TreeSisters recently held a ceremony to offer the work Rooted in Ethics: The Community Tree Stewardship to Nature and the Earth’s community at Keble College in Oxford on 18th June.
This networking event was a wonderful celebration of the last five years' work and held, as the work has been, in conjunction with respect for traditional ecological ways of relating in landscapes and scientific conservation best practices.
Waters and flowers were brought from all around the UK as part of the team’s sharing of our intentions for our work. We brought the first printed editions of Rooted in Ethics to share and discuss at the Nature Based Solutions Conference held by Oxford University Nature Based Solutions Initiative.
Huge thanks to our special guests Dr Mindahi Bastida (Lead co-author of the Framework) and Dr Geraldine Patrick Encina (Archaeoastronomer and expert in the biocultural land care cycles of the Otomi-Toltec and Mayan calendars of Mexico). We are also really grateful to have been joined by many of the TreeSisters team, board, and ex-team members as well as Andy Egan (originator of the idea of a Code of Ethics), International Tree Foundation, Lawyers for Nature, Be The Earth, organisers from the Nature Based Solutions Conference and many others.
Following the event the TreeSisters team brought the waters and flower offerings to the banks of the river Thames (known as the Isis when it’s flowing through Oxford). We shared these, alongside our intentions, with the trees and waters there.
Some of us returned to the Nature Based Solutions Conference to meet restorers and engage in conversations about how we can fund care for communities, forests and lands, respect the rights of Nature and lift up biocultural awareness within systems approaches at scale.
We are incredibly grateful to everyone who gave their time and support to this event and Rooted in Ethics. For more information about Rooted in Ethics: The Community Tree Growing Framework and the Practices Guide please visit our pages and download a copy. Keep an eye out in future newsletters for upcoming opportunities to get involved.
