The time Gary Waterworth Owen spent with Sir Laurens, served as inspiration to drive forward his concept of Culture Conscious Conservation and the ResponseABILITY Alliance. The extraordinary life of Sir Laurens van der Post (1906-1996) is not easily encapsulated. He was the author of many books, which have sold in the millions, two of which have been produced as feature films, and two more of which served as the basis for two award-winning public television series about the Kalahari Bushmen. Besides writing books, he was been a journalist, soldier, prisoner of war, advisor to British heads of state and other political leaders, a close confidant of Prince Charles, godfather to Prince William, an educator, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer, conservationist and more.

Born in 1906 in the interior of southern Africa, he lived among the Kalahari Bushmen, becoming the principal chronicler of the people who created the first blueprint for life on Earth. In the 1970's Lourens met Prince Charles through mutual friends. In 1987 he took Prince Charles on a five-day retreat to the Kalahari, telling the prince, ''This is the real Africa.'' He was also one of C.G. Jung's closest friends for two decades. Laurens dedicated much of his life to emphasizing the meaning and value of indigenous cultures in the modern world, a world he felt is in danger of losing its spiritual identity to technology, prejudice, empty values and a lack of understanding of the interconnectedness of all life on Earth. In 1977, together with Ian Player, a South African conservationist, he created the first World Wilderness Congress in Johannesburg.

‘Once in the wilderness, one can observe that attitudes change significantly. Cultural differences become unimportant, barriers are removed and people begin to see each other as people.’  - Dr Ian Player

In 1979 his Chelsea neighbor Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister and she called on his advice with matters dealing with southern Africa, notably the Rhodesia settlement of 1979–80. In 1981 he was given a Knighthood.

Selected works by Laurens:

• In a Province, 1934
• Venture to the Interior, 1952
• The Face Beside the Fire, 1953
• A Bar of Shadow, 1954
• Flamingo Feather, 1955
• The Dark Eye in Africa, 1955
• Race Prejudice as Self-Rejection, 1957
• The Lost World of the Kalahari, 1958 - film 1956
• The Heart of the Hunter, 1961
• Patterns of Renewal, 1962
• The Seed and the Sower, 1963 - film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1982), dir. by Nagisa Oshima, starring David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi, Jack Thompson
• Intuition, Intellect, and the Racial Question, 1964
• A Journey into Russia, 1964 (US title: A View of All the Russias)
• A Portrait of All the Russias, 1967
• The Hunter and the Whale, 1967
• A Portrait of Japan, 1968
• African Cooking, 1970 (with others)
• The Night of the New Moon, August 6, 1945... Hiroshima, 1970 (US title: The Prisoner and the Bomb)
• The Man and the Shadow, 1971
• A Story Like the Wind, 1972
• A Far-Off Place, 1974 - film 1993, based on the books A Far-Off Place and A Story Like the Wind, dir. by Mikael Salomon, starring Reese Witherspoon, Ethan Randall (Embry), Maximilian Schell, Sarel Bok, Jack Thompson
• A Mantis Carol, 1975
• Jung and the Story of Our Time, 1975
• First Catch Your Eland, 177
• Yet Being Someone Other, 1982
• Testament to the Bushman, 1984 (with J. Taylor)
• A Walk with the White Bushman, 1986
• About Blady: a Pattern Out of Time, 1991

Go to Culture Conscious Conservation

In Memory of Past Allies:

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