Coastal Tales

Facing a world undergoing significant social and ecological transformation, many people ask, “what can I do?”. Individual actions often feel insufficient, with little perceptible effect. Coastal TALES attends to this growing social need by examining how stories can generate tangible action and offer creative inspiration to local communities and regional environmental stakeholders seeking to adapt sustainably.

Coastal TALES collaborates with societal partners to understand how heritage stories can drive action in education, policy and nature-based innovation. We are focusing on three coastal areas (Kodiak Island, Alaska, Dublin Bay in Ireland and southwest Wales) which bring together examples of environmental change affecting distinct communities with a shared sense of urgency. The Kodiak study highlights commercialised fishing in an Indigenous context, encouraging youth to draw on ancestral knowledge as a means to forge environmentally sustainable communities and lifeways. In Ireland oral histories and historical maps help identify practices of managing rising waters with hard and soft coastal defense structures. In Wales revival of local coastal heritage foods is foregrounded, with an emphasis on learning how heritage stories can drive sustainable adaptation.

Coastal TALES demonstrates the value of reviving heritage stories in three distinct social contexts, each of which uniquely illustrates how listening to voices from the past and empowering voices of the present can create a legacy for future generations and offer a source of resilience in the face of climate stress.