We come from the land of camp camp baby: A settler reflection on wilderness education at residential summer camp

Residential summer camps are fascinating cultural productions. Physical spaces arproduced with the aim of offering youth a chance to ‘escape’ their modern urban lives. This escape is framed as a way of building connections to the natural and social worlds while nurturing a particular kind of character building. I grew up going to camp, and now I work at the same camp that has deeply shaped my sense of being in the world. Looking back at my experiences here, I also now see that this very space, Camp Thunderbird, is rooted in settler colonial ideology and practice. From the name, to the land upon which the camp sits, to the philosophical orientation of the camp’s mission, this camp, and my experiences here (including connections with nature, people, history, and personal character building), are positioned in a settler colonial place of privilege and complexity. These spaces have a history of the separating people from nature, cultural appropriation of Indigenous cultures, and supporting social divisions based on identities such as gender and race. Summer camps have been part of a failed attempt to slow or oppose the momentum of modernism. Summer camps must forge a new place in the postmodern world. If camps are spaces aimed at creating social and environmental connection, they must take steps to reconcile their troubled past. This paper explores the complex relationships of settler colonialism and wilderness education at residential summer camp.