By Stephen Le Quesne
ONE of my favourite scenes in a film – from a film that is not too bad, but not great either – is from the Legend of Tarzan, starring Alexander Skarsgard and Margot Robbie. It was directed by David Yates (of Harry Potter fame) and released in 2016 with reviews being mixed and middling at best.
What I do really like about the film is the portrayal of the connection that the Tarzan character has to the natural world and more specifically the animals that called the jungles of Western Africa their home.
The scene in question is called Elephants in the Night (you can find it on YouTube) and it involves Tarzan and one of his companions (played by Samuel L. Jackson) being intercepted by forest elephants during the night while they travel through the rainforest. The scene is calm, soothing, with the elephant matriarch stopping to greet Tarzan (an old friend), before slowly walking away with the herd, back into the depths of the rainforest.
I know this all sounds a bit… out of the box, but please bear with me. The fact that Tarzan greets the matriarich by saying, “My old friend” and then, while laying his hand on the base of her trunk, says, “Elephants eyes speak the greatest language – who else can make you feel so much without a word”, shines a window into another world. It explores the subject of there being a deeper connection, a symbiosis and an understanding of the animal world around them. It is a beautiful scene, and one that has stayed with me ever since I first watched it.
Whenever I feel a bit hectic, a bit lost or that I am losing my connection to the natural world, I watch this scene, and it brings me back.
I suppose you could term how I feel about this piece of cinema as spiritual, but I prefer not to name it, define it or tag any label to it. The scene resonates with me as I have felt this connection before, this sense of belonging and understanding, when I have travelled and worked in wild and remote places.
In 2021, as part of the training for my guiding qualifications within the Okavango Delta, the group I was with had to spend time sleeping and camping under the stars. The qualification demanded it, especially for our stargazing module. The Okavango Delta in places is truly wild. Owing to this, we were put on shifts to keep the fire going through the night and to keep watch. The temperature was warm, the night’s sky clear and as a group we decided to do away with our tents and only use our sleeping mats and sleeping bags.
Yes, we needed two people to always stay on watch to keep us safe, but I never felt in danger or that what we were doing was dangerous. It made me feel alive. When you are somewhere where nature is truly in control, then there is a balance, an understanding, an unspoken agreement that we would not disturb the elephants, the lions, the hippos, and the animals living around us, and in return they would leave us alone. We obviously had to use common sense, but overall, we were safe, with nothing but a clear night sky and the distant sound of lions and hippos to remind us of where we were.
I know this was a unique and special experience, which is not for everyone nor available to everyone. If I could transfer and bottle up this “feeling’, then I would, and I would give it away for free.
Connection and a sense of belonging is so incredibly important. Feeling a part of something, whether it is in a family, a religion or belief system, a sports club or a strong friendship group. It can be everything to us.
I struggle to keep my nature connection with me daily, mainly because I am so busy, but I try to remind myself how important it is. The science is now telling us that connection to nature is key to our health, mainly because our minds have not evolved as quickly as human society around us.
Human connection to nature has declined 60% in the past 200 years and we are at risk from a genuine “extinction of experience”. Nature connectedness is accepted as a key cause of the current environmental crisis. It unites people and nature’s wellbeing.
Steeping outside into nature is not a given, but a privilege and one we must enable for as many people as possible. This can be direct contact, or indirect contact as access to nature is not equitable.
This connection is why my interests and studies have arrived at the door of therapeutic wilderness practice and wilderness psychotherapy. Connection and making connections. I do hope in the years to come that we begin to recognise and realise how important nature is for all of us. Nature connectedness and how we connect to each other need to be at centre of nature’s recovery.
Stephen Le Quesne is a naturalist and outdoor learning instructor.
