from an astronomical perspective, an ambassador for Sumowala - a group creating new nature areas in the Netherlands, and a Bioleadership fellow - whose members are working with nature to reshape industry narratives. 

 

Story is at the heart of my work, and I place emphasis on poetic narratives and creative interaction to bring audiences on a journey from the epic to the everyday.