Just prior to the COVID-19 lockdown, I was commissioned by the Llyn Parc Mawr Community Woodland Group in Newborough, Ynys Môn/ Anglesey, 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 (with big thanks to Iain Biggs for giving me their book!) 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.
Making these films during the coronavirus ‘lock down’, with stories of ecological and climate change becoming more and more worrying, 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?
Pobl o’r Ardal Niwbwrch ac ein adar - People of the Newborough area and our birds
Troi i mewn i goedwig - Becoming forest
Diwilliant Moresg: Marram Grass Culture