This Saturday (28th August 2021), sees 20 ordinary people set out from the Isle of Wight to embark on an epic, 500-miles eight-week walk along the length of the UK: walking all the way to Glasgow in order to urge world leaders to protect nature—and they are calling on local people who are concerned about the health and future of nature to walk with them as they traverse the Island.
Taking your voices to UN Climate Conference COP26
The group, called Listening to the Land, sets out to increase the numbers and diversity of those walking and speaking up for nature, and to ensure those voices are heard at the UN Climate Conference COP26.
The group sets out to take the temperature of Britain by walking ten miles each day, come rain or shine, to deeply connect with and listen to the land they travel through and the communities living on it.
Setting off from Brading Down
The ‘pilgrimage for nature’ walk, which is supported by the British Pilgrimage Trust, launches with a ceremony at Brading Down on the Isle of Wight at 1800 on Saturday 28th August.
Members of the public are invited to join the ceremony, which will be hosted by members of the Isle of Wight Druid community, in order to talk with the people who will walk the full route to Glasgow and share their feelings for nature.
They are also invited to join the pilgrims as they walk between the Nostrils to Cowes on Sunday.
Following an ancient pilgrimage route
Once on the mainland, the pilgrims will then follow an ancient pilgrimage route which weaves through many of Britain’s key historic centres of cultural, industrial, spiritual and political power, including Stratford, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Winchester and Carlisle before arriving in Glasgow for the start of the UN climate conference in November.
With their walk, in their conversations with communities, and the artworks those will shape, the group is setting out to inspire multitudes to slow down, connect with nature and articulate their love for the living world, and to help build a powerful, hopeful vision for how we might transform and align humanity’s relationship with it.
How to get involved
There are three ways to get involved in the project:
- Walk with the group at any point, attend their workshops and follow their progress on their Website
- Walk wherever you are and log your own sacred or special walk, or stroll in your backyard, and your hopes and concerns for nature at #WalkingTheLand2021
- Send in your hopes, wishes and fears for nature and help shape the scroll and what the group hopes will grow to be a new Charter for the Land, to the Website
Booth: We want to include as many voices as possible
Co-founder Jolie C. Booth, says,
“This is a once in a lifetime walk, and we hope that by the time we arrive in Glasgow we will have spoken to thousands of people about nature, and inspired tens of thousands more to upload a photograph of their own sacred walk and their own thoughts on nature.
“We want to include as many voices as possible in this beautiful, creative act of reverence for earth, and as we call on world leaders to walk the walk on climate.
“And we’re phenomenally excited to hear from the people of the Isle of Wight as our first act of listening.”
Lehmann: UK has the chance to become an ‘indicator economy’
Listening to the Land co-founder Anna Lehmann, a global climate policy director with 20 years experience working with communities at the frontline of climate change, said,
“Our very lives rely on nature to give us food and shelter, now nature needs us to give back.
“The UK is uniquely positioned to lead on this: as this year’s COP host, as a huge historic emitter with a substantial international land footprint, but most significantly, the UK has the chance to become an ‘indicator economy’ that might, in the adoption of the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill, show how to give nature a seat at the table and inspire other nations to follow.
“As the scientific community has just stated in the latest IPCC report: we know exactly what causes climate change and why we are losing nature, and we absolutely know that we still can prevent the worst, if we act now. Together we can build a better future for all. This knowledge, and the supporting echo of millions of voices from around the world, gives us the energy for this epic journey.”
Listening to the Land is an independent civil society movement co-founded by Global Climate Policy Expert Anna Lehmann and theatre producer Jolie C Booth.
It is funded by the Arts Council England, and Wildlife Works, and is a co-production between Kriya Arts and No Planet B Initiative.
News shared by Annie Dare – thanks to Simon Avery and Nic Wrathall for the heads-up. Ed
Image: Illya Vjestica under CC BY 2.0
