There is an old Slovak proverb: “A goat, a birch and woman
do not belong in the forest.”
Well. That proverb was tested—and trashed—by a conference I
recently had the privilege of attending, in Bratislava, Slovakia on the theme
“Women and Sustainable Hunting: Experience, Nowadays and Future.” The
conference was organized by the Club of Slovak Ladies Hunters, under the
auspices of the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC—for
Conseil International de la Chasse). An
international gathering of female hunters on this scale was a first. Its goal
was twofold: to bring together female hunters from a variety of national and
cultural contexts, to compare their experiences and perspectives on sustainable
hunting; and to celebrate the inauguration of “Artemis,” an international
organization of women hunters established as a free-standing CIC working group.
I was thrilled to be invited to bring a US perspective to what turned out to be
a fascinating three days of presentations and conversation. And I was beyond
thrilled when Sonja Sukepova, the
president of the Slovak Ladies Hunters Club and conference organizer,
invited me to stay on for a couple of extra days, to hunt red deer, mouflon and
wild boar with her and her family.
About sixty women attended the conference, fourteen of us
presenters. All of the presenters aside from myself were from Scandinavia,
central and eastern Europe, regions where hunting traditions and rituals run
deep and where—as Tamas Marghescu, the CIC Director General put it in his
introductory remarks—lady hunters have long, and unfortunately, been “looked at
with a little bit of suspicion.” Sounds kind of familiar to American ears,
that. However, when—after remarking that women are the “biggest growth sector”
in hunting worldwide and that we may quite literally be the future of
hunting—Tamas went on to say he was eagerly “looking forward to crispy
innovations, to open the window wide for new, strong crisp wind and energy” in
the hunting world . . .well, mild jet-lag be damned, I started feeling pretty
downright crispy myself. And the ensuing days of formal and informal
presentations and interactions with a surprisingly diverse group of
outdoorswomen ranging in age from their twenties to their seventies, and in
profession from academics and attorneys to museum curators and wildlife
professionals, turned out to be a breath of fresh air indeed.
And by evening’s end, what were all these stylish women
talking about? Guns and shooting. Calibers and loads, preferred rifle makes and
models, favorite prey animals and the best methods and places to hunt them and ways
to cook them, and other such ladylike topics!
There was another theme of conversation that grabbed me,
that evening and throughout the three days we shared as a group: the idea that good
hunting has a religious dimension. Now, this is a familiar idea to anyone who
knows Yale sociologist Stephen Kellert’s groundbreaking work on hunter “types,”
not to mention the work of writers like Richard Nelson, Gary Snyder, Ted
Kerasote, Barry Lopez and others who have homed in on the idea that some kind
of spirituality lies at the heart of hunting. But, and not surprisingly given our own
cultural history, there is invariably something deeply—dare I say ruggedly?—individualistic
about American approaches to what Kellert developed in his “nature hunter”
model. By contrast, virtually every
statement I heard about hunting from the women in Europe had a distinctly
communitarian ring to it: hunting is not only a lifestyle, it is a communal way
of life that people share intimately with one another, and that must be passed
from one generation to the next. And it was generally agreed among the
conference participants that more than ever before this matter of cultural
transmission is women’s work. It is time, as Tibor Lebocky, head of the Slovak
Hunter’s Chamber phrased it, to “build a new history for hunting in the
future.” And this is what Artemis, the international women’s hunting club,
hopes to be all about.
I was especially impressed by the way this communal emphasis
played out in the various presentations on what women’s hunting clubs—and such
clubs are far more common on the national and local levels in Europe than in
the US—embrace as their primary activities and goals. Again and again, women
from Norway and Denmark , Latvia and Russia, Italy and the Czech Republic and
Hungary and Slovakia and Austria sounded common goals and described projects
dedicated to achieving them. The goals had to do primarily with educating the
non-hunting public about nature, wildlife conservation and sustainability:
objectives that certainly rang true to my American ears.
But it was the array, and consistency across national
boundaries, of methods for achieving these goals that struck me as refreshingly
constructive and broadly forward-thinking. While there were regional variations, every
presenter stressed the following:
·
First and foremost, working with children.
Several clubs already operate summer camps, for children ranging from
kindergarten to their teens. There was consensus that these camps should be
international in their make-up, to ensure cross-cultural communication as well
as to instill awareness of and active participation in nature through numerous
hands-on activities ranging from dog handling and photography to fishing, sport
shooting and falconry.
·
Developing a media strategy to improve public
perceptions of hunting. Interestingly, while the goal is to educate the public
about the connection(s) between hunting and sustainability, the methods cited
were largely—and I believe brilliantly—aesthetic rather than scientific: photography
and documentary filmmaking competitions, art and jewelry exhibits, museum
displays, concerts, game feasts.
·
Improving public opinion of hunting and hunters
through philanthropic activities. Several speakers stressed the importance of
charitable work—with the poor, the sick, the disenfranchised—as an essential
piece of a broader consciousness about the hunter’s role in society.
Of course, these national and regional women’s hunting clubs
also focused on hunter education and skills training in ways not dissimilar
from the US’s “Becoming an Outdoors-Woman” (BOW) program. And they are in some
cases facing the same barriers to women’s participation in outdoor sports as we
do here: access to hunting areas, networking among women hunters and retention
of hunters beyond the “novice” phase, overcoming cultural stereotypes about
hunting as an “unfeminine” activity, and just plain finding the time as well as
the places to hunt. Additionally, in
nearly every European context women form a smaller percentage of the hunting
population than we do here in the States. But there, as here, female hunter
numbers appear to be growing steadily.
And it struck me that these European women’s hunting clubs
see their real work as beginning where BOW’s leaves off. Let me be clear here:
This is in no way intended as a criticism of BOW, which I think is a terrific
program, and which in fact I talked up in my own presentation on “American
Dianas: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.” But BOW cannot do everything that needs to
be done for women’s hunting in America. And, frankly, I don’t see too much else
going on out there on this side of the Pond. Such women’s hunting clubs as we
do have here and there tend to be very localized, and to focus on
individualistic—at times “extreme”—hunting. Programs for women operated by the
likes of SCI and the NRA are often costly and appeal to a relatively small
niche of the female hunting population. I really think we need to do more, and do better.
And I think our European sisters have a lot of wisdom to share, in this regard.
I’m looking forward to continuing, and sharing, those conversations . . . So,
to be continued.
As to those two days of hunting in Slovakia—More on that to
follow!
