Hunting With Intention: Learning From the Land, Honoring What Sustains Us, and Inviting Others In
By Daphne Williams, hunter and Artemis Ambassador.
I fell in love with hunting by following those who came before me. Growing up, I trailed behind my grandfather as he hunted, trapped, and farmed. I was the little girl in the woods, asking questions, being told to hush, and learning by watching. Hunting wasn’t something added to our lives; it was woven into our days. It’s how we got our food, how we learned to respect the land, and how it shaped who I am from the very beginning.
Today, I am a proud hunter and Artemis Ambassador. Every day, I am inspired and motivated to help other women step into the outdoors with confidence, especially those who may not have seen themselves represented in this space before.
My cultural roots are African American and also Latino, and that background deeply shapes my relationship to the land. I grew up surrounded by traditions, food, stories, and ways of caring for what sustains us. The outdoors has always been where those pieces of my identity connect. For me, it is as much about family, memory, and culture as it is about time on the land.
When I returned to hunting more seriously about twelve years ago, I realized how differently I had learned compared to many others. I didn’t grow up with trail cameras, food plots, or corn piles. I came to know the land by being in it, looking for where the deer bed down, where their trails cross, and how the ground changes with the seasons. Even now, I feel most grounded by walking and noticing, rather than predicting.
One of the core values at the center of how I hunt is simple: if you kill it, you eat it. That’s how I was raised. Hunting isn’t about trophies or show; it’s about intention and respect. I pay attention to timing, to the balance of the land, and to what the animal teaches in its life and in its taking. I want my kills to be ethical, to honor the life given and the land that supported it.
When I become an Artemis Ambassador, I learned so much about the public access the outdoors. Until then, I had always hunted on family or friends’ land and had never set foot on public land. Artemis opened my eyes to how important public land access is, especially for women who didn’t grow up with land to hunt or access to hunting clubs. Sometimes, the hardest part is simply not knowing where to begin or not seeing someone who looks like you in the woods.
Artemis gave me community, knowledge, and the understanding that we don’t have to learn these skills alone. The women I’ve met care deeply about conservation, about land and wildlife, and about making sure others have access too. Knowledge is power, and when we share it, we open doors for others.
For me, it is really powerful it is to feel at home in the outdoors, and I want others to feel the same way. A connection to land is something many of us already carry in our culture, in our families, in our memories. When I step into the woods, I am choosing to keep that alive and I want other women to know this connection is theirs to claim, too.
