Trackers TEAMS Blog

My Intiation

6th

February

-by Laura Zerrra

For as long as I can remember, I've been drawn to dead animals. Moments stick out in my early memory.

There was the time I found the doe, melting in the ground after a hunter was unsuccessful in tracking his prey. I remember standing, transfixed, coming to terms with how fleeting life is. The raccoon, warm spring day, pale bones sticking through matted fur, shot for target practice by a notorious farmer. Or the robin, eyes turning cloudy as I held her carefully in my hands on the side of the road. I always wanted to do something for them, somehow make use of their senseless death, but I felt incapable, even ignorant. I was an alien in the strange world my ancestors had known, a world that understood death and interacted with the sacrifices that sustained life. I was intimidated.

As I grew older, my helplessness became anger and frustration. Somewhere in our culture, something had been lost. So came my meeting with the beaver. It was Easter morning, and my family drove past his collapsed form on a busy road. He was the second one hit, in that exact spot, that week. I couldn't leave him. I returned alone, with a trash bag and rubber gloves, and delicately removed his lifeless form from the pavement. I'd heard of braintanning, but knew almost nothing about it. I walked into the woods with the beaver, my dull Kershaw, a pick axe, and a pickle jar. An hour later, I walked out with my objective.

This simple act changed everything. I became obsessed with tanning, got a license to pick up roadkill, and eventually learned to butcher and eat the meat as well. I began to understand the sacrifice that food is, whether it be carrot or carcass. It was my doorway into the world of relearning ancient skills, of developing a real, give-and-take relationship with the Earth. I began to understand what we've lost.

Laura Zerra is a friend of Trackers and an instructor at Roots School, an incredible wilderness school in Vermont. They offer the awesome 1 day a month Wilderness Survival Immersion Project.

Write Comment