There's a moment early in the permaculture design course where something shifts. It usually happens quietly, not during a lecture, but in a conversation, or while handling soil, or watching how water moves across a slope. Students stop looking for the answer and start looking at the relationships.

That shift is, I'd argue, the whole point.

While permaculture offers concepts and tools that are invaluable to the designer, it is important to remember that at its heart, it is an indigenous science rooted in direct experience and interconnection with the environment. This foundational aspect often gets lost. The following is a reflection on my inquiry into the dialogue between the human and the more-than-human—and how a body-oriented approach to teaching ecology and permaculture can bridge the gap between the story of separation and the story of connection and belonging.