by Dr. Bob Henderson
In Scandinavia there is a word, friluftsliv that packs a powerful message for cultural notions of health, wellness, and relationship with nature. The Cree of James Bay have a word miyupimaatisiiun that packs a similar message.
Friluftsliv, (I am bound to always use a lower case to acknowledge there are many shades of friluftsliv) in translation means “open air life”, but it is a word, that as mountain guide/educator Nils Faarlund would say, is, “saturated in values”. The word friluftsliv denotes a way; a wisdom garnered from the open air, of simple small group travel with the joy of being out on the land for food gathering and/or pure recreation at the centre. Friluftsliv can be, walking your dog daily in a city park, berry picking in the neighbouring woods, weekend outings with friends or a solo Arctic expedition. It is a state of mind/body/spirit.
As the concept of friluftsliv builds, one understands two prominent ideas behind the word. Firstly, “Nature is the true home of culture”. Or, to put it another way, “Nature is primary, all else is derivative”, as Thomas Berry says, “Nature is home.” Wilderness is an awkward concept and almost non-existent in Scandinavia, but overused in North America. With friluftsliv we belong. We must always show good manners when close to nature. Nature and ancestral traditions teach us this. Secondly, another common expression I hear among Norwegian Outdoor Educators is, “First, there must be joy”. We study first and adventure comes next. It is enough to be, to dwell well in nature, to find our joy with paddle/on skis with family and friends.
Educator Gunnar Repp has called friluftsliv, “an ecologically responsible life in the open air”. Fellow educator and long service mountain guide Nils Faarlund opines that friluftsliv more prominently acknowledges cultural traditions and values. For Nils, friluftsliv is a “Norwegian” tradition for seeking the joy of identification with free Nature”. This comes with a challenge to deny certain patterns of thought, values and lifestyles imposed by modernity. The Norwegian government in the late 1990’s determined that the concept was important enough to consider. Their definition at the time followed a conventional outdoor recreation well-being approach. Suffice it to say that friluftsliv, the idea, carries a complete method, tradition and a philosophy. At the heart of the idea is a healthy, active outdoor activity and identification with nature. Many educators in Norway are concerned that nature is being undermined by the activity as thrill-seeking or as sport itself and associated with gear and image. Arguably we do see that shift towards activity over “nature first’ in Canada. “Identification with”, is certainly different from “image of”. The former is intrinsically motivated and advances a clear psyche and well-being. The latter is extrinsically a drive and often delusional.
Miyupimaatisiiun, as best as I understand, means life on the land, for the Cree (specifically being Cree). It is framed by the connections between land, health and identity. Basic to Cree health are food, warmth and physical ability. In translation miyupimaatisiium means “being alive well”. Like friluftsliv is Scandinavian (some folks say it is best understood as Norwegian), miyupimaatisiium is Cree. There is no Cree word that translates into English as “health”. When one is being alive well, one is living a Cree way of live with “robust connections to the physical and spiritual northern landscape”.
Fitness for survival, particularly in winter, and the skill set and wisdom of traditional activities are central to Cree “health”. Miyupimaatisiium is to evoke a nature centered way of life. Bush food hunting and gathering dominate their practices (for men and women); in fact one’s identity is connected to such practices.
I hope it is easy to see parallels between these two cultural words of well-being. While most readers of Healing Matrix, (and as I) do not live in either of these cultures, there is much one can take from exploring these words for the wise lessons they teach. Among these lessons are: nature is a place of healing; nature is everywhere around us, not just to be found in exotic wild places; there is much to be learned from past traditions and finally, that, activity is important as a means to celebrate the greater enterprise of life in/within nature.
In a time when a family counsellor Richard Louv can coin the phrase “nature-deficit-disorder” and have wide instant recognition as to the meaning and implications (as I have observed recently), we might also recognize a need to return to what we have never really left.
For more, see:
N. Adelson, “Being Alive Well: Health and the Politics of Cree Well-Being", University of Toronto Press, 2000.
R. Louv, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature–Deficit Disorder", Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 2005.
"Theme Issues, friluftsliv in Pathways: The Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education". Summer 2000 and Summer 2002. See www.COEO.org
Bob Henderson teaches Outdoor Education at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. Starting as a camper and a canoe-tripping staff member at Camp Ahmek in Algonquin Park, he has developed a lifelong interest in Canadian travel heritage and travel guiding. Beginning in 1994, he continues to write a regular heritage travel feature for Kanawa Magazine. In 1995, Bob completed his PhD concerning approaches to travel guiding from the University of Alberta. He takes pride in baking a golden brown bannock and leading a spirited campfire singsong. You can contact him by sending an email.
