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Winsor Dinner - Genesis of an Idea
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THE GENESIS OF AN IDEA
To: Jim Posewitz
Something wonderful happened last Saturday night.
Tish and I hosted a wild game dinner for about thirty friends. We asked hunters to bring their game. We asked non-hunters to bring vegies, salads and desserts....
There were more than several anti-hunters who came to our party. I read the enclosed adaption from Beyond Fair Chase before we sat down to dinner.
Every anti-hunter took me aside or called the next day and told me that for the first time, they now better understood hunting. It changed their minds. Several of my hunting companions have called to request a copy; saying that, before hearing these words, they had never been able to defend hunting....
So thanks for somehow capturing the words that many thoughtful hunters have been struggling to articulate.
Best regards,
John Winsor
Illustrations by Lisa Harvey
One of the primary purposes of hunting is to exercise our need to remain a part of the natural world. We still have the desire to participate in the natural process. Our developed world is becoming separated from nature; it is becoming artificial. Our meat comes shrink-wrapped, supermarketstamped, with an expire date and price. We stand in the check-out lane and never think about the natural process; the animal (or vegetable) that sacrificed its life for our sustenance. Even the outdoors is often delivered through the window of a tour bus, or processed through TV, videos, and theme parks that mock reality.
Hunting is one of the last ways we have to exercise our passion to
belong to the earth, to be part of the natural world, to participate in the
ecological drama, and to nurture the ember of wilderness within ourselves.
In the beginning, humans hunted to live. Today some still live to hunt. Originally it was a matter of survival to utilize what was killed. Today, using what is killed is essential to ethical hunting.
There is a lot to think about and be thankful for. It is well to think
of these things when we claim an animal that is, in so many ways, a
precious gift. It is a gift that comes to you from ancestral hunters in the
caves of our origins, from native hunters of all lands, from those who won our independence from kings, from our nation’s first conservationists, and from all those who work to protect wild places and the wildlife that lives there. Most of all, it is a gift that comes from the land. Appreciate it.
(This reading is a good way to open the evening)
Winsor’s adaptation from
Beyond Fair Chase: The Ethic and Tradition of Hunting...
Why Hunting?
HONORING THE ANIMAL
AND THE EXPERIENCE
The North American hunting tradition has many ways of
acknowledging, honoring and displaying hunting trophies. At the same
time we all know that it is the experience of hunting that we value and
treasure. Until now we have not had a way to bring those experiences
before our community to be honored. These dinners change that.
They are a way of honoring the physical and emotional nourishment
that attends hunting.
BACKGROUND OF THE ORION-WINSOR
DINNERS PROGRAM
The concept for Orion-Winsor Dinners program originated with... Colorado hunter John Winsor, who inspired the concept of bringing together both hunters and non-hunters for a banquet in celebration of the gifts of the land. Traditionally, Winsor asked that the hunting guests bring the meat (game) dishes and the non-hunters bring vegetable dishes and salads. In 1994, Winsor modified the format slightly by reading from Jim Posewitz’s Beyond Fair Chase before dinner began. The reaction to the reading was unexpected but extremely encouraging. Non-hunters (and even anti-hunters) commented that for the first time they understood the link between ethical hunting and appreciation for land and natural resources. Perhaps even more significantly, the hunters in attendance indicated that the experience provided them with the words necessary to explain the hunt’s very personal (and often difficult to convey) meanings to non-hunters.
A study sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and conducted by the National Wildlife Federation and Cornell University. “Teaching and Evaluating Outdoor Ethics Education Programs” concluded: “Unfortunately... many of the traditional methods of teaching ethics are not necessarily effective.” The study suggests that the following teaching methods influence positive behavioral changes, and have the potential to instill an improved outdoor ethic:
• group consensus building,
• the role of community including parents, family,
and neighborhood,
• teachers as guides—not authority figures,
• a positive climate for mutual respect, and
• the importance of peer teaching, counseling
and support.
Orion-Winsor Dinners meet these criteria for advancing ethical behavior, and are designed to encourage, strengthen and display hunter ethics among hunters of all ages, those learning to be hunters, non-hunters, anti-hunters, individuals within the media, and community opinion leaders A broad range of purposes can be selected from as you custom design your Orion-Winsor Dinner. As an educational and community outreach tool, consider the following objectives:
• establish community or group standards for hunter ethics
• outreach to non-hunters and the media by displaying hunter
mentoring and sharing a sensitive and profound component
of hunting
• convey positive hunting experiences and relationships to
hunters who may be without the traditional family mentoring
• reinforce ethical behavior by respecting hunting experiences,
that like the game itself, will be brought to the table to
be shared and honored.
The potluck design of the dinner is simple—an adaptation of the American tradition of Thanksgiving, story telling, sharing positive behavior and creating role models. Embodied in this simple design, however, is a strong demonstration that ethical hunting is anchored in:
• a deep respect for wildlife,
• an intimate association with the land, and
• an appreciation of the opportunity to be a hunter.
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