VCE Outdoor & Environmental Studies Resources

Unit One: Motivations for outdoor experience
Area of Study One: Understanding outdoor experiences

Human responses to nature such as fear, appreciation, awe or contemplation

Wilderness can be regarded as "raw" nature, as a place unspoiled by humans. Below are quotations reflecting changing perceptions of wilderness (from Johnson, D. The alps at the crossroads, VNPA, Melbourne, 1975.)

1. Genesis 1:28
"And God blessed them and told them, ‘Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; you are masters of the fish and birds and all the animals.’"

2. St Mathew 4:1
After Jesus was baptised by John, he was "led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, to be tempted there by Satan."

3. The legend of Beowulf
Beowulf led his men in heroic battle against monsters that inhabited "an unvisited land among wolf-haunted hills, windswept crags and perilous fen tracks."

4. Lord Byron
"From my youth upwards my spirit walked not with the souls of men ... my griefs, my passions, and my powers, made me a stranger ... my joy was in the wilderness."

5. Estwick Evans
Evans journeyed in the winter months so that he "might experience the pleasure of suffering, and the novelty of danger."

6. Henry Thoreau
"In Wildness is the preservation of the World."

7. John Muir
Muir argued for the creation of an organisation that would "be able to do something for wilderness and make the mountains glad."

8. Theodore Roosevelt
"There are no words that can tell of the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm. There is delight in the hardy life of the open ... the silent places ... the wide wastes of the earth, unworn of man, and changed only by the slow change of the ages through time everlasting."

Discussion questions

1. For each of the quotations above, what one or two words would a) describe the way wilderness was perceived; and b) describe the feelings or emotions that wilderness provoked in the minds of the subjects. (The first response is given as an example.)

	Wilderness as a ...	Wilderness provoking feelings of ...
1	storehouse (of everything humans need)?	greed?
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

2. How do these quotations reflect changes in perceptions of wilderness over time?

3. Which quotation best reflects your own understanding of or feelings about wilderness? (Alternatively, write your own memorable quotation about wilderness.

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