Allana Beltran

Allana Beltran is an Australian performance artist and environmental activist. She is known as the "Weld Angel" for her protests on behalf of old growth forest in the Weld Valley.

Allana Volante Beltran
NationalityAustralian
Websitehttp://www.allanabeltran.com/

Early life

Beltran grew up on the Central Coast of New South Wales and completed her degree in Contemporary Fine Art at Sydney College of the Arts. She specialised in Sculpture, Performance and Installation Art.[1]

Work

Beltran has worked with community groups to create art which raises environmental awareness.[2] The Chain Valley Bay Eco-Arts garden was a community artwork coordinated by the Wyong Neighbourhood Centre Creative Connections project.[3]

Beltran has produced two documentary films, Whatever you love you are and Since the Weld was Flooded, about activists in Tasmania's Southern Forests.[4]

Weld Angel incident

In November 2006, Beltran participated in a long-term protest against logging of old growth forest in the Weld Valley[5][6] Activists had for some time accused Forestry Tasmania of allowing illegal logging practices to occur in World Heritage-valued forests.[7] By March, most of her fellow protesters had been arrested.

On March 29, Beltran, dressed as an angel and suspended off the ground on a tripod, blocked an entrance to the forest.[8] Her protest was considered peaceful.[9] Though ordered down by police, Beltran blocked the loggers' advance for over nine hours before her eventual arrest.[5] Due to the widespread use of her image in regional media coverage of old growth logging,[6] she has been described as "the face of forestry protests in 2008".[10]

As a piece of performance art, the protest has been held up as an early example of the participatory culture of social media.[11]

Beltran has continued to use the image of the angel to try to influence politicians in the Parliament to pay more attention to environmental issues.[12]

In 2007, Beltran was sued for police wage costs of $2870, and $6198 in lost revenue for the state timber agency.[13] Police and foresters ultimately failed in their suit, and no damages were awarded.[14] Green politicians supported Beltran, citing that the police and forestry action was "interfering in the political process" in which protests are a "legitimate form of activity in a free country."[9]

Further reading

Beltran, Anna (2011). "Tasmania: We Will Always Be Together in the Forest". In Hunter, Emily (ed.). The Next Eco Warriors: 22 Young Women and Men Who Are Saving the Planet. San Francisco, California: Conari Press. pp. 73–84. ISBN 9781573244862.

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References
  1. "Allana Beltran". Pick-a-woo-woo Publishers. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  2. "Art on the Hill". Earthlyink. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  3. "Eco-Arts Garden". Allana Beltran. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  4. Beltran, Allana. "Documentary Films". www.allanabeltran.com. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  5. Leser, David (27 February 2008). "They arrest angels in Tasmania". Tasmanian Times. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  6. Krien, Anna (201). Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania’s Forests. Black Inc. p. 31. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  7. Wonder, Karen. "Cathedral Grove | Why Europeans Care | Tree Activism: North America & Australia". Cathedral Grove. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  8. Hobart, Susan Austin (6 October 2007). "'Weld Angel' faces court". Green Left Weekly. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  9. White, Rob (2008). "Environmental Law Enforcement". Crimes Against Nature: Environmental Criminology and Ecological Justice. New York: Willan Publishing. ISBN 9781843923626.
  10. "Alana Beltran, known as the Weld Angel was the face of forestry protests in 2008". 11 December 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  11. Knudsen, Britta Timm; Stage, Carsten (2014). Global Media, Biopolitics, and Affect: Politicizing Bodily Vulnerability. Routledge. p. 93. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  12. Ireland, Judith (13 November 2013). "Politics live: November 13, 2013". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  13. Darby, Andrew (5 September 2007). "Police sue angel of the trees". The Age.
  14. "Forest activists facing possible class action". ABC Hobart. 26 August 2008. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
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