Sam Harrison
Participant Researcher,
Director, Open Ground

A-gendered Wilderness

I have been reading some papers on women and wilderness for the literature review of the report on Natural Change.  They have been very interesting, pointing out the power that wilderness experiences, solo time, and therapy can have for women.  Equally they write eloquently how these experiences can challenge particular issues that women face in modern societies…  However there seems to be an underlying assumption, or perhaps a question unasked - ‘are women’s experiences of wild places different to men’s?’ It seems that all the benefits these authors talk about such as raised self-esteem, change in perspective, mental clarity - are things taken from the men in this project (including myself, and confirmed in my wider experience doing this sort of work).

Steven Harper writes about the way that gender comes out on his wilderness programmes - he feels that both the biological facts and the socialized roles of gender emerge, but he doesn’t claim that gender affects the nature of the experience.  Robert Greenway notices some difference between men’s and women’s approaches - men looking more towards challenge and conquering fear, and women tending to feel that they have ‘come home’ to nature.  But these points aren’t expanded.

From my perspective, bringing together the research findings, i would be reluctant to make any claims about differences between men’s and women’s experiences, i would be happier to talk about the difference between people’s experiences…  

What do you think? 

I have included some references for those interested:

Angell, J. (1994). The wilderness solo. Women & Therapy, 15(3), 85 - 99.

Greenway, R. (1995). The wilderness effect and ecopsychology. In T. Roszak, M. E. Gomes & A. D. Kanner (Eds.), Ecopsychology: restoring the earth, healing the mind. San Francisco: Sierra Club.

Harper, S. (1995). The way of wilderness. In T. Roszak, M. E. Gomes & A. D. Kanner (Eds.), Ecopsychology: restoring the earth, healing the mind. San Francisco: Sierra Club.

Pohl, S. L., Borrie, W. T., & Patterson, M. E. (2000). Women, wilderness and everyday life:  a documentation of the connection between wilderness recreation and women’s everyday lives. Journal of Leisure Research, 32(4), 415 - 434.

Powch, I. G. (1994). Wilderness Therapy. Women & Therapy, 15(3), 11 - 27.

Expressing the inexpressable

I’ve got my work cut out! On one hand, and i think you’ll agree, these blogs give a window into an amazing and stimulating experience for all of us, on the other there will always be the struggle to communicate the deep heart of the experiences we have had. Everyone is finding their way through that challenge. For the research it is doubly interesting: I have the privalidge of recording a lot of what people say and do during the workshops (though leaving the notebook outside of the personal sessions), i also get to bring this together with all the blogs and look at the progression and change that shines forth from them. Somehow though i have to unite all this together into a report that will do justice to the life of this project - the beating heart - the group process, and experiences of all of us. Hmmm - its going to be tough

Capturing the a series of instants in the research - a flash photo

There are a series of instants - blogs, words, actions, and these are recorded to the best of my ability - with time put aside for the participants to make sure they are happy with what i have recorded. In some ways these might capture the inexpressable.

a slow exposure - capturing the flow of change in the research

The changes in language, actions, feelings, the changes in the focus of the blogs, the evolution of the word cloud (that series of words down at the bottom right of your screen gives an indication of the topics of interest - the bigger the word the more important) - all these things indicate change and flow - where we have come from and where we might be going to.

uprising - currents welling up from under the surface

This leaves lots of interesting questions - can you do justice to experience in words? Should all experiences be easily describable? How much are we interpreting the land and how much is the land speaking through us? How do you say what is happening mid-way through a process? Getting under the surface of the issues of sustainability, of ecology (the pattern that connects), of relationship, puts us into an evolving river of meaning which might lead to many places. Even a year later we might not have understood the full impact of the project. All these are good reasons to do things we can’t quite find the words for…

So instead of writing a report maybe i will just submit this video!

I am only joking, but it does raise the question of what constitutes a record of a project - why do we need words and what type of words would be best?

The river awe

What a great name!  I live right next to the Awe and walk down there most days.  Recently with the rain we’ve had it was in spate - it rose at least a meter and was roaring down to the sea in a huge unstopable flow.  Watching the river was mesmerising and dizzying, and it filled me with energy.  It is back to its normal state now, and i went down it yesterday in my canoe, accompanied by dippers, looking at the marks high on the banks where it had been.

I have been thinking a lot about the flow of life, letting go, and it seems that rivers have been making their presence felt a lot in the last month.  I’ve been reflecting on letting things go through me (perhaps throwing in a new current), rather than me stopping them, trying to hold them back.  Part of it has to do with the constant onward flow of energy and ecology - it would be painful and pointless to resist the awe in full flood.

Returning home for me threw up a new realisation: working away so much in the wilds, i always struggle coming home, and i’ve come to realise that my day dreams about living in the places i work are partly about resisting that process of ‘leaving behind.’  I am committed to Taynuilt, the place where i live, but i realise that i have been leaving a lot of myself in the places where i work, and not really letting them go.

Reading through my research notes, and everyone’s blogs prior to reengageing with the group and the project next week has been great.  I felt like i was taking up the threads again reading everyones words, and seeing all the pictures.  What was clear to me as well, was the inexorable flow of the process - how far we have floated together.  And where will we fetch up?

Action Researching Natural Change

The Action Research approach fits so well with this whole project – Dave facilitates in a cycle of doing, reviewing, developing understanding – so this fits the research model, and I can record what we do, what the group think of it, and where it is leading. Folk record their personal private feelings in the journals, (and me in mine), and then contribute to the group process which I record (another journal!), and then take this out to a wider public through their blogs. Negotiating these personal-group-public identities is rich territory.

This process links with the facilitated progression from personal to social to environmental through the project, and the different ways of feeling, knowing and developing relationship to the place and the group. Experience leads to personal understandings and then develops. This happens, as one person put it, in ‘speaking through others’ – the process of developing an understanding within the group, which feeds back to personal meanings. Then of course we struggle with how to blog it. This is my attempt.

picture of self

Participant or Researcher??

Who am I?!

Typical philosopher – but this question is a bit more interesting. How much am I a participant and how much a researcher? From the start it has been an interesting tension – bringing myself as an outdoor educator with a passion for places, but also standing with one foot outside trying to capture the process as an ‘independent’ researcher.

I have had solo time before, and it has always been special – and the ‘main event’ of the weekend was no less deep. Wandering up in the hills, brain in neutral, a cave found me before the wind and rain started in earnest. The cave sheltered me for the day – I slept and sat and watched and ground garnets out of the rocks.

The relationships between the group have deepened so quickly, and we have reached a level of openness that reminds me of other really important times in my life. As a researcher I have had to tread carefully around this deep process and bring my time in the cave along with my endless jottings in the research diary…

Becoming more open

Sailing into Inverie after a fascinating and tiring week of sailing, I was still unsure about what was going to happen. It was great to be back, in a place I had spent a bit of time, and had a lot of love for, but had never experienced in this way. Great to see the group again, and stretch out in a fullsize bed!

It’s been a roller-coaster ride since then, trying to work out where I fitted as a researcher and as a participant. But I’ve been helped by the support and openness of the group – we have grown together so quickly and conversation flows easily around the table. I have felt myself relaxing and becoming more open, making some good friends – I hope!

To Knoydart via the Hebrides

My journey to Knoydart starts tomorrow.  I am running a sailing and walking trip, taking a wonderfully mixed group out into the joys and challenges of the Hebrides.  Our trusty ship, the Eda Frandsen, lives in Knoydart and knows it much better than me, fingers crossed she will fetch me up in Inverie in a weeks time.  Unwashed and calloused ready for the Natural Change project.  This trip always challenges my landlubbers idea that the sea is a barrier - actually it is a traditional highway - making ‘remote’ Knoydart accessible….

This is the ideal preparation for me - i get to settle into the rhythms of the sea and wind and rain and arrive in style.  Sailing offers a lot of space to think, and i hope to get my head around what might happen.  In the ebb and flow of my life, times of intense change have their own timetable, and its a while since i was part of such an exciting small group with the space and intention to go deep into our values and relationships with the world. Exciting!

Its nice not to be running these sorts of workshops (which is some of my usual work) and be part of the process…  Recently i have felt my inspiration batteries running low, trying to eek out a living through work in and with the wild environment, I hope i might recharge and reinspire myself.  Just this process of blogging is pushing me out of my usual networks and ways of communicating, so we will see where it leads…