Activate, Innovate, Change: Unleashing Creativity in Climate Activism — Part 3
A co-produced blog series by Lizzie Lovejoy — poet, performer and picture maker- and pupils of XP School, Gateshead. Part of the Green Programme at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums.
Part 3 : CHANGE
‘We are all part of one ecosystem; we cannot be separated from one another.’
To listen to an audio recording of this blog by Lizzie Lovejoy, please click on the play button below.
During our final session together, we put together all the skills we’d been practising to create some final pieces. From collage to creative writing, the wonderful students communicated their ideas and opinions about environmental conversation, the changing environment and how it impacts the North East.
What else have our fantastic young people created? Two collages, a letter, one visual poem and one large scale illustration. My blog co-writer, Lizzie, created a powerful piece of writing about how it feels to lose local woodlands and forests:
‘Today isn’t a good day for me. In fact, it’s a terrible day for me. My eyes are spilling with tears as I wander down the land. I can’t believe this day has come. As I walk through the streets, I see the edge of the woods. The thought that I can walk through the woods today, one last time, occurs to me. I decide to go that way; it’s longer which means I’ll have more time to think about what’s really happening.
I step into the woods, the sun shining brightly through the trees. It’s so beautiful that it almost makes me feel better. Almost. The fresh scent of the grass and the colourful flowers swishing in the cooling wind. I just can’t think why anyone would want to harm a place like this.
I see the stump of a tree. Then another. Then another. There’s a huge area of the woods where the trees have been cut already. Probably sheets of paper by now. I try to imagine how it must feel to be felled. The pain, the sorrow… Today I can relate.
I see the flower beds that have been dug up and destroyed. Who would do that? The woodland is deteriorating. Being destroyed. The woods are important, and I don’t mean just for making paper. I mean for the health of our environment. For the housing of birds. It was so beautiful before and now it is ruined. It’s now a place of devastation. Today I can relate. I feel worse than before. Usually the beauty of the woods would make me feel less miserable, but now it is gone.
Why would someone harm our woods? Why?’
Freya focused on the brilliant pioneers that helped form our Northern cultural identity, looking at the people who made life better for our working-class communities with public transport and mining equipment. It started with steam trains, but now our railways are powered differently, and are an environmentally strong option for distance travel compared to individual cars.
Molly was inspired by Roker lighthouse in Sunderland. Using an illustrated postcard from a previous project with Sunderland CoLab and Seascapes, she wrote a letter to the people living by our coast. Elina developed a visual poem/ illustration, forming a tree from the word trees. She was interested by the idea that all trees communicate with each other, with an underground network of roots. All of the trees together make one tree. We are all part of one ecosystem; we cannot be separated from one another.
Isaac wondered what it would be like when the seas rise so high that entire continents disappear. He used green and blue paper from our previous projects to cut out the continents and create a world map — only this one has some pieces missing. Europe is lost under the waves. James found a sense of joy in collage. Over the weeks, he repeatedly created stories for the men in the Tyne & Wear Archive photographs, imagining their lives by the water. In this latest piece, he submits a call to action, honouring the people of the past, celebrating current steps being made to take care of the environment and requesting that people of the future continue down a path of care for life on our planet.
Throughout this blog post you may have noticed a series of illustrations. These are drawings I created of the young people while they were developing their fantastic works of protest and celebration. I was inspired by their determination and passion for our world, committed to sharing their views and making a difference. After witnessing their care for the lives of trees, I have adapted a poem I started a while ago, about ancient trees that live with us.
The Yew
I was here in the beginning,
since before humans were living
in this place, now their town.
Yes, my roots were in the ground
long before you all came around
to build my church yard.
The people, they come and they go
I watch as they grow
and slow
then decay.
It’s with me that they stay,
in my church yard.
I hold up the weight of birds and children.
They clamber over my branches
taking chances
with gravity, and my trunk hollowed by time,
as they climb
in my church yard.
Time is different,
I watch, I listen.
You all move too fast
while going past
to catch
a word that I am saying,
not just the children playing
but those who are not ready,
their steps unsteady
as they come through to mourn and bury
in my church yard.
So many
hungry for answers, I would
give if I could
but our meeting
is fleeting,
though it’s your life whole.
When the bell tolls
and you’re past fully grown
I’ll stay with you until you’re unknown
in the earth of my church yard.
I am not death.
I am the guardian of the dead,
I will go with you into the dark.
Press your palms up to my bark
while you live
and I will give
you my company
in your eternity
of rest next to me
in my church yard.
I am Yew.
I witness you.
I am seemingly eternal,
existing in the liminal
9000 years in this spot
and you chose to share my plot
to place your graves around my body,
as though it was godly
to be close to me
at the end.
But the truth is that I will be your friend.
Companion, at your side, keeping guard
here in my church yard.
