The Nightjar and the Robin (or how friendship began among birds)

The Nightjar Project: Tell Us a Story About Belonging is part of a wider collaboration between African Activities, SPUD and the New Forest National Park Authority made possible by the strong support of New Forest District Council. It sets out to use the Nightjars migration from West Africa to the New Forest to tell stories of people's movements, and the way that we build and change ecologies in Ghana and the UK. We are aiming to find voices within our migrant and settled communities to discuss ideas around belonging and to build international links between localised populations focusing on land management and cultural exchange. 

I was really lucky to get to hear about this project in its very earliest stages. The development of this wonderful concept happened to coincide with when I was leading a research project for ArtfulScribe on ethnic diversity in the New Forest, and our two projects were able to cross-pollinate in some really wonderful ways. African Activities are well known for their incredible music workshops, but they are also first class storytellers and multi-displinary artists. The first iteration of the Nightjar project focused on Kwame Bakaji-Hume's breathtaking artwork set in the context of his life as someone who lives and moves between Ghana and the New Forest, just like the Nightjar does. But from the very beginning Lotte and Kwame wanted the project to bring people together and spark conversations about migration and belonging in all sorts of different ways. I was one of a few artists and writers that Lotte and Kwame approached to write or make something in response to the Nightjar.

My short story 'The Nightjar and the Robin (or how friendship developed among birds)' is inspired by a Burmese folktale. I have this really precious vintage edition of Thirty Burmese Tales by Maung Htin Aung which was written and published around the same time that my family emigrated from Burma to the UK (late 1940s/early 1950s). My copy of this book is yellowed with age, it has cigarette burns on it, it's been doodled on, and has underlinings and annotations by language students translating individual words in the margin. As an artefact this book holds so many cross-cultural connections. Maung Htin Aung would have gone through a British colonial education in Burma (just like my great-grandparents), and he went on to study at Oxford University before writing this collection. There's something about the language of this book that feels so quintessentially British of a by-gone era as well as being entirely rooted in Burmese culture and sensibilities. It's both at the same time.

It felt really fitting to adapt the traditional Burmese folktale 'How friendship developed among the birds' to a New Forest setting. There's so many layers of connection going on in this story, and just a lot of love. This story along with other stories and poems inspired by the Nightjar and the tales of belonging will be available to listen to at the travelling Nightjar installation which will be at festivals across Hampshire this summer, including Southampton Mela, Thrive festival, Camp Bestival and the New Forest Show.

The Nightjar and the Robin (Or, How Friendship Developed Among Birds)

By AJ Hardingson

Long ago, friendship between birds was unheard of, for they had a fierce rivalry among them all. From vegetable allotments in Totton, to farms near Sway, to ornamental gardens by Lymington if a bird saw another bird whether they be lark or pigeon or kestrel, they would at once say with every feather in their chest puffed up and shivering ‘I am a better bird than you!’ And the other would reply without batting a wing, ‘certainly not, for I am better than you.’ And then they would begin to fight and peck and twitter away at each other, sending tweets back and forth incessantly until even the moon gave out a sigh when they would stop for the night.

One day, the Nightjar returned to the New Forest after their long migratory flight. Settling down into a cosy pile of sun-warmed bracken, they spotted a Robin on a branch just above them. Being in no mood to quarrel, they said to them, ‘Robin, you are a better bird than me.’

The Robin was not only surprised, but rather delighted at these words, and out of politeness, they replied, ‘No, no, Nightjar, you are a better bird than me.’ The two birds sat down and had a chat.

Then the Nightjar said, ‘Robin, I like you. Let us stay together awhile.’

‘That sounds lovely,’ replied the Robin. And they made plans to go out hunting for insects, and to nest near to each other over the summer season. Robin, up in their tree nest, and Nightjar settled in their nest of bracken below.

The other birds of the New Forest did not know what to make of this. The seagulls commented that the news cracked them up. The sparrow struggled to swallow the story. And the blue tit teased that the Nightjar and the Robin must be summer Tweethearts. None of them thought the friendship would, or even could last.

But, the Nightjar and the Robin found that their regard for each other only grew over the time they spent together. At the end of the season they parted as fond friends, making plans to see each other again upon the Nightjar’s annual return. And indeed, the next spring the Robin was waiting in their meeting spot when the Nightjar flew down and they carried on just as they had the year before.

The other birds decided it was time to test the Nightjar and the Robin’s friendship. They sent the Pheasant off on a mission to ruffle their feathers.

The Pheasant found the Robin first, he dove into the hedgerow on Linnies Lane where the Robin was perched. ‘Robin,’ he asked. ‘Why do you go around with that good-for-nothing Nightjar?’

‘You must not say that. The Nightjar is a better bird than me. I’m honoured to spend time with them and I’m very happy that they sleep under the tree where I nest.’

The Pheasant found the Nightjar following some donkeys down Grigg Lane, snacking on the flies that pestered their eyes. ‘Nightjar’, he enquired while darting between the donkey’s legs, ‘why do you go around with that good-for-nothing Robin?’

‘You must not say that. The Robin is a better bird than me, and they honour me by living in the tree above where I nest and I’m very happy when we spend time together.’

The birds were deeply impressed with the attitude of the Nightjar and the Robin towards each other, and they said to themselves, ‘Why couldn’t we be like Nightjar and Robin, instead of fighting and quarreling all the time?’

And from that day on, friendship developed among birds.