Colonialism
In this collection
Highlights
L’Arbre D’Oublier (Oblivion Tree)
Filmed in Ouidah, L’Arbre D’Oublier shows Nazareth walking 437 times around the Oblivion Tree, countering a ritual imposed on enslaved Africans to erase memory, and linking Africa and Brazil through the history of the transatlantic slave trade.
On the road to nowhere
“As I plod north in the wind, I seem to be making no headway. It’s as if I’m walking on a treadmill: my body is moving but I’m going nowhere….. One minute I seem to be immobile; the next I realise that in immobility was an illusion, that I was getting somewhere, slowly, all the
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Scrambling for maps
March 2026 we are holding 3 online Map Scrambles, in which artists will be discussing when and why they use maps or mapping to document their walking art. Map Scramble 1 (Monday 23 7pm GMT) Map Scramble 2 (Wednesday 25 7pm GMT) Map Scramble 3 (Thursday 26 7pm GMT) Each events part of the
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• +12 WALC Online Course Session 6 : Collective Memory Walk (Micro-Project)
The session introduces oral history, storytelling and “walking archives” as decolonial and sensory methods. Participants design and facilitate a Collective Memory Walk, engaging local people and generating material for the WALC toolkit.
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Walking below the skyline in Oxford
Rawz created Forgotten Stories Of Oxford, a Spoken Word collection which forms a walking tour of central Oxford, offering a glimpse behind the facade of a city whose name is synonymous with global elitism. This work is one of the shortlisted pieces for the Sound Walk September Awards 2025. Below, Rawz discusses the piece, and what lead to its
Walking pieces
Shelter I & II, quartzite ridge
Shelter I & II reflect Nici Cumpston’s deep connection to Country and the traces of Aboriginal presence in the landscape. Created from a serendipitous misprint, the two reversed images were paired to form an imagined place of refuge within a harsh environment.
The New Field
In The New Field, Public Studio walked the 900km Bruce Trail exploring decolonization, collaborating with artists, activists, scientists, and Indigenous guides to share knowledge, engage communities, and reimagine land through art, education, and dialogue.
Articles on WLC
You Are [Always] in Native Space: Grappling with Legacies of Colonization Through Sound – Art Journal Open
A collaboration between a tribal elder and an artist descended from first colonizers Source: You Are [Always] in Native Space: Grappling with Legacies of Colonization Through Sound – Art Journal Open
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Steps of Resistance
In Los Pasos de Mama Killa Amanda Gutiérrez explores the collective meaning of agency at night, presenting the nighttime as a communal and relational space grounded in mutual care. This work is one of the shortlisted pieces for the Sound Walk September Awards 2025. Below, Amanda discusses her work. Los Pasos de Mama Killa (The Steps of Mama Killa) was
On the politics of walking
On August 26, Babak Fakhamzadeh of walk · listen · create and Mary Marinopoulou of Action Synergy, as part of the 4-year project Walking Arts and Local Communities, hosted the online event Politics of Walking: Grief, Solidarity and Resistance, bringing together four artists and activists; Nohad ElHajj, Marta Moreno Muñoz, Robert Yerachmiel Sniderman, and Tom Jeffreys. What followed was a profound dialogue on walking as a political and embodied act in the face of violence, injustice, and systemic disconnection.
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+1 The colonial exploitation of capitalism
Back in 2018, I visited the lovely town of Olinda in northern Brazil. It's popular with tourists, mostly Brazilian, and when my wife and I were admiring the town's facades, a man walked from around the corner and started talking to us, assuming we were Brazilian tourists. He was a tour guide and wanted to sell his services, and one of the very first things he said was "Oh, if only the Dutch had stayed, Brazil would be so much better off, today".
• Articles elsewhere
18. Ann de Forest, editor, Ways of Walking
I was on a Zoom call a couple of weeks ago, learning more about a walking workshop I’ll be part of in early May. I recognized the name of one of the other participants: Ann de Forest. Don’t I have a book by her? I asked myself. When the call ended, I went looking. Yes, … Continue reading 18. Ann de Forest, editor, Ways of Walking →
• 10. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies
One of the great things about my job during the past couple of years is that I’ve had the opportunity to teach Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies. It’s like no novel you’ve read before, because it’s a powerful anticolonial novel that decolonizes the genre. I get to reread this book every … Continue reading 10. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies →
• A pleasant exploration of Jogja
Indonesia is the second country this year which I had not visited before. We flew in to Yogyakarta, from Kuala Lumpur. YIA, the new airport of ‘Jogja’, was opened in early 2020, was then open for three months, to close again because of COVID. In 2022 it was opened permanently. A whole 50k from town, …
• Events
Launch event: Gushing at the Wrong Evergreen
This is the launch event for the walking piece with the same name, by Jorma Kujala. Map and route details will be posted at the accompanying link in advance of the launch. This soundwalk extends the historical, cultural and socioeconomic exploration begun with False; Flat; Fake – a soundwalk, offered in September, 2020. Gushing at
