A StoryMoss StoryWeaving Salon with Evgenia Emets of Eternal Forest Sanctuary
"What if a forest could again be a sacred space for us?" asks artist and poet Evgenia Emets. "How could we steward it and create it in such a way, bringing artistic vision and regenerative design, that people fall in love with the forest once again?"
By Megan Lindow
The Faia Brava is an exquisite nature reserve in the Côa River Valley of northern Portugal – a wild place where ancient rock paintings tell the story of human presence stretching back some 30,000 years. In November 2025, Ukranian born artist and poet Evgenia Emets walked the land and immersed in the waters over 5 days and 5 nights, intuitively connecting with the waters and following animal tracks, as part of her process to create an Eternal Forest Sanctuary – the first enactment of her larger vision of seeding 1000 forests for 1000 years.
Emmanuelle and I spoke with Evgenia in advance of the Global Earth Repair Convergence, happening in Port Townsend, Washington (in the Cascadia Bioregion) and online May 7-11, 2026. She will join the Convergence online to speak about her processes of creating forests as living artworks, planted and cared for by local communities.
Eternal Forest in Faia Brava, 2026, Evgenia Emets
Our conversation was experimental. Together we watched this short film (above) of visual and spoken word poetry with the land and waters of Faia Brava – creating a springboard to a wider conversation around Evgenia's Eternal Forest vision of restoring forests as regenerative artworks stewarded by communities over generations.
Listen to our conversation here, and read excerpts below (with time markers):
Evgenia explores art as a leader of social, cultural and ecological change. Moving to Portugal in 2017, a year of widespread and terrible fires in the eucalyptus plantations across the country, she recognized a deeper pattern of disconnection from the living world, and wanted to explore how art could help restores peoples' longing for relationship with the forest.
(3:45) "I realized the problem is not just here in Portugal, but everywhere in the world – we're cutting forests with a speed – we're not just losing trees, but the intricate web of being. We're not just losing trees that are ancient, we're losing all these relationships and connections," Evgenia said.
(4:50) "I asked myself, what if a forest could again be a sacred space for us? ... If we could consider ourselves as being part of the forest and in service to the forest. What if we created forests that would serve the more than human? That would serve biodiversity and create intrinsic value? (air, water, aesthetic value, cultural connections, medicines both tangible and intangible, relations). Eternal Forest Sanctuary is this concept and this vision to give to any community anywhere in the world that untouched, sacred forest that could then continue for generations. Then the question is, how can we steward it? And create it in such a way, bringing artistic vision and regenerative design, that people fall in love with the forest once again," she said.
For a feeling of what this looks like in practice, we watched her short film of the Eternal Forest in Faia Brava (above) together. Her poetic narration of the short film is excerpted from a longer text-poem called Rewilding Time. As Evgenia writes, the text-poem is a contemplation of the story of the forest – "from its intricate beginnings to its growth into a well-established ecosystem as an old-growth forest."
(8:00) Set inside the forest ecosystem, the poem describes how an acorn connects to the deer, how all the different species of trees and animals are connected, weaving the rich network of forest life.
(8:39) Evgenia walked the land for 5 days and 5 night, part of a deep process of observation that is a necessary part of any regenerative project. The short film is part of a longer filming project to document the whole process of creating an Eternal Forest Sanctuary in Faia Brava. The film together with the project itself will serve as a sort of toolkit for any community around the world wanting to create an Eternal Forest Sanctuary, she said.
(10:06) She went on to describe "the Seed" (pictured above), the forest design that appears in the video: "Inside this four petal hoop we planted the future forest... The idea is that as you tend to the land, tend to these trees and as you walk these paths again and again, the forest keeps growing around you. And also the eternal forest is expanding because the seed we created in November will grow to a 12 hectare project that will have different forest areas, different trails, space for the kids, space for other artists to come and create more beauty. The forest will continue to expand over the next 10, 20 years and more."
The vision is to work with land owners, conservation organizations and foundations, anyone who is interested, to create a fully stewarded forest, whether it's a local community, a municipality or a city that wants its own sacred forest sanctuary. It is to bring together art, regenerative design, landscape design, community and then co-create the space with all these elements. The idea is that the space is stewarded and managed by the local community in partnership with other arts, education and community organizations.
What is Evgenia's process of walking the land and deep observation? And how does the process of creating an Eternal Forest Sanctuary help to build community and deepen healing relationships with the living world through immersion in beauty?
(13:50) We never know what will happen when we walk the land, Evgenia said. "I do believe that connecting our body, our mind and our psyche with the land is very, very important, because we are not separate. We're already connected, but we're also in need of making that extra intentional connection."
(15:50) Evgenia described her intuitive work of connecting with the waters in Faia Brava. "There's no such thing as water scarcity. There is such a thing as bad water management, and extraction of water, and neglect of water bodies and water spirits. My first intuitive step was to connect the big Côa River, which is also a very ancient place, a hunter-gatherer site for art," she said.
(17:11) Following animal tracks: "How can we call the spirits of animals to come and help us? They're the movers of seeds, of life. If we say, we're here to do the work. Can you come and help us? Can you do the work with us? They will show up," she said.
(18:05): How do we work with communities and build this bridge through beauty? Evgenia asks. She speaks about the deep 30,000 year human history of settlement in the Côa River Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and how she is involving students and elders from the few modern day villages that remain in weaving the stories and the continuity of place. "The keep the unbroken line of people who were there 30,000 years ago. We want to weave their stories and bring their stories back into the design," she said.
(20:10): "By coming back to the land in different seasons, we can create the continuity that brings us back at specific times of the year when we contribute, visit different places, celebrate." Evgenia describes a process of building a seasonal calendar from these ongoing engagements, building an intimate connection between the particular rhythms and qualities of the place while weaving these with the solstices and equinoxes that exist everywhere in the world.
(24:55) Evgenia speaks about some of the different collaborations and partnerships she is developing around the world.
"My passion and focus is identifying communities and projects where either the forest is already protected and with culture, with art, we can elevate, create and connect the dots."
We hope you enjoy this conversation, and Evgenia's exquisite, poetic words, as much as we did!
Our StoryMoss vision is to be a heart-centered StoryWeaving, StoryHealing collaborator, engaging with regenerative artists, scientists, healers, practitioners and communities around the world, co-weaving stories from different perspectives and ways of knowing, and infusing them with joy, creativity, beauty, deep ecology, eco-spirituality and Active Hope.
