Who We Are
Born in a pandemic and fueled by a resolute sense of optimism and necessity, Wolf Willow Institute is a community of systems educators, practitioners, guides, activists and artists that exists to serve those dedicated to building a flourishing future for all.
We do this by cultivating the systems leadership capacities needed to affect social change in a complex world through education, research and community-building.
Education
Offering accessible transformative learning experiences to cultivate and apply the knowledge, skills and sensibilities required to address complex challenges and guide systems transition.
Research
Generating and sharing applied research and practice wisdom related to systems education, leadership and change processes.
Field-Tending
Acting as culture-shaping catalyst, hub and conscious community of practice within the broader systems learning and social innovation fields.
The Wolf and the Willow.
The name Wolf Willow came about in dream and in relationship with the wild ecology of the prairies and Canadian Rockies. It also represents a theoretical and pedagogical origin story, a place in the Canadian Rockies, and a dance of relational systems that lead to mutual flourishing. It is a reminder that when it comes to complexity, nature remains our greatest teacher.
The wolfwillow is a plant.
The Wolfwillow is a plant commonly found in riparian zones in the Canadian Rockies. It is a silver-leafed relative to the olive tree - whose limbs stabilize river banks, whose bark can be woven into delicate fish nets, strong ropes and clothing, and who produces beautiful and nutritious seeds.
A deeper layer…
Wrapped in the English name for the wolfwillow plant also lies the wolf – archetypally wild predator and socially intelligent landscape shaper, and the willow - a transcultural healing medicine, fashioned into baskets, symbol of hope, renewal, nourishment and flexibility.
The name speaks to the Institute’s location in the Canadian Rockies, in the town of Canmore on the traditional territories of Treaty 7 peoples. Our work is grounded in the ecology and socio-cultural fabric of this place, known in the Nakoda language as Chuwapchipchiyan Kudebi.
The complimentary opposition of the wolf and willow gesture toward a fundamental rhythm we find useful – of gentleness, and ferocity. Of reflection and action. Of an essential pulse between the dying of that which no longer serves, and the birth and nurturance of the new.
A reminder that, as Indigenous scholar Vanessa Andreotti and the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective describe it, we find ourselves sitting with open hearts between the deathbed of modernity and the birthing grounds of the future.