This short film is an accompaniment to the newly released book by Darcia Narvaez, PhD, and G.A, Bradshaw, PhD. The Evolved Nest: Nature’s Way of Raising Children and Connected Communities is a beautiful resource for Nature advocates, parents-to-be, Animal lovers, and anyone who seeks to restore wellbeing on our planet, The Evolved Nest reconnects us to lessons from the Animal world and shows us how to restore wellness in our families, communities, and lives.
From the immense Whale to the intriguing Octopus – all Animals share with humans brain structures and processes that give us the capacities for life’s rainbow of experiences: consciousness, thinking, feeling, loving, and dreaming.
Perhaps most importantly, we share common ways of raising our young: what is called the evolved nest. Evolved nests are practices that nurture physical and psychological wellbeing. Each child is “nested” with mother, family, community, and the rest of Nature as one seamless whole. Passed from generation to generation over millions of years, each Animal’s nest has been perfected to meet and match the needs of their young. Nestedness is evolution’s way of ensuring that everyone thrives. Each Animal’s evolved nest shares basic similarities but also unique differences.
The Evolved Nest: Nature’s Way of Raising Children is the third short film in a series that includes Reimagining Humanity and Breaking the Cycle. This short film in an accompaniment to the acclaimed book, The Evolved Nest, by Darcia Narvaez and G.A. Bradshaw.
Watch the Short Film, The Evolved Nest: Nature’s Way of Raising Children
Read The Transcript
In the dazzle of Nature’s stupendous, endless diversity, we often forget how much we share with our Animal kin.
Whether adorned by feathers, fins, scales or skin, our bodies breathe, our minds soar, and our hearts beat with the same rhythms of Life.
We revel in Earth’s beauty.
We reap Nature’s bounty.
We celebrate life’s new beginnings, share in the challenges of change, and in the sorrows of passing.
We are so much more alike than we are different.
From the immense Whale to the intriguing Octopus – all Animals share with humans brain structures and processes that give us the capacities for life’s rainbow of experiences: consciousness, thinking, feeling, loving, and dreaming.
Perhaps most importantly, we share common ways of raising our young: what is called the evolved nest.
Evolved nests are practices that nurture physical and psychological wellbeing.
Each child is “nested” with mother, family, community, and the rest of Nature as one seamless whole.
Passed from generation to generation over millions of years, every Animal’s nest has been perfected to meet and match the needs of their young. Nestedness is evolution’s way of ensuring that everyone thrives.
Each Animal’s evolved nest shares basic similarities but also unique differences.
The nucleus of the African Elephant’s evolved nest is the natal family – a constellation of mothers, aunts, cousins, sisters, and brothers woven into the ecology of the African savannah.
The evolved nest of the Sperm Whale is shaped by folds of ocean currents and shepherded by mother-guided families who nurture young Whale minds and bodies in the ways of their watery home.
The Beaver’s physical nest encompasses a complex of dams, lodges, canals, ponds, and trails expertly constructed by the Beaver family. Every detail of the evolved nest is exquisitely fashioned to support and nourish a baby Beaver, from conception through adulthood.
At the center of the Emperor Penguin’s evolved nest is shared parenting. After mother Penguin lays the egg, it is quickly transferred to Father’s feathered pouch, safe and warm. While mothers travel to the sea to replenish themselves, father Penguins gather together with their shelled treasures forming a cooperative huddle to buffer the bite of the Antarctic’s bitter cold.
A welcoming and stable set of caregivers comprise humanity’s evolved nest, who share 24/7 holding and carrying of babies, offering suckling on baby’s request. Cooperative caregiving shapes a self-regulated, self-confident and compassionate human nature.
Whether Beavers, Whales, Elephants, or humans, the evolved nest shapes a child’s brain and body for health and happiness, and reflects the moral commitment of the community.
Each evolved nest provides the same vital elements throughout childhood:
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Loving touch and care,
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Child-directed feeding,
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Spontaneous free play,
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Mentoring from multiple generations and wise elders,
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And full immersion in Nature to learn reverence and partnership with fellow Animals and Plants.
In short, a child’s first years of life lay the foundations for who they become.
At the heart of wellbeing is adapting to Nature’s ways—the how and why our ancestors flourished.
Some of humanity, however, broke from Nature’s ways and spread their unnatural ways across the world.
This is where we find ourselves today.
Instead of being born and raised in the embrace of the evolved nest, most children today find themselves in a very different world.
Children lack the supportive care that grows social, emotional and ecological intelligences.
Most human children today live in societies that are fractured and inflamed, with domination, alienation and intolerance, societies that are damaging all evolved nests, human and non-human.
Many of us have forgotten Nature’s ways.
But there is hope for healing and restoration.
Our Animal kin, who are so close to us in body and mind, offer us guidance back to the evolved nest that is still being provided in many peaceful, Indigenous human societies around the world, showing us how minds, bodies, communities, and the natural world can be integrated once more.
By following the practical and moral compass of Nature’s evolved nest, we build beauty and oneness.
Returning to the evolved nest is essential for humanity to thrive. It is essential for the planet to heal.
Together, we can return to the wellness pathway that Nature intended for all life, the evolved nest.
For more information, visit EvolvedNest.org and Kerulos.org
Written by
Darcia Narvaez
G. A. Bradshaw