Peatfolio 2023
Portfolio design:
Lukas Fraser
Some highlights from 2023 include:
- Launching Moss Pit at the Irish Museum of Modern Art: a provocation to get people immersed in the mossy world of the bog.
- Kicking-off the Restoration Academy: a 3-year EU-funded project all about getting more young people active in ecosystem restoration across Europe.
- Expanding the Bog Academy and getting 7 primary schools, 14 classes and a total of 308 students learning about peatlands both in-the-class and out on the bog.
- Securing funding for Peatland Justice: our largest and most ambitious campaign to date, starting in 2024.
This year, with the support of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation’s (EFF) core funding, we have had the opportunity to deep-dive into our long term strategy and commitment as a collective. The EFF also offered their support to our team development through a series of trainings in the following areas: i) Organisational and network strategy ii) Movement building iii) Maximising impact iv) Financial strategy and management
A special thank you:
We would like to give a shout out to all the individuals and organisations that supported our work over the last years. Without this ongoing commitment and belief in our work from the wider community we would not be where we are today.
We look forward to what is in store as we “boggy” into 2024.
We work through collaboration, education and a process of re-imagining. We believe that for this peatland paradigm shift to occur we must deal with the interlinked root causes of their degradation and unappreciation. This is why we continually connect our peatland work to broader topics such as land and economic justice, regenerative cultures and farming, and the decolonisation of human and non-human nature.
Our core members A-Z surname:
- Mari-Liis Bago
- Holly Bartley
- Flavie Bernadou
- Sophie O’Callaghan
- Bethany Copsey
- Ireen van Dolderen
- Kate Foster
- Lukas Fraser
- Swantje Furtak
- Theresa Hobe
- Ananya Jain
- Milan Matthes Kale
- Isis Knijff
- Monika Narozna
- Bertie Pennington
- Lara-Lane Plambeck
- Okke Reuer
- pantea
- Judith Schubert
- Isabel Sturges
- Frankie Turk
- Jamie Walker
Moss Pit
IMMA Earth Rising Festival 2023
The Moss Pit: A play-on-words, evoking the act of moshing - a raucous form of dance where people collide with one another until the individuals, though moving separately, can be seen as one entity: at once, chaotic and in-sync.
This was an immersive installation using various audiovisual mediums to explore moss in a new and exciting way.
This experimental installation adopted sound interpretations of moss, including field recordings, contact microphone recordings, and MIDI biodata sonification from moss, as well as creative musical and poetic interpretations of the plant.
Listening to this audio through silent disco headphones, participants were invited to enter a tent which had been covered in moss textured fabrics
Red Moss
of Balerno
Walk-Shop
Edinburgh School of Architecture
and Landscape Architecture
ESALA Climate Action: SOIL FESTIVAL
In February, RE-PEAT were invited by Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture to host a walk-shop exploring the Red Moss of Balerno: the only raised bog in the city of Edinburgh. Kate Foster and Lukas Fraser brought Landscape Architecture students to the bog to encourage close-looking, and to think about the ways in which peatland and human can live in symbiosis. We asked students:
and Landscape Architecture
ESALA Climate Action: SOIL FESTIVAL
In February, RE-PEAT were invited by Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture to host a walk-shop exploring the Red Moss of Balerno: the only raised bog in the city of Edinburgh. Kate Foster and Lukas Fraser brought Landscape Architecture students to the bog to encourage close-looking, and to think about the ways in which peatland and human can live in symbiosis. We asked students:
- What can we do for the peatland? How can we integrate peatland restoration and protection into our daily lives and working lives?
- What relationships and interactions do you see in the peatland? What is our role/space within that?
- How do you think the bog will look in the summer and through the seasons? Can you imagine it over time, through the past and in the future?
Re-Imagining Workshop
Cafe Mellemfolk, Aarhus
RE-PEAT has been exploring imagination as a tool for realising transformational change for peatlands for several years, which led to the conceptualisation and development of a Peatlands and (Re-) Imagination workshop. The workshop introduces peatlands to a wider audience and builds appreciation amongst newcomers, acquaintances and experts alike. We introduce our theory of how peatlands and imagination work together and run some exercises to train our imagination muscles!
On the 1st of April we held this workshop in Aarhus, Denmark thanks to funding and support from Communities for Future, SPARK: Youth Action for People and Planet, and the European Union. The workshop was hosted at volunteer-run Cafe Mellemfolk, which donates profits to projects globally working for a more sustainable and fair world.
Restoration Academy
Finland, Slovakia, Greece, the Netherlands
Our role within this project is to coordinate a Youth Advisory Board who will be co-creating the project outputs and developing ideas for expanding the project. It has been so exciting to see how much interest there is for this kind of project and yet there are shockingly few opportunities for young people to meaningfully contribute in restoration activities. This must change if we are to tackle the intersecting biodiversity, climate and mental health crises.
Here you find further information on the project: https://lnkd.in/dvkCa3B4
Project lead: Nuorten Akatemia, Finland, other project partners: KMOP, Greece, Luontoliitto, Finland, Strom života, Slovakia
Bog Academy
Ireland
Bog Academy is an educational programme that was created to inspire and teach young people between the ages of 7-12 about the multiple and largely under-appreciated wonders of peatlands.
This year marks the third edition of the programme. Upscaled to 7 schools, 14 classes, a total of 308 students participated in both the in-class activities and excursions to one of the 6 collaborating bog communities.
For a full visual report on Bog Academy 2023, visit this page
Photo credits: Oonagh Casey
Talks and workshops
Peatland workshop by Okke Reuer
Composting + Hospicing
In September 2023 we hosted a session, with 20 participants, as part of an initiative of Stewarding Loss called Practices of Composting + Hospicing. This is a monthly meet-up for people developing practices for transitions - especially for endings, loss and systems abandonment.
Our session, titled Turning to the Dark Earth, explored how peatlands can help us turn to topics such as death and loss.
Power to the Peatlands
RE-PEAT presented our work on re-imagining peatlands.
The Sensing Peat workshop was organised by the Michael Succow Stiftung and co-hosted by Wildlife Conservation Society, Ensayos, researchers from University College Dublin and moose en masse.
The Power to Peatlands was one of the largest conferences about peatlands to date, and we were happy to take part!
© images courtesy of the session organisers
The Great Imagining x RE-PEAT fundraising evening
This event, hosted by The Great Imagining, was a fundraising evening with London-based movers and shakers where we pitched our project Peatland Justice and raised over £4,000 collectively.
x RE-PEAT
Allianz Summit Panel: Handing Over Power to the Next Generation
We were invited to the Just Futures summit held by the Allianz Foundation in Berlin. Milan, Flavie, Bethany and Mari-Liis attended the summit. It was a fascinating event, with many interesting and inspiring speakers and challenging topics. Alongside engaging in discussions exploring the layers of our involvement to social change - personal, organisational, collective, geopolitical - the four also enjoyed the chance to see each other in person!
As part of the Summit, Bethany spoke in a panel discussion titled “Handing Over Power to the Next Generation”. Her segment emphasised the work RE-PEAT is doing internally and organisationally to embed social change and justice values into our work environment, alongside our work on peatlands.
As part of the Summit, Bethany spoke in a panel discussion titled “Handing Over Power to the Next Generation”. Her segment emphasised the work RE-PEAT is doing internally and organisationally to embed social change and justice values into our work environment, alongside our work on peatlands.
RE-PEAT Member Highlights
Aside from our work in the collective, RE-PEAT members have been working on some interesting projects over the last year. We thought we could highlight some of them!
Ananya started her MPhil in Economics at the University of Oxford, and is broadly interested in the intersection of applied microeconomics, paradigms of economic growth, and philosophy of ecology.
Bethany completed her MSc in Soils and Global Change at Ghent and Aarhus University. Her thesis evaluated the potential of citizen science for wetlands, creating a framework to be used in such projects. She was awarded the Allan Robertson Grant for her project and it was nominated for the Future Proef award. She has now started an MA in Planetary Poetics at Sandberg University.
Flavie started a MSc in Business and Political Sciences in Paris, and is looking into how businesses can be responsible from both internally and externally.
Frankie co-directed a short documentary In Death is Life, which features a community in Clara, Ireland and their changing relationship with the bog. The film was produced by WaterBear. She also started an MSc International Land and Water Management at Wageningen University & Research.
Holly recently choreographed a dance piece exploring peatland narratives and ways of functioning through the body.
Ireen finished an MSc in Molecular Techniques in Life Sciences studying gene expression in wood. She also started a European Solidarity Corps project at Sunseed, a non-formal education project for social ecological transition. Here, she focuses on drylands restoration and community building.
Jamie completed the 4th year of his Integrated Master’s in Biology at Oxford with a field experiment testing the interactive effects of warming and historic nitrate enrichment on decomposition rates and the invertebrate community of an alkaline fen.
Judith has been studying in Sweden writing her thesis on re-vegetation patterns on an abandoned peat extraction site in Finland.
Kate hosted a presentation at the University of Bristol in November 2023 on how artwork about a moorland bird of prey in 2003 continues to weave through later artwork and peatland advocacy. She was also invited by Luján Agusti from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina to host a workshop for international peat-art interest groups.
Lara-Lane is currently writing her MA thesis on what peatlands can teach her about decolonization once she listens to their and our shared hi-stories.
Lukas started working at Julie’s Bicycle, equipping Arts organisations with resources to respond to the climate, nature, and justice crises. They also started working more formally in the illustration space through their instagram account @wetbog.jpg, and experimenting with zines and comics.
Mari-Liis’ husband inherited an old family house in the northside of lake Balaton, Hungary. “We are the 7th generation from his mother's side in this house, so we are now renovating it into a guesthouse. We try to repurpose and preserve as much of it as possible, so it has been keeping me busy since early 2023. We hope to open it in spring 2024!”
Monika completed a bachelor in Environmental studies and will go on to study web design and web development. She also became a yoga teacher.
Milan has been doing a 6-month internship with the Movement for Community Led Development, working as Project Lead for the Youth Voices MCLD project.
Okke spent August and September doing an internship in a wetland called Wallnau which is located on the island of Fehmarn, Germany. There, he learned a lot about how to use wetlands sustainably and how to raise awareness for the beauty and importance of wetlands.
pantea has been working on a project about the river Besòs in Barcelona supported by Idensitat organising community-based soundwalks, broadcasting and walkings. She has also been involved in co-facilitating quite several projects within the Khamoosh community. For instance, they recently did a radio residency on mangroves plantations in the mangrove forests on the southern coast of Iran. Another work has been collective listening sessions inviting different communities to do listening exchanges and connect across seemingly disparate contexts and geographies. She has also dedicated much of their time in 2023 applying for visas and spending time on paperwork for herself and the family to be able to live, study and work in the EU.
‘In Death is Life’
Internal upskilling
As mentioned in the introduction, this year has been a time of intense learning and internal development within RE-PEAT. A big part of this was through the support of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation who offered us the unique opportunity to upskill our team through the following courses:
1 - Movement Learning Catalyst is a year-long+ programme hosted by Ulex. This training helped us develop our network, with a particular focus on engaging with groups whose remit is adjacent to peatlands (i.e., building support for peatlands from climate or agroecological focused groups), which is one of our core activities. It also introduced us to a range of theories for understanding and creating change, and mobilising people for social and ecological change.
2 - Death x Life was a 6-month peer-learning course, hosted by Christina Watson on behalf of HuddleCraft, all about grief. This was a co-learning space with a diverse group of people who came together to explore the intersection between death and life. Emerging from this, we are developing a project connecting peatlands with grief.
3. Winning grants from trusts and foundations is a course by the School for Social Entrepreneurs that has given us tools on how to identify funder prospects, develop a more compelling case for support, write more impactful applications and build strong long-term relationships with funders.
4. Thriving Networks is a course hosted by Greaterthan which focuses on building capacity and knowledge to sustain movements and networks, beyond their initial inception. This 8-week course gave us tips for money management, value systems, power balances and volunteer-team dynamics. This assisted us with navigating the transitions RE-PEAT is currently in between a volunteer-led collective to some members being paid.
5. ‘For-profit activities for non-profits – A beginners’ guide’ was a tailored set of courses hosted by the European Activism Incubator. They have helped us create an effective long-term funding strategy, learn how to develop non-grant based income, build a business plan, as well as offered us grant writing skills.
6. Measuring Social Impact is a course by the School for Social Entrepreneurs. This training has taught us some techniques to measure our social impact. This will enable us to monitor and describe our effectiveness and where improvements can be made.
7. Creating Comics and Graphic Novels by Goldsmiths, University of London equipped us with the fundamentals of communicating stories through pictures, simplifying and clarifying ideas, and creating fun recognisable characters. This course will build our capacity for engaging new audiences with peatlands through an accessible format.
8. Spark is a five-week course by the School of System Change designed around intensive bursts of framing and facilitated practice in a cohort, whilst supporting you to apply your learning to your live projects through individual coaching. This course is really focused on the individual and how to learn leadership skills on a personal level. Working in a collective of young people this sense of self-confidence is something that we greatly benefit from.
9. Strategy development by Seeds for Change will take place in 2024. This training will assist us with our long-term strategy development, in particular the social and ecological justice aspect. Their training would provide a facilitated space for conversations around inclusivity and representative of our social and ecological justice commitments. This will help us as we develop our plans for a global peatland youth network, as we will be better equipped to respond to needs of youth across the world.
10. Creating a Theory of Change by School for Social Entrepreneurs will take place in 2024. "A theory of change is a powerful tool that helps organisations and initiatives plan how they will create change, assess their effectiveness and communicate to stakeholders. It is used widely by charities, social enterprises and public sector organisations. This workshop will explore what a theory of change is, how to construct one and best practice in conducting robust qualitative research." (SSE)
Extract from ‘Trick or Peat’ - Lukas’s work showing skills learned from ‘Creating Comics and Graphic Novels’:
A special Thanks!
We would like to give a shout out to all the individuals and organisations that supported our work over the last years. Without this ongoing commitment and belief in our work from the wider community we would not be where we are today.
Special thanks to:
- Irish Government Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
- The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
-
Irish Museum of Modern Art
-
Spark Climate Action Training grant
-
EU Erasmus+
-
European Cultural Foundation
-
The Great Imagining network
- The University of Edinburgh
Emerging from 2023...
In January 2024, we will launch the Peatland Justice campaign - our largest and most ambitious project to date. The focus of this project is the trade and finance of peatlands in Europe and how this relates to social and ecological justice at a local level. Another injustice we see in relation to peatlands is knowledge and accessibility. Next year we will be working on a project called “bogs ‘n’ books” in collaboration with Abbeyleix Library and other Laois libraries.
On top of this, we will be bringing back Peat-Fest (remodelled into a more locally-specific hybrid format), designing a workshop series connecting peatlands and grief, exploring new opportunities to reach more primary school students with the Bog Academy programme and expanding youth engagement in restoration through the Restoration Academy. We will also be collaborating with Wetlands International Europe on a cookbook for edible paludiculture plants!
If you have any questions on projects, collaborations send us an
You can support us directly through this link:
You can support us directly through this link: