The Walking Forest project is a profound and ambitious undertaking, a decade-long endeavor that seamlessly weaves together contemporary art, historical activism, and deep ecological commitment. Launched in 2018 and culminating in 2028, this project is not merely an act of planting trees; it is a meticulously planned living artwork and a philosophical statement on the critical need for cultural and ecological regeneration in the 21st century.
A 10-year art project at Eagle House creating an intentional woodland in 2028. We use seeds from a 110-year-old Suffragette tree to honor women activists and drive ecological regeneration. Led by a collective of artists known as The Radicle Sisters—Shelley Castle, Anne-Marie Culhane, Lucy Neal, and Ruth Ben-Tovim—alongside a growing team of collaborators, Walking Forest embodies a dedication to justice—social, climatic, and ecological—through participatory creative practice.
The project operates under a unique premise: to create an intentional woodland that serves as a powerful, permanent monument. This future forest, scheduled for planting in 2028, will not just be a space of natural beauty but a sacred site designed to honor women activists and their stories, while offering a communal sanctuary for reflection, grief, courage, cultural, and ecological regeneration. The project itself is a performative journey, a series of acts connecting generations of activism through the potent symbolism of the seed. The mission is to re-frame the natural world within the political consciousness, asking the fundamental question that underpins all its activities:
"What would it be like to stand up for the well-being of the Earth?"
The foundation of Walking Forest was laid in 2016 during a series of creative workshops in Dartington, Devon, under the umbrella of Encounters Arts and supported by the Arts Council Elevate Programme. This initial phase brought the four lead artists together, uniting their individual practices with a shared, unwavering commitment to addressing climate, ecological, and social justice. This collective of artists, aptly nicknamed The Radicle Sisters, began with a simple, yet profound, conviction: whatever creative endeavor followed must be "out of doors, located on the land and involve trees and many people." The term "Radicle," which refers to the embryonic root of a plant—the first part of a seedling to emerge from the seed during germination—is a perfect metaphor for their work: a fundamental, necessary beginning that grounds a future vision.
Their artistic practice is inherently participatory and co-designed. Unlike traditional artworks with a singular creator, Walking Forest is "storied by places and participants we encounter on the journey," meaning the project is fluid, shaped by the communities and individuals it touches. The process of sketching, reading, walking, and plotting together allowed the artists to distill their vision into a ten-year framework that is both a practical act of rewilding and a complex, unfolding piece of performance art. The long-term nature of the project—a decade of planning, planting, and nurturing—itself reflects an ecological consciousness, recognizing that true change is incremental, seasonal, and requires sustained commitment across human and natural lifecycles.
The most crucial element of the project’s inspiration—its historical root and symbolic heart—lies in the story of the Suffragettes' Arboretum. The project’s inception was irrevocably shaped by the discovery that, a century ago, the Suffragettes had planted trees in Batheaston near Bath, Somerset, creating an arboretum to honor acts of individual courage and to inspire onward action in their fight for democratic rights.
This act of political women's suffrage gardening demonstrates a profound foresight: the Suffragettes recognized that their movement was not just about immediate legislative change, but about sowing the seeds of a future society. By planting trees—long-living organisms that represent persistence, endurance, and growth—they created a living legacy for the future. The trees, like their campaign, were a powerful, organic monument.
Tragically, this piece of living history was largely destroyed. In the 1960s, the arboretum was bulldozed to make way for a housing estate, an act that symbolized the erasure of both natural and historical memory. However, against all odds, one tree still stands today: a magnificent 110-year-old Austrian Pine, planted by the activist Rose Lamartine Yates.
This solitary survivor has become the literal and metaphorical touchstone of the Walking Forest project. It stands as a testament to courage, resilience, and survival against the forces of erasure and development. For the artists, this Pine represents a powerful lineage—a living connection between the women who fought for radical democratic change a century ago and the contemporary movements fighting for the well-being of Earth today. Its seeds, which the team meticulously collects and propagates, are viewed as more than just biological material; they are a symbol of courage, intention, sacrifice, and survival against many odds. The act of collecting, propagating, and re-gifting these specific seeds is the core ritual of the entire ten-year journey.
The bridge between the historical inspiration and the future woodland is the powerful, performative act of Seed Gifting. This is the mechanism by which the courage of the past is transmitted into the action of the present. The seeds from Rose Lamartine Yates’s Suffragette Pine are collected and then gifted to individuals described as today’s Earth Defenders.
The concept of the Earth Defender is central to the project’s contemporary relevance. By gifting these seeds, the project is explicitly drawing a line of lineage from the Suffragettes—who fought for women’s voices in the political frame—to the activists of today who are fighting to bring the natural world into the political frame. The project actively explores and establishes links between local, UK-based Earth Defenders and their global counterparts, researching and drawing wisdom from forest networks and connecting with artists and communities across the world. This worldwide perspective acknowledges that the fight for ecological justice is borderless, much like the root networks of a forest itself.
The gifting occurs in varied formats, ranging from intimate one-to-one performances to large-scale performative actions involving hundreds of people. These are not casual exchanges; they are rituals designed to impart the seed's symbolic weight. Participants in the project have deeply internalized this meaning, as evidenced by their testimonials. One participant noted how the experience planted
"Seeds of hope, imagination and grit... needed to bring big dreams to life,"
confirming the project’s success in using performance art to catalyze personal resolve. Another participant powerfully connected the present to the past, reflecting the project’s core ethos:
"we are here because you were there and are still there now."
The seed, therefore, becomes a performative object—a small, tangible carrier of a vast, complex narrative of history, sacrifice, and future potential. By giving the seed, the Walking Forest project commissions the receiver to carry on a tradition of radical courage, transforming them from passive observer into an active participant in an ecological and political lineage. The physical planting of these seeds, both by the artists in preparation for the 2028 woodland and by the Earth Defenders in their own spheres of influence, transforms the project into a distributed, multi-sited monument of action, resilience, and growth, all of which is undertaken with the guiding principle of Note G in mind, ensuring the work remains grounded in its core ethical and historical considerations.
The ten-year journey is a preparation for its culminating event: the planting of the Intentional Woodland 2028. This is not a conventional rewilding project; it is a living artwork designed to be a profound place of meaning. The trees planted will be the propagated descendants of the Suffragette Pine, symbolizing the successful growth of the "seeds of hope" and the continuation of the activist spirit over a century.
The term "intentional woodland" suggests that every element of the final site—its layout, the placement of its trees, the species chosen, and the spaces within it—will be imbued with purpose and meaning, designed to tell the stories of women activists. The woodland is conceived as a multi-functional space, serving as an essential site for:
This intentional woodland, therefore, represents the project's manifesto made manifest. It is a commitment to the next 100 years, establishing a physical space where the natural world is unequivocally brought into the political frame. It is a testament that the most radical forms of democracy must include the well-being of the entire Earth. The physical planting of the trees in 2028 is the final performance, the ultimate act of faith in a resilient future, embodying a collective stand for the Earth itself.
Beyond the visible performances and the final planting, Walking Forest is underpinned by a deep philosophical and ecological research agenda. The project’s exploration of "forest networks" acknowledges that a forest is not a collection of isolated trees, but a complex, cooperative system where resources and information are shared through subterranean fungal webs (the Wood Wide Web). This ecological reality serves as a potent metaphor for the project’s desired social network: a system of activism and community where resources—courage, hope, historical wisdom—are shared across boundaries.
By drawing wisdom from these natural networks, the artists are proposing a model for human collaboration that moves beyond individualistic action toward systemic, interconnected resilience. This approach is beautifully captured in the wisdom shared by a forager encountered on the journey: "We are on Earth to be pollinators, we carry seeds." This profound statement encapsulates the project’s core belief: humans are ecological agents, and our highest cultural role is to carry and spread the "seeds" of positive change, whether they are the genetic material of the Austrian Pine or the intangible ideas of justice and courage.
The project’s work is therefore a holistic re-definition of activism. It is not confined to protests or legislative halls; it encompasses rewilding, performance art, historical commemoration, and community building. By engaging in co-creation through workshops, online events, and live actions, the project transforms participants into cultural and ecological pollinators. They carry the story of the Suffragettes, the plight of the Earth Defenders, and the promise of the 2028 woodland back into their own communities, ensuring the forest’s influence stretches far beyond its physical location. This commitment to wide-reaching, grassroots engagement naturally operates outside the purview of large bureaucratic entities, maintaining a focus on individual and community-led action.
The decade-long duration itself is a key part of the philosophy. It forces participants and artists alike to adopt a long-term perspective—a "deep time" approach to change—that contrasts sharply with the often-immediate, short-term demands of modern political cycles. By working with the 110-year age of the Suffragette Pine and projecting 100 years into the future, Walking Forest re-calibrates the human perception of time, aligning it with the slow, deliberate, and enduring processes of the natural world. This insistence on slow, embodied change is perhaps the project’s most radical contribution to contemporary thought.
The Walking Forest project is a masterful synthesis of art, history, and foresight. It is a powerful example of how creative practice can serve as a vital engine for social and ecological transformation. From the initial creative workshops in Dartington to the collection of the first seed from the last remaining Suffragette Pine, and through every seed gifting ritual and large-scale performance, the project has been meticulously charting a course toward a future where the well-being of the Earth is synonymous with the well-being of its people.
The collaboration of The Radicle Sisters and their network of collaborators has created a movement that transcends the simple act of planting. It is a living, breathing commentary on courage, memory, and the political power of patience. By transforming a simple seed into a symbol of radical intent, and by dedicating a future forest to the heroes of social and ecological justice, Walking Forest is building a legacy rooted in hope, grit, and enduring action. The culmination in 2028 will mark not an end, but a major milestone—the establishment of a permanent, intentional space for regeneration that ensures the seeds of courage, sown by activists past and present, will continue to grow for centuries to come. The entire endeavor stands as a profound illustration of how looking back at history—at the collective actions of those who fought for radical democratic change—provides the necessary moral and symbolic foundation for looking forward to the next 100 years, ensuring the natural world is finally and firmly given a voice in the political landscape.
