Adventure Matters
Since deciding to make adventure my ‘job’ rather than merely my hobby I have consciously focussed on writing about nothing except adventure. No politics, no current affairs, none of the issues which play a large part in my real life conversations and concerns away from my online adventure life. At times this has felt like a difficult separation because the world is full of pain and pressing causes that I ought to be screaming about –and acting upon– every single day (dirty water killing a poor child every 10 seconds, another dying from hunger every 10 seconds; 24,000 tonnes of ice melting every second etc.).
Adventure is trivial by comparison. And therefore would be squeezed out entirely were I to address matters in order of global importance or urgency.
But, adventure can also be a tiny force for good and a massive positive influence for those of us privileged to be able to enjoy the outdoors. And therefore, rightly or wrongly, I nailed my colours to the mast and set about not only enjoying adventures myself but also trying to encourage others to do the same. Since my first microadventure a decade ago I have been working hard to break down the barriers to entry that stop more people participating in adventures. I have spent a lot of time asking people what stops them getting involved and trying to answer those problems.
It has been interesting to observe the results. For example, I have been organising the Night of Adventure series for 10 years. Selecting the speakers has changed from requiring a bit of a conscious struggle to secure a decent number of female speakers to –nowadays– a very easy and automatic assumption that at least half of the adventurers speaking will be women. (We have also run a couple of successful women-only Nights of Adventure.) It feels to me (though I am sure not to everyone) that there has been a massive shift in the past decade towards a more equal representation of women in the world of adventure. Not perfect by any means, but definite progress.
What has not changed during my years in adventure –and what I have long known that I have not succeeded about in my conversations about microadventures– is broadening the range of ethnicities participating in adventure. Because the adventure community has always been overwhelmingly white, able-bodied and middle class, I have failed to promote much diversity in my Grand Adventure interviews or the Night of Adventure line-ups or in the travel books I share online. I did a better job of it in my book aimed at inspiring children to begin dreaming of adventure and it is very much at the forefront of our planning for ‘book 2’ in this series which I’m writing at the moment (sneak peek: this book was a joy to read in my research).
I believe that if the adventure community is serious about bringing about change and representation in who gets to benefit from adventure and our wild places we must consciously encourage a diverse young audience to get involved. It is not enough to be cross, briefly and loudly, before returning to normality. I hope that the powerful #BlackLivesMatter campaign makes that clear. I am well aware that, ever since I began blogging about microadventures, my efforts to break down the barriers to entry have been preaching to the converted and failing at reaching broader groups.
This matters very much in the adventure community. Who gets to enjoy the great outdoors matters a great deal. It ought to be all of us.
On top of that, the way we in the adventure community live and act matters very much regarding our stewardship of the planet. We who love the outdoors harm the wild places we love by our individual actions and many of the messages we give out to our audiences. I have been steadily (and belatedly) changing my behaviour.
We must hold ourselves to account with where we choose to have our adventures and how we travel to get there; how and where we earn our money from adventure; the products we use and endorse, as well as climate-critical actions that might be outside the direct scope of ‘adventure’ – our diet and voting choices, for example.
The simple guide I try to use for my life is, “Don’t be a dick. Be kind.” This leads to treating everyone fairly, and minimising the harm we do to the planet, of course. But it also urges one step further than that: to actively welcome a more diverse society into the outdoor world, and to actively work to stop adventure damaging the planet. I will do this through my writing and my newsletters; highlighting adventure inspiration and opportunities for young black people, and highlighting to everyone the urgency and importance of changing the way we in the outdoor community treat the planet.
There are, as I said at the beginning, so many issues far more important than ‘adventure’. But adventure matters a lot to me, and to all of us in the outdoor community. And through adventure we have many opportunities for us to leave the world better than we found it.
Please do share your thoughts, ideas, criticisms, suggestions and plans in the comments section. I would love to learn from you. Thank you.
Here’s a great place to start https://www.melaninbasecamp.com/trip-reports/2019/7/7/mbc-guide-to-outdoor-allyship
I am fifty three year old so have lived through some massive changes in your area of the outdoors industry i grew up in a council estate the outdoors was for rich folk i never owned a bike until l i was 25 took my first flight at 21 posh folk had leisure time, not people like me destined for factories, whilst working in those factories as a young married man i became a union rep in the era of what was called positive discrimination, this was brought in to stop the system of jobs for the boys the police force probably had the biggest impact from this the rest of the industrial world still struggle with it to a degree for various reasons the police still do positive discrimination but its very hard to get a 50/50 balance of men and woman as per population and then take in ethnics into that also, i also lived through the apartheid years and went on to visit robin island as a backpacker something i wouldn’t have dreamed i could have done as a teenager, south Africa also struggles with positive discrimination still i have friends in sth african rugby clubs who now must have two black players in each team regardless ability (thats how it was ten years ago i have no idea how it is now) I work up in Shetland these days on a shift rota, being a frustrated adventurer i get out as much as i can but i am a minority not only among my own communities and background but for some work colleagues from some other cultures outdoor activities are just not on their radar 90% of the people i know in my community arent interested in my running cycling ski`ing kayaking or climbing never mind the people from other communities, i have six brothers and sisters and 18 nieces and nephews none of them not even my own son (as much as i have tried) are interested in an adventurous life, the point of all this is a realization that the outdoors community is already a minorities group, i love what you do you are very inspirational i give your books as gifts to people i think may get out there and do stuff, which isn’t many unfortunately because yes adventure matters but sadly only to a minority and that is regardless of sex color or background, I’ve got my hotel booked for KMFF probably see you there mulling around talking to the other people i buy books from and i will be happy to be in among like minded people being inspired outside of that weekend i generally dont meet anyone who reads the same books or watches the same sort of films, your energy is already stretched encouraging absolutely anyone to get out and do stuff I personally dont think its something people should be forced into doing so positive discrimination in this case would be futile and potentially could give somebody who isn’t interested a position that could have been taken by an enthusiast, personally i think all statues of queen Victoria should be swapped for ones of john muir. theres no politically correct way of saying this but he is white and would probably have put the trees before the indigenous Americans not through racism but through protecting wilderness trees over human life and to be honest the way i am going losing my faith in all humanity i wouldn’t argue with that, my energy will be toward reforestation i apologies to the next generation for the mess my generation and my parents generation have made to this planet, sorry i`ve rambled keep up your good work its my opinion if your going to do politics then choose an environmental one the planet needs your help more than cultural differences right now. I would guess your audience is mostly people liek me who honestly do not care what anybody’s skin color is or if they are male female or whatever if they want to get a backpack on or get on a bike then help make a campsite at the end of a good excursion, then they are more than welcome to join me and i would guess 99% of the outdoors community on any adventure
kenny
I’ve struggled with belonging in the outdoor world, and it’s taken until my late twenties to realize that I’m allowed to do adventuring on my own terms. Fitness was for fit people and adventuring was for people who were really hard (and I’m neither). Kit is bloody expensive, and revered.
I’m white/cis/ablebodied/female and working class, so its not outside the range of possibility that I would see someone sort-of like me represented.
I can’t imagine the impostor syndrome of people of colour who were in my shoes trying to find a place in the outdoors world, when it’s representatives are almost exclusively white.
You have a /massive/ platform. If you wanted to help POC feel more at home in the adventure world, then you could help by promoting or amplifying the voices of POC. Imagine how many people you could reach by spending a year only promoting yourself, blogs or books by POC, and the occasional exceptional white person.