another name for bushcraft

[torjusg]

Bushcraft is what I would call an umbrella term, it covers too much for anyone to really know what it covers. Still, it catches on with people.

I don't really care what people call it, but I think it reminds me a little too much of Australia to use it myself (not that I have ever been there, just what comes to mind).

For what I do, the stone age things, I use "primitive survival" or "abo stuff" for what I do. I don't have any terms for it in Norwegian though.

 

[stovie]

Last night I wrote a 2000 word reply to a post referring to the dumming-down of the Scout movement but even I will never now post it for fear of being carted off the site in a deer trolley! I don’t like myself for that so guess I sympathise with your predicament – if that’s what it is.

Just a thought

Cheers

I'd like to read that. And if it's as well crafted as your other posts, i see no reason why you should be "carted off"...

Go on, stand up for freedom of speech...

 

[Hellz]

This all occurred to me recently, the word bush still makes me think 'outback.'

I didn't think about it too long, but thought that 'Naturecraft' sounded ok. However, at the end of the day, we all know the term bushcraft, and it is often the easiest way to describe what we do to others.

Hellz

 

[Deleted member 4605]

Bushcraft is all encompassing. I like the term woodcraft, and on my Forest School course last week they used the phrase "indigenous skills".

Pg about in the woods is an apt description though!

 

[swyn]

I would agree that Bushcraft is all encompassing and p***ing about is apt. My preference would be 'pioneering' but this may be more suited for Canada or similar. Bushcraft is accepted comfortably in suburban Britain so to change would be to confuse, perhaps?
Swyn.

 

[bent-stick]

Perhaps we are approaching it from the wrong direction. Bushcraft is a perfectly good term but it might need a bit of expansion to get over what you are trying to promote.

Here's a starter for 10 on an introductory paragraph that will allow you to use bushcraft in a context that the 'suits' might understand. It is very heavily spun towards the 'softer skills'. All suggestions welcome...

=============================================
The term 'bushcraft' was coined to cover a wide range of skills that help us to feel more comfortable when out of the range of streetlights, supermarkets and fast food restaurants.

It encompasses country and primitive crafts like cordage, wood working and flint knapping. It is also akin to what we used to call 'nature studies' including flaura and fauna identification.

All sorts of other useful skills 'fall out' of the practice of bushcraft like the safe handling of edged tools, an enhanced appreciation of the wild environment and a desire to see it remain unspoiled. After all our enjoyment of what we do relies on preserving the few wild areas that remain.

Bushcraft is also a very 'tribal' pursuit as the practitioners are relatively few in number and we are rescuing skills that are on the edge of extinction. And some we are re-inventing. This leads to an almost evangelical willingness to help others get involved with this pursuit.
==============================================

After setting the scene with this I think you can use the word freely in a context that they will understand.

Somebody owes me 2p

 

[wanderinstar]

Agree wholeheartedly with the above.
I was thinking of "Living with Nature".

 

[Pablo]

I've recently used 'wilderness living' and 'traditional woodcraft' to reasonable effect. Wildlife appreciation and wildlife study also goes down well. Explain a lot of animals are nocturnal so setting up 'a hide' (a tarp makes a good hide ) is preferable in order to watch them. You can also explain that you use a stove to cook but would prefer a 'small controlled open fire' for authenticity.

Trouble is landowners don't really want to know about people who 'camp', light fires, or chop down wood and unfortunately the term 'bushcraft' doesn't really describe what's involved.

Pablo

 

[anthonyyy]

I prefer the term “woodlore” to bushcraft or the old military term “fieldcraft”.

 

[baggins]

When people ask me what i do, and i mention bushcraft, you can see the words 'you mean like that Ray Mears bloke on tv' forming on their lips. So now i tell them its complementary living skills. Their faces then screw up in a 'yeeess?' sort of look.

 

[bloodline]

I just say Im off up the woods or the river and dont come back until Im ready

 

[Brian Curnel]

Campcraft, Indigenous skills, earthskills, Native Skills, etc...

 

[Toddy]

*Earthskills* has a certain ring to it

Cheers,
Toddy