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.
Siarter y Coed was created by Utopias Bach’s residency, Ysgol Arbrofol Dod At Ein Coed at Pontio, in collaboration with GwyrddNi and the Lore School. We started with the questions “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?”
We invited 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.
Created over a period of 2 weeks by around 20 people (human and more than human), the scroll was created through hybrid in-room and on-zoom events based on re-imagining human rights, nature rights, legislation/case law, folk-lore and customary (‘original’ or ‘indigenous’) law. Our work started with an introduction by Lucy Finchett-Maddock, followed by creative ‘cut up’ and re-working of existing and historical law/lore. The resulting scroll, the Charter of the Trees was unfurled within our ‘Forest comes to Pontio’ takeover of Pontio in May 2022.
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:
Charter of the Forest 1217. The Magna Carta, a document that underscores personal liberties and freedoms, was repealed very soon after being issued in 1215. On being reissued in 1217 it included a second document, the Charter of the Forest, which remained law until 1971. The Charter of the Forest was arguably significant to more people than Magna Carta, which was aimed at the elite of the country. The Charter of the Forest curbed the unbridled power of the monarchy over England's forests and reasserted the rights of the common people. Forests did not consist only of trees but included large areas of commons such as heathland, grassland, and wetlands.
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!
This was then sewn together by Lisa Hudson
Siarter y Coed - Forest Comes to Pontio 27.5.23
Here’s a video featuring the finished Charter of the Trees: Scroll to 5 minutes in to see the Siarter y Coed being created and then revealed as part of Forest Comes to Pontio performance.
