#42 Fire Vine Bauhinia
The next two Tree Stories on video come from the exotic Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Gardens (XTBG). I met director Liu Guangyu on an recent artist residency and he gave the visiting artists a great presentation on ecologies and how they relate to the different ethnic groups in the region. Liu Guangyu heads the environmental education centre at XTBG and I have enjoyed several chats with him on aspects of environmental protection.
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Liu’s words:
The Bauhinia plant, …. but specifically this one’s leaf is different from the Bauhinia family .
This one is a unique species from the rainforest it has different meaning with ethnic group cultures. Its very special for the Hani people of Xishuangbanna , when Hani people are dating with a girlfriend, they usually find this vine on the outside and the girl will sit on this branch and they can start dating with each other so it is very romantic in the Hani culture .
In the Dai culture they call it elephant intestine , it looks long and curved, so very special. For us its like wow very strange for us Han people but it is very very , you know related to the local peoples.
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#1 Empty Tendrils
#2 Pomegranate Tree
#3 Trees are like Humans
#4 Old Ash – A Real Survivor
#5 Tree Rings of Life
#6 A Very Weird Elf
#7 Old Crabapple of Wenhua Dian
#8 Standing Fast
#9 Feeling Good – Tree Song
#10 Forest Breath – Tree Story
#11 Protective Peach – Tree Story
#12 Bee Tree (Part 1) Sycamore
#13 Winter Apples
#14 Ancient Yew Trees
#15 Once I Counted Birds
#16 Family Oak
#17 When the Trees Say Everything
#18 Strawberry Tree
#19 Mother Oak and Baby Oak
#20 My Leylandii
#21 Chestnut Repotted#22 Native Birch#22 Native Birch
#23 Ethan’s Tree
#24 Holding Trunk of Time
#25 Our Mother’s Legacy
#26 It Blossomed
#27 Always Trying To Hold Each Other Up
#28 Wollemi Pine
#29 Barrow Willow
#30 For What We Might Become
#31 Sheltering Beech
#32 Millennium Monkey Puzzle
#33 Monterey Cyprus
#34 Struggle On, Struggle On
#35 Like A Chestnut
#36 Head and Shoulders Above
#37 An Dair Sean
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Open Call for your tree story on video
Memory Palace of Tree Stories is a socio-ecological art practice which invites you to tell a story or share information about trees . It is a creative-led social enquiry of how we can live well for both personal and collective wellbeing. Your story can be any kind of tree story , a personal tree story, an ecological tree story , an environmental tree story, an historical tree story or even a botanical tree story. I do hope you can contribute a comment on how we can live better with the greater community of life.
The year 2023 we continue to gather your stories in the form of one minute videos and we are really looking forward to hearing your tree story . I can be contacted directly on this platform or on the contact page on this website.
Niamh Cunningham