Paper Short Abstract:

The contribution will explore narratives and actions implemented by groups and individuals in navigating shared landscapes with bears and negotiating different ways of being in the more- than-human world in the village of Kuterevo, located on the slopes of Velebit Mountain in Croatia.

Paper Abstract:

Brown bear (Ursus arctus) is a strictly protected species in Croatia according to the Nature Protection Act and the Regulation on Strictly Protected Species. Brown bears in Croatia are part of a larger Dinaric-Pindos population, and together with bears from neighbouring Slovenia as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina make the westernmost stable population and represent the last possible source for the salvation of this animal species in Western Europe. This contribution will explore the narratives and actions implemented by groups and individuals in navigating shared landscapes with bears in the village of Kuterevo, located on the slopes of Velebit Mountain in Croatia. The focus will be on creative strategies (art, land art, creation of ceremonial places, animal burial grounds, etc.) performed in the landscape as acts of acknowledging, communicating, and reimagining close kinship of bears and humans, summoning solidarity and care within the local human communities, and negotiating different ways of being in the more-than-human world. These interventions turn locations such as the Mystic Place Forest and the (Cornu)Copia hilltop into places of re-enchantment, engaging humans with nature and spirituality.