Freedom to Roam II: Hunting and Uranium

After finishing the installation of Freedom to Roam, I had an interesting conversation with Susie Osler, owner of the FieldWork site land. This was right around hunting time in the area, and Susie did not want any hunters passing through her property. It felt a little bit funny to be installing a piece about the freedom to roam and at the same time use a land owner’s right to deny trespassing. The whole situation made me think about what kind of “use” of land that feels just to me, and what not. If I had owned land I would definitely not want any hunting to be done there either, simply because I don’t hunt myself and don’t want to risk my life walking around in the woods....

After some feed back from people living on, or close to Old Brooke Road, I became aware of a local land related conflict of a kind that I, strangely enough, hadn’t even considered when the idea for this piece came up. It’s a conflict about power and control, about brave and persistent individuals fighting against authorities and big businesses to prevent exploitation of land. In this local case it’s about a uranium mining threat close by, but on a global basis this is of course a huge deal.

In Norway, for example, the area of Lofoten on the northern coast holds the last unexploited oil field in the country. The awareness of oil peak seems to not have been very high in Norway up until recently, but as it’s considered that their current oil fields will be empty in only ten years from now many people are waking up from their state of “petromania” and are now facing the decision of either opening up for oil drilling in the Lofoten archipelago to keep the national economy on the same high level it has been on since the seventies, or to let this wild and beautiful area remain untouched.

For more information about Lofoten, you can visit www.lofoten-info.no

For more information about the Swedish Allemansrätt: www.naturvardsverket.se/en/In-English/Menu/Enjoying-nature/The-right-of-public-access

I would like to say thank you- so much- to every one who has given me feedback on this project. I am so happy that it seems like the piece has really been able to be trigger some thoughts.  More comments are very welcome.