Tracking, Tending and Questing in Community
Tracking and Questing in South Africa
by Scott Davidson, stories of being called to South Africa, of circles clearly serving
6th International Guides Gathering in Western Cape and Tracker Academy in the Great Karoo - October 2014
The Backstory and Original Instructions...
by Scott Davidson, stories of being called to South Africa, of circles clearly serving
6th International Guides Gathering in Western Cape and Tracker Academy in the Great Karoo - October 2014
The Backstory and Original Instructions...
This Autumn I was deeply honored to be invited to South Africa as a quest guide and wildlife tracker. Exploring South Africa has been a big dream of mine, the birth place of all human ancestors, a place where people still track big wildlife in reciprocity, where people still hear Mandela’s call to freedom ringing in their healing ears. South Africa is extraordinarily diverse, complex and vulnerable on all levels, in the midst of massive transition. Big changes are inevitable, but not necessarily for the greater good. I went by invitation to join the 6th International Rites of Passage Guides Gathering with the generous support of Global Rites of Passage (my wholehearted Thank you!), and to guide for the Tracker Academy in the Great Karoo. With deep consideration and listening (Does this trip serve? Whom does it serve? Am I the right person?), I said yes to this invite then found home again and again in service on the other side of the Earth.
An altar at the Wilderness Guides Council 2014 Gathering
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Setting a trap with Rennias and Alex in the Cuyama Valley, CA
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The Nature of Council at Three Creeks with the School of Lost Borders
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There are many stories within stories worth telling here, about the power, beauty and healing of the 6th International Rite of Passage Guides Gathering in a fynbos paradise, about tracking porcupines, mongoose and springbok on the beach with Dave on the southern coast. But this one begins before my visit to South Africa, perhaps with the Nature of Council through the School of Lost Borders at Three Creeks in the Owen’s Valley, CA. But then it would include the original invitations last Spring during the annual WGC Gathering at Ocean Song as well as Alex and Ren’s invite to bring tools for rites of passage to the Tracker Academy in SA while we tracked together in the Cuyama Valley, California…
I don’t quite know how to tell this story, or even where it begins. But I know it has to be told. It may have begun several years ago with that Kestrel on the windy slopes behind my home along the northern coast of CA, showing me what it’s like to live a life fully gifted, skilled and in beautiful service to his nesting family as he hunted with the storm, without struggle… Or maybe this story begins the day my father became the city manager of a small town early in his marriage with Mom, the day his lifelong career in service began with that community long before I was born… Or when my great-great-uncle Johannes Shoemaker from Holland made his love visible by establishing the shoe factory outside of Portland, OR, now the respected Wesco Shoe Company… Or when my Davidson Clan ancestors fled from the hills of Scotland to protect their families, digging ever deeper within themselves for clarity and courage, prayer and persistence, with a longing to belong…
I don’t quite know how to tell this story, or even where it begins. But I know it has to be told. It may have begun several years ago with that Kestrel on the windy slopes behind my home along the northern coast of CA, showing me what it’s like to live a life fully gifted, skilled and in beautiful service to his nesting family as he hunted with the storm, without struggle… Or maybe this story begins the day my father became the city manager of a small town early in his marriage with Mom, the day his lifelong career in service began with that community long before I was born… Or when my great-great-uncle Johannes Shoemaker from Holland made his love visible by establishing the shoe factory outside of Portland, OR, now the respected Wesco Shoe Company… Or when my Davidson Clan ancestors fled from the hills of Scotland to protect their families, digging ever deeper within themselves for clarity and courage, prayer and persistence, with a longing to belong…
This story has many beginnings, this time with the original invitations that led me there, of being myself and in the natural flow of life. Moments of co-leading the Wilderness Guides Council annual gathering on the northern California coast, being myself in gifted service, letting myself shine, then being invited to the International Gathering… Moments of trailing deer in the Cuyama Valley, CA, with Alex and Ren from South Africa, fully engaged with my body while tracking the land, swapping stories of mentoring and initiation while making friction fires before dinner, being in my passions, then being invited to share skills with the Tracker Academy in SA… Both were moments of grace, being in perfect flow guided by original instructions to be fully in my truth, fully expressed within the greater ecology of life.
How else are we to be? Does this sound familiar, being in the right time and place, ready to respond? The art of living may be just that, allowing ones love to flow freely, with mind-heart-body-spirit conducting life energy without resistance, like a hollow bone played beautifully by God. Our love made visible often invites even more love to serve, indications of being on the right path, this time with me meeting the moments fully in South Africa.
I was so stoked as a wildlife tracker to follow trails of South African animals. Rhinos and cheetahs! Hyenas and kudu on this epic landscape, yes! So humbled and stoked. And I was honored to bring “skills in rites of passage,” as Alex called it, to the Tracker Academy. But what do they actually need, how would this work translate? Will this ceremony from indigenous North America serve in South Africa? Honestly I wasn’t sure, but I was willing and deeply trusting.
In truth, this was a first for me, to guide people in transition across the threshold in a vastly different part of the world, in this case students that did not explicitly ask for this kind of support. The instructors cleared the normal program schedule for the week of our visit, but what’s actually needed, what will serve them well? This isn’t lecture-and-chalkboard work that I plug into classrooms. This work is relational, in the moment, every time. I know from countless personal experiences and mythologies alike that transitions need to be marked in community, otherwise we cling to the past and feel lost in our longing. Maybe the transitional nature of the Tracker Academy is enough for us to work with, a year of transition far from home to learn tracking and leadership skills. Within a year, their lives have transformed with new careers and opportunities to support their families. In the absence of an obvious transition like a send-off ceremony from home or the graduation week to mark the new beginning, maybe we’ll meet the poignant moments as they arise with students and listen for what serves.
How else are we to be? Does this sound familiar, being in the right time and place, ready to respond? The art of living may be just that, allowing ones love to flow freely, with mind-heart-body-spirit conducting life energy without resistance, like a hollow bone played beautifully by God. Our love made visible often invites even more love to serve, indications of being on the right path, this time with me meeting the moments fully in South Africa.
I was so stoked as a wildlife tracker to follow trails of South African animals. Rhinos and cheetahs! Hyenas and kudu on this epic landscape, yes! So humbled and stoked. And I was honored to bring “skills in rites of passage,” as Alex called it, to the Tracker Academy. But what do they actually need, how would this work translate? Will this ceremony from indigenous North America serve in South Africa? Honestly I wasn’t sure, but I was willing and deeply trusting.
In truth, this was a first for me, to guide people in transition across the threshold in a vastly different part of the world, in this case students that did not explicitly ask for this kind of support. The instructors cleared the normal program schedule for the week of our visit, but what’s actually needed, what will serve them well? This isn’t lecture-and-chalkboard work that I plug into classrooms. This work is relational, in the moment, every time. I know from countless personal experiences and mythologies alike that transitions need to be marked in community, otherwise we cling to the past and feel lost in our longing. Maybe the transitional nature of the Tracker Academy is enough for us to work with, a year of transition far from home to learn tracking and leadership skills. Within a year, their lives have transformed with new careers and opportunities to support their families. In the absence of an obvious transition like a send-off ceremony from home or the graduation week to mark the new beginning, maybe we’ll meet the poignant moments as they arise with students and listen for what serves.
To me, this is a story about being in flow. It’s about accepting an invitation, claiming ones gifts, listening deeply for what truly serves and choosing to let it flow, one time while making a friction fire for our camp after a chilly day of following fresh deer trails the Cuyama Valley, California.
High desert wildlands of Apache Canyon in the Cuyama Valley, CA, dotted with pinons and junipers, home to deer, bear, puma, coyote...
It was unseasonably cold and wet for the high desert in March, and yet great conditions for finding and following fresh wildlife trails all day, day after day, with Alex van den Heever and Rennias Mhlongo, both Senior Trackers and career tracking guides from South Africa. My dear friend Meghan Walla-Murphy invited Alex and Renn to California to offer wildlife tracking programs together in the Cuyama Valley, surprisingly diverse high desert Piñon-Juniper country. I joined as a friend for the weekend, offering logistical support for them while learning with them. It was incredible to track with these guys, among the best trackers in the world. And now it was time to thaw our fingers and toes beside the fire back at camp while swapping stories. Spinning a coal with a hand drill then blowing it to flame is one of my favorite things in the world, right up there with following a fresh trail and guiding courageous souls across the threshold in ceremony. There’s really no where else I’d rather be.
Stories came out around that campfire, as they do. I shared a fresh one, that when I learned the year before at the Wilderness Guides Council national gathering that the next international guides gathering was going to be hosted in South Africa, my whole body filled with electricity. Zing! My whole body said Yes! Do you know that feeling? It didn’t really make sense, to go all that way to sit in circle with guides. But I was clearly called to serve this global call to higher consciousness, to deeper healing and connection in this global community. In this time of great change and destabilization on Earth, what can anyone do? What matters most now? To me, it’s an invitation to know your truth, connect deeply with nature and be of gifted loving service in community. Yes, continue to mentor boys and empower girls in my own watershed here in Marin County, CA. And yes, go to South Africa, serve them well, and then bring back lessons and medicine for the people here. I knew I had to go, and not just for my own adventures. I wondered how to best serve. (Big thanks to Global Rites of Passage for the support in getting there!)
It felt right to share a bit around that fire among people who can relate to these potent moments. We all have stories that need to be heard, and trackers are very often very good listeners. It was an innocent moment of humbly expressing myself and vision through a simple story. Alex recognized something valuable in these stories and in me. Alex and others co-founded the Tracker Academy in South Africa which trains disadvantaged rural people in the traditional skills of wildlife tracking. They done an excellent job of training future trackers, and they’re curious about how to support this human rite of fully becoming a responsible member of the community, how to transition from adolescence to adulthood in service.
“Come spend a week with us at the Tracker Academy,” Alex said. “We’ll train you on following Eland and Rhino in the Karoo in exchange for your skills in rites of passage for a week.” My body zinged with electricity again, as if in flow with original instructions guided by God.
Stories came out around that campfire, as they do. I shared a fresh one, that when I learned the year before at the Wilderness Guides Council national gathering that the next international guides gathering was going to be hosted in South Africa, my whole body filled with electricity. Zing! My whole body said Yes! Do you know that feeling? It didn’t really make sense, to go all that way to sit in circle with guides. But I was clearly called to serve this global call to higher consciousness, to deeper healing and connection in this global community. In this time of great change and destabilization on Earth, what can anyone do? What matters most now? To me, it’s an invitation to know your truth, connect deeply with nature and be of gifted loving service in community. Yes, continue to mentor boys and empower girls in my own watershed here in Marin County, CA. And yes, go to South Africa, serve them well, and then bring back lessons and medicine for the people here. I knew I had to go, and not just for my own adventures. I wondered how to best serve. (Big thanks to Global Rites of Passage for the support in getting there!)
It felt right to share a bit around that fire among people who can relate to these potent moments. We all have stories that need to be heard, and trackers are very often very good listeners. It was an innocent moment of humbly expressing myself and vision through a simple story. Alex recognized something valuable in these stories and in me. Alex and others co-founded the Tracker Academy in South Africa which trains disadvantaged rural people in the traditional skills of wildlife tracking. They done an excellent job of training future trackers, and they’re curious about how to support this human rite of fully becoming a responsible member of the community, how to transition from adolescence to adulthood in service.
“Come spend a week with us at the Tracker Academy,” Alex said. “We’ll train you on following Eland and Rhino in the Karoo in exchange for your skills in rites of passage for a week.” My body zinged with electricity again, as if in flow with original instructions guided by God.
One of my beloved teachers, Gigi Coyle, often asks when making big choices, “Does it serve to go?” Bring this question like a prayer deeply into yourself and to your community and to wild nature, then listen. If it serves all three, if it serves me and the people and the greater good with a clear Yes, then go. The big body of the Earth at my sit spot also clearly agreed, in particular a relaxed family of deer. Apparently I had good work to do in South Africa. Does it serve? On all levels, Yes.
After a week-long training with the Nature of Council at Three Creeks in California, Gigi and Win’s home and prayer made visible, I journeyed to the other side of the Earth with hand drill kits and smudge from home ready to share.
After a week-long training with the Nature of Council at Three Creeks in California, Gigi and Win’s home and prayer made visible, I journeyed to the other side of the Earth with hand drill kits and smudge from home ready to share.
Community of the 6th International Rites of Passage Guides Gathering in Standford Valley, Western Cape, South Africa - October 2014
Council pause beneath an old oak
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Council practice and altar
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Fynbos in full bloom
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This invitation to "bring skills in rites of passage" to the Tracker Academy moved by deeply. What does it even mean, to bring this to them? Will this particular structure and ceremony even translate to serve them well? Will it accidentally offend or fall flat? And who am I as a white dude from the States to bring ceremony and rites of passage to Africa?! That said, I trust in circles, in being curious and listening. I trust in natural movement, and in the beauty that emerges when deepening connections with each other, the land and ourselves. I trust in the truth at the center of the circle, and in my humbled abilities to guide something good for all here. This is personal and global peacemaking in practice. I was excited and ready to meet the moments well.
