Niwbwrch: GORFFENOL • PRESENNOL • DYFODOL
Newborough: PAST • PRESENT • FUTURE
an ‘anticipatory history’ project with Grwp Coedwig Cymunedol Llyn Parc Mawr Community Woodland Group
introduction
I’ve made a series of short films combining people’s stories, photos and footage from the Newborough area. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to these evocative stories! Making these films during the coronavirus ‘lock down’, with social injustice, ecological and climate change becoming more and more obvious, I have wondered about the future, and whether we can learn from the process of change in the past. So rather than looking back with nostalgia, or a sense of permanence, I’m looking at the past to understand the experience of change.
I hope, when you see the films, that you’ll be struck – as I was – by how closely lives, community and place have always been entangled here. And how this entanglement of place and each other (family, neighbours, other species and the environment) has created a resilience in the face of continual change.
Each film looks at a different aspect of those changes, and asks us what do these changes in the past tell us of life today, and of possibilities in the future?
It’ll be interesting to hear what your views: Our future may depend on it.
Y bobl niwbwrch ac ein adar: The people of Newborough and our birds
2. Diwilliant moresg: Marram grass culture
3. CREU Y goedwig: Becoming forest
A bit more about the project
Just prior to the COVID-19 lockdown, I was commissioned by the Llyn Parc Mawr Community Woodland Group to work with old photos, video and interviews to create some kind of resource for the community, initially to be used in conjunction with an indoor exhibition (at the PJI) and woodland event. Almost immediately, lockdown came into force, and I was restricted to work with limited video I’d already shot, and Pathe film footage (because footage held by the National Library of Wales is not available while staff are on furlough), but with plenty of time to emjoy working through the 30+ hours of interviews in Welsh and English.
So far I’ve produced the three films above exploring the relationship between people in the Newborough area. I hope that they give some kind of ‘anticipatory history’ which is described by Caitlin DeSilvey, Simon Naylor and Colin Sackett as
“how the stories we tell about ecological and landscape histories shape our perceptions of what we might call future ‘plausibilities’…. Species loss, erosion and accretion, and climate chnage are part of the past in these places, not just part of their future. History that calls attention to process rather than permanence may therefore help us to be more prepared for future change; to respond thoughtfully and proactively, rather than in a mode of retreat and or regret”
It has been particularly enjoyable working with ‘territories of contested meaning as well as arenas of common ground’ given my history of running a 3 year conflict resolution process around the future of area, stimulated by plans by the ‘authorities’ to deforest the sand dunes.
There is more to be done with the wealth of interviews and footage, and if funding allows, I hope to work on some more short films including:
Tir - Land (living off the land, land enclosure/continuing feeling ownership of the land/protest, water, how the community used the natural resources, including commerce). Film rights from Llyfrgell Genedlaethol required… unavailable until after lockdown has finished)
Hamdden/leisure (play, humour, Family activities on the beach, children's play, tourism, football, time on the beach, kids at carnivals etc). Film rights from Llyfrgell Genedlaethol required… unavailable until after lockdown has finished)
And then possibly:
Cluddiant/ transport (how people used to get about, what they used, there’s some quite humorous bits for this)
Coedwig - Forest (possibly extra ones about once forest established??)
Planning discussions, what to plant, what was planted and how, DRAFT DONE - it includes bits of
What the foresters (and other villagers) thought of their work, including recollections of their routines
How the forest work brought prosperity
Recollections about nature (especially how special it was to them), including how it has changed (bits of this are in the Adar one)
disease/pestilence (human, forest, animals) through the ages??
Siopa/shopping (and village centre, community, food). Film rights from Llyfrgell Genedlaethol required… unavailable until after lockdown has finished)
The sea and Llanddwyn (maritime, things washed up, wrecks)
The beach (holiday makers, picnics, things washed up)
engaging with the films
As well as going on the Llyn Parc Mawr website, we are hoping that we might work with the films (+other resources) by perhaps asking the school/open a ‘competition’ (like a photomarathon) to
Direct re-take of the photo/video/sound track/story today: what are today’s equivalent of those people, that place or activity?
Re-interpret the photo/video/sound track/story: making something contemporary
I’m making some individual cards for each ‘theme’ which would then have links on the back to find out more (with the sound files/stories/videos on the website etc)… eg
