Curious Survival Guide

Engaging with Royal Cornwall Museum’s prehistoric collections, a group of young people from Curious School of the Wild (aged 8-19) have been exploring ideas of prehistoric survival and resourcefulness. Using museum objects and our natural environment, these young students have explored to reduce barriers to the outdoors and discovered how prehistoric societies survived, and how we can survive in the wild using our local environment.

Using the museum’s prehistoric artefacts as a starting point, students had the opportunity to take part in many creative practices with local artists, creating artwork and soundscapes, as well as cooking and producing this Survival Guide with local film makers.

From making a prehistoric bedroll with local sheep wool, to making cereal from natural ingredients and making water vessels with a local ceramicist, students were well able to use these elements to curate their own exhibition in the museum, demonstrating to a wider audience their findings around survival.

Nik Elvy, founder of Curious School of the Wild says ‘We have had the privilege, through the museum, to see and hold in our hands, artefacts from our past used for cooking, making and building, used in ways that we might still in the woods today.  Sleeping under the same stars and cooking over fire are ways that we continue to reach back to our pre-historic past.’

‘Thanks to the Museum and the patience and understanding of Lauren, the amazing community engagement officer who worked with us, we have been able to access learning, artefacts, artists and experiences that we will never forget.  The trusted relationship that we built with Lauren, meant that we were able to leave our woodland comfort zone and make a train journey to visit the museum itself to also have a part in imagining and creating this exhibition.  The whole experience has been nothing short of transformative for all of us and we are deeply, deeply grateful.’