Oral histories of Hilbre Island
As part of my research process, and with the purpose of exploring humans as an ‘ecosystem’ (read more about this idea here) I have been interviewing an array of different people in order to gain insights about how people feel and think about nature.
I interviewed local people that live near Hilbre Island as well as researchers, lecturers, poets and artists, nature enthusiasts, among others who don’t live near Hilbre but who explore nature within their research areas directly or indirectly.
Examples of these are artists that work with nature as the core subject of their artistic explorations such as TROPISM Art Collective (see blog post ‘On the periphery of our perception’), poets such as Yvonne Reddick who actively engage with nature as a topic and a way of addressing climate change, researchers and lecturers such as Les Roberts and Hazel Andrews who study social and spatial anthropology, cultural memory, and spatial humanities - these are all topics which are very relevant and contribute to my research and understanding of a specific site (Hilbre Island) and how people relate to a specific place. Read more about their writing about the ‘negative space’ of Hilbre here.
The small group of local people of Hilbre that I managed to interview so far, highlight aspects of the island such as ‘how wild it feels’, ‘remote and distant, yet close to mainland’, the sense of connection with nature but also to other places. Below are some examples of local people I interviewed who provided some insights about their connection with nature. On the ongoing process of interviewing more locals, I hope to uncover more ways of human connection with nature, how this connection sounds like, feels like and looks like.
Note: the following are cropped audios from the interviews, highlighting important points and relevant aspects to the research.
What connection means in Hilbre Island
In a constant state of flux
On birdwatching and being in tune with nature
About the island disappearing in the future
