Wilderness Adventures Provide Pathways Through Adolescence
My mom met me at the airport, I’d spent the last month of my fifteenth year canoeing several hundred kilometers through the wilds of northern Ontario. I was lean, tanned and dirty. I had a moose tooth in my pocket, the baby fat was gone. She still talks of that day. “I could tell from the look in his eyes that he’d gained something no one could ever take away.”
I think we both knew I had experienced a rite of passage, although it would be many years before we heard of the phrase. The experiences I had that summer changed my life. I learned to accept challenge and endure hardship without complaint, to act with integrity, to be compassionate and to honour diversity. I had never worked so hard, or laughed so hard. My experiences served me well in my many adventures and challenges since, from weathering a winter storm aboard a schooner in the North Atlantic to completing my studies at University.
In the early years of Langskib and Northwaters , we didn’t really understand why or how the experiences young people had with us where affecting them so profoundly. It wasn’t until we learned about rites of passage and their patterns in traditional societies that it all came together.
Every traditional society had rites of passage to help youths move through adolescence and into adulthood. Many of the same basic patterns and components are shared by a variety of cultures around the world. They include isolation from parents and familiar surroundings, a journey in the wilderness, physical challenges, periods of introspection, supportive adult mentors as guides, accepting new roles and responsibilities, rituals and ceremonies to mark the passage and celebrations upon return.
We realized that the wilderness canoe trip includes many of these basic patterns and components. Working with a cast of characters that included Jungian psychologists, Native spiritual leaders, corporate trainers and consultants, artists, educators, experts in primitive skills, storytelling and leadership, we have developed a series of programs to meet the specific needs of young people at different stages of maturity and development. The key to our success has been to use the wisdom of the ages to provide experiences that are relevant to young people and the world we share today.
Most parents recognize how the experiences of their youth shaped them – everyone has a story of an event in their lives that in retrospect, was a major passage through adolescence. The challenge for parents is to find ways for their children, growing up in a different world to have the same kind of empowering experiences. Understanding rites of passage helps translate parents intuitive beliefs into choices that support and encourage their own children’s growth.
Special thanks to Loise Carus Mahdi started us on the path to understanding rights of passage and was a major supporter of Northwaters in the early years and was especially influential in the development of Northern Lights, our program for 11 to 14 year old girls.
If you would like to learn more have a look at Betwixt & Between; Patterns of Masculine and Feminine Initiation. edited by Louise Carus Mahdi, Steven Foster and Merideth Little. Open Court Publishing, 1987
C.G. Stephens
