Peatlands are ancestors, are memory, are futures. WETBEINGS gathers “old stories and new ones that can be medicine for our broken relationship with earth” (R. W. Kimmerer) in the biodiverse organism and troubled ecosystem of the Aukštumala peatland. The transdisciplinary program roots itself in this 9000 years old living archive in the delta of the Nemunas river at the Baltic coast and one of the largest peat extraction sites in the Baltics. From, with and for this WETBEING the project gathers approaches and examples of living in and with peatlands which are based on mutuality and sustainable survival of humans and peatlands. 

TRANS-LOCAL WET CULTURES AND BOG KNOWLEDGES

~ SPRING ONLINE MEETINGS

We call on a forgotten bird god, Didydis baublys (Eurasian Bittern) to guide us. Didydis baublys is an ancestral peatland spirit whose call tells of how swamps once formed from clouds: In one of the old Lithuanian cosmologies, special clouds were sometimes passing over the land. They took on the shapes of animals and made their sounds. When the people on the land called the cloud by its right name, the cloud descended and a lake was born. Swamps are clouds whose name was never guessed or lakes whose name was forgotten. From the inbetween spaces of water and land, the Baublys calls the swamp and lake clouds by their names so that wetness continues to feed the earth. 

One of the earliest modern scientific studies on a peatland, Carl Albert Weber’s study of the Aukštumala peatland in Lithuania, published in 1902, is a starting point to critically interrogate the relationships of science and the utilisation, productivization, destruction and protection of peatlands across times and ideologies, and to activate diverse and wet perspectives on peatland ecologies, knowledges, cultures and economies. Research of the extraction and socio-ecological histories of Aukštumala and sharings from the current aliveness and challenges of this peatland ecosystem are connected with a focus on local expertises, community based and bottom up nature conservation approaches, multispecies concepts for peatland living and practices at the intersection of arts and ecological and decolonial activism, as well as indigenous and science based knowledge. This symposium takes place online to allow participation and dialogue across different peatlands globally.

26 APRIL 2025 5-8 PM CET

PLACE: Zoom Channel streamed from a cloud spirit floating over the Baltics

LANGUAGES: English, Lithuanian

REGISTER: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/uiB36pTlQeqjOo9QQlwkvQ

Layer I 5 - 6:15 PM CET

WETBEINGS Welcome 

Andreas Haberl, Jūratė Sendžikaitė, RE-PEAT, Suza Husse

Old and New Stories from and for Aukštumala / WETBEINGS – an Introduction

Suza Husse (researcher, curator, Sensing Peat / Michael Succow Foundation. Greifswald) with Žaltys (Grass Snake)

Suza Husse is a researcher, writer and curator with an interest in collaborative and performative practices that bridge knowledges from different social, ecological and historical environments. Currently Suza coordinates the arts and peatland ecology platform Sensing Peat at the Michael Succow Foundation, an organisation engaged in the protection and restoration of peatlands, facilitating transdisciplinary arts and community based approaches towards alive and emancipatory swamp, bog, wetland and peatland cultures. Sensing Peat is rooted in the Venice Agreement, a bottom-up network of peatland custodians dedicated to protecting and restoring peatlands globally through local initiatives and decolonial tools. Suza is a member of the transnational Organising Committee of The Venice Agreement, where scientists, community organisers, Indigenous and environmental advocacy representatives, artists and researchers from three continents organise transdisciplinary peatland protection together. 

Suza's WETBEING is a grass snake (Natrix natrix). An Eurasian semi-aquatic non-venomous colubrid snake. Their preferred habitats are borderlands and "edge" habitats, such as wetlands, field margins and woodland borders. In the Baltic mythology, the grass snake is a sacred animal. Household spirits, they frequently lived together with humans, living under the bed or in a special place near the hearth. Even after Christianization’s demonization of serpents, many people continued to live by the ancient truth that there is a snake (known or not to the inhabitants) living under every house and that killing or injuring the snake brings grave misfortune. 

In the Lausitz region were Husse's family is from similar serpent cosmologies exist. In 2017 when Suza Husse first was invited to work on the Curonian Spit, the Lithuanian tale of Eglė the Queen of Grass Snakes became a guiding story for their collective The Many Headed Hydra and our work with the ecologies and mythologies around the Curonian Lagoon. So the grass snake is a guiding spirit for WETBEINGS, they are already there and Husse hopes that they can help us in our Aukštumala endeavours.

The extraordinary life and human-peatland relations of Aukštumala Raised Bog 

Jūratė Sendžikaitė (botanist, peatland restoration expert, Foundation for Peatland Restoration and Conservation, Vilnius) with Saulašarė (Sundew)

Jūratė Sendžikaitė took her first steps onto real mire ground only a few years after completing her PhD studies in Natural Sciences. It was in Aukštumala in 2005. Since then, the peatlands have been an enduring part of her life. With a background in Geography and Biology, defending PhD, over 20 years of research at the Institute of Botany, as well as 17 years of experience in non-governmental nature protection organizations, she has gained expertise in ecological restoration, protection and conservation of biodiversity and public education. She is the scientific editor of the Lithuanian edition (2016) of C.A. Weber’s foundational monograph on the Aukštumala raised bog (Weber, 1902).

Jūratė's WETBEING is a Saulašarė (Sundew, Drosera). 

Three species of Sundews, small carnivorous plants, are found on the soft Sphagnum carpets in Aukštumala raised bog. Sundews disrupt traditional plant-animal relationships by feeding on insects to compensate for the lack of minerals in the wet peat of raised bogs. Their beauty is deceptive, as their delicate leaves are densely covered with glandular hairs that secrete sticky droplets to attract, trap, and... digest their prey. There lies a deadly trap for unsuspecting insects, highlighting the contradictions in nature's balance.

Peatland Ecologies of Extraction and Preservation, Memory, and Transformation in the Post-Soviet Sphere – Intersections of Artistic Research, Environmental History and Speculative Storytelling

Jeanna Kolesova (researcher, film maker, Berlin) with Swamp Spirit

Jeanna Kolesova is an artist, filmmaker, and researcher working across moving images,performance, installation, and text. Their practice investigates the violent manipulation of history, information, and narratives, focusing on how imperial technologies have shaped—and continue to shape—bodies, landscapes, and collective memory. Grounded in personal experience and critical research, their work bridges the intimate and the political, searching for alternative futures through the lens of trauma and resistance.

Their WETBEING is a Swamp Spirit. An imaginary creature that first appeared in 2022 as a particle system, later evolving into blue-shifting plasma-like energy. Emerging from Russia’s Vladimir region peat-mining settlements, it began appearing in Jeanna’s dreams, guiding their thoughts and creative direction. Though its presence remains unconfirmed by others, it has become the central figure in Jeanna’s current film project.

Bog Ancestors in Selk’nam Cosmology and Collaborative Peatland Care Between Indigenous and Scientific Approaches

Fernanda Olivares / The Venice Agreement for Peatlands (Selk’nam community organiser, director Hach Saye, Porvenir) with Pakeliah Hol Hol (Healing Peatland)

Fernanda Olivares Molina, Selk’nam woman, living in Tierra del Fuego since 2021. I only knew about the existence of peatlands once I moved into Tierra del Fuego and from that moment I couldn´t stop loving them.

Pakeliah is Fernandas WETBEING. Pakeliah is one of their ancestors, she has witnessed the movement of animals and people, how people went from running with spear, to ride this new animal, the horse, to finally see people inside a metallic animal, very much noisier than the rest, the car.

Layer II 6:30 - 7:15 PM CET 

The Swamp Space in Lithuanian Oral Tradition. Semiotic Analysis of Local Legends

Banguolė Žalnieriūnaitė (semiotician, Vilnius) with Didydis baublys (Eurasian bittern)

Banguolė Žalnieriūnaitė is a semiotician who grew up near the Šepeta peatland. During her master’s studies, she explored the symbolic role of swamps in the traditional Lithuanian worldview. Her research focused on local legends and the cultural meanings embedded in these wet landscapes.

Banguolė's WETBEING is a Didydis baublys (Eurasian bittern). A mysterious bird known for its haunting, resonant call—a sound sometimes linked to the very creation of swamps. Some believe this elusive creature may even be a god in disguise. It carries the echoes of ancient wetlands and forgotten myths

Living in and with Aukštumala Bog – Histories and Future Memories 

Laima Mačėnienė (farmer, cultural memory worker, Vabalai-Aukštumala) with Pelkinis gailis (Marsh Labrador Tea)

EN: Laima Mačėnienė is a local farmer and a descendant of the old residents of Vabalai, a village on the edge of the Aukštumala raised bog. She feels privileged to live in the most beautiful place in the world, cherished by her family for generations. Since childhood, she has nurtured the spoken dialect of the old Vabalai village and is not only the heart and soul of this community but also serves as the chairwoman of the Kintai Evangelical Lutheran community.

Marsh Labrador Tea has long been cherished for its healing properties. Traditionally, its fragrant leaves were brewed into herbal tea and even used as gruit in beer-making during the Middle Ages. Laima’s Oma (grandmother) deeply believed in its healing power. In the truest sense of the word, she helped her son—Laima’s father—stand on his feet again after Soviet doctors had declared he would never walk. Through love, faith, devoted care, and the strength of local nature’s herbs, he regained his ability to walk.

LT: Laima Mačėnienė – vietos ūkininkė, senųjų Vabalų kaimo gyventojų palikuonė, gyvenanti Aukštumalos aukštapelkės pakraštyje. Ji džiaugiasi galėdama gyventi nuostabiausiame pasaulio kampelyje, kurį jos šeima brangina jau ištisas kartas. Nuo vaikystės puoselėjusi senąją Vabalų kaimo šnekamąją tarmę, ji yra ne tik šio kaimo geroji siela, bet ir eina Kintų evangelikų liuteronų bendruomenės pirmininkės pareigas.

Pelkinių gailių arbata nuo seno vertinama dėl savo gydomųjų savybių. Tradiciškai iš jos kvapnių lapelių buvo verdama žolelių arbata, o viduramžiais ji net buvo naudojama alui gaminti. Laimos Oma (močiutė) labai tikėjo gailių gydomąja galia. Ji tikrąja to žodžio prasme padėjo savo sūnui - Laimos tėvui - vėl atsistoti ant kojų po to, kai sovietų gydytojai pareiškė, kad jis niekada nevaikščios. Meilė, tikėjimas, nuoširdaus rūpinimosi ir vietinių žolelių stiprybės galia jis ir vėl pradėjo vaikščioti.

Peatland Justice – Counter-Mapping Historical Patterns and Current Realities of Drainage and Peat Extraction 

RE-PEAT with Grey Goose

RE-PEAT - Bobbi (she/they) is a young peatland, climate, and social justice advocate living in the Netherlands and part of RE-PEAT. With RE-PEAT, she works on pushing for deep shifts in public perceptions of peatlands using tools of public education, community building and campaigning. Currently, her focus is with the Peatland Justice project, which investigates injustices at play in the trade of peat in Europe and envisions a just transition in this system, particularly in the Dutch context.

The grey goose, Bobbi's WETBEING, was the being that accompanied the RE-PEAT folks during their residency at the peatland library in Greifswald a few weeks ago. It was present both physically (with babies!) and spiritually by popping up in various stories. Grey geese love cattail, which makes cattail farming quite difficult sometimes. They're thus a humbling species, reminding us that the natural world is not to be engineered, but that we should stay in dialogue with our environment.

Layer III 7:15 - 8 PM CET 

Perspectives on Peatland Ecosystems Life, Challenges and Chances, Approaches for Coexistence, Mutuality and Sustainable Use

Workshop led by Andreas Haberl (paleo- and peatland ecologist and paludiculture expert, Michael Succow Foundation, Greifswald) with European Pond Turtle and Jūratė Sendžikaitė (botanist, peatland restoration expert, Foundation for Peatland Restoration and Conservation, Vilnius) with Saulašarė (Sundew)

Andreas Haberl Grew up at one of the most beautiful peatlands in the South West of Germany, the Murnauer Moos in Bavaria and had during his childhood an intuitive direct relation to the special wet landscape and its inhabitants. Later during his studies, he deepened the ecological and scientific understanding of peatlands and got trained in paleoecological aspects of peatlands in his studies of landscape ecology and nature conservation at Greifswald University. After graduation he works now for 20 years in different Institutions of the Greifswald Mire Center on paleoecological, nature conservational and paludiculture contexts in many different national and international peatland projects.

Andreas' WETBEING is the European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis).

Turtles are evolutionary very old organisms who coexisted already with other dinosaurs millions of years ago on Earth. The European pond turtle is a small descendant of its dinosaur ancestors specialised for inhabiting wet- and peat-lands in Europe where it is an agile subaquatic hunter and dweller. This makes it a wet-being who represents perfectly the paleo-ecological scope peatlands fill in their development and existence during the last 10 000 years after deglaciation of Northern Europe.

The WETBEING Online Meetings are held in Lithuanian and English languages.

Participation in one or all Layers is possible. Please register here

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/uiB36pTlQeqjOo9QQlwkvQ 

The WETBEING Online Meeting will be recorded. Following the gatherings, the recordings will be made available on https://www.sensingpeat.net and https://www.pelkiufondas.lt

WETBEINGS is organized by the arts and research platform Sensing Peat at Michael Succow Foundation, Partner in the Greifswald Mire Centre, and the Foundation for Peatland Conservation and Restoration, Lithuania in cooperation with Allianz Foundation. Co-hosted by RE-PEAT and The Venice Agreement for Peatlands. Supported by the Andrea von Braun Foundation, the Administration of Lithuania Minor Protected Areas and Nemunas Delta Regional Park.