Bushcrafting Homesteader

Irene Cameron

Teaching Philosophy
At the heart of my teaching philosophy is the belief that education thrives when it is grounded in lived experience, curiosity, and connection. As a community-living homesteader, I have witnessed how different crafts and disciplines enrich one another—how lighting and landscaping shape human interaction, how working with ceramics can inform the ways we build homes, and how shared learning can reshape our relationship to land and labor. I want students to encounter these intersections not only as ideas, but as spaces where they can experiment, make connections across fields, and discover their own approaches. In this way, learning becomes less about mastering a single subject and more about developing the confidence and imagination to see knowledge as something alive—something that grows when tended with creativity and shared with others.


Short Bio
Since I was a child, I’ve delighted in the idea of crafting the world around me with tools I made myself. I imagined surviving in the wild with a steel knife that i had smelted and carved, baskets woven from gathered fibers, or bags sewn from hides I had tanned. I learned to read the land, too: which plants could nourish or heal, how to twist stalks into rope, even how to build forms from wood and clay. I also carried a childhood fantasy of running off to become a novel’s heroine—fighting dragons, sword in hand! That spark led me to learn stage sword fighting, fencing, archery, and riding, weaving the magic of those daydreams into fantastical feeling skills that i use in my very real life.

This curiosity guided me across many crafts: if I yearned for an ornately carved table, I learned to carve; if I longed to gild a book cover, I taught myself gilding. I don’t think of myself as a master of a single art but I believe that learning itself is an art form, and each new discipline illuminates the others in ways only revealed through experience and makes us better at all of them. That belief shaped my dream of creating a place where handmade craft thrives and knowledge flows freely. Today, at Waymeet Homestead, I live that dream—caring for yaks, bees, and chickens, building sustainably, and exploring creative ways to live in harmony with land and community.

This interconnected mindset follows me beyond the homestead too. My years in restaurant management inform my approach to bioarchaeology; my love for Argentine tango shapes how I approach fire performing and meaningful connection. Across my work and play, I’m drawn to the surprising intersections because there is a unique, quiet magic in discovering what unexpected skills inform the ones you love next.