“Thinking outside the gunnels”: considering natures and the moral terrains of recreational canoe travel

This article draws upon geographic approaches to ethics to outline an approach for envisioning enhanced responsibility amid the multiple natures of recreational canoe travel and, by extension, to argue for the consideration and practice of outdoor leisure as a moral space. This article begins by introducing the “nature of canoeing,” a perceived and physical leisure–wilderness space that holds popular currency as a mechanism for social change. A diverse literature illustrates objections to this hegemonic nature of canoeing and, beneficial to my aims, highlights the multiplicity of natures embedded within a canoescape. To service the envisioning of responsibility amid multiple canoeing natures, I articulate the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of an ongoing research project, namely a relational approach to responsibility couched with the geographical metaphor moral terrain, which follows from Figueroa and Waitt (Cracks in the mirror: (Un)covering the moral terrains of environmental justice at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Ethics, Place and Environment, 11(3), 327–349). These abstractions are exemplified with narratives derived from my encounters as researcher-canoeist within a particular Arctic riverscape.