Natural Bushcraft - The True Spirit of Bushcraft

What is Bushcraft? Are you a Bushcrafter?

Well lets start with the term itself, Mors Kochanski is credited with popularising the term 'Bushcraft' in the northern hemisphere when he published his book 'Northern Bushcraft' in 1987. Then more recently Ray Mears has done a great deal to promote the subject of Bushcraft aswell as respecting nature and land we use, history of our ancestors and wild food.

"For me Bushcraft is about learning to become comfortable in the outdoors, learning to live within nature, using it's resources in a sustainable maner, always striving to learn more about flora, fauna & wilderness skills, for knowledge is the most important tool, it weighs nothing and gives you the ability to not only survive but flourish."

The term Bushcraft covers a broad spectrum of things; a range of skills, practices, ethics and even a way of thinking. It doesn't have to be a combination of all those things for you, Bushcraft can be different for every person; whether its learning how to carve wood, how to find clean water in the wild or making a DIY meat-smoker!.. it doesn't matter; 'Bushcraft' is so broad. I know many people who consider their many activities to be part of bushcraft for them, here's just a few examples:

For many Bushcrafter's its about getting out, enjoying nature, learning to become at ease with the natural world. Some find that learning traditional techniques and skills to live within the natural-world gives them a sense of self-achievement and self-reliance.

A lot of Bushcraft can be about looking back at how our Ancestors lived from the land and it is intriguing how they did so in a great deal more harmony with nature than we achieve today.

The knowledge and skills that we practice are the lost art of our Ancestors. The art of living, living at one with nature, our ancestor's daily life's were more in tune with nature, taking what nature provides yet giving back, looking after and preserving nature, something we should learn to do in modern-society.

I suppose the fact that we still learn and practice these ancient skills today like friction fire making & woodcraft etc. shows that this knowledge has never truly been lost. A lot of ancient ways may have been lost in the mist of time, but we still do have a small insight into how our ancestors lived. By learning and practicing such skills it makes me proud that this knowledge has been past on through countless generations over centuries & millennia, one human to another it is taught and passed on, you could say a unbroken living chain with our ancestors.

Everyone's concept of 'what bushcraft really is' can vary. A comment I like, spurred by a discussion titled: "What stops folk being fulltime bushcrafters?", Eric_Methven replied: "Tried it when I was much, much younger. I stuck it for nearly six months but went back home to my dad when it got really cold. It's not much fun if it's forced on you full time and better as a hobby. It can still be a lifestyle chioce even if you sleep in a comfy bed each night. Keeping a bushcraft mentality and applying it in all that you do, like not dropping litter, practicing minimal impact, having respect for all living things and stuff like that means you can be a full time bushcrafter without the need to live rough. Bushcraft is a state of mind within the individual. Wilderness living for a few weeks a year is just a spiritual holiday that recharges the bushcraft concept."

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