Ray Mears' Northern Wilderness Series:
This weekend, I was fortunate to be able to watch all of the episodes of Ray Mear's multi-part BBC "Northern Wilderness" series. If there are school teachers and curriculum development people reading this, you might be interested in reading on, for great material to build history courses that literally come alive on the screen, and might just change the life of young students.
All the episodes are posted on YouTube (for free viewing), by username "familiyphotoshoot". The 5 main parts are, in order:
The Forgotten Forest (about the boreal forest and northern Canada);
The Company that Built a Country (about the fur trade and the Hudsons Bay Company, and Northwest Company);
The Unknown Explorer (about Samuel Hearne's journey and his influence on the history of Canada);
In Arctic Footsteps (about Dr. John Rae, one of the greatest northern travelers, explorers, and surveyor in history);
Koo Koo Sint - The Stargazer (about David Thompson, the greatest land surveyor, geographer and map maker who ever lived, mapped much of Canada, and hard core bush traveler (along with wife Charlotte), like Rae); and
Journey's End (an epilogue and profile of the rich pacific west coast landscape and history). And most importantly, an underlying theme throughout all episodes is the continual partnership with the aboriginal peoples, and the integration of their bush skills and knowledge into the successful travels of the heroes of history. This underlying theme was often absent from my education. Some neat bush craft skill footage is sprinkled throughout, in trademark Mears style. Often this is in partnership with a local artisan. Each of the main episodes are posted in 6 parts, 10 minutes each, so be sure to mind the order if you are watching.
For a commercial TV series, I was very impressed with the scholarship and footage. While much of it is about the host Mears and his bushcraft schtick (after all this is how he makes his living, and he is good at it), I have to give Mr. Mears major credit for doing a fantastic job at bringing to life our amazing history, centralizing the role of the canoe, and elevating to the top the heroic Hearne, Ray and Thompson. There is also great aerial and ground footage across all the major regions of our country where the canoe was king, and where these heroes of history actually camped and stood – many places most of us will never see, but should see at least on film, and the Brit Mears is right there. To my knowledge there is not a comparable film or TV series made in Canada by Canadians. Kudos to the Brit to remind us about ourselves and how great our history and landscape really is. And of course these heroic figures names above were Brits by birth, so its a shared heritage (as of course all human heritage is).
I never learned any of this history in my school days, and certainly never saw it on film. It goes to the core of explaining who and what we are. Mears emphasizes how much Canada is the country that was established by the canoe. Our own Kevin Callan has a cameo, where he states the case well about the canoe culture being at the heart of what much of this country is about. It has only been later in my adult life, getting in my cultural life as a wilderness paddler and (very) amateur historian that I discovered the literature about Hearne, Ray, Thompson and some of the more detailed history of the HBC and NW company. A shame that this is not core curriculum throughout elementary and secondary school in Canada. While the human figures make the stories, its really all about the landscape, lakes and rivers, and how the landscape is responsible for how we live.
I like one of Mears' quotes: "This is a fabulous country built on bushcraft..."
In terms of video legality, I am not sure how long these will be available for free viewing on YouTube. They were up on the BBC for free viewing for a limited time, but are now gone. Mears website sells the DVD full series compendium for a very good 20 Pounds Sterling, or about 30 dollars Canadian – a deal for this high quality series. Normally I would buy the DVD to support the makers of this fine series. But the website warns that the DVD is All-Region format coded in PAL, which is the European standard format, as well as other countries, but that Canada and the US use Region-1 coded in NTSC format DVD players, may not be able to read and play the PAL DVD’s??? (or something?). So I did not feel guilty watching the freebies posted on Youtube. I would buy the DVD and support the producers of the series if the format could be played on my home DVD. (aside: Hey DVD powers that be: get a world DVD standard, will ya!).
This will get you started with part one of the six 10 minute parts of episode 1: The Forgotten Forest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpWJPobfWd8&feature=relatedAll the links of the 6 parts for each on the main episodes listed above, should be found in the right side related videos on the web page.
So a heads up to view the series while you still can. You get about 5 hours (in 10 minute segments) for free on YouTube.
Teachers: You may want to look purchasing the series for your schools.
Canadian curriculum developers: Hey why is a Brit in the 21st century telling our Canadian story in our geography better than we can? Get off your butts and get going! (I wonder: How many of our history teachers are canoe trippers?.....)
