The influence of women, reconnecting child with nature
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Joanie Lamoureux
In Quebec, the only French speaking province of Canada, falconry has been legal since 2008. But there’s still much to do, from building a good apprenticeship program to legalizing squirrel hawking, many paths are yet to be explored, developed, and mastered. One of the main struggle is the general population ignorance about falconry.In Europe, falconry has been part of the historical and general culture for many centuries, but it is a relatively new thing in Canada.
We as a group of dedicated young women, decided to build a bridge between schools and falconry by offering a very special project. The project is free and entirely available for any teachers from elementary to high school. “Our goal is to reconnect children with nature” said Noémy Trudel, one of the founders of the project.
Ultimately what we want is to share our knowledge about falconry and build a growing and healthy falconry community inside our province. To reach that, we must create an interest in raptors; there’s more than 25 species right here in our province!
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Our first questions to kids in classes are always about bird identification. We want them to realize that nature is all around them by bringing a Red Tail Hawk which can be found near their homes.
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We talk about conservation and how to help nature locally. We have different nest boxes plan with us that we share with teachers. Some classes are getting involved with different projects including the conservation of kestrel. Then we talk about how falconers saved the peregrine falcons in the seventies. We end our presentation with an introductionand history facts about falconry around the world.
This year our goal is to add an international aspect to the program. We are in the process of creating a link between Mongolian and Canadian children. It is very interesting through a cultural perspective as most of the children have no idea of the opposite’s children way of life.
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We think “nature awareness” is an evolving aspect of a child’s personality and so we try to revisit kids later in the school year to see what birds they have identified, how many hawks they have spotted…etc.
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To have kids look up in the sky looking for a hawk is the first step of the process of creating young falconers.
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As a falconer, my favorite part of any flight is to witness the balance between preys and predators. For me a good flight doesn’t necessarily end with a kill because what I’m really looking for is to push my birds to their limits and being able to see a glimpse of what nature is made of; be part of nature’s dance for a few seconds.
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Each of our presentations end with a flight. We don’t let kids touch any birds because respect for nature is a part of what we teach but a few of them get to receive the birds on theirforearm while wearing a real falconer’s glove.
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We intend to get the young generation to gain interest about falconry through education and fun which would make it even more popular in the near future.
