The Stone That Went Back Home - Blog
The stone that returned home
200,000 years ago a glacier broke off a stone from his mother stone and carried him to the Netherlands. In October 2019, Bart Eysink Smeets is bringing this stone - finally - back home.
The Blog is mainly about all the things that happened before the actual trip.
BLOG
2019, July 1
Klaas Drint
An amature geologist had an interesting request. As he was getting older he was getting more and more aware of the stone collection he was going to leave behind when
he fits. He quoted the poem by Amanda Strydom:
"All pilgrims go home again, every swerwer come home again".
[all the pilgrims and wanderers, please return home]
Because we call the ancient stones in the ground 'stray boulders' [wandering stones], this poem is very suitable and calls for all the stones to return home.
That's why Klaas asked me to return all his stones he's got from the Åland islands home.
2019, June 6
Stone in the media
The stone got some media nice media coverage! Links here:
Radio Drenthe (click to 09:27)
Radio 2 - Rabbering Late (click to 1:08:10)
Article in Dagblad van het Noorden
2019, May 27
Making a mold
There will be a monument made for the stone, to remember it in Borger. For this monument I needed to make a mold of the stone.
2019, May 21
Ferry and Margaret
I got an email from Ferry saying: you are deciding the stone is feeling home sick, but have you asked the stone?
So, intrigued off course, I invited him to do just that. Because the stone doesn't have a mouth, Margrete would close her eyes and speak for the stone. Ferry would ask the questions, but I was also allowed to ask some questions. Good news: the stone actually wants to go to Åland!
2019, Apr 24
Åland Lobby
I went to Åland to talk to ask: do you want this stone?
I talked to the mayor, the dutch consul and many more. I even got to see the parliament of Åland. I also did some location scouting for the final place for the stone.
Good news: they are very happy to welcome the stone back.
2019, March 7
Relocation of the stone
The stone has been lying on the roundabout in Borger for years, but the municipality of Borger-Odoorn were afraid of the crowds of people saying goodbye to the stone on the roundabout, so they decided to relocate the stone for traffic safety reasons.
2019, March 4
Half way crowdfunding
When I reached half of the goal I set for the crowdfunding I reminded people that we don't want to bring the stone back half way.
2019, Feb 20
Pecha Kucha
I was invited to talk about the stone at Pecha Kucha in Rotterdam. Especially for the event I made a stone suit. The concept of Pecha Kucha is 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide. The audience was very enthusiastic.
2019, Feb 18
Stone in the media
The press covering the story for the first time and the start of the crowdfunding.
2019, Feb 11
Crowdfunding starts
We made a video to raise money to bring the stone back home.
I added some english subtitles later.
2018, Dec 12
We found a stone
Gerrit emailed me showing a photo of a stone. This could be the lucky stone which we will bring back home! it's an Ålandrapakivi. That means the stone's home is Åland, a group of islands in between Finland and Sweden.
2018, Nov 18
A tour by Gerrit the geologist
Gerrit is a volunteer at the Hunebed center. He gives tours through the center of Borger, where he talks about all the stones lying there.
2018, Nov 14
Hunebed center says no.
The stone me and the municipality chose is too important for the centre.
2018, Sep 13
Presentation Culture Connects!
Culture Connects! is a monthly event in which the people of Borger-Odoorn can talk about culture in the municipality. This was a good way for me to show my project.
There were sandwiches and soup.
2018, Sep 13
Meeting and lunch at Municipal Hall Borger-Odoorn
I had a good meeting with the people at Borger-Odoorn. They were willing too donate a stone to the project! After the meeting I was invited to lunch at the town hall. I was lucky, because it was frikandellendag!
2018, June 7
Calling municipalities of Drenthe
The first step in the project is: asking the municipalities who the stones lying around in Drenthe belong to.
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