Shonee Bowtell’s Survivor: Australia V The World Strategy Changed After Becoming A Mum

When you think of iconic Australian Survivor players, you think of Shonee Bowtell and her signature floral dress. The fashion-forward player has entertained Aussie audiences for years, with over 124 days played across three seasons. Her Spice Girls alliance with winner Liz Parnov and frenemy George Mladenov was a highlight of Australian Survivor: Heroes v Villains, but she's never come away victorious. It's no surprise that Channel 10 tapped her to be on the Australian tribe for Survivor: Australia v The World, but at just nine months postpartum, her decision to join the cast wasn't an easy one.

There were multiple stars that aligned for Shonee to compete on Survivor: Australia v The World, and a non-negotiable was to have her partner, Matt Jamieson, son Vally, and her mother-in-law fly to Samoa and live nearby. "It was definitely very difficult. But I just thought, when is my partner and baby going to have this one-on-one bonding time without me there, but they were also in Samoa along with my mother-in-law, so it was peace of mind for me to be like, okay, they're only one hour away from me at all times," Shonee tells Refinery29 Australia. "I don't think I could have done it without — like, I couldn't leave the country without them. I'm a bit of a package deal these days." Coming into the game as a new mother also changed her strategy, because stepping away from a young family isn't a sacrifice you want to make if you're not here to win. "I need to make this count, because this is time that I'm not going to get back from my family," she says. "So, I was definitely thinking, 'okay, what can I do that's going to set this season apart and really just make the most of my time there?' Because [it's] very hard to be away from my family."

Survivor: Australia v The World is only 16 days long, compared to the usual length of 47 to 55 days. This means it's going to be fast and vicious, and that suited Shonee to a tee. "I could not do a full season of [almost] two months. Knowing it was shorter, and then also knowing that because it's shorter, you have no option but to play hard from the get-go," she says. "There's not a lot of downtime... in the full season, sometimes players might sit back because they've got a bucket list that they want to tick off. They want to make it to tribe swap, they want to make it to merge, they want to make it to jury. Whereas, when you've got 16 days and we're all experienced players that have met those milestones before, it's literally crazy from the get go, everyone is making moves."

Alliances are a key part of your Survivor game, and Shonee swears she didn't reach out to any past Australian Survivor contestants to get a leg-up before filming started. "There's about five months in the lead-up. But you know, you don't know who the other players are, and I feel like it would be very frowned upon to start scheming right away," she says. "Everyone respects the rules of the game. So when you rock up on the mat, you're really looking at these people for the first time, and that's when the game starts." She was "shocked" to see some of the players in Samoa, and wasn't expecting to see David Genat, Sarah Tilleke or Janine Allis. "I think a lot of people were surprised to see me as well, because you know, I was nine months postpartum, so perhaps they didn't expect that either," she adds.

Historically, women can be underestimated on Survivor, or reduced to stereotypes. US Survivor player Parvati Shallow has had her gameplay summarised as "a flirt", when she's a challenge beast and extremely strategic. Just this year, when US host Jeff Probst was asked on the Elvis Duran show about an all-female season of Survivor, he claimed that the majority of the most interesting Survivor characters were men. "I think definitely, women can be underestimated in anything they do," Shonee laughs. "But I think that you know, when it comes to Survivor and endurance challenges, I think the women are so mentally strong that I think we get a great rap on being able to push through really hard challenges. So definitely not underestimated when it comes to that, but perhaps in other aspects."

Shonee recently appeared on Parvati's podcast Nice Girls Don't Win, and many fans are hoping for an all-female alliance once we get to merge. She's tight-lipped about whether that will happen, but admits she was stunned seeing US players Parvati and Cirie Fields on the World tribe. "It was actually surreal seeing these amazing American players, because they all have such a good rep in, I guess, amongst the Survivor community and the show. So to actually be like, wow, how flattering that I have been asked to play against these incredible players," Shonee recalls. "I haven't really watched much of American Survivor, but I have seen little snippets. And when I was first going on Survivor, I actually watched some clips on Parvati on YouTube about how she's just so incredible at endurance and how she trains her mind. So yeah, of course I wanted to go on her podcast as well."

After seeing how Parvati and Cirie seemed to be a step ahead of everybody on the World tribe during Episode 1, this season is only going to continue to ramp up. Jeff Probst may think strong male personalities dominate US Survivor, but Survivor: Australia v The World is poised to flip the script.