Walk, Yarn & Book Launch.
The Outdoor Health Book launch began The Walk & Book Launch – Yarning Your Way to the 2025 Forum, an intentional and reflective 10km walk designed to explore the themes of Outdoor Health through conversation, poetry, and movement.
Each kilometre of the walk invited participants to engage with a different chapter theme from the newly released, open-access book Outdoor Health: Caring for People and Planet—a landmark publication bringing together leading thinkers, practitioners, and people with lived experience from across the international outdoor health field. Along the way, walkers reflected, read excerpts, and shared Yarns of meaning for practice and community connection.
The walk was offered poetry from AJ Costa to signpost the beginning, middle and themes of the book. This poetry offered care and reflection and further connection to the book.
Following this immersive prelude, the official book launch took place during the Forum, marking a milestone moment for Outdoor Health Australia.
Outdoor Health: Caring for People and Planet spans 31 chapters that map the breadth and depth of outdoor health practice today—covering Aboriginal knowledges, climate distress, bio–psycho–socio–cultural–eco approaches, animal- and equine-assisted therapies, forest and horticultural therapy, decolonising practice, ecological stewardship, trauma recovery, grief, and more. The book’s diverse voices highlight the powerful intersections between caring for people and caring for the planet.
Over 70 authors, 20 reviewers, and 7 editors volunteered their time to bring this volume to life. The editorial team—Cathryn Carpenter, Andrea Dickmeyer, Tonia Gray, Ben Knowles, Pauline Marsh, Jacob Prehn, and Anita Pryor—worked collaboratively to produce this remarkable resource, supported by the Victorian Government, which enables the book to be released as FREE Public Open Access.
Register for book news hereThe launch was hosted by Amanda Smith, OHA representative on the International Association for Adventure and Nature-based Therapies (IAANT), Co-Queensland Representative and co-leader of the OHA Rainbow Group, who reflected on the book alongside editors Anita Pryor, Tonia Gray and Andrea Dickmeyer.
This event honoured the extraordinary collective effort behind the book and celebrated the deep commitment within the Outdoor Health community to research, practice, and wellbeing—reaffirming the shared belief that caring for people and caring for the planet are one and the same.
Outdoor Health: Caring for People and Planet will be freely available online—an inspiring, community-built resource for all who are passionate about health, healing, and connection with nature.
OHA will be offering a range of Online and in-person events throughout 2026 to support and engage with practice approaches and ways of ‘being and doing’ in a local and global experience of complexity.
