Home in the Hills: A Manifesto

In 2025, Lancaster Arts produced a project that took place in the Forest of Bowland called Are You Lost? created by artist, Rob St John. This was part of a national programme called Nature Calling, designed to amplify new voices and create innovative artwork in collaboration with communities close to National Landscapes. Rob collaborated with many people in and around the Forest of Bowland, and particularly with young people in Nelson in East Lancashire. These conversations have been captured in a series of podcasts which you can listen to here. One of the voices you will hear in episode 5 is that of Zainab Maria. Here, Zainab powerfully unpicks the complexities of working with protected landscapes and the importance of reimagining our futures with them. 

Here on the edges of Bowland, we are surrounded by hills and green spaces, yet access to nature, as in so many places, is not always equal. For working-class people, migrant communities, and those who have grown up in post-industrial towns like Nelson, or Burnley in Lancashire, barriers remain to accessing and connecting with the landscape. 

Sometimes it is a lack of resources, transport, or time. Sometimes it is social exclusion shaping who feels welcome. And sometimes it runs deeper, carried in generational trauma or the absence of knowledge and experience. 

Environmental issues such as climate change, land access, and ecological destruction are not only about emissions or recycling. They are about systems that profit from disconnection and exploitation. 

Globally, we see this in the erasure of Indigenous lands and cultures, in the devastation of war and occupation, and in who is forced to bear the costs of crises they did not create. 

We see it locally too, in green spaces that feel closed off, or in mainstream environmental narratives that erase our histories and struggles. 

And yet, here in the core of an empire built on extraction, we live with contradiction: privilege. Privilege that can numb us into passivity, but that also carries responsibility. We are both beneficiaries of, and bound within, systems that exploit land and people alike. Too often, we are ground down into lifeless routines of work and consumption, told we have no power and right to resist. 

Are You Lost? tells a different story. It reminds us that we belong here, in this land and in this history. It calls us to reconnect with the hills around us, with each other’s memories, and with traditions of resistance that stretch across the world. Because this is not only about green spaces. It is about who gets to belong, whose voices are heard, and whose histories are honoured. 

Although we are not on the frontlines of disaster, we are still fighting a battle against systems that erode community and sever ties to the land. 

So let this be an invitation: to slow down, to listen, to ask what kind of future might grow from care, not control. To gather, share stories, and remember that true belonging is not given by institutions, but created in community.

Perhaps this is where a new manifesto begins, not written by one voice but by many. A living document carried in stories, conversations, and the ways we walk the land together. Rooted in justice, in care, and in the belief that strength lies in diversity. 

Because to belong is not only to take from the land, but to give back. To tend, to listen, to share. That may be the beginning of a tradition worth passing on. 

In this way, the manifesto is not only about reclaiming power, but redistributing it. Ensuring that all community members can contribute to how land is governed and cared for. 

How do we nurture a culture where many voices and ecologies can take root and flourish? 

For just as a forest rich in diversity is more resistant to disease and climate shocks, so too a community rich in social diversity and ways of thinking is more resilient in times of crisis and more capable of reimagining futures. 

Zainab Maria is a geography graduate and current teacher trainee with a background in youth and community projects. She has experience in podcast-making and a strong interest in environmental and social movements. Zainab first connected with Are You Lost? through sessions led by artist Rob St John at the Nelson YES Hub, where she joined others in exploring local histories and recording a community podcast. Her writing grows from this experience, weaving together themes of place, belonging, and justice.