Proposed Hawk Board UNESCO Application for the National Inventory
Title. Falconry and raptor keeping
1. Short description
Please describe your element as if a friend / family member with no prior knowledge of the element asked you to tell them about it.
The Hawk Board represents about 24,000 practitioners who keep raptors for falconry, breeding, conservation, education, centres, shows, displays, rehabilitation, pest control, racing and as a hobby.
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2. Please tell us more information about your element
Please include details about: Who the community of practice is (including active participants and knowledge bearers, and/or your audience, if relevant); Where it takes place (including any connections to other parts of the UK or internationally); How often your element is practised; Any associated objects such as the tools, instruments, costumes, materials or products; and If there are any commercial activities relating to your element - how do they benefit the community. Please note, brand names or trademarks should not be included unless they are part of the title of the living heritage.
Our practitioners continue our traditional art of Falconry (hunting wild quarry by means of trained hawks) all over UK using both our British species, exotic species and hybrid birds of prey. Now we breed our own raptors self-sustainably so no longer use wild-sourced birds. Our breeders are internationally respected for the quality of the raptors they produce, supporting falconry traditions in other countries. We also work on the conservation of British raptors, such as restoring the Goshawk, Red Kite and Barn Owl, as well as international species of raptors. Many Falconers visit schools, often with live birds to provide real life experience. Centres provide displays and courses and many rehabilitate injured raptors. The Houses of Parliament, airports and landfill sites are protected by professional teams of pest controllers using eco-friendly raptors. Others meet to race their birds, while many enjoy interacting with them as a hobby, establishing intense personal relationships such as Helen Macdonald’s in ‘H is for Hawk’. Owls are popular.
The equipment used, such as hoods and jesses, date back hundreds of years and are now supplemented by modern technology such as GPS tracking and training drones.
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3. Do you consider the element to be endangered, e.g. likely to die out?
Select one option:
No - your element is currently viable(it is in a healthy state and the skills / know-how are being passed to the next generation)
Yes - your element is endangered(the skills / know how can be passed on but there are serious concerns about their ongoing viability)
Yes - your element is critically endangered(there is a serious risk that the skills / know how won't be passed on and there are very few practitioners remaining)
4. Please outline information relating to your element's safeguarding
Please include details about: The history of how long it has been practised and how it has been passed on to now. How it is currently passed on and if there are any risks to it.
Although the bones of 14 sea-eagles in the Isbister Chambered Cairn on Orkney, date back 5,000 years, the first evidence of Falconry is probably the stone cross at Bewcastle, dated 670 AD. Throughout the Middle Ages Falconry developed a huge following, only being ousted by the development of sporting firearms in the 18th Century. Falconry hung on in an unbroken cultural thread, finding a renaissance in the 1960s to the present day when domestically-bred raptors became widely available.
Falconry continues to this day in all parts of the UK, adapting to local conditions. Some activities, such as swinging a lure for a falcon, cannot be learned from books; it must be taught one to one, from one generation to the next. For example, some of us have taught lure swinging to many young Falconers practising today. But we in turn were taught by Phillip Glasier, who was taught by Capt Charles Knight, who was taught by Gerald Lascelles, Secretary to the Old Hawking Club in the 1870s. A lineage going back to the Tudors, Plantagenets and earlier.
Falconry has a massive heritage of literature and art, supplemented now by films, courses and online discussions. The clubs provide informal mentoring opportunities.
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5. Please outline how you have gathered free, prior and informed consent from the community in more detail
Please explain how the practising community has consented to your element of living heritage being submitted to the inventories. Please include details about: How you have engaged the community of your element in the submission process; Whether there are any concerns amongst the community(ies) in submitting your element to the inventory(ies).
The Hawk Board includes representatives from almost all the clubs and associations and meets four times a year. It also has six democratically elected Specialist members and consultants who meet on an ongoing basis online to cover issues and represent them to the government departments. The Hawk Board has a website and Facebook page and frequently posts on public forums for comments and feedback. In addition we hold conferences and seminars to which unaffiliated practitioners are invited.
Given that Falconry: A Living Heritage is inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List on behalf of 24 countries, UK practitioners are universally keen to see UK Falconry become the 25th inscription. Earlier draft of this submission have been circulated and refined and we have encountered no objections.
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6. Is there any additional information you would like to provide?
Falconry equipment making features on the List of Endangered Heritage Crafts https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/ but has undergone a revival in recent years. Other links include:
The Hawk Board: www.hawkboard.uk
British Falconers’ Club: www.britishfalconersclub.co.uk
Irish Hawking Club: www.irish.hawking.club.org
Welsh Hawking Club: www.welshhawkingclub.org
Raptor Breeders UK: rbuk.org
British Archives of Falconry: britisharchiveso_alconry.wordpress.com
British Falcon Racing Association: www.britishfalconracing.co.uk
Falconry Heritage Trust : http://www.falconryheritage.org/