Thematic Presentation
Valuing our Rural Identity
Monthly Farmers’ Market (Sul, Sao Pedro do Sul, PT)
July 14th, 2013, 10h00-13h00
Binaural/Nodar, Civil Parish of Sul, Association Aldeias de Magaio, Association of Farmers and Forest Producers of São Macário, Cultural and Sports Association of Rompecilha and animation company RitualTTerra present the event “Valuing our Rural Identity “.
This event aims to present current initiatives for stimulating cultural, environmental and tourism development of the communities belonging to the Civil Parish of Sul (São Pedro do Sul municipality) and neighboring parishes (like São Martinho das Moitas), which have been widely supported by the Civil Parish of Sul, conscious of their attractiveness role for a regular presence of visitors, for a sense of self-esteem of local people, especially the younger ones, thus contributing to reverse the gradual desertification that characterizes many of the rural villages of the region.
The initiatives to be presented on Sunday, July 14th, during the Monthly Farmers’ Market of Sul are the following ones:
1. Sound Installation: Voices and Sounds from the Memory of Sul. A project by Binaural/Nodar integrated in the Memory Archive of Lafões, Paiva and Vouga Rivers Valleys which is included in the EU funded project Tramontana Network This archive was started in May 2012 and consists of sound and video recordings from multiple aspects of the region’s collective memory. The archive is about to conclude a first phase carried out in the civil parishes of Sul, São Martinho das Moitas and Covas do Rio with about 150 interviews conducted. It is precisely on the basis of the documentation gathered by Binaural/Nodar in the parish of Sul that a sound installation was conceived, made of voices from its inhabitants, sounds of the landscape, sounds of work and of religiosity (such as the pilgrimage to St. Macário and the sounds of bells from local churches) and local singing and musical traditions.
2. Presentation of the Pedestrian Route Valley of Sul – Biologically Rural. An endogenous pedestrian route of about 14.7 Km, organized by several local partners, which covers the two slopes of the river Sul valley (tributary of the River Vouga) passing among landscapes and villages alive, with the innovative particularity of valuing the ongoing dynamics linked to biological agriculture and livestock farming (blueberry, orange groves, olive groves, pig farms), thereby transmitting a signal of optimism about the future sustainability of this rural area. This route is available to those who want to walk it, starting off in main sqaure of Sul, crossing places like the Centennial Cross, Quintas de Trás da Serra, Oliveira, Aveloso, Açores, Leirados, Aldeia and Sul.
3. Live Demonstration of the Linen Cycle. An initiative by the Cultural and Sports Association of Rompecilha, a village belonging to the civil parish of São Martinho das Moitas with a long tradition linked to linen, which was sown regularly until very recently. The local association, based on an awareness of the risk of loss of this rich tradition, decided to start its revitalization through two ways: firstly, through the annual seed for the whole linen cycle to happen in the village (sowing, weeding, watering, harvesting, spinning and weaving) as a revisiting action to its inhabitants, as and educational activity for children and young people and as a touristic attraction factor for the village. Secondly, through a condensed demonstration of the whole cycle, accompanied by the corresponding tools and utensils and traditional singing, exaclty the one that will be presented in Sul following others that were carried out in the region.