Sussex Wildlife Trust’s Lost Words for Rye Harbour project provides a free event every month through 2023 to help local people engage with nature. There are creative writing workshops, schools’ events, a family treasure hunt, art exhibitions, a poetry trail, walks, performances of creative work and various community-based workshops.
The project came about because in 2017 some children’s dictionaries started to remove words connected to nature. Words such as ‘starling’ were no longer thought necessary. ‘heron and ‘egret’ were no longer essential, along with ‘bramble’, ‘kingfisher’, ‘goldfinch’ and many other species found on the nature reserve at Rye Harbour. In response, nature writer Robert Macfarlane teamed up with artist Jackie Morris to create The Lost Words, an exquisite book of poetry and paintings aimed at returning children’s and adults’ focus to nature and stopping the disappearance of nature vocabulary. It was a huge success and lost words projects have sprouted all over the country, dedicated to promoting engagement with the natural world.
In 2019, Sussex Wildlife Trust donated a copy of The Lost Words to every primary school in Sussex and the trust is taking things even further with the Lost Words for Rye Harbour project. As part of the Discover Rye Harbour project supported by the National Heritage Lottery, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve will be delivering for a year-long project to encourage everyone to start talking about nature. “I am so excited to be heading this extraordinary community arts venture,” project leader S Morgan explained. “I believe the project is a perfect opportunity to try to get as many people as possible talking about and enjoying personal experiences in nature.”
Morgan lives in Rye Harbour, next to the nature reserve, and many know her from the Avocet Gallery in the village. “Not so many people know that, before opening the gallery, I made my living as a writer and workshop facilitator,” she said. “So it’s going to be great fun using those skills to allow as many people as possible to find their own voices for nature. The events are going to be taking place on the nature reserve, at the discovery centre and in Rye itself, so we really hope lots of local people will come along.”
The project launches on January 28 with the first of six creative writing workshops. To book a place please visit: https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/whats-on.
Future events will be posted on the Sussex Wildlife Trust site:
http://rye.sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/discovery-centre/get-involved/lost-words-project
Image Credits: Kathy Crowther .