Our Members

We are nature-inspired facilitators, guides, artists, educators, and therapists, bonded by our commitment to support the health and wellbeing of all life.

Our endeavours have long been motivated by a deep desire to help people rediscover, revitalise and reimagine their relationship with nature. Through this work, we invite ‘a remembering’ – a sense of coming home to who we are and how we can better belong with earth and each other in this living world.

And now in coming together through the Masiyembo Association, we endorse a unified message and deliver a diverse suite of programs. We offer an ‘ecosystem of experiences’, where each Member’s niche serves the greater purpose of the Association.

Masiyembo Members have expertise in wilderness guiding, biomimicry, environmental psychology, paleo-archaeology, humanities, nature therapy, arts-based facilitation, rites of passage processes, life coaching, social work and more.  This cumulative wisdom is used to cultivate meaningful experiences that enhance connection with nature and each other, in support of holistic health and wellbeing.   

Masiyembo Membership can take three forms: 1) An Individual endorsing our Ethos; 2) An Individual offering an Experience (that adheres to our Ethos); or 3) an Organisation endorsing our Ethos and offering related Experiences.  

MORE ABOUT MEMBERSHIP

 

Below is an alphabetical listing of our current Members, with a brief bio and the experiences they offer through the Masiyembo Association.

Roy Ashton

Roy Ashton

Roy Ashton is a wilderness and mountain guide, and qualified Zen coach who has lived and worked on four continents, including time spent with...

Julie Carlisle

Julie Carlisle

Julie Carlisle has been involved in a broad spectrum of environmentally related programmes, projects and organisations for all of her adult life,...

Ancia Cornelius

Ancia Cornelius

Ancia is an artist, ethnobotanist and miniaturist. She is fascinated by tiny things, both in association with people and nature, and how these...

Christopher Jantjies

Christopher Jantjies

Christopher is proudly South African, accredited tour guide who leads local and international travellers to the world famous Middle Stone Age...

Miila Kauppinen

Miila Kauppinen

Miila has an MSc in Forest and Nature Conservation, and has all her life been passionate about exploring nature, our connection with it and...

Wayne & Cindy Maspero

Wayne & Cindy Maspero

Wayne and Cindy have been living and facilitating the Spirit of the Wild experience on Bergplaas Nature Reserve for the last fourteen years. The...

Peter Nilssen

Peter Nilssen

A professional archaeologist, Peter is known for his collaborative research at Pinnacle Point, world-famous for discoveries contributing to the...

Ian Read

Ian Read

Ian has over twenty years experience in the facilitation of Rites of Passage and Leadership Development Programmes for both youth and adult...

John Roff

John Roff

John facilitates transformative nature experiences for people, in a range of wild and natural places, primarily in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands....

Bukelwa Sigila

Bukelwa Sigila

Bukelwa Sigila hails from the hills and valleys of the Eastern Cape, near a town called Alice. She has a passion for her cultural roots and a...

Jean-Francois Sobiecki

Jean-Francois Sobiecki

Jean-Francois Sobiecki is a South African born Ethnobotanist (medicinal plant researcher) and qualified nutritionist. Jean-Francois has a passion...

Sue Swain

Sue Swain

Sue is a qualified conservationist with some 25 years experience in the field, where her focus was on environmental education (EE) and included...

Jess Tyrrell

Jess Tyrrell

Jess is dedicated to promoting and supporting people's formation of an ecological identity - the sense of belonging to a larger more-than-human...

Ancois de Villiers

Ancois de Villiers

Ancois is a weaver of space and process to help people come alive to themselves and express their full potential in their relationship with the...

Paul Wigley

Paul Wigley

Paul has a deep love for nature, ‘cultivated’ amongst the varied plants and wild spaces on the farm where he was born. This love for the...

Theresa Wigley

Theresa Wigley

Theresa grew up in the rural Eastern Cape in a family that strove to live a lifestyle friendly to the planet and accessible to all. From a young...

Jesse Wildeman

Jesse Wildeman

Jesse Wildeman grew up in the Garden Route surrounded by people who instilled in her a love for the natural environment and the diverse groups of...

Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com