DG Unlimited and Dumfries and Galloway Council have been working in collaboration with greenspace scotland and Commissioned Artists T S Beall and Katie Anderson to deliver Dumfries and Galloway’s contribution to Remembering Together, a national project that seeks to give each of Scotland’s 32 local authorities the chance to reflect their unique experience of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Over the past two years, the artists have been working with communities across the region to collaboratively design a Dispersed Memorial Forest which is now being planted across five sites in Castle Douglas, Dumfries, Moffat, Sanquhar, and Stranraer.
The project will be planting one tree for each person lost to COVID in the region, and will plant additional trees to represent other types of loss and resilience. In planting The Dispersed Memorial Forest, the artists hope to highlight “the different ways communities grew together over the pandemic”.
Between July and December 2022, the artists spoke to over 800 of the region’s residents right across Dumfries and Galloway from Kirkcudbright to Annan, Stranraer to Sanquhar to gather ideas and experiences as part of shaping the memorial. Through these conversations and by using bespoke engagement tools, a renewed appreciation for nature and outdoor spaces began to emerge as a clear theme. Therefore, a memorial forest was chosen as the heart of the project, providing not just a vital place of healing for the community, but also an important statement of intent for increasing biodiversity and sustainable development.
The artists, working with consultants TreeSurv who are advising on the native species being planted, intend to create a memorial that speaks to the way the pandemic both separated communities, and also brought them together. Although each tree planted will not represent an individual, the artists hope that the four hundred trees will collectively honour those who died from COVID-19 in the region, as well as acknowledging other losses, and ways communities came together during the pandemic.
Councillor Gail Macgregor, Co-Chair of Dumfries and Galloway Community Planning Partnership Board and Leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council said:
‘As we return to ‘normal’ after the pandemic, we risk losing sight of what a huge difference it made to people’s personal lives and how it impacted on our communities. This project is an important opportunity to see something positive passed on to future generations’.
The project will be completed in June 2024, creating a living memorial for those that were lost to the virus, and a space for future generations to come together and reflect.
Remembering Together Dumfries and Galloway is commissioned by greenspace scotland, DG Unlimited, and Dumfries and Galloway Council with funding from the Scottish Government.
