WHO, OR WHAT, IS: SELF RELIANCE, A PIONEER, A SURVIVOR, BUSH CRAFT-- WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES?

Who or What is a Pioneer?

·         A pioneer is somebody who does something for the first time.

OR

·         One of the first to settle in a new territory.

What does it mean to survive? Who or what is a survivor?

·         To remain alive or in existence.

·         To carry on despite hardships or trauma; persevere: families that were surviving after an earthquake, fire, flood, or terrorist attack.

OR

·         To remain functional or usable: I dropped my cell phone, but it survived.

In a survival situation you are doing everything  you can to get yourself out of the situation as quickly as possible.

What is TRUE Bush Craft?

·         Skill at living in the bush

OR

·         Skill at living off the land, AND, WITH Nature-Creator of All- and a knowledge of, and ability to USE, any AVAILABLE, HAND TOOLS, of that, or a previous, time.

True Bush craft or bush crafting consists of using knowledge, skills and techniques to help get one out of a survival situation; or techniques that may be able to be used for a long term self-reliant existence. Contrary to what many "weekend, game playing, survivor types, and organisations, would have you believe, bush craft is not some rare, hard learned, mysterious awe inspiring skill.Typically such skill and knowledge involves carrying the minimal amount of gear needed to effectively meet your needs; while utilizing as many resources, as possible, from nature. 
Many of the techniques are the very same ones that were taught to your great grandfathers, grandfathers, and possibly even your father; in school "shop" courses. You know, back in those prehistoric days, before battery packs and cordless power tools.  They are the same techniques that were used by Fred Flinstone,  pioneers, trappers and frontiersmen, etch.They are the same techniques once used by every baker, businessman, blacksmith, carpenter, cobbler, or craftsman,

 THEY WERE AND REMAIN THREE SEPARATE AND DISTINCT PRINCIPLES (four if you include self reliance which I am not at this time.), USING SEPARATE AND DISTINCT TECHNIQUES.THE PROBLEM IS THAT MOST OF THE BUSH CRAFT SURVIVAL EXPERTS and the publishers of survival manuals DO NOT KNOW, ARE TOO INEXPERIENCED TO REALIZE--OR AT LEAST WOULD SEEM TO HAVE AN INABILITY TO RECOGNIZE, THIS UNDENIABLE FACT.These three SEPARATE principles are very well illustrated by the famous historical event, legend, myth, movie, and novel "Mutiny on The Bounty". 
The mutiny occurred aboard the British Royal ship HMS bounty on 28 April 1789. The ship had been purchased by the royal Navy for a single PIONEERING experiment.

She was to travel to the island of Tahiti, pick up breadfruit plants, and transport them to the West Indies, in hopes that they would grow well there and become a cheap source of food for slaves. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against commanding officer Lieutenant William Bligh.

The mutineers set Lieutenant Bligh (SURVIVAL) afloat in a small 23-foot open launch with eighteen of the twenty-two crew loyal to him. Bligh navigated a voyage to Timor in the Dutch East Indies, equipped with a quadrant and a pocket watch (which can also be used as a compass) and without charts or a traditional compass. He recorded a distance of 3,618 nautical miles.

The mutineers then variously settled on Pitcairn Island or Tahiti. The Bounty was burned off Pitcairn Island, to avoid detection, and to prevent desertion (survival). Whether they settled on Tahiti or Pitcairn Island, the mutineers then continued to use BUSH CRAFT (living off the land), PIONEER, SURVIVOR TECHNIQUES.

While the differences between being a pioneer and being a survivor may often be represented by a very fine line; a pioneer usually WILL have planned well ahead of time for his excursion; which may be intended as permanent or only temporary. In either case, he or she will usually have a supply line, or, they can always return to whence they came. A survivor cannot; after a disaster, in an emergency situation, when lost, after a terrorist attack; you will not have a ready made supply line and at least temporarily, you will have no place to get back to.

 Therefore, IF YOU INTEND TO BE A SURVIVOR you, like the pioneer, must prepare ahead of time

—PREPARE--

You can learn how to do so, through following this blog.

June 21, 2013-I am updating my piece on the differences and similarities between bush craft or the bush crafter, pioneer or pioneering, survival or surviving, and self-reliance.  Now I intend to show a comparison between the four different categories.  Keep in mind that these are my opinions and you may disagree, or agree, it’s all good. 

Bush crafts, Pioneering skills, Survival skills and Self-reliance do share some similarities but the differences are probably at least as great. 

The main difference two is that survival focuses on meeting the need to sustain life and only that. Survival is The Mother’s way and it is NOT a game at least not in the entertainment sense.

“Bush craft” focuses on weekend excursions and playing “Survivor” games in bush, refining “Survivor” skills, often abusing animal rights, environmental, fishing, hunting; and it is often about building RECREATIONAL comfort in the wilderness; but not necessarily for survival.  Essentially it is the mind-set of the person.  If they were occupations I would list survival as a mechanic and modern bush craft as a marketing game.

Where the survivor will try to be prepared, will attempt get the car back on the road, will attempt to stay alive-- occasionally engineers a solution to a complex problem, the bush crafter generally has all the equipment readily available but is just playing a game of doing everything the hard way.

Bushcrafters and those playing Survivor Games in large part are gearaholics or recovering gearaholics.  Most have a ton of gear that they have tried and found to be not reliable or not what they desire.  Conversely, they both probably have a specific few items that will always accompany them out for training or recreation.  These few special items are usually highly prized over everything else in their kit, and very often have a story or two that go with them.

If you are in a conversation with a survivalist or bush crafter look for the most used but well maintained piece of gear(usually it will be a fire arm of some kind; or a large knife) they have and ask them to tell you the story behind it.  Many will tell you a story or two without skipping a beat. Or you may end up looking like a weirdo, you never can tell.

There are obviously a lot of similarities between the two and I think that is because the survivalist will eventually evolve into the bush crafter.  When he has developed the core survival skills and a confidence to use them coupled with the experience to know what works.  He will start the evolution and begin to engineer better solutions for his comfort.

Really, I think that the largest separation is that bush craft is primarily in the bush, and survival is anywhere you need to meet your needs.  In essence most of us are both survivalist and bush- crafters, the label that we hang on it depends what we are doing at the time.  Hope this helps to settle a few of the Survival Situations?

Self-reliance is self-explanatory which is why I haven’t spent any time on it here.

Essentially, every decision you make and every action that you take in a survival situation is based on your ability to meet your most important need at that time.  Like a medical emergency you have to triage what needs done first and what is most important.  If you get it wrong you may die. Your goal is getting rescued or getting home as soon as possible.  The survivor should however, consider the possibility that they may have to be stranded long term.  However, in most cases their actions and their mind-set should be geared towards efficiently and effectively meeting the needs at hand and those needs they will have over the next day or two and that’s about it; unless there are clear indications that the possibility for rescue in the short term is highly unlikely for whatever reason.

Why Is the Difference Between Bush craft & Survival Important?

It’s important because while some of the techniques used by bush crafter could be useful ;  even used; by a survivor, many of the techniques would never be.

And while I do believe a person in a survival situation should do and has an obligation to do whatever they need to do to stay alive and return to their family; even if that means on occasion, cutting down trees, killing animals, drinking unboiled/untreated water, etch.  Their first concern is getting home.

 Bushcrafters/Week-end Survivors don’t have any urgency; they are out for recreation; so their techniques are and should be more conservative, MUCH more deliberate and less aggressive.  Obviously, these are just my thoughts.  I point this out because I feel it is important for readers of this site to understand where I am coming from and why I explain some things the way I do.  This site’s primary focus is on teaching wilderness cooking, living and survival techniques.  While I do touch on some primitive survival topics and bush craft topics those posts should be viewed as skill sets that may augment your knowledge base so that you can use those skills in an emergency if needed.  But like I said earlier many of the skills I teach here may not be skills that a pure Bushcrafter/Week-end Survivor would agree with and may actually be in opposition to their arguments, techniques and training style.
©Al (Alex, Alexander) D Girvan. All Rights reserved.