Notes on a Fallow – Why do things when you could leave it?

In 1934 Elisabeth Tamm donated a piece of land to the “Swedish Women’s Left Association” (Svenska Kvinnors Vänsterförbund) and Sweden’s Social Democratic Women’s Association on the condition that it be handed over to the state, to be made available to unemployed persons as “åborätter” – a kind of hereditary and transferable land tenancy, usually belonging to the state, on unlimited terms for a yearly fee. Tamm considered the two dominant forms of cultivating land as lacking: Ownership rights subject land to speculation, and leasing rights subject land to depletion. The almost never practiced “åborätt” presented a third, better alternative. The visionary initiative was accompanied by administrative problems with authorities, different interpretations of its meaning, and of collective forms of ownership.

By following a narrator’s voice and still images mainly of legal documents, transcripts thereof and personal letters we are provided an insight into both what the “åborätt” could offer, and Elisabeth Tamm’s stubbornness (and loneliness) in the pursuit of this issue. A clearcut forest also plays a crucial part in this slow pace drama. Why do things when you could leave it? is a quote from a letter written by Elisabeth Tamm to Kerstin Hesselgren in 1944.

...

above and below (from top down) video stills:

Map of five “åborätter” (land tenancies) at Fogelstad, created in 1934

Elisabeth Tamm and Honorine Hermelin with participants from the Women Citizen’s School at Fogelstad

Documents related to implementaion of the “åborätter” at Fogelstad

Bielund, one of five “åborätter”(land tenancies) at Fogelstad

Two applications for the “åborätterna” at Fogelstad

Björkenäs, one of five “åborätter” Bielund, at Fogelstad

cross over of map of “åborätterna” 1934 and map of the same area at Fogelstad 2019