Thirst: In Search of Freshwater

Stop 5/11: Artist and wildcrafter Lora Aziz on ‘Walking in Wadis’

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This artist is called Lora Aziz, who is also a wildcrafter.

At this stop, they now explain their artwork, which I am translating into BSL.

On the wall in front of you is a collage of around 50 items, including photographs, journal pages and tapestries.

These were created by young people aged 8 to 18, in a town called St Catherine in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt.

Sinai is a region undergoing rapid change and urbanisation.

This makes the transfer and preservation of local knowledge about plants critically important.

The elders holds the stories and ways of using plants, but if we don’t find ways to preserve these stories and teach younger generations, this knowledge could be lost.

As part of this project, I worked with the youth to explore new ways of documenting these stories.

The goal was to give people the tools to record the plants and animals around them, making them part of creating a living record of their home’s nature.

Our tools for this were simple.

We used materials like notebooks, plants foraged – for example, palm leaves – soil, old scraps of paper and photography to teach participants how to make prints, tapestries and journals.

Tapestries are one new way for young people to document how they see their land and environment.

Here is an example of one such tapestry.

For thousands of years, a nomadic Arab tribe called the Bedouins has lived in Sinai.

However, it’s becoming harder, with the changing climate, global politics, and capitalism reaching every corner.

In these circumstances, when things are changing so quickly, we need to think about how to protect the land.

That’s why this creative practice is so important. 

It needs to be nurtured, shared and properly communicated.

People need new tools to think and talk about the land with the ever-changing climate and future.

To the right is a cabinet with four jars containing dried herbs from St Catherine.

Feel free to take the lids off and smell them.

One of them is Judean wormwood – this is what the Mountains of Sinai smell like, especially after the rain, or when the wind has shaken the plants and released their aromas into the air.

It’s pungent and sharp, but also sweet and addictive – the kind scent that lingers in your nostrils.

Every year in Sinai, by the end of winter, there is the wait for the rains to come.

I went out there during Covid in 2021.

At this point, there had been drought for many years, but that year it just rained and rained and rained.

The valleys became rivers.

Water flowed down the mountains, gushing down waterfalls.

It was so beautiful.

Because of all the rainwater, the plants thrived.

The blue butterfly returned, and life was renewed.

Local wormwood plants flourished.

That was during Covid, when a new variant called Omicron emerged.

Wormwood was used to help treat the symptoms.

This reflects the local belief that for every disease, nature can provide a cure.

It’s incredible how nature always finds a way to provide and restore life.