Iza Thomson - Wandering Earth Builder

Iza Thomson - Wandering Earth Builder 🛖 Earth builder/ designer/ artist/ lover
🌈 Hosting playful + inclusive workshops
🌏 Advocating for ecological reciprocity & reconnection

It was a true delight to assist Ala .permakultura on her cob and adobe workshop building the walls of the Seed Bank she ...
05/01/2026

It was a true delight to assist Ala .permakultura on her cob and adobe workshop building the walls of the Seed Bank she designed for (a fantastic organisation protecting filipino heirloom, organic seeds) 🌱

We first met online through the online earth building academy and have since kept in touch about earth building in the Philippines and shared techniques so it was so special to finally meet in person and share this workshop together!

This work is my passion and sharing this knowledge with people who are so eager to learn gives me life! It was extra touching for me that I was able to use my hands to work with the local materials of the Philippines- clay, sand and an abundance of rice straw! While foot mixing to traditional Filipino music, energised by delicious local food from the land in such a stunning location ❤️‍🔥😍❤️‍🔥

Thank you so much to all the participants who came for your curiosity and openness, to Global Seed Savers for being such generous and welcoming hosts, and to Ala for being such a thoughtful and inspiring teacher to share alongside. Grateful 🤎🤎🤎

A very special week with sleeping in a traditional bale (timber home that can be entirely de/re-constructed as joinery ...
02/01/2026

A very special week with sleeping in a traditional bale (timber home that can be entirely de/re-constructed as joinery are pegs or mortise and tenoned!), weeding and clearing the gorgeous clay-mortared rice terraces that were tragically damaged in the recent typhoons, cooking and eating every meal around a fire (most food from the land!), and walking the steep jungle mountainsides. While my specific ancestors hail from some valleys over in Cagayan, it felt significant to be learning to pound, winnow and process rice as they had done. Always great to be humbled as you stumble with new movements 😅.

Mamerto put it perfectly: "Mud is the best teacher- modern people have a perception that it is too dirty or unhygienic, but once you work in the rice fields, you realise mud gives you life" (paraphrased).

They have a book of photographs by Eduardo Masferré which showed the indigenous way of life, and Mamerto pointed out a picture of a circle of people, barely clothed, holding hands and singing and dancing in the mud. I couldn't help but smile at the similarity between it and some of the cob stomps I've done with friends.

Feeling incredibly grateful for the opportunity to come to the Philippines and especially to the Ifugao Center for Living Culture for being such a welcoming landing pad on these ancestral soils 🤎

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Banaue
3601

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