Looking, listening #2
And learning to care
What can the meeting of a Lake-district farmer and a Norwegian “duck woman” teach us about matters of care, materiality and collaboration?
This month I wanted to share with you a book I read in spring this year - The Place of Tides, written by James Rebanks. The book follows the Lake-district farmer, better known for his 2021 book English Pastoral, on a journey to a remote Norwegian island in the Veja archipelago. James is leaving his familiar home farm to go in search of “the duck woman”, a small but mighty force of nature in her 70’s, also known as Anna.
James revisits this unforgettable lady years after his first brief but memorable encounter with her, to embark on a story untold. Anna, has dedicated her later years in life to the meticulous and arduous gathering of the treasured Eider duck feathers.
The story takes us through the season from well before the arrival of the ducks - when the work mostly involves building hundreds of small but perfectly formed huts for them to nest within - to the long awaited arrival of the birds, through to the pinnacle of the work, the gathering of soft, cloud-like and highly-prized duck feathers.
What really struck me about this story is the reciprocal nature of this act between human and animal, between land and sea and between James and Anna. This direct connection between the duck guardians and the production of the material is vital. The duck’s won’t nest on the island if the huts aren’t built just the way they like them. The duck must be happy and feel safe for there to be any of the precious resource available to gather at all. Months of work can all be for nothing if it is not carried out with care, thoughtfulness and years of intimate knowledge and experience.
The contrast between this gentle and tender way of living, in harmony with animals for the bare minimum of a material resource, to the extraction of oil from the nearby North Sea makes the story all the more impactful. Knowing that along the same stretch of ocean there are people contorting their lives to the patterns, habitats and needs of a wild animal, in return for a relatively tiny amount of material; whilst just a boat ride away others are instructing machines to voraciously drill and dredge the ocean floor, vividly brings to light the intense polarisation in the world we currently live.
Hope can feel distant and ungraspable when thinking too much on these matters. But The Place of Tides brings me hope. Knowing that there are people like Anna and James clinging with all their might to a way of life that’s so tender and considered despite it all.
Perhaps we won’t be leaving our families or homes to journey to a remote island and dedicate every inch of our being to the care of wild ducks, but maybe through reading books like this we can connect with greater integrity to the systems and stories that are encapsulated within every object we encounter - from the leather boots we pull on in the morning, to the woollen blanket we curl up in in the evening. Knowing that human and animal has met and worked side-by-side for us to have these materials at all. And maybe we can learn to care for them in the same way we would for a luxurious eiderdown quilt - with tenderness, respect and love.
“Each nest was an act of love”. – James Rebanks
More things to click on:
A book - Matters of Care by Maria Puig De La Bellacasa
A podcast - What if invitations to participate in civic life were creative and caring?
A song - Full Moon by Eden Ahbez
Next week I’ll be sharing some upcoming workshop dates where you can join me in person this year, so keep an eye out for that one if that’s your thing.
With care
Ellie