{"id":8455,"date":"2023-01-24T17:36:51","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T17:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/?p=8455"},"modified":"2024-05-29T12:00:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T11:00:22","slug":"celebrating-inclusive-access-to-nature-walking-and-talking-in-a-winter-wonderland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/?p=8455","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating diverse connections to nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the second of three linked blog posts produced by the NERC-funded \u2018Landscape Stories\u2019 team. (The first of the three posts is here: Talking the talk: storied walks in nature<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Walking and talking in a winter wonderland<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this post we reflect on a walk near Lewknor from December 2022. Together, members of the \u2018Dadima\u2019s<\/a>\u2019 Community Walking Group and researchers from the Open University walked along parts of the ancient ridgeway<\/a> as part of the NERC<\/a>-funded Landscape Stories Project<\/a>. (The Ridgeway is \u2018Europe\u2019s oldest continuously-used road. It runs from the World Heritage Site of Avebury to Ivinghoe Beacon and has been in use since the Stone Age. The Ridgeway is celebrating its 50th Anniversary<\/a> as a National Trail in 2023 under the patronage of the anthropologist Mary-Ann Ochota<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\"The

The Dadima\u2019s walking group and OU team, hiking near Lewknor. Credit: Harbind Singh.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Background<\/h2>\n

Through Landscape Stories we are using a storytelling approach to co-design and deliver our storied walks, combining scientific, cultural and historical facts (Anjana Khatwa, 2019<\/a>). Planning, coaching, rehearsals and reflection are central to our approach, supported by active listening<\/a> and an ability to step into the shoes of others to develop empathy and deeper understanding.<\/p>\n

Our three environmental scientists (Dr Yoseph Araya, Prof. Clare Warren and Dr Marcus Badger) collaborated with Dr Anjana Khatwa<\/a> and Professor Richard Holliman in preparing for this walk, and consulted with Dr Geeta Ludhra<\/a> as the Dadima\u2019s walk leader (and Board Member of Chilterns AONB<\/a>), to connect Earth and environmental science content, landscapes with everyday experiences, and personal narratives.<\/p>\n

We held joint planning meetings to discuss the nature and content of stories, and how they would better connect with the audience’s lived experiences. A dress rehearsal further helped to hone the content of the stories on the theme of \u2018celebration\u2019.<\/p>\n

As ever, Geeta\u2019s and Anjana\u2019s input into these discussions, where they drew on their lived experiences and community knowledge, was key to making creative connections between the science, culture and history.<\/p>\n

As examples of the talks, Marcus discussed ideas about the Ridgeway in the context of social history (celebration, commemoration) and longer-term geological changes. Yoseph told a story of two Christmases, one from Eritrea and one from the UK, and how plants are integral to many religious and cultural festivals. Finally, Clare sparked things into life with her story and a demonstration of flint and fire.<\/p>\n

‘Stories from an ancient ridgeway’ (Marcus Badger)<\/h2>\n

My story focused on the Ridgeway, an \u201cancient track\u201d. I explored what we mean by \u201cancient\u201d and \u201ctrack\u201d, and why these terms are both more complicated than they might seem.<\/p>\n

The theme of our walks was celebration so I explored sites of celebration near to the Ridgeway. I noted that further to the west from where I delivered my story there is archaeological evidence that the ridgeway had been used by people as a place of celebration, commemoration and gathering for thousands of years. When I gave my talk in mid-December we were celebrating the end of one year and the start of the next. Throughout time and across cultures, humans have gathered to celebrate and mark the passage of time, to mark the changing on the seasons.<\/p>\n

\"Dr

Marcus narrates his story of an ancient ridgeway. Credit: Subash Ludhra.<\/p><\/div>\n

But why gather along the Ridgeway? Providing high ground the chalk ridge offered protection, a dry place to travel along, a place to look out from, and the springs along the base ensured that travellers were never too far from water.<\/p>\n

I noted that, just as humans have gathered to celebrate change and mark the passing of time, the landscape around us has recorded change too, celebrating it in its form. Nicola Chester, in her book On Gallows Down<\/a><\/em> has echoed this sentiment:<\/p>\n

\u201cA landscape doesn\u2019t forget its stories, it wears them like lines on an old face, markings on an old body.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The landscape itself is a commemoration of its own past. It won\u2019t come as too much of a surprise, therefore, to acknowledge that much has changed through time on the Ridgeway. As they looked out from the ridge, people gathering before us would have seen a different landscape. There would have been trees and no defined fields. It would have been a \u201cwilder\u201d landscape, although still one touched by human influence.<\/p>\n

In the landscape ancient peoples would have seen echoes of older times, when humans first reached this area after the last retreat of great ice sheets which, through permafrost and then meltwaters, shaped the landscape we see today.<\/p>\n

Those first migrants to these hills would have walked here, crossing the lowlands of Doggerland, possibly even following this ridge all the way from what is now France. (Doggerland is now under the North Sea; with so much water locked up as ice, the sea level was so much lower during the last ice age.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to remember that some landscapes, like this one, can be more difficult to read than others. The geological record is fragmentary, with gaps in history that are impossible to fill.<\/p>\n

We know the recent past of the Ridgeway and we know how the chalk formed. But Earth history can also overwrite. We have echoes recorded in the chemical makeup of ice and rocks elsewhere, and fragments of surviving landscapes dotted around, but much of the evidence about the previous ice age was destroyed as the last great ice literally wiped it away, like chalk from a board.<\/p>\n

These were my reflections about the landscape on the Ridgeway and why people continue to walk together along it and share their stories. Where do you gather to celebrate, to commemorate, to mark the passing of time? For me memories of the remnants of New Year\u2019s campfires on the beach below Berling Gap means for me chalk landscapes will always be synonymous with New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

‘A tale of two Christmas Celebrations’ (Yoseph Araya)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Yoseph

Yoseph and Geeta. Geeta is holding the special clay pot called a Jebena (an Eritrean coffee pot). Credit: Subash Ludhra.<\/p><\/div>\n

I talked about the two Christmas traditions I celebrate with my family, one from my country of birth, Eritrea, the other from my adopted home in England.<\/p>\n

I compared and contrasted the plants we associate with these celebrations and how my two Christmases have enriched our household celebrations. This is despite my two homes being very different: Asmara is located in the tropics at 2300m above sea level; Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire is a mere 60m above sea level with a temperate climate.<\/p>\n

We use similar species of tree to decorate our Christmas, Juniperus procera<\/em>, the African juniper, which is not too different from the common Juniper (Juniperus communis<\/em>) that is native to the UK. In Eritrea we add cotton wool to our Christmas tree to mimic snow, which we never experience in real life.<\/p>\n

The highlight of our feasting in Eritrea is the traditional coffee ceremony, which is explained in the video below. (This video is third party content.)<\/p>\n