Walking Forest

Walking Forest is a 10-year artwork taking place in sites across the UK exploring links with activism, natural forest networks and communities. 

Twisted Sister

The Story

We are inspired by: a call to stand up for the natural world; the energy of a living and life-giving network connecting women Earth Protectors on our doorstep and those around the world; the performative genius of the Suffragettes and the lines from Shakespeare’s Macbeth that conjure Birnam Wood’s ‘moving grove’.

At the foot of the oak

Walking Forest 2020/21

In 2020/21, Walking Forest seeds a network of relationships led by women in the UK and internationally and initiates three site-specific public residencies in South Devon, Coventry and Dalby Forest near Scarborough and a mass participation event scheduled to take place during the COP26 Climate Talks in Glasgow in 2021.

Rose Lamartine Yates plants her pine sapling

Intentional Forest 2028

Over 100 years ago an arboretum was planted in the midst of the Suffragettes campaign to honour their courage. Together they broke the ground with spades and heeled in the roots of each tree, not knowing whether they would see the trees reach maturity or whether their actions would succeed.

Walking Forest Blog

2022 Winter Tree Vigil

The travel conditions were hardly favourable (strikes and ice), and for many of us just the idea of being outside in the sub-zero temperatures forecast wasn’t exactly enticing, but such is the pull of the Last Suffragette Tree that eleven of us turned up for the vigil on 15th December.

About Us

We draw inspiration from trees and the forest ecosystem, in particular the hidden world beneath the forest floor; creative movements of resistance and change making across the world, and the growing call for rights for nature in our legal system.

Collecting seeds

Events Archive

Since the project’s inception in 2017, we have travelled our way to COP24 in Poland, held vigils under a huge pine tree planted by Suffragette Rose Lamartine Yates, gathered acorns from a forest floor and walked through London on an activist trail.

Scrapbook

The wonder of forest ecosystems and the Suffragette’s incredible use of marketing and branding have inspired us to sketch and gather images since the start of the project.

Inspiration / Research

Suffragettes

The women’s suffrage movement in the UK was a long and hard- fought campaign which began in 1866. The campaign sought to win women the vote and ended with the vote for some women in the Representation of the People Act in 1.

Forest Trees

We are only beginning to understand the seemingly magical workings of a forest, wherever it might be located.  The story is not about individuals, but about a functioning web of relationships.

XR International Rebellion Day 5, Oxford Circus, London - Image by Max Webster-19-04-19

Global Women Earth Protectors

“To care for the Earth we need to take into account the people, the other creatures that live on the Earth and the long-term impact of our interventions.  Ecological solutions that ignore issues of social justice are doomed to fail and we cannot care for the people if we don’t take into account the life-support systems of the Earth that sustain us all.”  Starhawk

Lucy Neal, Dorothy Naitore & Shelley Castle

Gifting

That a single seed well nurtured can transform into a 100 foot tall tree is a reminder of nature’s infinite almost unimaginable capacity for resilience, restoration and new life. Gifting these symbolic and fertile seeds we could shoot an arrow through time from past to present to future.

Walking Forest in the Wyre Forest

The Walking Forest Team

Lucy Neal, Anne-Marie Culhane, Ruth Ben-Tovim, Shelley Castle are the four artists leading Walking Forest and acknowledge the vast inspiration that has come from many sources – human and more-than-human…

Our Partners

season for change
Culture Declares Logo
Forestry England
Moor Trees

Get in touch

info@walkingforest.co.uk

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