Taking Responsibility for our Parkour locations: Edinburgh Parkour Litter Pick
Introduction
We have been thinking about the value of ‘be strong to be useful’ in parkour and how parkour practitioners can give back to the wider community.
As parkour practitioners, we often train in locations that are open to the public. Depending on the space, and the practitioners, our training can be a kind of appropriation - using and benefiting from something without necessarily respecting it. Other times, we might take ownership of a space that isn’t normally very welcoming at all and democratise it - make it less exclusive and more open to different people and activities. But what do we owe our training spaces, and the other communities who live, work or pass through there? What level of responsibility should come with the use of our favourite training spots?
The answer will vary from person to person. In our view, if we are to take ownership of a space, we should be respectful of that space and take care of it as it was our own. We are thinking of initiatives to help parkour communities take responsibility over their spaces, and connect to the other people who might use them.
Edinburgh Parkour’s recent litter pick event was a great example of this and the Parkour Outreach team were all involved as part of this event.
What was the event?
Edinburgh Parkour (EDPK) is a not for profit association that promotes and supports the parkour community in Edinburgh.
EDPK organised a litter picking event on 19 September 2020 as part of World Clean Up Day. The event brought together volunteers from the local parkour community. Given the Scottish Government restrictions due to COVID19, the volunteers were split into groups of 2 households and were allocated to popular parkour locations spread out across the city.
The volunteers trained parkour at their allocated location, but also picked up as much litter as they could find and collected it into bin bags. The volunteers continued to collect litter when moving in between parkour locations.
The volunteers collected enough litter to fill more than 23 full big bags.
Why are events like this important?
The Edinburgh Parkour litter picking event was a great example of a parkour community taking some responsibility for their parkour locations.
These types of events are important for several reasons:
Taking responsibility – it encourages parkour practitioners to take responsibility for the spaces they train in and take care of these locations more regularly.
Public perception – it promotes the community values of parkour and the concept of “be strong to be useful”.
Building positive relationships - it shows landowners and local residents that you take responsibility and care for the property.
Environmental benefits – this is particularly relevant for litter picking events.
How else can we give back to the community/take responsibility for our parkour locations?
We have seen examples like this from the global parkour community.
Part of the ‘Parkour Pilgrimage’ documentary by TK17 in 2008 deals with this very issue. The documentary provides a general overview of parkour, whilst following a group of parkour practitioners travelling to and training in Lisses.
The TK17 group visited a number of famous parkour locations in Lisses, including Place du Chevreu. One of the local residents noted in an interview that parkour practitioners left ‘traces’ of their training at these parkour locations, i.e. physical marks on the surfaces. The documentary recognised that parkour practitioners are generally respectful and cause no problems in their training. However, the documentary argued that this was no longer sufficient – each practitioner who uses the location contributes towards these ‘traces’ and these accumulate over time. In line with the idea of parkour training being “useful”, the pilgrimage group set aside time on their trip to clean and repaint the surfaces at Place du Chevreu.
Since then, it has been amazing to see organisations, such as Edinburgh Parkour, adopting a “Leave No Trace” initiative that involves picking up litter from parkour locations.
And although it might seem like a selfless, altruistic activity, parkour practitioners can benefit massively from these efforts too. The goodwill generated from the local community means you’re much less likely to get aggressive behaviour from passers-by next time you’re training. Instead, you’ll probably spark conversations with people you would never have met otherwise, and you’ll increase your knowledge of your favourite spot’s nooks and crannies.
But what else can the parkour community be doing to take responsibility for the locations used for parkour training? TK17 set a strong example in his documentary by cleaning and painting the walls at Place du Chevreu, but picking up litter from parkour locations is also a great place to start.
We would love to hear any ideas you might have on this topic!
Comment below, or get in touch with us directly at info@parkouroutreach.com.