By Vita Jerram, 26 October 2024
For anyone interested:
For my anthroplogy ethnographic research paper (ANTH315), I chose to focus on women's expereinces of tramping, specifically looking at the way women can feel empowered and capable through tramping. I went on a 'girls trip' with two other VUWTC members for my fieldwork in September 2024. My research essay is bellow. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or queries in response to this project! (jerramv@gmail.com)
Walking Through the Mud: Young Women Tramping Together for Bodily Empowerment
This research project started with speculation about how women experience tramping differently from men. Many people love the isolation of tramping and the way tramping exists away from the everyday. It exists separate from routines, restrictions, and judgement. Tramping leaves your body and mind both satisfied. You feel empowered by your possibilities. These sensations have led me to an inquiry into the experiences of young women tramping. How do young women come to experience empowerment and a sense of capability through tramping? Tramping in Aoteroa New Zealand, can be seen as similar to hiking, yet also has distinct practices, particularly concerning Aoteroa’s landscapes and Department of Conservation public huts. In acknowledging this, I am focusing on the walking aspect of tramping as a site of analysis, rather than other aspects of tramping such as food, or hut practices, as I am interested in how gender is produced with and showcased on our bodies. I will argue that the embodied and social nature of women-only tramping allows women to ‘reinhabit’ and reclaim their bodies and space generating feelings of accomplishment and capability. I will firstly discuss the choices surrounding the use of the ethnographic research methods, participant observation, a photo-elicitation interview and a ‘tramping focus group’. In the section “Should we go on a 'Girls' Trip?!'” I discuss how I have allowed circumstances to influence the decisions on project design, and particularly why I am looking at women-only groups rather than mixed groups to analyse women's experience. My analysis and data are structured chronologically from the ‘tramping focus group’. From moments pre-, post and during the trip, each being connected to the positioning on the map, there is an exploration of key ideas. The first three moments discuss concepts of freedom, sociability and bodily knowledge whilst tramping. The final moment will bring feminist scholars Sara Ahmed and Iris Marion Young into conversation with the embodied nature of walking as a possibility for women to build new understandings of their bodies. I will then briefly make a few reflections on this research process and potential points of further inquiry.
Ethnographic Research Methods
The first ethnographic research method was participant observation at the Victoria University of Wellington Tramping Club (VUWTC) weekly meetings. This was during the initial planning stages of my research and I used this for context and inspiration around the ‘tramping culture’ in New Zealand. The main takeaway from attending these meetings was the use of photography in showing and presenting past trips to the club. I have made friends through VUWTC, two of whom participated in my third research method. Although I initially had an interest in analysing how tramping club culture excludes and/or includes women, I decided, due to the scope, scale, and timing of this project, it wasn’t practical. I found that due to my busy schedule outside of university, I wasn’t able to make any of the club trips or many of the club meetings. Tramping is also very weather-dependent and dates for the club trips often changed, so it became more manageable to plan my research around myself and women who I already knew.
My second research method was an auto-driven photo elicitation interview with a friend of mine who was planning a girls-only tramp in the South Island. Images captured by participants in other photo-elicitations have been noted as an invaluable source of insight into a person’s thoughts, narratives, and ideas (Bignante, 2010; Larasati, 2018) enabling “candid and critical conversations” (Hicks, 2024, 28). After seeing the role photos can play in sharing the trip highlights at the VUWTC meetings and because I was not going on a tramp with Sara myself, I decided that a photo-elicitation interview would start conversations not only about the trip but also about how gender was experienced by Sara and her fellow trampers. Sara produced three photos, which we discussed over a FaceTime interview. Each photo aligned with a central idea: the first being freedom and empowerment, the second being relationship building, and the third being menstruation and structural barriers for women whilst tramping. With Sara’s ideas, which resonated with my own initial thoughts and experiences, I decided to research further how the sociability of women’s tramping contributes to bodily freedom and feelings of empowerment.
The third research method which contributes to the majority of the findings of this research, was a ‘tramping focus group’. This blended methods from walking interviews, which produce feelings and attitudes in real-time with the influence of the surrounding environment (Evans and Jones, 2011), with the collaborative nature of a focus group. Although I am calling this a ‘tramping focus group’, this ethnographic practice could also be considered to fit within a ‘hike-along’ methodology used by David Brown with women in Scotland climbing ‘Munro’ summits which builds on ideas of walking and go-along ethnographic practices (2020). At one of the weekly VUWTC meetings, my two friends, Meg and Sam, planned an overnight trip to ToSam flats in the Samruas ranges in the Wairarapa region. The planning process didn’t involve that many decisions as there are not that many options for overnight tramps in the wider Wellington region. We are all university students, who also had classes on Friday, so we knew that it would need to be a short walk to the hut on Friday evening if we didn’t want to be walking all night. We chose to go to ToSam Flats Hut, which is about a four-hour walk from the road and would do a loop to come out via Holdsworth at the end of the following day. We had all done this route before, so new that the difficulty would be manageable. This would require being picked up by a family member and being driven back to our car at the other road-end car park.
“Should we go on a ‘Girls' Trip’!?”
How did we come to go on a girls-trip? And was it important that we make it a “girls' trip”?
Gökçe Günel and Chika Watanabe (2024) acknowledge that the nature of fieldwork can be tricky to navigate within our wider personal lives, proposing a method of ‘patchwork’ ethnography. It works alongside feminist and queer methodologies, in which we can understand that knowledge production is interrelated and connected to our personal lives, and relationships. Patchwork ethnography allows for circumstances to influence and define methods within research, “writing with, not against, the conditions, interruptions and disruptions” (Günel & Watanabe, 2024, 131).
Trisia Prince’s research Exploring the Cultural Construction of Gender in Active Outdoor Pursuits in New Zealand: A Phenomenological Perspective (2004) notes how women’s experiences and their bodies are often invisible within wider discussions of the outdoors. Furthermore, Kirsti (1998) discusses her experiences as a female ethnographer in outdoor practices in Norway noting that men’s experiences are often cast as gender-neutral experiences. Considering both ‘patchwork’ ethnography and research from Prince (2004) and Kirsti (1998) into the disappearance of women’s experiences in the outdoors, my research became situated and focused on women-only groups, with women that I already knew.
It must be recognised that the findings of this research are centred around the experience of participants and researchers who are all pākehā New Zealanders, cis-gendered university students aged between 20-23. Although the findings of this research are specific to our positionality, I believe that this research is still able to contribute to a greater understanding of how women experience their bodies and sociability whilst tramping. When I discuss ‘women’, I refer to those who identify as women, but I cannot speak for the experiences of gendered women.
Moment One: “Don’t take off your coat Sam!”
The evening air has a feeling of moisture and potential for rain as we put on our packs and lock the car. As I pull out my phone and suggest a quick photo before we set off, Sam begins to take off her raincoat:
“I don’t want people seeing me in this ugly raincoat,” she confesses to us.
“Don’t take off your coat Sam, it’s a part of the research now!”
We all laugh and she keeps her coat on for a group photo and selfie by the map.
Sara explained a feeling of escape she felt whilst tramping and a “feeling of being away from judgement”. Both Meg and Sam felt that women-only groups were great in that they didn’t have to think so much about appearance, or “being watched” by men. Before the suggestion of a photo, Sam hadn’t mentioned the dislike she has for her coat, yet it became highlighted again on the premise that others may see the photo. The photo was bridging the world of isolation that tramping often brings, with the world of the everyday. As showcased at the VUWTC meetings, photos allowed members to share the experience of the tramp with others who were not on the trip.
By stepping outside (quite literally) of the every day and by being in a women-only group, we were able to see the irony of Sam wanting to take off her jacket, as it aligned with gendered expectations around appearance. With the awareness of my research too, we were able to laugh as it directly fitted within stereotypes of women whilst tramping. This moment showed how within our “girls' trip”, we were able to re-evaluate gender roles and norms (Appleby & Bosteder, 2015; Maddox & McAnirlin, 2020; Rogers & Rose, 2019; Prince, 2004; Whitington, 2015). Importantly this moment highlighted how tramping does provide time away from everyday routines and socially bounded lives of women, particularly with the act of walking providing a “liminal period” that exists between structured environments (Coleman & Collins, 2006, 74).
Moment Two: Mud, Rain and Darkness
Our head torches come out, as the light begins to fade and the rain becomes heavy.
“Is this an OK pace?” Meg calls from the front.
We climb over roots and step into puddles of thick, chocolate-like mud. Wet branches tickle us as we pass, and we slowly begin to feel the dampness covering our bodies. The silence of the bush is comfortable.
By all participants, it was well recognized how relationships whilst tramping change and shape the experience. Sara recognised tramping as a “bonding experience” with the building of “strong connections” with fellow trampers key to what makes tramping particularly special. Sara went on to suggest that she felt that in comparison with mixed groups, she finds connection-building easier within women-only groups. Sam and Meg also spoke about how tramping in women-only groups “feels very different” from mixed groups, and they found that women are more aware of inequalities within the group, leading to far more compassionate environments.
The sociability whilst walking is very distinct from other forms of socialising (Colemen & Collins 2006; Doughty 2013). The way tramping brings people together could be attributed to the shared bodily engagement with the environment (Coleman & Collins 2006, 80), the shared direction of movement and the “shared sense of presence and discovery of the unfolding place” (Doughty, 2013, 144). Whilst walking on a tramp it is not practical to maintain eye contact, creating an environment of low emotional intensity, and facilitating more emotionally in-depth conversations (Doughty, 2013, 143). Particularly on our trip, ideas of gender whilst tramping were easily unpacked through prompted conversation. Furthermore, the low-hanging branches, the large trunks, and the small streams all provided natural pauses in our conversations (Doughty, 2013, 143), providing further time for reflection, and bodily awareness (Brown 2020. 745).
Moment Three: Getting through and over obstacles
After a cosy night at Totara flats hut, we set off the next morning in the pleasant sun, up the rooty, steep hill. Stripping our merinos and extra jerseys off as we rise through the bush, we find ourselves in front of a landslide. Although we can see the original path has been swept away, there are no major dramas here, as a rope is attached to a branch guiding us to a makeshift path above. With our legs and arms slightly more muddy than before we make it ‘back on track’. A moment later Sam comments that guys may have approached the slip differently:
“Boys push each other to do crazy things.”
I then ask: “Was the way we navigated the obstacle gendered?”
We unpack this further as we climb further towards the summit.
Walking ethnographic practices bring into light the whole body in motion as a way of thinking (Ingold & Vergunt 2008). Tramping, I suggest, is more of a full body experience than walking, with not only the added weight carried in packs but the environment whilst tramping changing. One moment we are walking through a stream, the next we are using a swing bridge, the next we are on the side of a muddy hill using a rope to get past obstacles. This highlights also how tramping experiences are far more than just walking, but the collation of other exercises and pauses capturing the embodied nature of the experience (Brown, 2020). The ‘real-time’ responses of Sam and Meg in which there was an immediate reflection on the different ways women and men may approach climbing over the slip using the rope, showcased the ‘nowness’ of the experience in which they presented emotion and presence in the responses, in direct relation and connection to the bodily sensations (Brown, 2020). In many ways, this moment showcased the way the awareness of the senses broke down the boundaries between the interaction of the environment with our bodies and discussions that were happening with one another (Coleman & Collins, 74).
Moment Four: Crossroads and Turning Points
Coming round a bend in the corner, we are surprised to see the intersection and signpost leading either up to Powell hut, back down from where we came from or down towards the road end.
“I was really preparing myself for another big hill,” Meg exclaims.
A discussion ensues about whether we should try make go to Powell hut before going to the carpark
“Powel is so far.” Sam comments.
“Apparently it's two and a half hours away.” Meg adds.
“2.8k, though.. that does not seem as if it would take 2.5 hours, ” Sam mentions.
We come to the conclusion that we should make a call and check the time from Mountain Shelter, a little further along towards Powell.
The work of feminist scholars Sara Ahmed and Iris Marion Young has informed my work and greatly influenced the way I consider female bodies to be culturally constructed. Young’s essay Throwing Like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment, Motility, and Spatiality describes the way women have been socially conditioned to restrict their movement and occupation of space (2006). She notes how women do not typically engage their whole bodies in movement as they feel a tension between being both a free-willed subject and simultaneously being an object that is positioned in space (Young, 2006). Sara Ahmed writes that “feminism is sensational”, in which injustices are often felt and marked by the body and its relation to space (2017, 1). She argues that through reflection on past experiences, “feminist work is often memory work”, which allows women to understand their gendered position within the world, reclaiming and reinhabiting their bodies and spaces (Ahmed, 2017, 22).
Although there is a shared bodily experience of walking (Colemen & Collins 2006), there is little recognition of the way different bodies may experience this movement and interaction with the environment. Phiona Stanley’s autoethnography of hiking in Australia suggests that the size of a body, being larger or heavier, fat or thin has a large impact on the way in which a person may experience (Stanley 2018). As gender and human existence are defined by situation (cultural, historical, social, and economic context) (de Beauvoir, 1993), many intersecting factors are likely to influence how women (and men) may experience their bodies whilst tramping. Although the in-body experience can vary significantly from person to person, some unity can be described between women’s typical bodily experiences, as described by Young (2006). I would suggest that there is a greater ‘shared experience’ of walking within women-only groups, in which we can relate and identify with one another to how our bodies have been socially conditioned. This is also whilst we are simultaneously re-learning ways of being in our body through the full body movement of walking.
When considering the way walking reveals the body as a cultural production (Ingold & Vergunt, 2008, 2), we should then consider the particular awareness women have of their bodies whilst tramping. Whilst walking provided our group quality time for reflection and reconnection with past memories (Stevenson & Farrell 2017), it also allowed us to think in the movement (Ingold & Vergunt, 2008, 2). Tramping provides the development of embodied knowledge by connecting with feelings, sense-making processes and the sensations of movement (Stevenson & Farrell 2017, 434). This embodied knowledge is both new and old. Tramping has allowed us to do “memory work” by reflecting on past experiences of gender through our bodies (Ahmed, 2017, 22). Through movement we reflect on the tension felt between being a free ‘transcendent subject’ going towards our aims through enactment and being an object, stuck in a state of immanence, finding ourselves positioned in space (Young, 2006). Simultaneously we experience movement that engages the full body, actively working against these learned inhibitive mobilities, as well as gendered norms and expectations of us. Tramping allows women to feel capable and accomplished because they feel bodily freedom, whilst actively reflecting as well as participating in movements that challenge ideas of feminine movement and ways of being. Physical activity in the outdoors should be considered to be a feminist space to resist oppression (Consalter, 2023), and in particular, bodily oppression.
Moment Five: “A good time.” - Going home-reflections and further research
As we begin the drive back along the dirt road towards home, there is warmth radiating not only from the heater but also from one another. And there it is - that sensation of accomplishment, capability, and connection.
Tramping allows women to firstly step outside the every day, feel both free from gender norms and expectations, whilst also challenging those norms being in an all-women group, alongside the physical, full-body act of walking. Secondly, the sociability of tramping is unique for women due to the shared nature of their in-body experiences. Finally, the movement whilst tramping allows women to reflect on past memories whilst engaging their whole bodies, creating new feelings of capability and accomplishment.
Due to the scale and scope of the project, there were certain ideas within the topic of tramping that I didn’t have the means to explore. If expanding my research I would seek to understand the holistic experience of tramping, looking at not only the movement and walking aspect, but also food and hut cultures as well as other practices such as navigation and decision making which make tramping a distinctive experience. I would also like to understand the role settler-colonialism has impacted the construction of tramping and how the construction of ‘National’ or ‘Conservation’ Parks as sites for ‘wilderness’ intersects with gender.
Looking at the embodied nature of tramping as experienced by other young women has made me come to a greater understanding of why women tramp. We tramp because we want to escape and feel free in both mind and body. We tramp because we enjoy connecting with others through shared movement. We tramp because we enjoy the feelings of strength and bodily presence. We tramp because we want to reclaim, reinhabit, and relearn what it means to have a feminine body.
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