Fireweed Collective — trainings for change
Fireweed is a collective of activist trainers in Denmark, Sweden and Norway (Finland pending). We aim to strengthen the Nordic movements for liberation and justice by providing tools and skills to individuals and groups within those movements through participatory and emancipatory trainings.
Why Fireweed?
NO: Geiterams, DK: Gederams, SE: Mjölke, FI: Maitohorsma
As a collective with roots in the climate justice movement, turning to nature for metaphor is in one sense a way to acknowledge those roots. At the same time, it also represents a turning toward a more truly intersectional approach, a turning which we will always be in the process of completing.
Nature can be a magnificent guide for political work. The following are some of the things we are trying to learn from fireweed:
1. Fireweed brings beauty to decimated landscapes
Fireweed is a beautiful weed with purple flowers that grows all over the Nordic region. It is among the first plants to emerge after a fire (or the clearcutting of a forest). The young shoots are edible and sometimes dubbed the ‘asparagus of the forest’. In other words, it is a plant which brings nourishment and beauty to spaces which have been met with destruction and disruption. As we are faced with what some now term a ‘metacrisis’, our current system is burning, both literally and figuratively speaking, and we need to grow movements, cultures, and ourselves to be able to regenerate after the fire. We need to build structures that nourish when the systems we live in fail.
2. Fireweed spreads quickly and efficiently
“Once seedlings are established, the plant quickly reproduces and covers the disturbed area via seeds and rhizomes.” For Fireweed Collective, trainings serve the purpose of dissemination. The participants of the trainings are like the rhizomes and seeds of the fireweed, spreading the tools, skills, and knowledge they build with us in their own community. However, fireweed cannot self-pollinate. They need insects for pollination to avoid inbreeding. In Fireweed Collective, we believe in the importance of cross-pollination between movements, learning from each other’s struggles as well as solutions.
3. Fireweed regenerates decimated landscapes
Fireweed not only appears after a fire, but is also somewhat fire resistant. It helps stabilize soil and paves the way for the return of other plants. In other words, it regenerates and creates resilience. As we build up new structures beyond the extractivist and destructive system we now inhabit, we will need to build resilience through cultures of care and accountability.
4. Weeds create cracks in the current system
Weeds are plants whose valuable properties we have forgotten. Fireweed is home to a fungus that attacks the new shoots in spruce plantation, and while the industry tries to combat the plant, it continues to return. Weeds resist the monocultures of neoliberal societies, breaking through the cement, disrupting our neatly planted lawns and plantation forests. We must be like weeds.
