We are a total liberation network from the Pennines, over in the UK. Our programme of work is focused on reindigenising, repairing our connections to our lands and to our global Indigenous ancestors. We are still in the early days of forming, but we understand abolition as a core part of our work. No prisons on any land! All must be free!
I decided we should write you and send you some photos, even though what we have done is very unconventional, and was not initially intended as a Freedom Tree event. Because in writing this now, in the bones of my fingers clicking the keys, are connections waiting to be made, stories waiting to be told, and it is in writing them down that they are given form.
Recently a couple of us cut our hair, and we decided we wanted to give it as a gift to the birds. Today we visited a nearby socialist centre, and on the way back we encountered a flock of crows, and then shortly after a hawthorn with some pigeons in. We decided to perform our ritual with this tree, and I remembered about your call for people to decorate Freedom Trees, and I shared it with my comrade.
We gave our hair as a gift to the birds, that they might use it for their nests. Birds have been found to incorporate human hair into their nests, although for some birds it can also be hazardous, and this is something we need to learn more about in the future. They are strong fibres, and good insulation. We spotted the hawthorn and remember we had brought our bag of fur. As we approached, a pair of pigeons flapped off. On its trunk were aged tufts of sheep’s wool, so we knew it was a spot for them to forage fur from. We took out our bag of hair, now gently matted together into a big ball of fur, smooth on the outside. We pulled it apart like breaking a loaf of bread, tearing apart, revealing open ends, interiority. And then we took to hanging and weaving bits of hair into the hawthorn, to keep her warm, to be there for the birds to take tufts of. We thanked the tree and the hills.
Thinking back to it and writing to you now, I can see our ritual as a celebration of freedom. We shaved our heads together as acts of radical lesbian sisterhood. We gave our hair as witches making an offering to the birds, the crows and pigeons especially. They fly freely, our siblings on this land, without regard for the ways their lots are judged and maligned by humans. Freedom means the freedom of expression, the freedom to be part of the land, the freedom to participate in networks of relations of mutual care.
I read Renzo Connors’ “The Intersections Between Anti-Speciesism, Anti-Civilization, & Individualist Anarchy” recently, and in it he(?) talks about being in prison and his experience at first trying to trap a bird as a pet, and then learning “the contradiction and irony of me in a cage, catching other animals to put in a cage for my own enjoyment.” I include a link below so you can read his words in full. But I think of the image of his outstretched hands now, a bird gently resting in them, before flying away.
Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do for our fellow non-humans and humans. Congratulations on your freedom. It feels strange to say. Let’s look forward to a world where liberation and sovereignty are expected and everywhere, in all their forms. A world where there are no cages.
Until we are all free,
Reindiginise! Pennines
Links:
Our programme – https://reindiginisepennines.noblogs.org/
Renzo Connors’ writing – https://warzonedistro.noblogs.org/post/2023/07/11/veganism-as-anti-colonial-praxis-a-collection-of-indigenous-vegan-perspectives/ (you can also read on The Anarchist Library but it’s worth printing out the zine for the beautiful artwork if nothing else!)