Storytelling is an ancient craft. Since the dawn of language through the development of writing, cave artwork and digital technologies, storytelling has remained integral to human culture. 

Stories, or narratives, are much more than plots retold. Stories are what poet and novelist Ben Okri calls our “secret reservoir of values” - full of lessons, insights and messages. They contain truths and lies, wisdom and foolishness and inspiration and misery - often all at once. Sometimes the stories we invent come to masquerade as the natural order of things, seemingly above questioning. Stories are ultimately powerful frames that help us make sense of the world.

This is why Adventure Uncovered exists.

We believe telling the right stories - stories that replace ideas of conquest and echoes of colonialism with diverse, progressive voices - can create change in the adventure community and beyond. But making this shift requires understanding good storytelling craft: the practices, principles and empathy that make for a healthy, equitable and inclusive storytelling culture.

Building this understanding is the aim of this Edition, and the reason we have spoken to an array of storytellers pushing new adventure narratives in important and creative directions.

Our interview with the Never Not Collective - producer of the all-women climbing film Pretty Strong - sets the tone. As a climbing film Pretty Strong is progressive, but the team found the story they told about the film drew criticism from some supporters. The resulting conversation about gender, climbing and storytelling is a case study in how openness and humility can help evolve our understanding of our communities. 

We also had the pleasure of a wide-ranging conversation with traditional storyteller and travel writer Nick Hunt about his work, which revolves in interesting ways around the relationship between people and landscapes. In a similar vein Ellie Mackay chatted with James Dann, filmmaker and Director of adaptive-ski documentary Out on a Limb, about his approach to storytelling through filmmaking. 

Lifelong non-swimmer and hip hop artist-cum-filmmaker Ed Acurra finally opens the conversation, and breaks the taboo, about black people and swimming with A Film Called Blacks Can’t Swim (Yes, the name is a riff on 90’s classic White Men Can’t Jump!). Earlier in the month Rosie Watson, from the New Story Run, wrote a taboo-breaking call to arms on how we can start to craft a genuinely sustainable outdoor narrative post COVID-19. We’re delighted to see it generate a lot of traction. 

In a rich and thought-provoking conversation, Olympic snowboarder turned artist Meghann O’Brien tells us how she has reframed her relationship with snowboarding, her indigenous heritage and the mountains of British Columbia through her art, with lessons for the cultural frames we use to tell adventure stories.

A different account of the power of changing our personal stories comes from adventure filmmaker Neil Irwin, who writes openly about his desire to turn his skills to more impactful adventure projects - particularly those involving scientific research.

Some of the best adventure perspectives, though, come from people who don’t necessarily consider themselves adventurers. Artists who begin with ideas and use adventure as a medium to communicate spring to mind - like Simon Faithfull, who was generous enough to discuss how his fascinating, imaginative, often preposterous body of work critiques some of the classic adventure narratives by treating the world as a sculpture. 

Documentary filmmaker Laura Mahler also approaches adventure indirectly, covering the way that COVID19 has led to new stories around conservation, and the sense of adventure that often supports such efforts.

As part of an ongoing effort to tap into the expertise of our wider community, this month we also asked storytellers whose work we admire - from multiple mediums - to respond to five prompts: What advice would you offer an aspiring storyteller? What is an adventure story that has impacted you? What is one item you find invaluable for storytelling? How do you find your stories and choose which to tell? How can we encourage new voices in adventure storytelling? We imposed no parameters. The result is a fascinating, if subjective, combination of timeless advice and contemporary concerns in adventure storytelling, all emerging from diverse voices placed in conversation with one another.

We also have a host of longer Q+As with some of these storytellers: artists Jazz Austin and Jen Larkin; filmmakers Danielle Sellwood, Kody Kohlman and Phillipe Woodtli (whose excellent blogpost on storytelling we have also cross-published); musician Jess Kilroy; entrepreneur and Swim Wild podcast host Karen Parry; and creative outdoor brand Millican’s Sim Warren and Jeffrey Bowman. 

Finally, we spoke with Nick Watson about the phenomenal story of his family’s efforts to ensure their son’s life is as full as possible, after he was diagnosed with an extremely rare genetic disorder, known as 1q44 Deletion De Novo Syndrome.

We urge you to join us in celebrating the adventure stories and storytellers with the potential to create a better world, and look forward to hearing your responses to all of these fantastic voices in the conversations to follow over the course of the month. 

The Adventure Uncovered Team.

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