Contribute to the "We are the Orne" project by submitting your personal stories, photos, archives and anecdotes illustrating what the Orne catchment area is or was for you, the area shaped by the river and its tributaries. How is this catchment area changing? What objects, forgotten documents or other traces of the past can tell us about these ongoing changes? This new kind of collection will give rise to cultural and scientific projects in this part of Normandy.
The Orne catchment area covers almost 3,000 km2. Situated where the Parisian Basin meets the Armorican Massif, it has all the characteristics of a 'benchmark' area for Normandy. Its human scale, the diversity of its landscapes, its rich built, natural and intangible heritage, as well as the ecological and environmental upheavals to which it is already subject (floods and droughts, deterioration of the environment, deterioration of water quality) provide a favourable basis for collective experimentation from which the whole of the region, and even beyond, could benefit.
For several years now, Territoires pionniers has been running a variety of projects (residencies, educational projects, workshops, etc.) with a wide range of audiences, each of which, in its own way, has explored layers of the Orne landscape and helped to forge links with the people who live there. It is now joined by the CPIEs of the Vallée de l'Orne and Collines Normandes, the Pavillon de Caen and Le Dôme - centre de culture scientifique de Caen Normandie - to bring together and develop cultural and scientific research.
For several years, they will be developing a shared programme of events (workshops, meetings, walks, etc.), setting up research residencies, and initiating research and participatory science programmes on biodiversity and energy transitions in the "Climax Stations".
By taking the river as its starting point, "Nous sommes Orne" aims to give concrete form to the findings of the Regional Group of Experts on Climate Change (IPCC Normandy) in a shared experimental area. The aim is to support changes in practices, network the communities that live here and collectively question our means of subsistence by asking ourselves one question: How can we "re-inhabit" the Orne catchment area? Contribute to the "We are the Orne" project by sharing your memories and stories of this area, and exchange ideas with other contributors!
The platform “Changing Natures” on which you are browsing hosts a participatory collection that enables citizens to bear witness to the environmental changes taking place in an area, based on their objects or documents from the past. By contributing to the "We are Orne" project on the platform, you are helping to create a new kind of museum collection: entirely digital and participatory!
Credit for the illustration: "Nous sommes Orne - illustration: Fanny Monier".