Everyone who joins Stories of Place is a co-creator. At the beginning of each gathering we choose a natural companion to have in our minds throughout the evening.
Caz Emeny (Ginger) has a reputation for creating something out of nothing and getting stuff done, with curiosities around craft, nature and food. They are often found cooking plant-based meals on the campfire feeding and nurturing the Ekho Collective community.
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Deb McDonald (Ant) is a network weaver, bringing knowledges and curiosities from Ekho Collective, and is particularly curious about how people can collectively engage with creativity, culture and heritage to co-create resilient communities.
Holly Doron (Bumblebee) favourite moments are watching people spark with others over a thought or idea so they try to create the conditions for this to happen while listening, note-taking and connecting learning and curiosities.
Lorna Prescott (Swan) brings years of lessons from doing in Dudley alongside deep thinking around systemic issues behind our everyday interactions. Lorna is full of curiosity and wonder around anything more-than-human and deep time.
Nat WB (Hedgehog)
Paul Burns (Dolphin) brings invigorating perspectives and prose as a creative writer with a fascination in more-than-human folklore. Paul is generous in sharing photos and videos of their local wildlife in between gatherings and always has interesting Dudley memories to share.
Rachael Othala (Fountain Water) always arrives full of Dudley energy and curiosity, inspiring other co-creators with their creativity through making and poetry. They are curious about how the LBGTQIA+ community and allies can explore art together.
We begin each gathering transitioning from our days and grounding ourselves in place with an activity that opens up our senses and connects us with Dudley.
Deb invited us to explore Dudley through taste with Cleavers water and Nettle tea, foraged from Hawbush Community Garden.
We found out how to make Cleavers water and tea, and talked about their medicinal properties. We reconsidered how we view Cleavers’ role in our gardens and our relationship with them. We thought it tasted grassy, leafy and cucumbery.
Ekho Collective’s Nettle sheet from their project Reclaim our Roots
While smelling and tasting Nettle tea, we shared childhood memories and remedies for being stung (Dock, Plantain, and even Nettle leaves!). The smell and taste gave us Sunday dinner vibes - likes peas and potatoes, and maybe even a bit meaty! Deb and Caz invited us to think about how it tastes and feels on the different sensory receptors of our tongues (moist or dry?) and whether we can feel anything in other parts of our bodies when we swallow.
Our foraged tea tasting experience, along with our natural companions and prompt questions, invited us to reflect on our relationships with Cleavers in our gardens, shifting from perceiving them as ‘weeds’ to be removed, to considering the benefits they have to seed dispersal and our health (Holly). We reflected that had our ancestors done better by us, tea drinking from plants on our doorstep might be more common, rather than extracting them from other countries as colonial business, or worrying about foraging plants that aren’t contaminated by pollution (Deb and Lorna).
“We tend to have this very superior view that everything in Nature is here to serve us, but actually, we're one… element of an ecosystem. And at the moment, we're… ruining it. And I think there's lessons in how these plants… support each other and create a flourishing space and a regenerative space, that humans really need to heed." Deb McDonald
Caz’s natural companion, Ginger, invited them to question their consumption of Ginger due to it’s connection with slavery and colonisation, and wondered what alternative they could use for Ginger cordial that they could grow in their back garden.