Matt began his naturalist training as a child with his Grandfather Ernie Shull, an accomplished entomologist who spent 20 years in Northern India exploring the tropical foothills of the majestic Himalaya, the same jungles that inspired Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book. In mid-century India, the growing population had begun pressuring available resources for local wildlife. As a result, some big cats had taken to making people their preferred prey. One famous man-eater, known as The Temple Tiger, had a 10 year reign in the region, killing close to 400 people. It was the last remaining indigenous hunter-gatherers who were called upon to help. Their mastery of tracking, animal communication, navigation and hunting made them the perfect fit for the job of tracking man-eaters. These last remaining indigenous trackers were also under the same pressures of population growth and habitat loss and were not easily commissioned to work. They did however, on select occasions, serve as Guides. Their service and skillset became known as Shikari. The decades of mentorship these Shikaris provided to a select few regional apprentices was priceless. Jim Corbett was one such apprentice responsible for taking down the Temple Tiger. Corbett’s literary works, The Man-eaters of Kumaon, The Temple Tiger, etc., were the first recorded observations, in the western world, of utilizing animal communication as a reliable navigational tool. Corbett’s work also went on to inspire modern conservation in India with vast wildlife preserves in his name. Shikari, as it were, became a title for those apprentices trained in tracking and hunting man-eaters. It was Ernie Shull’s greatest honor to hold the position of Resident Shikari Manager of the Dangs District for 15 years. Ernie’s Shikari skillset was called upon regularly throughout his time in India. Ernie’s gifts as a teacher and storyteller inspired the preservation of the wisdom and knowledge of the Shikari lineage.

As a boy and young man, Matt was an eager apprentice to his Grandfather. As is the case for many apprentices of wilderness skills, after graduating high school, Matt immediately hit the road with his backpack. For the next 20 years, carrying as little as possible, he would travel the world. Throughout the Rocky Mountains, the Himalayas, the great Sahara of North Africa, to the very jungles of northern India where his father was born, seeking mentors, elders, villages and friends. Matt would spend a year in a primitive hogan he built in the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, another year hiking through the deserts and mountains of the Pacific Crest Trail, 5 years under Jon Young’s mentorship completing the Kamana Naturalist Training Program and the next decade apprenticing in ancestral skills and aboriginal technology.

Matt founded White Pine Wilderness Academy in 2014 which rapidly grew into the largest forest school in the Midwest. The need for advanced wilderness mentors and guides became apparent, as did the need for a regenerative community model that honors each student’s advancement while offering context to their role in the community. And so the Shikari Wilderness System was born.

Matt’s greatest honor is the opportunity to teach ancestral skills to thousands of youth and adults each year.

Career Highlights:
-Teaching traditional bow building on the Kootenai Reservation in Montana.
-Teaching brain tanning to traditional people in Mexico that utilize the water drum in ceremony.
-Guiding wilderness rites of passage.
-Hosting and apprenticing with the incredible trackers at Tracker Certification North America.
-Hosting traditional Elders from around the world.Life Commitment-
-Helping others find their gifts and live their vision for the sake of the future generations and the planet.