ABOUT
I attempt to tread on this land we call Earth with curiosity to who I am constantly becoming, listening, receiving; learning from nature at my core. Co-existing with my family, community, the land and its creatures with a felt understanding that we are all one living system.
My roots are Brazilian, I was raised & studied in England, graduated with an MSc in Primate Behaviour and have been traversing the African continent ever since. My primate studies led me to follow my childhood allurement with chimpanzees in the forests of Sierra Leone, where I completed my research dissertation. Next chapter; I produced conservation and education films in Tanzania on the outskirts of Ruaha and Tarangire National Parks, where I lived most of my time in a tent alongside the Maasai people and was grateful enough to learn many of the traditional ways.
Growing up in a multi-cultured household and attending an international school, I felt I was constantly searching for the feeling of home or to answer the question where I am from. I go with the approach “don’t ask me where I’m from, ask me where I’m local”. This feels true to my unconventional self. I’m local in Southern Namibia, in Sao Paulo, in London, in the Cape and I come most alive in the ocean.
I’m currently based out of the wild Atlantic Cape Town, South Africa. Where days are filled with challenging mountain trails through fragrant fynbos, icey turquoise-azure surfs alongside penguins and dolphins, mystical kelp forest dives, summer sealettuce forages, playful clawless otter swims, the rare gift of a caracal visit, and after a full day of being windswept, salty and sandy I hope into bed for a deep slumber under the oak trees where the perching eagle owl hoot weaves into my dreams.
The thread of life then wove me into the deep south of Namibia, a land where I’d come to call home for the next 10 years. I am co-founder of ORKCA, a non-profit committed to land, people & wildlife. I am incredibly proud of this self-sustaining organisation together with my business partner. I have recently stepped out of the day-to-day organisation to pursue my next dreams.
AN ODE TO LAND
I am blessed to have lived in the most remote places on planet Earth. Living over 7 years in a storm endured tent, in true wilderness, where watches are obsolete, the idea of wifi didn't exist, alarms replaced with wild critters and blazing sunshine. Land which is timeless and boundless, rocks that have hardly shifted for millions of years, land where we discovered footprints of elephants from 100 years imprinted in the mudstone. Land where time and space does not matter and timelines become warped. Land which is loud with silence and exponentially vast, I could hear ancient hum, pulsing heart beats of mountains, land where the wind carries messages, dusk lullabies are sung by doves and dragonflies are kin. I have lived alongside indigenous communities, where elders still lead, where traditional ways are practiced and community survival depends on land. I have lived on land where indigenous people once were and have been removed, where communities are segregated and detached from land, where people and nature are hurting and the drought spells reflect the harshness of what we have done to our planet. Land where weather is a daily conversation because it directly impacts life and where the elements determine the day. Where presence and tracking is necessary to stay alive. A place where a Camel Thorn tree communicates with clicks and guides me, no matter how far I travel from that tree she has imprinted a force in my spine and clicks messages in my dreams. Living in the boundlessness of the wild is a privilege in these times, it has taught me, empowered me, humbled me, and even though I’m only getting started, I have harvested teachings and now it's time to offer these seeds to the wider world.