28/06/2026
The Next Generation
As the Wildfoodmeister, I teach others how to hunt safely, effectively and ethically. Over the years I’ve trained countless new hunters, both privately and as a volunteer with the Wingecarribee Hunters and Anglers Club - WHAC
With my own kids however, I never consciously trained them. I was racking my brain trying to think of a way to teach them my way of life, my appreciation for the natural world around us, my knowledge of hunting and foraging, and the values that come with them. In the end, I did nothing more than take them with me and continue to ponder those thoughts.
Then, earlier this year, the teenage daughter of my best hunting partner asked if she could skin the deer I’d just shot. I was gobsmacked but I agreed even though she had only seen her dad do it once that morning.
A few months later, that same teenage girl showed my own teenage daughter how to skin a deer and together they skinned all eight deer from that trip.
At one point during our most recent trip, when the hunting party was working like a well-oiled machine,skinning, breaking down carcasses, vacuum sealing and packing meat, it suddenly occurred to me that without ever intending to, we’d been teaching the next generation all along. Simply by taking them with us. By letting them be there. By allowing them to observe, taste, listen and experience it all firsthand. By simply living our way of life in front of them.
Some enormous leaps were taken this year by the next generation, and I still get goosebumps thinking back to that most recent trip.
