Wasteland Twinning Nottingham
On Sunday 2nd September at 12 Midday, Wasteland Twinning researchers in Nottingham and Yogyakarta led a Twinning Ceremony between The Island and Ledok Timoho.
In Nottingham, we followed a map route sent to us by the Bon Suwung group in Yogyakarta, tracing the layout of Ledok Timoho onto the Island. Every 50 steps we stopped to look at a view from our sister wasteland. We then performed a twinning ceremony, signing a twinning agreement and celebrating with foraged wasteland tea. In Ledok Timoho the group planted Moringa trees to mark the occasion. We twinned the Moringa with Elder on the wasteland – both trees have multiple uses as food and medicine, and are believed to have protective properties.
The twinning agreement was recorded on a phone, hence the distortion.
Photography – Mat Trivett
Audio – Becky Beinart and David Bell
Bon Suwung, KUNCI Cultural Studies Center
After postponed for 30 min, on Sunday, 2nd September 2012, at 12.30 midday, the Bon Suwung team together with the residents, held the Nottingham-Ledok Timoho Twinning Ceremony. Above picture showed Bu Sis, one of the Ledok Timoho resident signed the Twinning Agreement.
(Map)
We started the ceremony by walked along the agreed route, stopped in each 50 steps, and took pictures from our surroundings. The kids enjoyed this activities and considered it as a special mission. After stopped in five points, we ended the walking route near the bridge and started the tree planting ceremony. Before the tree planting ceremony, one of the oldest resident, Pak Danu, told the stories of the bridge. We planted the Moringa tree and mentioned that one similar tree, the Elder tree, was also planted in Nottingham. And these two trees marked the beginning of Nottingham-Ledok Timoho connection. After the tree planting, we proceed to the signing of the Twinning agreement by Bu Sis. This event ended by drinking tea and eat yellow rice. Like Moringa and Elder tree, the yellow rice (tumpeng) is also a symbol of protection in Javanese beliefs.
Photos by Budi N.D. Dharmawan and Dito Yuwono
Audio by Kurnia F. Yudha