You were born to be wild
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Literally, and not is some cheesy pop song way. You evolved to be dependent upon and interdependent with wild nature.
The ability to hunt, gather, and craft the things you depend upon for daily life is written in your DNA and the need to do these things shaped your body and your mind.
Whether you live in a high rise in the city or a shelter in the wilderness, there is something incredibly empowering and deeply satisfying about learning to do more with your own to hands. Practicing timeless ways of being and awakening the skills your ancestors depended upon will help you remember what it is to be truly and deeply human.
Through my teaching, writing, speaking, consulting and more, helping people be their wildest, freest, most deeply connected selves is my passion.
I look forward to connecting with you
The ability to hunt, gather, and craft the things you depend upon for daily life is written in your DNA and the need to do these things shaped your body and your mind.
Whether you live in a high rise in the city or a shelter in the wilderness, there is something incredibly empowering and deeply satisfying about learning to do more with your own to hands. Practicing timeless ways of being and awakening the skills your ancestors depended upon will help you remember what it is to be truly and deeply human.
Through my teaching, writing, speaking, consulting and more, helping people be their wildest, freest, most deeply connected selves is my passion.
I look forward to connecting with you
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Learn with Woniya
Teaching is the heart of what I do. Whether it is demonstrating at gatherings around the country, teaching in-person at our beautiful land in northeastern California, or connecting with people around the world through my many online courses, seeing new skills and understanding change people's lives is what keeps me inspired and enlivened.
With a masters degree in environmental science; thirty years of experience in ancestral, wilderness, and survival skills, and a lot of dirt time applying these skills in some of the most challenging environments on the continent, I integrate knowledge of and relationship with the natural world with the physical skills in all I do. I strive for in depth and transformative teaching that goes beyond the average learning experience. I also offer private trainings and custom courses for those looking to maximize their learning with more focused mentoring.
Sneak Peek of upcoming classes happening soon:
Wet Felting: Flat projects with inlaid patterns July 27, 2025
Learn to transform raw sheep wool into beautiful, durable fabric. We'll explore different color patterns and inlay techniques to turn our flat felt into high art!
Nevada City, CA $150 Fee covers material and instruction
Buckskin Sewing 101, Online Course, New session happening Online August 4- Sept 4
Join Woniya online this August for an in-depth exploration of sewing with braintanned buckksin.
This four week online course involves pre-recorded video classes, live mentoring calls for Q&A, and enrollment in BR Circle, our exclusive online learning community
$128 includes registration for the 4 week live session plus evergreen access to the classes
Surthrival Intensive August 25-30
In this deep dive into the skills for surthriving and thriving in the wilderness, you'll learn about reading your environment and understanding its resources and challenges, sheltercraft, firecraft, foraging, water, snaring, tool use, and much more
Nevada City, CA $1475 Fee covers materials, instruction, camping, and
With a masters degree in environmental science; thirty years of experience in ancestral, wilderness, and survival skills, and a lot of dirt time applying these skills in some of the most challenging environments on the continent, I integrate knowledge of and relationship with the natural world with the physical skills in all I do. I strive for in depth and transformative teaching that goes beyond the average learning experience. I also offer private trainings and custom courses for those looking to maximize their learning with more focused mentoring.
Sneak Peek of upcoming classes happening soon:
Wet Felting: Flat projects with inlaid patterns July 27, 2025
Learn to transform raw sheep wool into beautiful, durable fabric. We'll explore different color patterns and inlay techniques to turn our flat felt into high art!
Nevada City, CA $150 Fee covers material and instruction
Buckskin Sewing 101, Online Course, New session happening Online August 4- Sept 4
Join Woniya online this August for an in-depth exploration of sewing with braintanned buckksin.
This four week online course involves pre-recorded video classes, live mentoring calls for Q&A, and enrollment in BR Circle, our exclusive online learning community
$128 includes registration for the 4 week live session plus evergreen access to the classes
Surthrival Intensive August 25-30
In this deep dive into the skills for surthriving and thriving in the wilderness, you'll learn about reading your environment and understanding its resources and challenges, sheltercraft, firecraft, foraging, water, snaring, tool use, and much more
Nevada City, CA $1475 Fee covers materials, instruction, camping, and
More information about my in-person courses, private trainings, and online courses here
Writing
Read Woniya's debut memoir,
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Clay Hayes, winner of Alone Season 8, relaxing with a copy of Woniya's memoir at his elk hunting camp in 2023
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Praise for Never Alone:
“Well written, sometimes hair-raising, and always moving. She tells us what it is like to live in that primordial way, with unflinching honesty and vivid insight. Truly a memorable book."
-Kim Stanley Robinson, award winning author of Shaman, Ministry for the Future, The Mars Trilogy, and more.
“Like Eat, Pray, Love, only without the eat part"
-Tanya Wexler, director of Hysteria, Jolt, and more.
“Well written, sometimes hair-raising, and always moving. She tells us what it is like to live in that primordial way, with unflinching honesty and vivid insight. Truly a memorable book."
-Kim Stanley Robinson, award winning author of Shaman, Ministry for the Future, The Mars Trilogy, and more.
“Like Eat, Pray, Love, only without the eat part"
-Tanya Wexler, director of Hysteria, Jolt, and more.
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Patreon membership- join Woniya's inner circle
Patreon members visiting the new land in October 2024
Some of the other highlights of membership are regular live Zoom calls; inclusion in the BR Circle, our exclusive online skills and nature connection community; an annual Alone watch party, and a Q&A zoom call with an Alone cast member. This year we'll be meeting with Dug North from Season 12, who also happens to be a long time member of our Patreon family! We also have a yearly Patreon in-person retreat.
A lot of the educational and land tending work I do is unpaid. Patreon members help support all I do and get a lot of wonderful benefits in return. Membership starts as low as $5.00 a month, with more benefits for higher tiers. |
Personal connection with the people whose lives I've impacted is a huge part of what keeps me inspired. Over the years, my Patreon team has grown from a group of supporters who believe enough in what I do to help support it, to a community of trusted friends.
I post more often and about more personal subjects on Patreon than to social media, and rely on members, who I now refer to as my Patreon family, for feedback about new class offerings, projects, and ideas. They get early access to my writings, are the first to be able to register for classes, and receive discounts on my online and in person courses. 
Woniya's Patreon family having dinner together at Rabbitstick Rendezvous
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 “We wouldn't be here today if our ancestors hadn’t learned to live and thrive in the wild with the resources around them, their ingenuity, and the creative capacity of their own two hands. Those capacities are still alive in you, and reconnecting with them brings fulfillment on many levels.” – Woniya Thibeault
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Woniya on Alone
Woniya Thibeault is best known for her appearances on Alone, on The HISTORY Channel™, which has been referred to as the Olympics of Survival. It drops participants off in extreme wilderness locations with only 10 items of gear, to live on their own for as long as they can. No food stores, no camera crew. The rigors of filming the adventure themselves is part of the daunting challenge.
Woniya approached the experience not as a competition, but an opportunity to experience a life-long dream: living wild in an intact and benevolent wilderness. She spent 73 days living on her own just below the Arctic Circle on Alone Season 6, and was the runner up of that season. Three years later, she was invited to participate in an even more rigorous challenge on Alone: Frozen, where some of the strongest competitors from past seasons were dropped later in the year than any previous season, into even more challenging terrain. This time the challenge had a time limit: everyone who stayed for 50 days could win. She loved the idea of an Alone challenge that wasn't an elimination game with only one winner. The conditions were challenging enough that Woniya was the only one to last all 50 days, and became the first woman to win an Alone solo survival challenge and, with both Alone seasons combined, the record holder for cumulative days out on Alone, with a total of 123 days.
Woniya approached the experience not as a competition, but an opportunity to experience a life-long dream: living wild in an intact and benevolent wilderness. She spent 73 days living on her own just below the Arctic Circle on Alone Season 6, and was the runner up of that season. Three years later, she was invited to participate in an even more rigorous challenge on Alone: Frozen, where some of the strongest competitors from past seasons were dropped later in the year than any previous season, into even more challenging terrain. This time the challenge had a time limit: everyone who stayed for 50 days could win. She loved the idea of an Alone challenge that wasn't an elimination game with only one winner. The conditions were challenging enough that Woniya was the only one to last all 50 days, and became the first woman to win an Alone solo survival challenge and, with both Alone seasons combined, the record holder for cumulative days out on Alone, with a total of 123 days.
Alone Season 6 and Alone: Frozen episodes are available on Amazon Prime, the History Channel website, and many other venues
Woniya on the Media
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Learn Ancestral Skills and Immerse in Wilderness Living
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Kind Words
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Woniya ThibeaultBased in the foothills of the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains, Woniya can generally be found popping back and forth between the eastern and western slopes of this mountain range or up and down the west coast.
She is available to teach and speak in person across the USA, and virtually around the world.
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