The Debris Bag
25th September Posted by Tony Deis on Sep 25, 2009 in Bushcraft & Survival I spent the past two weeks teaching fire by friction and survival shelters to our fall-term, full time immersion program. They relied on these new skills for the 3-day shelter overnight they just completed (to great success I may add). While they've done other grand things, I'm particularly proud that in their first 3-weeks in the program, everyone has now slept in a handmade survival shelter with no sleeping bag. I find it relevant because these are the basics. For wilderness skills program they should be covered right correctly and promptly. Yet this vital knowledge is often taught by people with little experience. I'm not going to name names and I definitely won't point to just one school or survival book. This particular blog is not meant to be critical, I want it to be a call to action. I hope to tackle the systemic issue that very poor habits are commonly taught. The bow drill can be an example. You may see bows far to large, people balanced precariously in awkward positions or cordage stung in convoluted ways. Some of the worse memetic errors are found in the debris (sticks and leaves) shelter. Even though very good references and classes frequently offer an explanation of how this really is not a debris "hut", its more like a debris "sleeping bag", when disseminated through various teachers, schools and outdoor education organizations, its form, principles and purpose have fallen victim to a bad game of telephone. You see, in building a shelter where you can sleep warmly (relative) with no fire (fires can be challenging to tend to when sleeping), you must have the debris as close as you can to your body. More like a "debris bag" than a "debris hut". The entrance to all my "debris bags" are ridiculously small. Though I am a tiny man, you would look my hut and say, "You'll never fit in there." Yet I do, functionally forced to squirm my way in, flexing the debris along my sides. Unfortunately, you'll see "debris huts" with ridge poles and entrances nearly twice or three times the size of the builder's shoulder width. And I've seen it taught this way to both kids and adults by many outdoor education and self-proclaimed wilderness schools. Now folks may think I'm quibbling because the debris shelter is only a "basic skill". They may rally to discuss the finer points of bow making or cultural development. Yet these are skills where your savvy and intelligence can not only keep you alive but progressively comfortable (notice I say progressively). The time and attention you offer them shapes great art and elegance out of some of the most fundamental needs: shelter, water, fire and food. Basic doesn't mean simplistic, it means vital. Neglect isn't the greatest reason we see these fundamental skills poorly taught. Its more insidious than that. The simple answer is that the teachers in question may have never actually slept in a debris shelter. The more complex answer is that they didn't question for themselves what they were being taught (if and when they were learning bad information). Whether it be a model for community organization, a soft-awareness skill of tracking or a hard-craft skill where folks earn callouses and cuts, too often the one quality that is most absent is the ability to ask "why". Why am doing this? Is it going to work? Can I listen well and later develop my own way? Can I encourage others to do the same? The problem with teachers is that everyone has to demonstrate themselves as the authority in order to keep their clout. When people vomit out what they "think" they heard, we simply get progressively worse and worse ideas. We need more intelligent instruction, learning and most of all, experimentation. A conversation that not only encourages fidelity of knowledge, but also an evolution of it. We all should've slept in our debris bags before we go about teaching them. Program roll...
Taster: Umiak Boat Ride on the River Oct 25
Epic: Take the immersion program for a 1-year Start anytime
Focus: Take the 3-month term studying what want, when you want
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