Siarter y Coed - Charter of the Trees
Organised as a partnership between Utopias Bach, Prifysgol Bangor University, GwyrddNi and The Lore School,
as part of Ysgol Arbrofol Dod At Ein Coed Utopias Bach Tree Sense Experimental School
What rights do trees want? What rights do they have? What rights could they have? Which trees can we help? What if trees don't want rights?
These are all important questions that we would like to pose to think of ways that we can make use of the law that we already have, to create a Siarter y Coed to protect rights of trees that we may personally love and know, and all those beyond.
Within this, we would like to invite all creatures, whether arboreal or none, to join and learn of their rights, what their lore, and law, can teach us; and how we may advocate for them by re-imagining and re-awakening the legal frameworks we have.
Pa hawliau mae coed eu heisiau? Pa hawliau sydd ganddyn nhw? Pa hawliau allai fod ganddyn nhw? Pa goed allwn ni helpu? Beth os nad yw coed eisiau hawliau?
Mae’r rhain i gyd yn gwestiynau pwysig yr hoffem eu gofyn i feddwl am ffyrdd y gallwn wneud defnydd o’r gyfraith sydd gennym eisoes, i greu Siarter y Coed i ddiogelu hawliau coed y gallwn yn bersonol eu caru a’u hadnabod, a’r rheini i gyd tu hwnt.
O fewn hyn, dymunwn wahodd pob creadur, pa un bynag ai arborel ai dim, i ymuno a dysgwyl am eu hiawnderau, yr hyn a all eu llên, a'u cyfraith, ei ddysgu i ni; a sut y gallwn eiriol drostynt drwy ail-ddychmygu ac ailddechrau'r fframweithiau cyfreithiol sydd gennym.
You are invited to take part in one of our events, or to send your contribution in to be included in our Siarter y Coed scroll, which will be part of our Forest Comes to Pontio event on 27th May. The work will also continue in the future, so if you are interested, let us know!
Our next event is on Wednesday 9th May 1-3pm (BST) at @ White Box, Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre Deiniol Road Bangor LL57 2TQ.
We will be pulling together and adding to siarter y coed : charter of the trees (Part 1) as a giant scroll. This will be used (amongst other things!) as part of our ‘Forest Comes to Pontio’ finale event and performance on 27th May.
There will not be a zoom link to this meeting. All those unable to make the session are invited to send in their contributions by post, to Lisa Hudson who will stitch everything together.
Siarter y Coed Canlyniadau Sesiwn 1: Results of Session 1 Charter of the Trees (3.5.23)
This hybrid ‘Zoom-Room’ session started creating content of our Siarter y Coed, based on re-imagining human rights, nature rights, legislation/case law, folk-lore and customary (‘original’ or ‘indigenous’) law… (click on images to see larger). The session started with an introduction by Lucy Maddock-Finch, and then we ‘cut up’ and re-worked existing and historical law/lore.
Materials we drew on included:
Protected Trees: How to know which trees are protected by the woodland trust
The Honourable Harvest by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Should Trees have Standing? Christopher Stone (1972)
The Legal rights of the natural world – beyond personhood (easy read article)
Giving legal rights to animals, trees and rivers (easy read article in the Guardian)
Reproductive justice – Sister Song
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The European Convention on Human Rights
The results are shown here in case you’d like to build on them (if you click on an image it will pop up bigger).
Creating the Siarter y Coed Scroll (10.5.23)
And the full result!
Scroll to 5 minutes in to see the Siarter y Coed being created and then revealed as part of Forest Comes to Pontio performance.
