In the Name of Wild

Five continents. Ten countries. Twenty Natural World Heritage sites in five years. In the Name of Wild is the story of what happened when one family set out to learn what wildness means to people around the world.

What draws us to seek out wild places? Do they mean the same to everyone? As they embarked on their fieldwork the Vannini family expected pristine landscapes, but romantic ideals soon crashed into reality. Adventurers were there to conquer the wilderness. Conservationists were there to manage it. Tourism operators were there to make a dollar.

Part travelogue, part ethnography, In the Name of Wild takes us on a wide-ranging journey, searching for answers from people who call places like Tasmania, Patagonia, and Iceland home. Wildness, they explain, isn’t about remoteness or an absence of people. This brilliantly conceived, beautifully told account reveals that wild is really about connections, kinship, and coexistence with the land.

Phillip Vannini and April Vannini are ethnographers and filmmakers. They share an interest in exploring the meaning of “wild” and “wilderness” and are the authors of Wilderness and Inhabited: Wildness and the Vitality of the Land and the directors of In the Name of Wild and Inhabited. They teach in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Road University and live on Gabriola Island in British Columbia.