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Walking Forest

Walking Forest

Walking Forest is a 10 year artwork that culminates in the planting of a new intentional woodland by 2028 to mark the connection between women, activism and trees. Awakening a collective sense of what it is to feel responsible for and to be able to respond to the natural world, Walking Forest creates an international web of women Earth activists of all ages, exploring links between local and global Earth Defenders, natural forest networks, artists and communities.

Overview of Activity

THE CAMP

Walking Forest will hold a camp for Coventry women (defined as anyone who identifies as a woman) during May 2021, and a live public action the following month in June. A series of live public actions and engagements through the summer, autumn on the road to COP 26 in November. Coventry City of Culture 2021 is the start of that ten-year multi-media participatory art project.  

Part of the #Greenfutures programme for Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 and in partnership with #SeasonsForChange, the Walking Forest Camp will provide a creative space for environmental activists to learn from women earth defenders globally, and local women change-makers, with their stories of courage and determination.  Drawing inspiration from the natural world, particularly trees (both globally and in Coventry), the camps will explore regenerative culture based on care and co-operation; explore varied forms of creative expression; share knowledge around practical tree propagation, and consider the most effective forms of support for action and positive change.

THE ACTION

The Climate and biodiversity crisis threatens peace worldwide. As a City of Peace, Coventry will host a walking action that connects social and ecological justice and places it at the heart of the city for a day in June, helping to seed a wider conversation about the crisis and possible solutions. Co-created with a wide range of participants this performative action will take learning from the camp, reveal creative expression and give voice to women activists from across the city.

 

Image: Hands holding roots, image by The Walking Forest

Image: Hands holding roots, image by The Walking Forest

About the Project

‘We are on Earth to be pollinators, we carry seeds’ Robin Harford, Forager.

100 years ago, Suffragettes and Suffragists took a stand in the UK to get votes for women, showing ‘ordinary’ people can make extraordinary change.  Walking Forest explores how women today are making a stand for nature and how the natural world might be represented in legal and political systems for the safe future of our planet.  

Inspired by stories of women change-makers from the past and the present, Walking Forest seeds a network of links between women of all ages and from across the world who act in order to change the way we see nature and our place within it.  Walking Forest gives a creative space to embolden women to take an active role in making this change with ongoing work at COP26 and building towards the planting of an ‘intentional forest’ to honour women earth defenders.

Walking Forest Coventry Event: Map and Timetable

Events

Walking Forest Coventry

A Performance Action across Coventry  

Dawn on Friday October 15th until Dusk Saturday October 16th 

‘Courage calls to courage everywhere’ Millicent Fawcett (1913) 

A felled tree moves through the streets of Coventry, carried by a large group of women.  An act of endurance and love for the planet and future generations. Planting seeds of courage across the city as they go.

See event page