How Alone Australia can help us understand and appreciate our place in nature
Retrieved on:
Tuesday, May 9, 2023
More than a million Australians have tuned in to Alone Australia, SBS’s highest-rating series for 2023 to date.
Key Points:
- More than a million Australians have tuned in to Alone Australia, SBS’s highest-rating series for 2023 to date.
- And what can it tell us about our own relationships with nature?
- As armchair experts watching from home, we may reflect on how we would act if we had to survive alone in a remote place.
Nature is everywhere
- Watching Alone Australia may generate the sense that nature, and nature experiences, happen “out there” away from urban places and other people.
- This narrative has been fuelled by media, including David Attenborough’s awe-inspiring nature documentaries, which paint nature and humans as separate.
- While this kind of media can inspire fascination with nature, it can be damaging if it perpetuates an idea that humans are separate from nature.
We shape nature, and nature shapes us
- The show helps us widen our view of valuing nature from what it provides for us (instrumental/utilitarian values) to seeing beauty and worth in nature itself (intrinsic values).
- Previous overseas seasons of Alone have highlighted utilitarian nature relationships, with most contestants being white male survivalists.
- Experiences in nature early in life shape these relationships.
- Meaningful nature experiences can include looking after nature (gardening, indoor plants), bushwalks, visiting botanical gardens, or getting up close and personal with wildlife at your local zoo.
Nature as medicine
- This will be apparent to many of us who sought solace in nature during COVID lockdowns.
- Connecting with nature, including in urban places, can help people feel less lonely and support their wellbeing in many ways.
- It’s about oneness with nature, but sharing it collectively – kindness, actions towards others, not being alone out there.
Learning about nature
- TV nature content like Alone Australia is educational.
- Indeed, recent renewed interest in urban foraging has been touted as cementing our connections to place and sense of belonging.
We need nature, and nature needs us
- Ultimately, everything we need for survival, including clean water, shelter and food, is derived from nature, even when we live in a city.
- The “successes” of the contestants are determined by their ability to understand their relationship to the land and how to meet their basic survival needs.
- If we broaden our view of nature and see ourselves as interwoven in nature’s rich tapestry, as many of the contestants do, we can gain more than basic survival.
- If TV nature content such as Alone Australia encourages us to reflect on our relationship with nature and seek meaningful moments with nature and nature knowledge, then perhaps it might lead us to strengthen our environmental identities and act as nature stewards.