A Movement to Celebrate and Expand Nature in Cities through Eco-Active Totems
photo by @naturallybirds
In our dense cities, we can forget we are totally dependent on the web of life.
Our mission is to encourage and facilitate local interventions that create new habitat for our fellow creatures, while encouraging global action to heal our beautiful planet.
A Quick Guide
The video is a short introduction and overview of the movement. Giving an insight into how and why the project started and a quick step by step guide to how you can start your own totem project.
Changing the world is possible. It starts with changing our neighbourhood.
Nature is not an abstract concept. It is an ever-changing complex system emerging out of trillions of interactions between individual living things and their environments. Natural history is the story of each life in a chain that extends back through time to the first emergence of life.
The fate of a species depends on the aggregate lived experience of every individual of that species. One pair of little birds finding a home you created, and successfully raising a family adds this story to the history of the species - this small intervention has affected the future of life on our planet.
What is a Totem?
A totem is a designed object, located at the intersection of the human domain and the natural domain. The human domain includes the social, cultural and technological spheres, while the natural domain embraces the environmental, behavioural and physical needs of a selected species.
What is the difference between a traditional nestbox and a totem? Totems are designed to make something beautiful as a focus for our emotions and embody our commitment to the protection of the natural world that supports us. Totems are precious and crafted, made with knowledge and passion. Making a totem is a process which directs our energies to healing the planet.
All totem project budgets must include a matching donation to preserve wilderness habitat from development. This is easily done through an accredited organisation such as the World Land Trust. In this way, each totem is both a symbol and a record of effective action to preserve wilderness.
Start Today!
This is a movement for everyone. Whether you make a tiny totem at home, at school, or work with a community group, a corporation, a local council, or city administrators to create a large installation, the Totems for the 21st Century movement is a way to take action to build nature-literacy, foster new life, change the culture, preserve wilderness and change the outcome for life on earth.
“The response to this idea has been incredibly enthusiastic; there is so much anxiety about the future. Totems are a way to take hands-on action to reverse the decline of natural systems.”
— Richard Hassell, founder WOHA and Totems for the 21st Century
Founding Partners
Chapters: Singapore, Australia, United Kingdom
Key Research Partner
Mandai Nature aims to advance efforts for nature conservation in Asia, with a focus on protecting threatened species from extinction, protecting and restoring ecosystems, driving nature-based solutions to mitigate climate change, and creating benefits for local communities. We deliver impact by supporting local organisations on the ground through funding, development of capacity and skills, and by linking local and global agendas.
Tag us on instagram
#totemsforthe21stcentury
#habitotems
#ecosystemartworks
Share ideas, projects, successes and failures, urban wildlife, sketches, simulations, dreams and more, and we will share them on our instagram feed @totemsforthe21stcentury