Bushcraft is a broad church

[Chris]

I got an email today from Heinnie telling me it’s International Women’s Day, which had an image showing some British female faces in the British bushcraft scene and whom have contributed to the history of exploration/bushcraft/wilderness skills in some way. Attached for reference.

It reminded me of how pleasantly surprised I was at the Winter Moots I have attended, at the good mix of people that are interested and involved in bushcraft. Honestly, I’d kind of (subconsciously) expected it to be more of a bloke oriented community. I was wrong to have assumed that and it’s great to have a skill/interest that people from all walks of life get to enjoy without it being an issue.

In fact of all the communities I have been a part of, this one seems to have the best balance I’ve seen yet. I consider myself very fortunate to be part of such a community.

 

[British Red]

I think the world has changed a lot thankfully. A good friend of ours is an ex Formula 1 mechanic & steam engine restorer with a self built expedition Land Rover. She's awesome.

 

[Tengu]

Im fully in favour of women engineers, but I wonder if some get pressed into it these days.

 

[demographic]

The woman in the top picture (Lisa) went to college with my wife and is a properly nice person.
Its easy to imagine the people involved in this hobby are all middle aged blokes but some of the most knowledgeable members who give out information without a big ego are the women.

Toddy being a good example of that.

 

[RonW]

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Lisa in person on a few occassions and was allowed to read her dissertation on Bushcraft. I still have that in printed form in my bookcase.
I also have Megan's "Mind of a survivor" on my bookself, which raises.... questions.

 

[leon-1]

Toddy being a good example of that.

I agree, but I would say "Toddy is an excellent example of that!"

 

[Toddy]

Toddy is sitting here blushing

Honestly ? I have learned so much, and have had such enormous pleasure from the company of people on this forum. I've had met hundreds you, enjoyed the company, the demos, the delight in seeing something made.
I don't think that gender really ought to be any issue, not in something so fundamental as Bushcraft.
I'm not joking when I reply that we learn something new every day

I do understand and take on board the 'bloke' sort of relevance though. I admit when I joined I deliberately chose my User name using one I hadn't gone by in years. My brother was the one most commonly called Toddy. Folks phoning my house and asking for Toddy would most like be told, "He's not here, he lives up the hill".....then I settled in and quietly realised just how many capable people there were, men and women, and it didn't matter any more, I wasn't being judged on being female in a male world.
The sheer number of incredibly capable, creative and adaptable people truly gives me hope for humanity.
The best of it is, they're having fun

I have been very ill, am not quite out of the woods yet, but, quietly hopeful. A different life, with it's own challenges, but, well, aye, we can do it, we can do almost anything we put our minds to, can't we ?
I want my busy, active, family and friends and things to do, seasonally relevant, life back again.
Your company, and the kindness and consideration of members here, their conversation, their calm reliability, has been a steadfast rock, and it keeps life interesting

This was sent to me recently; I'm sort of taking it as a tenet.




Mary