Indigenous people

[henchy3rd]

Has anyone spent time with any indigenous people/tribes of the world & learnt anything to do with bushcraft or any thing else that could be useful?

 

[henchy3rd]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[C_Claycomb]

A very short time with Bushmen in Namibia. About four and a half days. We had a class on making cord from aloe fibres, and a demo of bow making, followed by the chance to plink some arrows at a quickly made target that looked like a grass terrier. We also had demos of snare building, I got an additional late evening one on one for setting the snare. Demos of hand drill, which others in the group emulated later in the day to start the evening fire.
DSCF3378 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
DSCF3427 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
P1040233 by Last Scratch, on Flickr
P1040068 by Last Scratch, on Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/WzBQge

The person who I know should really be replying here is Stuart, who has spent significant time with Bushmen and with the Penan and Iban in Borneo. Sadly he doesn't post here any more. Too busy with other things.

 

[forrestdweller]

i spent a few weeks in late 2005/ early 2006 wwoofing with Aborigines in a small coastal community on Dampier Peninsula -- i had no camera at this time (as mine broke down at Wolf Creek Crater) and sadly lost contact with them so sadly it's only memories and the slingshot originally belonging to my hosts daughter (i later replaced the plastic handle with a wooden one in Japan), it was there where i shared a shower with a 5ft King Brown snake...
"" going fishing" " meant not "afternoon entertainment" but "" getting dinner "over there and for the rest of my drive around Oz (=18months)i had a shortened version of a heavy stabbing spear in my faithful Ford Festiva which they showed me how to make...

i've also been to several of those "" cultural experience " places where i picked up a small trick or two (like a few grains of sand in the hole to increase friction for hand drill fire)


not sure if that counts....

 

[baggins]

I spent a couple of days with some Sami reindeer herders in Northern Norway a few years ago. Learnt some really useful hints on winter fire lighting and tracking the reindeer. Was interesting to discuss how modern gadgets really divided various herders, some loving satalite tracking, others finding it a waste of time.
I also spent a little time with some people from the Tagish/Carcross communities in the Yukon. Amazing wood carvers, even met the guy who carved a Totem for Prince Charles. It was more talking than skills based, but a fabulous time anyway.

 

[oldtimer]

It doesn't seem so exotic as the above posts, but I have learned a lot about foraging and food preservation techniques from French friends in the southwest of France. Wild food gathering, particularly of wild herbs and seasonal delicacies such as wild asparagus, is very much a part of everyday life for country people who retain knowledge most of their counterparts in England seem to have forgotten.

 

[henchy3rd]

Still counts as indigenous, no matter where they are from.
My brother lived out in the sticks in the green perigord region of the Dordogne in France..foraging & wild boar hunting played a big part of everyday life.

 

[Broch]

I count my Mother and Grandparents as indigenous teachers - well, in Wales they taught me foraging, country medicines, hunting and fishing as well as a load of crafts.

I spent part of my childhood being brought up in North Africa and spent as much time out and about with local kids as I did ex-pats. Daily play was making bows, tracking wild dogs in the scrubland, and generally 'messing around' in quite barren and wild countryside. I never did get the hang of fire-starting with the bamboo plough technique though. At school we were taught rush weaving and basket making as well as a fair deal of 'natural history'. Of course, as a child, I never realised that 'play' was a learning process