Hi,
Welcome to the Minimal Survivalist blog. First of all I would like to discuss what survivalism really means to me in the modern world.
As humans, we have evolved and changed into what we now are over the course of millions of years. If you trace our lineage back far enough, we have common ancestors with single celled organisms. Yet it is only in the last few thousand years that we have come to rely on 'civilisation' and technology. The development of agriculture, the building of permanent settlements, and many other things have led us to where we are now. I sometimes wonder whether I am the only person that thinks about whether that is a good thing or not.
The thing I know for sure is, if every human on the planet were stripped of their technology, (Phones, cars, houses, electricity, computers) not many of us would actually know how to survive on our own planet. We are all following the rules of society, that we must go to school, get a job, earn lots of money, make babies and repeat. A structured society and civilisation is the reason humans are completely dominant on this planet. However it is all built on very shaky foundations. What happens when the oil wells run dry, and all the fish have been caught, and all of our mineral and organic resources are so over exploited that we cannot support our bloated population? When this will occur? Who knows. But I am fairly certain that it will occur at some point. We are all strangers on our own planet, and at some point, we will realise that you can't eat money. Now this is all very pessimistic, I agree. But it is just realism. What the aim of this blog is, to encourage people to think outside of the box, and examine the society we live in from another point of view.
Survivalism to me means getting back to our ancestral roots. Humans survived for hundreds of thousands of years without iPhones, so why do we need them now? Being Australian, I take great inspiration from our indigenous aboriginals. It has been proven that they have been living in Australia for at least 50,000 years and the real figure is probably much longer. They were typically nomadic, and moved from one area to the next depending on the availability of food. They planted edible plants in areas they frequented and regularly and systematically used fire to manipulate their environment to their benefit. Burning with the correct interval and intensities would stimulate plant growth and facilitate easier movement between areas while also providing grasslands for kangaroos, which were easier to hunt. They had a deep, intimate connection with the land, and understood it much better than most of us today. Walking through the bush for them was the equivalent of us walking through a supermarket today. It provided food, shelter, clothing, and even medicine. This is a stark contrast to the early European explorers in Australia, many of whom died of thirst or starvation despite being surrounded by many edible plants, in country that had supported aboriginals for thousands of years. This loss of knowledge about our environment and how to survive in it is quite sad. However there are many sources of information that can help us not only survive, but thrive, without technology in our own environment. There are books written by the early settlers in Australia that spent extensive periods of time with the aboriginals, that document how they ate, cooked, hunted and lived. These books are treasure troves of information that can help us all in some way. Away from Australia, and in particular North America, there is a strong culture of survivalism alive and well. I take a lot of inspiration from people such as Tom Brown, who learnt many techniques from the Native Americans. A memorable thing Tom Brown once said in an interview was that when he sees someone walking into the forest with a backpack full of equipment, he likens it to an astronaut in a spacesuit on the moon. Because without the spacesuit or the backpack, they would not survive. This really stuck with me, and in terms of survivalism, I am nowhere near the level of men like Tom Brown, however one day I hope that I can walk into the bush with nothing, and not only survive, but thrive. We owe it to our ancestors and the thousands of generations of humans that came before us, to show them that we are not strangers on our own planet, but we are part of it.
Being a survivalist or a 'prepper', especially in the USA, is centred around surviving not only a collapse of civilisation, but an invasion, or even a zombie apocalypse. This has likely been fuelled by movies such as 'Red Dawn' for America, as well as 'Tomorrow when the war began' for Australia. This is an interesting part of the survivalist culture, as it is not as much concerned with getting back to nature, but with finding the most useful and practical weapons to take on enemies from an underground rebels perspective. There is some cool stuff out there, and it is something I will address in future blogs. But for the time being, I will keep it simple, and start with the basics.
My goals as a survivalist will be to start slowly, and over time, hopefully wean myself off many of the items we deem necessary to take when we go bush. I want to become proficient in lighting fires without modern technology such as matches or lighters, I want to be able to construct a warm, safe structure to spend the night in, without taking a tent or bivvy bag and I want to be able to gather food that occurs naturally in the environment. This blog will document my experiences, and hopefully provide some tips for any like minded people. I am not a hippy, and I realise that even though we are damaging the planet in many ways, we are just doing what we can to survive as an ever growing species. I own a car, I ride motorbikes, I live in a city, but when I get out into the bush, I feel alive, and I hope that many of you do too. I hope that this blog can inspire you to go out and enjoy what our planet has to offer.
Instagram @themartincarswell
Martin
