We’re a little bit late to the game with this newsletter, but happy new year everyone! 

We have big plans for RE-PEAT in 2021 - we hope to share them with you soon! We’re looking forward to a peat packed year with you all!

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World Wetlands Day

 Did you know that tomorrow is World Wetlands Day?

Peatlands are one kind of wetland, but there are also mangrove swamps, salt marshes, forest swamps and more. They're wonderful, important and beautiful ecosystems!

Tomorrow there are a lot events going on to celebrate wetlands across the world. It also happens to be the 50th anniversary of the RAMSAR convention. To find out more search #WorldWetlandDay on Twitter, check this map or pay a visit to your own local wetland (bearing in mind any COVID-19 measures of course).

We will be hosting our own event together with WetFutures and ShamrockSpring on the 2nd at 21.00-22.00 CET. Entitled from Brigid to Bog Bodies: the language of peat in the Irish landscape, this event will zoom into the boggy Irish landscape. We’ll talk about Seamus Heaney & the gendered bog, Goddess Brigid and discuss the changing perspectives on bogs in Ireland. To join follow this link, see you there!

Happy World Wetlands Day everyone! 

What have we been up to?

Over the past month RE-PEAT has been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting. In what we’ve called our new year rooting phase, we are working on setting up more structure within the collective and mapping out ways we can continue to learn and grow as a group.

We have been reading a lot and learning from other movements, groups & individuals. Some texts we've been reading are Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown, The Tyranny of Structurelessness by Jo Freeman, white supremacy culture by Tema Okun, and Staying with the Trouble by Donna Haraway.

If you know of any great readings or have any tips for us, please let us know!

On the 7th of December (already a long time ago we realise!) we hosted an event as part of the Landscape Research Group’s Landscape & Goodness Symposium with special guest Robert MacFarlane. We explored the power of language when talking about landscapes, what happens when we lose language and how joy and wonder can be found in both.

One of the highlights was when we asked participants to tell us how they would define the verb to peat were it to exist. Until the session is available to watch back online, check out these posters made reflecting on the wonderful responses!

The headline image is another one of the posters we made!

What's coming up?

On the 9th of February, one of our team will pitch at a Tedx event where many of our team members attended university - TedxAUCollege.

See the facebook event page here.

Youth Engaged in Wetlands (YEW) has recently been collaborating with Wetlands International, facilitating a youth dialogue focused on wetlands in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC's). A group of young wetland advocates from around the world, together with a member of RE-PEAT, have created an open letter that will be open to other youth voices on World Wetlands Day (2nd Feb). If you would like to be a part of this open letter, follow the hashtag #powerofwetlands!

Peat-Fest 2020 Field Notes

A collection of drawings & notes reflecting the 48 sessions of Peat Fest

A reminder that our crowdfunder is still active. Check out the video above to see one of the many gifts up for grabs by supporting us! 

Curious about the background?

This is a photo of a handfelted Brigid, made by Kelly Lane, and residing by Deirdre Lane.