Chapel Reflection – Conservation and Conversation

I think part of my role is to transport us beyond the comfortable and sometimes magical world of Shawnigan…. Today I would like us to reflect on ‘Conservation’ and ‘Conversation’ to give you an insight into something I care passionately about.

 

In the summer of 2018, Ms Conroy and Ms Agate led an EDGE trip to Zimbabwe. As those of you new to Shawnigan will come to discover, EDGE is an essential component of the Shawnigan experience and DNA. The acronym stands for Engagement, Development, Gratitude and Experience.

 

I trust that all those involved in the trip continue to reflect not on the impact Shawnigan had on local communities, but on the impact Zimbabwe – the people and the place – had on each member of the Shawnigan group and how their sense of gratitude has been developed.

 

Two current Grade 12 students, Katelyn and Hallie, were the only Grade 10s on the trip back in July 2018. As part of their trip, they visited Antelope Park and Hwange National Park and were introduced to the wonders of the indigenous wildlife.

 

In a former life and for many years, I used to co-lead annual wilderness trails for students in the iMfolozi Game Reserve in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. We would take students, on foot and in single file, into a wilderness section of the game reserve – far from guided safari tours in vehicles – to teach the students both how to survive in the bush and to respect the wildlife around us.

 

Cell phones, watches and all other distractions would be left behind. No emails or social media. Imagine 15 days on a wilderness trail with no cell phone. Utter bliss. It is no surprise that one’s senses become super-activated as you navigate the natural habitat of lions, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, water buffalos, and much more.

 

We would make camp somewhere along the banks of the Black iMfolozi river. Part of the magic of the experience centred on the conversations across cultures around the camp fire.

 

I am delighted to hear that the OuterEDGE trip to Horne Lake for Grade 8s centred on conversation and shared experience – and their collective spirit was not dampened by the rain. Our Prep students just came back from white water rafting on the Thompson River. Some of our Grade 9s are off this weekend on the Juan de Fuca trail on the west of the island with another group sea kayaking amongst the Gulf Islands. I have also heard reports of the girls of Stanton House sitting around a fire-pit on their verandah talking and singing over the first few weeks of term.

 

Back to Africa.

 

Then came night-watch – the guides and students would brush teeth, climb into sleeping bags on roll mats around the fire and slowly the bedtime conversations would subside into silence. One of us would be left on the first night-watch of the evening – and the responsibility of protecting nine other people from wildlife in its own habitat – and at large.

 

With no fences and armed only with a torch and a pathetically small penknife, your role is to keep the fire going at all times, move around the camp, take a pee on the perimeter to mark the territory with an unfamiliar smell to the wildlife, listen like you’ve never listened before to the sounds around you from the frankly a little alarming to quietly terrifying: hippo out of the river and eating vegetation close by to lions roaring in response across the valley, to the laughter of hyena (my least favourite) to something making splashing sounds in the river.

 

If there is cause for real alarm, you need to wake and alert the guide.

 

By the fire lies the group journal with entries – ranging from philosophical musings to reflections on being in the wilderness to personal insights. With no watch, you need to estimate an hour long-watch and then put the kettle on, make a cup of tea for the next person on watch, wake him or her – and start briefing as to what you have detected is out there.

 

I remember one student – Gregory his name was – took the first watch on the first night of a wilderness trail and I think, paralysed with fear, it was a maximum of ten minutes – although in his own mind it was well over an hour – before he woke up the next person.

 

You’re probably thinking: isn’t it more comforting to do the night-watch in pairs? The risk of pairs is that you draw comfort and security from talking to each other and fail to carry out your other responsibilities – and, in the dark, the wildlife draws dangerously closer to the camp.

 

The closest we came, over many wilderness trails, to alarm was when I awoke to panic in a camp perched on a hill-side ledge and a kudu, a large antelope with magnificent horns, was jumping over me on its escape route from a pack of wild dogs – now known as African hunting dogs – ranging below.

 

The guides used the trails for peace and reconciliation processes. One year, the guides took on trail a group of individuals from across political and religious divides in Northern Ireland – conversation around the camp-fire at the other end of the world and the responsibility of night watch and protecting your former enemy.

 

 

The iMfolozi is renowned for its population of white and black rhino.

 

The white (square lipped) rhino is a grazer of grass and the mother walks with her calf just in front of her. The black (hook-lipped) rhino is a browser of bushes and the mother always leads with the calf behind.

 

Their eyesight is poor but their hearing is acute and sense of smell sharp – with the black rhino, holding a dangerous reputation for charging at 50 km/h if one perceives actual or potential danger.

 

I have been charged by three white rhinos abreast, on a wilderness trail for adults, when they were disturbed when wallowing in the mud of a water hole by the high-pitched sound of a traillist’s Kodak camera film going into auto-rewind mode.

 

It seemed to happen in slow-motion rather than real time – and they carved swiftly away from us when they detected we were the human source of danger and standing on their escape route.

 

Two great friends (one of whom is Poppy’s godfather) are wilderness guides in the iMfolozi and work closely with the rhino anti-poaching unit.

 

Put your hands up if you have seen a rhino in the wild.

 

Put your hand up if you have ever seen this Zulu beaded rhino trophy that usually hangs on the wall in the Headmaster's Office.

 

You may (or may not) know that rhinos are hunted and poached relentlessly for their horns. Today’s statistics are that:

 

three rhinos are killed in Africa every day for their horns;

South Africa lost 1000 rhinos to poaching last year;

There has been a 9,000% growth in rhino poaching over a decade.

 

Beyond Africa, the demand (especially in Asia) for rhino horn is high for its perceived medicinal benefits and as a symbol of social status. An ounce of rhino horn is worth the equivalent of an ounce of gold on the black market.

 

In reality rhino horn is made of keratin – just like human nails – and has no proven magical power as medicine or aphrodisiac or cure for impotence. But the hunting continues – with many occasions when the rangers have found the rhinos still alive with their horns hacked off and orphaned calves in the nearby bushes.

 

Game rangers have tried different methods of thwarting the poachers – by dehorning the rhinos themselves under sedation or putting a special dye on the horn. To the conservation world’s horror, the poachers shot them anyway – having taken significant risks to track the rhino only to discover it hasn’t a horn, a poacher doesn’t want to waste time on tracking it again – and therefore shoots it anyway.

 

 

Tomorrow is World Rhino Day –

 

Many of you have entered Mr. Wilke’s Biology Lab and will have noticed the British Columbian and African wildlife hunting trophies hanging on the wall. If you look at old black and white photos of Shawnigan, you will see that they used to hang in pride of place in Old School, what is now Mitchell Hall – and also that we used to have an extraordinary Black Rhino trophy, tracked over three days and shot in 1905 in Kenya and donated to the school in 1978 by the grandson of the farmer.

 

The rhino trophy was sold by Shawnigan some years ago as a fund-raising initiative. David Cooper, the aforementioned grandson, as part of his commitment to wildlife conservation in Africa, challenged Shawnigan to step forward this year in support of saving rhinos, as a critically endangered species close to extinction – and it is a great pleasure to welcome David and Geri this morning to Chapel.

 

In recognition of World Rhino Day, Shawnigan will make a donation toward rhino conservation in Zimbabwe with Ms Conroy commissioned to ensure that the funding is channeled to two conservation projects that EDGE Zimbabwe partners with.

 

We also plan to direct a Founder’s Award towards supporting an African student or intern here in 2020-21 - in the spirit of giving back to Africa.

 

David wrote me a letter earlier in the year with the following observation: “Shawnigan’s black rhino horn is perhaps now more valuable and serving a more useful purpose as a steward of conservation and protection of both its kind and other [wildlife] than just hanging high up on a wall [at Shawnigan]. I suppose that the purpose of the original gift has now manifested itself in a new way.”

 

I rather like that.

 

But a photojournalist in this month’s edition of National Geographic captures the threat of extinction on our watch and the urgency underpinning a call to action:

 

“Without rhinos…we suffer a loss of imagination, a loss of wonder, a loss of beautiful possibilities. When we see ourselves as part of nature, we understand that saving nature is really about saving ourselves.”

 

From climate strikes to protecting our wildlife through ‘Conservation’, it’s important that – here at Shawnigan – we encourage you to engage in ‘Conversation’, to step up and speak out.

 

Richard D A Lamont

Headmaster

21^st September 2019