Out of Eden Walk: North Passage

**UPDATE: THANK YOU! On behalf of everyone on Out of Eden Walk’s small team, our steadfast project partners and collaborators, the Walking Partner community, and the thousands of fellow explorers, readers, students, educators, artists, journalists, and storytellers walking along with us, thank you! We are deeply grateful: Your generosity has made this crowdfunding campaign our most successful ever, raising over $110,000 worth of donations that are urgently needed to keep our connection-building project alive and walking into another year. We look forward to bringing you more stories on the path ahead. Thank you, as ever, for walking with us. P.S. Did you miss this campaign? No problem: Join our donor community any time of the year by heading to www.outofedenwalknonprofit.org/give.**

In 2013, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning writer Paul Salopek left an ancient human fossil site at Herto Bouri, Ethiopia, and set out to walk 24,000 miles to the tip of South America. His mission: Follow the pathways of the first humans who walked out of Africa during the Stone Age, and collect stories along the way of our shared humanity in a modern world fractured by borders, mistrust, and mutual incomprehension. Far from being a solo journey, this collective effort—known as the Out of Eden Walk—engages a global community committed to using the power of storytelling for improving connectivity across borders. Join us for the biggest narrative and geographical step in our 16,000-mile journey so far: The straddling of the Old and New worlds, as we begin to set our compass bearing, at last, for the Americas. 

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A MESSAGE FROM THE TRAIL

INTRODUCTION

One of the most innovative storytelling projects of our era, the Out of Eden Walk journey began in 2013 in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia, a cradle of our species, and will conclude at the tip of South America—the final horizon reached 7,000 years ago by our common ancestors. Led by Paul Salopek, the project celebrates the work of local creatives along its route, and is building an enduring legacy that combines meaningful people-to-people storytelling, civic literacy and education programming. The Out of Eden Walk 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization provides a thoughtful alternative to the frenzy of shallower, fast-paced media that often sows fear and ideological division. We need your help to keep this slow, mindful voyage of discovery moving forward. 

As we move into the next phase of this global project, you’ll “walk along” with our worldwide community of readers, educators, scientists, artists, environmentalists, and storytellers who appreciate a boot-level view of our shared home—an old Earth made fresh and new by walking. At no time in the history of the walk have the forward horizons been so amazingly wide open. As we inch toward the end of the long trail across China—a foot traverse that will ultimately exceed 4,800 miles, or 8,000 kilometers—we face several exciting options: walk north through Siberia, or pivot east to trek through South Korea and Japan, after which we will hop a freighter to Alaska, to begin the last leg of the Out of Eden Walk journey through the New World.

The storytelling along each of these possible trails will vary, of course, according to the diverse human landscape involved. But several big themes will still hover about all our narratives. For example: the latest scientific discoveries regarding the peopling of the world and ancient human migrations (including maritime wanderings), the sobering effects of the climate crisis in colder environments (melting permafrost and vast ecosystem change), and stories highlighting innovative conservation solutions in places as daunting as the wild Amur River or the heavily-mined DMZ. As has been the case for the past 16,000 miles out of Africa, our nuanced, slow reporting at boot level will spotlight the complex, under-covered issues and the local heroes informing all these globally important stories. Please join the Out of Eden Walk community by donating today.

**MATCH CAMPAIGN UPDATE**: Thanks to you, we reached our goal of raising $35,000 to be matched dollar for dollar for a total impact of $70,000! 

A human figure in the center of the images faces a stone archway. The archway looks out to cloudy skies and rolling hills.

Sword Gate Pass, a 2,300-year-old fortress in the mountains of northern Sichuan, once guarded the approaches to the kingdom of Shu in southwest China. Today, it’s a major hiking and cultural tourism destination. Photo by Paul Salopek.

COMMUNITY APPRECIATION

NEW REWARD SPECIAL: For a donation at the $1,500 level, one lucky donor can take home an archival, high-quality, 30×20 print photograph of an edition of only 150 created by John Stanmeyer on the Out of Eden Walk trail. About the photograph, titled: “Storm – Turkey,” John says: “”When a beautiful storm approached, I was driving with my friend, Murat, through mustard fields in the Anatolia region of eastern Turkey for the Out of Eden Walk. Once, many Armenians lived in this part of Anatolia, where the whirling clouds and a strike of lightning above a carpet of yellow. I felt the weight of history at that moment, an image that felt the weight of Paul Salopek’s poetically penned words for the National Geographic Magazine story Ghostlands.” To claim this reward, select the option on the dropdown donation menu above.  **We’ll update this page when the reward is no longer available.**

Storm-Turkey. Photo by John Stanmeyer.

 

FOR EVERYONE: To show our sincere thanks for your contributions, we are assigning every donor’s name to a mile on the Out of Eden Walk Donor Map. This digital map of supporters will remain a permanent legacy of the journey. See the Out of Eden Walk Donor Map here.

In addition, you can choose to receive semi-monthly newsletters we create just for you, the Out of Eden Walk community, featuring notifications when new stories are published and other special content and updates from the trail.

SPECIAL: *ACT FAST, LIMITED TO 200.* With a donation of $200 or more, you will receive your Donor Map mile name plus a special bonus: a handwritten postcard bought and signed by Paul along the Out of Eden Walk trail. Please note that this reward is limited to the first 200 people to donate $200 or more. We will contact you once the campaign is complete to request information for fulfilling your rewards, including a valid mailing address where we can send your postcard. **We’ll update this page once the reward is no longer available.**

Postcards are arranged on a desk. One is signed with a thank you message.

Mail from a human snail: handwritten postcards from Paul.

 

Other donation options: In addition to the “Donate” button above, which provides the option to send a mailed check or donate online, you can contribute through a Donor Advised Fund or Cryptocurrency.

Donate through a Donor Advised Fund: Donations can be made via mailed check through a Donor Advised Fund (DAF). If you have an account with Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, BNY Mellon or Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, or other DAFs, access this DAF Direct link to make a gift from your account. The link provided is for convenience only, and is not an endorsement of either the linked-to entities or any products or services.

Donate in Cryptocurrency: We are accepting cryptocurrency donations. Details here.

Two people in traditional Bai dress perform in front of a crowd at the entrance to a museum.

Ethnic Bai singers Zhang Taiying and Li Genfang perform at the opening of the exhibition in Shanghai. Photo by Paul Salopek.

WHY WE FUNDRAISE

Without you, there is no Out of Eden Walk.

The Out of Eden Walk project is an IRS-certified 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Out of Eden Walk is only partially funded by partners. Walking the world is costly, so the project relies on public support.

For almost twelve years now, this community has generously kept the Walk plodding along. Your donations help keep Paul and local Walking Partners on the trail, but they also support integral impact mission projects—from amplifying local voices, to innovative education resource building, to the eternal preservation of the Walk’s photograph, audio, video, and text archive, and so much more.

Any day a dispatch from China from Paul arrives is always a special day. I’m not a writer so I don’t have the words to describe the anticipation that comes to me about reading a dispatch. To see China from such a different perspective perhaps helps us see China differently from how the mainstream media presents it.” – Keith, Out of Eden Walk reader.

Here are some of the many ways your donations make all the difference:

Storytelling Equipment: With almost eleven years of walking under his belt, Paul has honed the art of packing light. But the demands of being a writer on the move include keeping up with a fast-paced publishing schedule, often in “unwired” areas with limited or nonexistent Internet and mobile connectivity. This can mean expensive satellite phone charges, as well as periodic laptop, sound recorder, and phone replacement.

Travel Essentials: These include basics such as food, water, lightweight camping equipment and foul-weather gear. Paul and Walking Partners travel with pack animals—such as camels, horses or mules—when the terrain demands; these four-legged walking partners are costly, but necessary.

A man and donkey are pictured walking forward onto a grassy steppe.

Guides Deniz Kilic and Kirkatir (“grey mule”), Cilikian Plain, Turkey. Photo by Paul Salopek.

 

Home Base: Our small headquarters in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, handles behind-the-scenes support to keep the walk moving. The core team actively manages content creation and curation, educational coordination, audience outreach, fundraising, financial management, international communications and back-end logistical support for Paul and his Walking Partners.

Walking Partners: Walking Partners are crucial creative collaborators along the Out of Eden Walk journey. They are compass holders; they help design and, often, dictate the routing through their native lands; they act as translators and interpreters; and, most importantly, they bring personal and in-depth cultural perspectives of the peoples and landscapes through which they walk with Paul. Walking Partners are paid an above-standard wage for their key roles, and often spend several months on the trail.

Out of Eden Walk is a public charity per Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Out of Eden Walk’s EIN is 46-1228334. All donations are deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Two tents are set up on a riverbank at sunset with people camping standing nearby.

Pitching tents on the banks of the Yellow River—a rare camping experience on the trek through China. Photo by Liu Lifeng.

IMPACT

With your support, Out of Eden Walk will:

    • Complete the final stretch of a walk across China exceeding 4,800 miles or 8,000 kilometers.
  • Research and plan several exciting options for the routing ahead: walk north through Siberia, or pivot east to trek through South Korea and Japan, after which we will hop a freighter to Alaska, to begin the last leg of the Out of Eden Walk journey through the New World.
  • Document a wide variety of reportage. For example: the latest scientific discoveries regarding the peopling of the world and ancient human migrations (including maritime wanderings), the sobering effects of the climate crisis in colder environments (melting permafrost and vast ecosystem change), and stories highlighting innovative conservation solutions in places as daunting as the wild Amur River or the heavily-mined DMZ.
  • Walk with local students, historians, cultural experts, ethnic minority artists, world-class scientists, and others, who will share their stories in their own voices.
  • Traverse and record a kaleidoscope of natural landscapes, ranging from biodiverse lowland jungles to glacier-cut scarps, immense grasslands and even subarctic forests frequented by tigers.
  • Build on an important effort to preserve, diversify and more equitably share the growing archive of Out of Eden Walk’s written storytelling. Out of Eden Walk dispatches are now available in the oldest form of storytelling—the spoken word—in audio format, beginning from the very first stories in Africa in 2013 through the end of 2022. We are partnering with National Geographic Society and Chatterbox Studios to continue creating, producing, and sharing these professional, high-quality recordings of all stories as a new sensory experience of the Walk’s reportage. We’ll continue publishing audio story batches on a quarterly basis so listeners can follow along.
  • Engage with local educators, documentary filmmakers, and other thought leaders to spread the Walk’s mission of fostering connectivity across borders through the power of people-to-people storytelling.
A person in a beekeeping hat smiles as another person adjusts a beekeeping box to the right.

For Becky Lin, the gifts of joining the Out of Eden Walk included unexpected encounters—such as meeting this nomadic beekeeper in Hebei Province. Photo by Paul Salopek.

  • Teach global citizenship and share the lessons learned from walking across the world with hundreds of classrooms, reaching thousands of grade-school-age students, in partnership with National Geographic Education in 2024.

Over the past eleven years, with you and our partners, we have:

  • Published Out of Eden Walk editorial content for an audience of at least 45 million readers worldwide.
  • Reached over 800 million viewers on China’s domestic television channels and streaming platforms. Shanghai Media Group’s first-time docuseries covering the Out of Eden Walk in China will be scheduled to debut in new territories later this year.
  • Since the walk began in 2013, we have covered 17 regions and 13,000 miles. Since 2021, we’ve documented stories across 4,000 miles and nine provinces in China—Yunnan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing, Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang.
  • Successfully integrated the original workshop template in China, where Paul co-hosted storytelling workshops with local partner organizations, engaging hundreds of participants in academic and professional development settings.
A group of people sit and stand around a desk with notebooks and laptops.

Workshop participants gathered for a slow storytelling workshop in Shenyang, China. Photo by Paul Salopek.

  • Inspired the creation of a fellowship curator position and museum exhibition of “Walking China,” featuring the creative work of local Walking Partners, which opened in May 2023 at NYU-Shanghai’s internationally-acclaimed Institute of Contemporary Arts. The exhibition had over 3,000 visitors in a three-month period.
  • Provided training to more than 1,100 university-level professors across disciplines (not just journalism, but anthropology, geography, and history) in the United States.
    • Prototyped a citizen-sourced storytelling map platform in the US city of Chicago, IL, which is now in use by a global audience of thousands of students, community leaders, and lifelong learners. Total number of participants to date: 1,672, representing all seven continents.
    • Engaged a committed community on social media platforms with over 238,000 combined followers, with whom we share our unique stories and visual content and highlight the incredible work of our partners.
  • Executed an ambitious initiative to make available ten years and over 480,000 words of OOEW storytelling available in audio format. This long-awaited and important evolution—to include audio versions of our dispatch offerings—will continue as we move forward. Listen along with the journey here.