Ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8th, and with the help of the Gorenje Museum, we are reviving stories and honoring the courageous, kind-hearted, inventive, hardworking, entrepreneurial, persistent, and even stubborn women of Bohinj, whose actions are sometimes difficult to imagine in the time they lived. Today, Ivana Ceklin will join us.
Ivana Ceklin from Stara Fužina is best known as a poacher. She came from a family where poaching was a tradition. She met a hunter who asked her what she was carrying. As a shepherdess, she worked in the pastures of Voje and Krstenica. Once, on Krstenica, she caught a roe deer in a snare and carried the meat down to the valley in a shoulder bag. She met a hunter who asked her what she was carrying. Without hesitation, she replied that it was a woodcock. They both continued on their separate ways.
During the hardships of World War I, she used her poaching skills to help alleviate the hunger of her own and her sister’s family. She was reported only after World War II, and in exchange for serving a weekly prison sentence, she paid with cheese and sausages that she had in her luggage.
POACHING
Poaching was legally forbidden but often necessary for survival, especially during and after both world wars. The most commonly hunted animals were chamois, roe deer, and fish. During times of greater hunger, poaching also led to a significant decrease in the number of game animals. Only the most skilled and resourceful individuals became proficient poachers. When there was no war, most poaching was done with snares. They chose terrains that were inaccessible to the gamekeepers due to their remoteness or danger. Women also engaged in poaching, most often with snares, usually while tending to the herds in the mountains. The gamekeepers often turned a blind eye to them.
Information: Anja Poštrak, mag. Barbara Kalan / Gorenjski Museum
Photographs: Bohinj Collection II, 2012, p. 103 / Gorenjski Museum
