OAK AND SMOKE TANNERY

18th - 24th March 2024 - Dartmoor, Devon 

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Honouring the Deer is a deep dive into relationship with the deer, and will be simultaneously deeply practical and soulfully prayerful.

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Over six days and nights, we will be exploring Honouring The Deer, to better understand this mythic creature, once known to be a symbol of the wildness and fertility of this land.

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You will learn the practical skills of how to use every part of the deer; for food, tools, beauty, ceremony, warmth and more. And, whilst we have not inherited the ceremonies and rituals which of course would have accompanied such a time of sacred and abundant harvest, we will explore together what it might mean to unearth these ceremonies, to honour and give thanks for this greatest of gifts: life.

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Following the trails of deer through the woods is not always easy - and so it is with following the subtle tracks and signs leading us back to the restoration of ancestral lifeways.

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As humans, we have evolved closely with the hooved ones - in climates across the world, they have walked beside us, fed and clothed us… in many regards, they have made us.

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Throughout our time together we will be exploring these questions:

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• How do we honour this death? What does it look like to honour these animal kin?

• How do we stay present and allow ourselves to feel all that arises in the face of death, particularly one we have a part in causing?

• What would it be like to remember our trails as humans on this land?

• How do we become worthy of asking someone to die so we may live?

• How can we be in reciprocity?

• What culture can emerge when we honour an animal’s life and make beauty from their body?

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During our explorations, we will make camp in the ancient woodland and meadow on Dartmoor National Park, Devon.

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The purpose of the land regeneration project here, and indeed within this offering itself, is to understand how we as humans can assist in restoring the land to health, whilst simultaneously tending to our own hearts and bodies.

To explore our place as humans in the web of life, weaving ourselves in with joy, respect, reciprocity, humility, and gratitude. A deep remembering, through bloodied hands, full bellies and aching hearts.

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We intend to gather together in community as we collectively grieve and celebrate this most ancient of gifts. As we remember our place as hunters, as beauty weavers, gratitude gatherers and feast makers.

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Over the course of the six days and nights, we will explore:

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Skinning & hide tanning, Butchery, Meat processing and preservation, Tracking, Trailing & Deer behaviour, Bone, sinew, antler & hoof craft, Deer mythology & co-created Ceremony

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Butchery and cooking

• Processing a whole deer - from carcass to plate.

• Jerky making

• Earth oven pit roast

• Fat rendering

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Bone, Antler & Hoof craft

• Tools

• Jewellery and buttons

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Hide tanning

• Leg skin pouches

• Tanning a collective hair-on bark tanned deer skin

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Tracking & Trailing

• Learn how to identify the tracks and signs left by deer

• Explore deer behaviour to better understand where they might be in a landscape

• Experience finding and following a fresh deer trail with the hope of seeing the animal

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Ceremony

• Co-creating ceremony with the land to honour death and life and remember what we ought not to forget.

… Reaching a place where we can’t help but be grateful, where we cannot help but know ourselves to be with the vitality of the hooved ones, and the health of the land on which we each walk.

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Your Facilitators

This is a collaboration between Jessie Watson Brown of Oak and Smoke Tannery and Lucy O'Hagan of Wild Awake Ireland

 

Where?

This offering will take place in a beautiful ancient woodland and meadow on Dartmoor National Park, Devon. We will sit between a deer-filled woodland and the high moorland. We will be camping so please bring your own tent. Full kit list will be provided. There are some options to rent cabins with woodburners for an extra cost.

 

 

When?

18th (5pm) - 24th (12pm) March 2024 

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What’s included?

• Simple breakfasts and deer-full dinners on all days

• Camp kitchen, toilet, sheltered, heated communal yurt and covered fireplace, Sauna

• Drinking water & hot drinks

• All materials for class

• Tuition from practitioners who have been honing & teaching these crafts for over 8 years

• Fireside deer mythology with a local storyteller

• Meeting with local hunter and land tender to explore the role of the deer in local ecology

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What’s not included?

• Transport to and from the venue (though we can facilitate lift shares)

• Lunch and snacks

• Camping equipment

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Who’s it for?

Anyone and everyone with a love for the wild, a desire to explore the above questions and and a wish to connect in a nature-based community. No experience necessary. We are welcoming adults and families on this course. Please get in touch if you wish to bring children.
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£600 (we have concessionary places available, just ask by emailing honouringthedeer@gmail.com)

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A non-refundable deposit of £150 will secure your place. Full payment will be required by 5th February.

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