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evidence-based digital lesson
inspired by francis alys the green line

this lesson asks students to document where they find line in the world

occurring naturally
human-made line
movements or motions
it could be performing an act

these findings are documented digitally, through photography or video
and are collated in a group digital platform like padlet
for students to share their ideas
they are then able to make a drawing work in response to their digital work, uploading this to padlet too

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evidence-based digital lesson

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evidence-based digital lesson

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keep moving
make mistakes
and capture your accidents

If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again

when you have lots of it, make it into a book, make it into something new

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a lesson plan that fits into the year 7 & year 10 curriculum concepts:
self-awareness
place-based learning
mapping to understand
community projects

the lesson asks students to 'make visible the water story of the land where you live'
this might involve quite a bit a research, for students to work together, and to get onto country

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In a time of global lockdown, Kaldor Public Art Project 36: do it (australia) invites audiences to follow an artist's instructions, enter their world and realise an artwork of their own. do it (australia) is co-curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and John Kaldor, with Emily Sullivan (Curator) and Monique Leslie Watkins.

This project is the latest incarnation of do it, the longest-running and most far-reaching artist-led project in the world. Initiated by Hans Ulrich Obrist in 1993, the project asks artists to create simple instructions that generate an artwork, whether an object, a performance, an intervention, or something else entirely.

Presented in partnership with Serpentine Galleries, London, Independent Curators International and Google Arts & Culture, and supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Kaldor Public Art Project 36: do it (australia) forms part of do it (around the world), which will see more than 50 new artworks commissioned and shared online.

Follow the artist's instructions, enter their world and do an artwork of your own. Add your artwork to our growing collection of audience responses by posting on social media with the hashtag #doitaustralia or sending us an email by 30 June 2020.

Find yourself alone in a place.
Play some music (or not).
Stand, sit or lie down.
Find a position you feel comfortable in.
Be still for a while.
Imagine you are surrounded by blinding light.
It feels heavy.
You want to break through.
Use as many parts of your body (or not)
to physically push the light away from you.
Take your time.
Move from a gentle state, to a state of frenzy.
Explore different possibilities with your body.
There is no right or wrong.
When you feel you have broken through the light,
find your way back to stillness.
A state of weightlessness (or not).
Options

1. Explore this task anywhere by yourself for yourself.

2. Place your smartphone camera anywhere to record your experience using the slo-mo option.

3. Share a section of the film on social media, send it to a friend, (or not).

b.1972

Rafael Bonachela is a choreographer working across art forms, including contemporary dance, art installations, film and fashion. His appointment as Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company in 2009 made international headlines and heralded a new era in Australian contemporary dance. His vision embraces a guiding principle that sees works commissioned by Australian and international choreographers alongside his own critically acclaimed creations.

Spanish-born Bonachela's work is strong, sober and sharp. The exploration of pure movement is where he finds his unmistakable style. The result is incandescent dance that springs from the power of movement, where energy and muscle strength combine with great emotional sensitivity.

The piece ends and begins when the cucumber
piece falls off.

b.1980

Starting with a score, Lauren Brincat's practice explores non-verbal modes of expression through narratives or ideas. Distancing us from logical, language-based understanding, Brincat's work opens the door to multiple perspectives and interpretations. Dancing between sound sculpture and performance installation, her most recent works challenge the way we hear, see and think about feminist performance.

During lockdown her kitchen has become her studio where she writes, dances and makes challah for the neighbourhood.

Write a list of every word you know for water:
Salt water, fresh water, river water, brackish water, surface water, deep water etc.
Ask your friends and family to add to the list.

Remember the last time you felt your favourite body of water, feel these sensations again.

Learn to speak the words for your favourite body of water in three languages.

Make a circle from nature
Step into the circle
Make a wish

b.1967

Saskia Havekes is an internationally acclaimed florist and author: drama, scale and sensual depth are her signatures.

Grandiflora was established in Sydney in 1995. Groaning to the rafters with dramatic vegetation and luxurious blooms, this tiny space was the modest launching pad for a new way of looking at foliage, buds and branches. The Grandiflora aesthetic has influenced interior styling, hospitality, fashion, editorial and even the modern rituals of giving and displaying flowers. Baby pineapples, pods, gum nuts and lotus blossoms are now the modern way to honour, court and celebrate, giving license to the traditionally tightly bound bouquet to break free.

Surrender.

Your spine
Your head - your phone.
The dread. Your neurosis, the will.

One at a time.

Let the changer love the changed.

(Rotate and keep holding one of them for good measure)

It's a day of the week, you're crying
there's reason/no reason, irrelevant
a quick way to capitalise on those tears

sit down, put your right hand on the left side of your neck and close your eyes
turn your head slowly to the left, open your eyes and gaze into the distance, or at the wall
turn your head back and pick up a soft object,
something that won't break
rotate it slowly with your fingers
smile a little as if it's reminded you of something pleasant

THERE WERE NIGHTS WHEN THE WIND WAS SO COLD

b.1990

Julia Jacklin is an Australian singer-songwriter from the Blue Mountains. Jacklin has released two studio albums Don't Let The Kids Win (2016) and Crushing (2019). Her storytelling centres on bodies, crossed boundaries and smothering closeness, often underpinned by her playful, observational wit.

find a stone that fits comfortably in your hand. rub the stone on a hard surface e.g. concrete or rock. continue to rub, if necessary find a new stone, until you create a groove in the hard surface.

Understand your culture 1:
Count the ads (2020)

Using your mobile phone, photograph every single advertisement you encounter in any media in a day.

Continue for a week.

Distribute the resulting photographs through whatever distribution forms are available to you, for example as albums on social media, as an exhibition, as a print publication.

Count the daily and weekly totals and totals in different categories.

Communicate with others to compile and compare your totals.

Work mindlessly on your current creation.

For enjoyment disregard it and waste your time by looking at other more talented artists' work and read about them and watch documentaries about them.

As your creation is near completion abandon it and forget about it for a long time.

When you return to your creation you won't recognise it and you will think that an unknown talented artist made the work and that you are in a documentary.

This phenomenon will delight you.

b.1939

Gerald Murnane is the author of thirteen works of fiction, including the internationally acclaimed novel The Plains and most recently A Season on Earth, as well as a memoir, a collection of essays and a volume of poetry. He has won the Patrick White Award, the Melbourne Prize for Literature, an Adelaide Festival Award, a Victorian Premier's Literary Award and, for Border Districts, a Prime Minister's Literary Award. Murnane lives in Goroke, in western Victoria.

Layer 1

Pick any physical container that has a door and make a sign that says '1993'*

Make it speak to your own graphic proclivities

Flood the space with 1993

Fill it any way that moves you

Layer 2

As a former smoker, 1993 will breathe easier with a plant near the entrance

On a whim, set your alarm to 3am. Wear a robe, or something more difficult-to-define, like atmosphere

Approach the closed-door and lean into the sign. Be open to finding it contains an oceanic state

With your cheek pressed, you might hear the imprint of an eternity. Hold the suggestion longer

At some point you might lose access, your lease may expire, or you'll be otherwise dispossessed of 1993. When that time comes, donate the plant to science fiction

b.1980/1977

nova Milne is a two-person artist.

Drawing on an intimately negotiated language, they make moving images, video-sculptures and restorative actions. These may be an assemblage of gestures, dance, or re-animated encounters that transgress time. Their process often begins with the feeling that something found; a recording, a piece of biographical ephemera, or some micro-historical minutia, is emitting an urgent plasticity.

As a nucleus determines the outer shell of an entity, Mental Floss 777 opens a door for the willing to tune into and stimulate their inner self. Fortifying one's often hidden and sometimes ignored inner self to promote moments of affection.

Mental Floss 777' s inspiration is derived from Rumi's text works and will require the participant to select and perform one of the seven listed quotes by reciting it for seven minutes, over a seven-day continuous cycle.

7 Quotes - 7 Minutes - 7 Days

1. Find a quiet and uncluttered room corner in your home. Please reuse this same space over the seven days.

2. Have ready a domestic bath or shower towel to sit on.

3. Sit on the ground in a comfortable position facing the room corner, about one metre away.

4. Select and recite one of the seven quotes listed below, repeat slowly while listening to your breathing, do this for seven minutes.

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4, selecting a different quote for each remaining day.

Rumi quotes:

Let your teacher be love itself.

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

When you lose all sense of self, the bonds of a thousand chains will vanish.

Silence gives answers. Let silence take you to the core of life.

Let silence be the art you practise. Close your eyes, fall in love, stay there.

What you seek is seeking you. Let the beauty we love be what we do.

You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop.

Jalal Al Din Muhammad Rumi was a 13th century Islamic poet, scholar and Sufi mystic. His influence transcends borders, cultures and divisions and for over eight centuries his writing continues to be deeply appreciated and loved by people throughout the world.

IN CONTINUUM

open a clear space to be upright and soft in your body.
notice your breath and let your thoughts fall away freely.

complete a full circle to close.

FACE THE PAST AND BACK INTO THE FUTURE

b.1972

Latai Taumoepeau makes live art. She has mimicked, trained in and un-learned dance in multiple institutions of learning, starting with her village, a suburban church hall, a few nightclubs and a university. Her body-centred performance practice of faivā centres Tongan philosophies of relational space and time; cross-pollinating ancient and everyday temporal practice to make visible the impact of climate crisis in the Pacific.

In the near future she will return to her ancestral home and continue the ultimate faivā of sea voyaging and celestial navigation before she becomes an ancestor.

Stand in a quiet spot with your eyes closed;
snails cannot see or hear.
Slowly place one foot directly in front of the other, heel to toe.
Walk in a straight line for four steps, up the trunk of the tree.
Place your next step 45 degrees to the right;
you're moving out onto a branch.
Continue on this trajectory for two more paces.
Your next step should be 45 degrees to the left;
you're heading vertical again.
Follow this line for three more steps.
Rest here for a moment.

Then, turn on the spot and retrace your steps home,
back down the tree.
Four steps down, back the way you came.
45 degrees to the right for three steps.
45 degrees to the left for the final four steps.
You should be where you began.

You have just traced, roughly to scale, the nightly foraging route of the Hawaiian tree snail Achatinella apexfulva. From its shady resting place in a knot on the trunk of a tree, perhaps shared with several other snails during the warm daylight hours, up into the branches. Rather than eating the leaves, you grazed on the fungi and other microorganisms that line the surface of the plant - cleaning as you went.

In 2018, the last individual of Achatinella apexfulva died in captivity. For countless generations up until this time, tens of thousands, perhaps millions, of these snails performed this nightly journey.

Standing once again in your home place, contemplate. How many other paths through the world have been lost forever? How many more are disappearing in our present time? How might they be summoned up, acknowledged and remembered?

b.1980

Thom van Dooren is a field philosopher and storyteller. He is the author of several books that explore human entanglements with threatened species and places, including The Wake of Crows: Living and Dying in Shared Worlds (2019) and Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction (2014). He is currently completing work on a book and several other creative projects centred on the disappearing land snails of Hawai'i. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney and a Professor II at the University of Oslo.

Bloomberg Philanthropies is committed to supporting cultural institutions and empowering artists across the physical and digital worlds. Kaldor Public Art Projects is grateful to Bloomberg Philanthropies for its support of this project, the tenth commission generously supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Kaldor Public Art Projects is proud that do it (australia) is supported by founding patrons The Balnaves Foundation and Naomi Milgrom Foundation. Their long-term support has allowed Kaldor Public Art Projects to continue through its 50th anniversary and beyond.

Our Government Partners Create NSW and City of Sydney continue to provide invaluable support.

Our learning program do it (homework) is supported by the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund.

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do it (australia) | Kaldor Public Art Project 36

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In a time of global lockdown, Kaldor Public Art Project 36: do it (australia) invites audiences to follow an artist's instructions, enter their world and realise an artwork of their own. do it (australia) is co-curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and John Kaldor, with Emily Sullivan (Curator) and Monique Leslie Watkins.

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lesson idea - responding to Aboriginal Embassy by Richard Bell 

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https://www.aboriginalembassy.com.au/all-responses/

this lesson fits into year 10 curriculum concepts of:
reflection & action, response-ability

draw your responses to the questions!
and make an online forum for the community!

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https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/309/3986

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storytelling fits into the year 7 & 8 curriculum concepts of:

making sense
making relational places and spaces
forming kinship networks
listening as healing
hearing multiple voices and perspectives
finding and celebrating indigenous voices

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telling shared thoughts & stories

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telling our own thoughts & stories

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telling each others stories

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museum of me, a 'self portrait' exercise for year 8 curriculum

celebrating studio-based learning and methods of inquiry

using drawing as a window into working with mixed-media, painting, collage, sculpture, photography

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evidence-based digital lesson

making a self-portrait with mixed media in response to
Beyte Saar's Black Girl's Window

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Betye Saar: The Legends of Black Girl’s Window | MoMA EXHIBITION

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a brief history of why we draw from a eurocentric perspective

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Degree Zero: Drawing at Midcentury | MoMA Exhibition

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https://youtu.be/TyrZp2u0pQo

evidence-based digital lesson

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this lesson fits into year 9 curriculum concepts of:
making right & collaboration

looking at the ideas that - rurukids - have about young people accessing creativity and collaboration
from documenta fifteen

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Jerusalem, Israel, 2004; 17:41 min
In collaboration with Philippe Bellaiche, Rachel Leah Jones, and Julien Devaux
www.francisalys.com

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a visual communication activity - doing and responding

evidence-based digital lesson

this lesson fits into year 8 curriculum concepts of:
making possible & looking through new perspectives

students are to communicate in pairs to each other only through visual language & using materials that are readily available to them
they might draw pictures, create collages, take photos
one student makes a quick work and in turn the other student responds to its visual or conceptual demands
the task can continue back & forth like a game of ping pong

this task is a push to work in new spaces or a 'third space'
it could be a homework activity where students are to engage in the process digitally
it could happen somewhere like the library, where students have to remain silent and only have this task for communication
or it could happen while they are engaged in another task like listening, walking, travelling

the task asks students see possibilities and use imagination to understand each others thinking

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mapping can be a useful way for us to organise and process information

we can also use it as a way to understand and relate to the world - perhaps we map our daily habits, places that we walk, places we are familiar with, unfamiliar with, we might begin to see things different, notice patterns in our movements, or identify things we coexist with

artist Francis Alys uses mapping as a  way to comment on social, cultural and political issues

what he says about his work ' the green line' :

sometimes doing something poetic can become political

and

sometimes doing something political can become poetic

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drawing is a practice of understanding and responding 

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a lesson plan / resource for year 9 & 10 curriculum content
on decolonising and healing injustices to First Nations peoples of Australia

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Making your voice heard | Richard Bell: You can go now | Learning resources | Learning | MCA Australia

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Design a placard to protest an important issue to you, your family or your community and get your voice heard!

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with a pencil, one can draw lines, textures, planes
a movement in space, even feelings

it serves to loosen and free one

in finding form - strokes are statements, lightly sketched in lines do not distract, they can add vitality

hardness of softness of the pencil and the way it is applied to paper, determines the lightness or darkness of the marks

pen or ink forces one to be decisive, correction can only be made by going over what one has already put down

hatching is parallel lines that are layered over each other to create tone

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mapping what I was feeling when I went for a walk in my garden
creating the mapped movements in wax and discovering them again when I went over with block colour pencil

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https://nga.gov.au/learn/learning-resources/ever-present-first-peoples-art-of-australia/resistance-and-colonisation/

this lesson fits into year 7 curriculum concepts of:
making sense & connections
caring for country
environmental sustainability
placed based learning

Make a series of rubbings that record the textures of your environment. Start by placing paper over the object then turn your pencil horizontally and shade/pencil over the texture.

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looking at drawing as a ground for printmaking
naarm based artist Lucia Canuto explores archives of 1970s political groups in italy using various media to spread information not shared by the government at the time
Lucia resurrects print as artefact and talisman of resistance

print is an accessible artform, shared many times over

what important messages do you have to say?
as a class brainstorm on a collaborative message
and present it collaboratively on large sheets of recycled cardboard

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lesson & concepts that fit into the year 9 curriculum:

being taught by indigenous voices
celebrating indigenous culture through indigenous voices

responding through drawing to texts, videos and artworks
becoming familiar with the process of reflecting - doing - reflecting - doing
doing to undo what we know - undoing to do better

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this lesson fits into year 8 curriculum concepts of:
sharing identities through storytelling & practicing playful self-exploration

students create artworks on paper (A3 or A4) about their identity
they draw on their connections to home, special places, special connections and people
feelings, things, movements
they are not too precious about detail as the artwork is going to get cut up into 4/8 pages
the students swap their pages with various students in the classroom
they hold onto one of their own for the front cover
they create a book following this lesson sequence
they have a book made up of their friends identities alongside their own

the class has a discussion / tabletop exhibition to share and talk about the books and the process

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observing - and becoming attuned to all of the little details
we can use drawing as a tool to focus our attention on things we usually wouldn't focus on

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brainstorming what is necessary to make your voice heard, critical & cultural pedagogy 

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making your voice heard, an exercise responding to Richard Bell's - You can go now

this activity is part of the - Make your voice heard - task and fits into the year 9 & 10 curriculum

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a lesson plan that fits into the year 8 curriculum concepts:
building relationships and communicating between written and visual language

the process - in pairs one student describes what their home looks like (text only) and the second student draws what their home looks like with only the text as resource

this lesson asks students who may not know each other that well to get to know each other
it also has literacy and numeracy demands

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decolonising australia & healing for First Nations peoples

the exhibition by Richard Bell - You can go now - can be used as a resource for year 9 & 10 curriculum content

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Audio guide: Richard Bell: You can go now | MCA Australia

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Listen to Richard Bell speak about his practice and key works in the exhibition such as Embassy , From Little Things, Big Things Grow and Worth Exploring .

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a lesson that fits into the year 7 curriculum concepts:
connections
caring for country
place based learning

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consider the country that you are on
you are to represent the movements that you see
make it your task to focus on things that you usually would not focus on
you have two requirements

you are working with a partner and you take it in turns to make lines and marks
the second requirement is that you have one material to use
this limits or rules out a lot of visual stimulus and it may be easier to determine movements and patterns

you might like to outline something you can see in nature, and have your partner fill in the gaps, swapping only once, or you might like to take it in turn changing roles each time you make a mark, the decisions are in your hands

we begin to see new things when we look through the eyes of someone else
or when we have two pairs of eyes looking

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critical and cultural pedagogy

this lesson fits into year 7 curriculum concepts of:
making sense & finding connections

using a large piece of paper that is folded and cut on the inside ~ one side is for representing how you see the world through drawings, students have the agency to draw with whichever mediums are accessible to them in the classroom

the other side is used for telling stories about the world, over a duration of time as you encounter them

this activity asks students to investigate, come to an understanding about the world, and to tell stories
it asks them to embody these knowledges and perspectives and apply them to their making and responding
it asks to be self-aware, individually and collectively

this task has literacy and numeracy demands

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this lesson fits into year 8 curriculum concepts of:
sharing identities through storytelling & practicing playful self-exploration

students are in pairs of two
they prepare a series of personal questions (3)
that ask about the other students life
their answer is a drawing in wax or candle, it fills the page but they cannot see what they have drawn
after they answer the questions they draw themselves in three sections like above

it is a self-portrait with two layers
a hidden layer of personal stories
and an outer layer that holds these things safely
their messages and meanings are revealed by the coloured pencils and markers

this task asks two students to get to know each other more intimately
the students can choose whether they want to share their answers or keep it to themselves

this activity allows students to tell each other their story and perhaps asks them so be vulnerable in the classroom

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a layered drawing of mine
guided by listening to sounds in nature
how I was feeling about the space/place I was in
both emotionally and physically
drawing about current relationships
to human and non-human beings

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use drawing materials to guide your mapping process 

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we draw to be, and to know, and to reflect on being, and to reflect on knowing

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being 'with' a feeling or concept and drawing with eyes closed

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drawing in this way can help us to see new possibilities and understand how we can use our imagination in our work

it can help us to connect to places, things, people, ideas

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see differently and think differently
about
waterways
skyways
landways
kniships
hierarchies of language

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a lesson to warm up to drawing ~ without the pressure of having to draw something 'good'

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for any age level
Looking at a subject:

within 30 seconds fragments,
draw it with your left hand
and then your right
now try both hand with your eyes closed
try using both hands - but at once!
right hand eyes open don't remove the pencil from paper
left hand eyes open don't remove the pen from the paper
now with eyes closed
fill the page in one way or the other

Thinking of (or) being a place:
use the same  prompts as above
this can be done inside or outside of the classroom

what does it look like,
feel like,
smell like,
taste like,
sound like

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undo to do

thinking about the need for indigenous knowledges over western knowledge

undoing what we know makes room for what we don't know

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Drawing in response to Stephen Antonakos's connection to drawing. A drawing for each prompt, maybe in a book, or on a huge floor drawing 

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For me to draw is like entering somewhere new

I start with a basic idea

A drawing starts slowly

I never know where it will lead

To draw is to (think about) placement

To draw is to (to think about) movement

To draw is about living with pressure

Circles

Squares

I use only two or three colours at a time

I don’t complicate the drawing

My hand has a rhythm as it moves over the paper

Always moving from here to there, watching my pencil make marks

The pencil colours I use are…

My pencil moves with my thoughts

I can not live without drawing

Colour is wonderful

Blue is … unbelievable

So is…

So is…

So is…

I look at my drawings and I can’t get enough

Drawing is being alive. It’s in front of you changing and moving

I can’t wait to finish a drawing

I like to draw with tension within me

Looking at a drawing is like looking in a mirror

Drawings in series are very important to me

Series drawing to me is movement

A drawing is a release

I never know how it will end up

It’s finished when it’s finished

I draw with my own hand, with my brain, with my life

It only depends on me

My hand

When I draw, I go into my own world

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Reflecting on the world
How does it function - I use it to function
To understand through unpacking ideas, feelings, views and values
What does it mean?
It gives me a sense of belonging and understanding of/to the world

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Indigenous Weather Knowledge - a tool to help us tell our stories

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the Indigenous Weather Knowledge can be referred to

when we are watching birds and their patterns
to find out what flora and fauna is doing when we go out onto to country, when we are performing drawing tasks of inquiry such as leaf rubbings
we can use it to help explain how we might have been physically feeling when we are mapping our movements
we can use it to help us tell our stories

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Gariwerd calendar

There are six distinct weather periods recognised in the Gariwerd seasonal cycle. The language groups, Djapwurrong and Jardwadjali are the languages used by the custodians for the Grampians/Gariwerd region.

Larneuk

Pre-spring
July-August

Ballambar

Early summer
November-January

Permission to use the Gariwerd seasonal calendar and related information on the Indigenous Weather Knowledge website is given by the Elders/Directors of Gariwerd which includes the Gunditjmara, Winda Mara (Kerrup Jamara), Goolum Goolum, Kirrae Whurrong and Framlingham peoples. Visit www.brambuk.com.au for more information.

Gariwerd seasons

There are six distinct weather periods recognised in the Brambuk seasonal cycle. These are genuine seasons which relate to climatic features as well as referencing environmental events such as plant flowering, fruiting and animal behaviour patterns.

Language
Gariwerd/Grampians National Park is a unique place.
The language groups, Djapwurrong and Jardwadjali are the languages used by the custodians for the Grampians/Gariwerd region.

Reading the country
There are many different ways of understanding this ancient landscape.
Understanding the land through seasonal observations was once essential to survival and is today, essential to management.

The Grampians National Park is home to many rare and endangered species of plants and animals, and is recognised as the single most important botanical reserve in Victoria.

Water, one of the most precious and scarce resources in Australia, is abundant in the Grampians/Gariwerd area.

Protecting and conserving habitat is the main way to help preserve plants and animals, including endangered species.

Gariwerd seasons

Navigate back up to the calendar overview with the links at the end of each season.

Kooyang-season of eels
Late summer: Late January-late March
Kooyang is depicted by eels, galaxia, baby animals, mistletoe as well as eeling and fishing.

The lifestyle for the Gariwerd communities during Kooyang

Eel trapping is common during this season, a favourite food of the Gariwerd people. Stone huts could be seen on Salt Creek for the eel harvest.
Herbal medicines are available:

Old man weed for cold and chest complaints

Tannins from gums and wattles for stomach complaints and burns

The stars were used for navigation with star formations having creation stories.

The woodland areas during Kooyang

Tree frog by Ceredwyn Ealanta Amphibians
Insects
Tree frogs can be heard squeaking.

Many insects can be seen in larval form or beginning to hatch:

labyrinth butterflies hatch

longhorn beetles emerge from wattle trunks

gum emperor moths emerge

spitfire grubs of sawfly wasp eat new leaves on seedling gums

stick insects eat treetop leaves

featherhorn beetles emerge

Butterflies are frequent:
Mammals
Flies are pesty during kooyang and robber flies often cruise along bush tracks.

Mammals emerge during kooyang.
Reptiles
Boxing kangaroos can be seen during this time.
Birds
Snakes are seen basking in the sun.

Red wattle birds flocking and fantails scurry down bush gullies.
Plants
Young birds are emerging during this season.

Some plants continuing to flower including mistletoes, messmates and the long leafed box.

The flowers of river red gums attract honeyeaters.
Insects
The wetland areas during Kooyang

Water boatmen migrate from drying ponds.
Fish
Many aquatic insects emerge as adults, attracting swallows and martins.

Galaxias (small native trout) move downstream to estuaries to spawn.
Birds
Kooyang is the peak time for eel.
Plants
Second brood of swamp hens are running.

Ribbon weed and swamp lily flowering.

Elodea waterweed stems break and migrate.
Autumn: Late March-end of May
Gwangal moronn-season of honey bees

Gwangal moronn season is depicted by insects, pink heath and being at home in the wuurn.

The lifestyle for the Gariwerd communities during Gwangal moronn

People gather in villages.

People in the south lived on raised platforms to escape waterlogging.

Layered cooking ovens are used at this time and are passed over generations.

Distinct roles and tasks included foraging and gathering by females and hunting by males.

The woodland areas during Gwangal moronn

Fly agaric fungus by Ceredwyn Ealanta Plants and fungi
Gwangal moronn sees berries ripening.

Plants flowering including:

Many orchid shoots showing

first rosettes of greenhood orchids

parsons bands orchids are flowering

Peak of fungi season:

red and white "fly agaric" fungi

Insects
Wattle goat moths can be seen and giant swift moths are laying eggs at the base of gums.

Mammals
Marsupials active:

Possums are beginning to breed.

Birds
Pre northern migration flocking begins:

red wattle birds flocking

first flame robin juveniles and females come down from the hills

flocks of insectivorous birds pass down gullies

pied currawongs come down from mountains

Many birds are moulting feathers during this season.
Honeyeaters and wrens are searching for moths and insects.

The wetland areas during Gwangal moronn

Plants
River red gums flowers continue to attract honeyeaters.

Birds
Masked lapwings and grey fantails are flocking.

Reptiles and amphibians
Skinks and tortoises hibernate.
Many tadpoles can be seen in ponds.

Fish
Mature eels head out to sea to breed.

Insects
Hawk moths are common.
Aquatic insects emerge as adults, attracting swallows and martins.
Winter: Late May-end of July
Chunnup-season of cockatoos

Chunnup is depicted by cockatoos, fungi as well as clothes and totems.

Return of Aquila constellation (Bunjil).

The lifestyle for the Gariwerd communities during Chunnup

Bands moved to rock shelters in the hills for refuge.

Long cloaks were made from possum skins.

Old people and pregnant women rubbed emu fat into the skin for protection from the cold.

For ornamentation people wore kangaroo teeth necklaces, hat mats and nose piercings.

The woodland areas during Chunnup

Tall Greenhood by Ceredwyn Ealanta Plants and fungi

Fungi appear including:

coral fungus on mossy ground

boletus fungi in wet litter

First of the winter orchids including:

tall greenhood and early nancy lilly in flower

first nodding greenhoods and helmet orchids flower

first flowering chocolate lilies

Mammal
Many early wattles flowering:
Birds
Fire damaged trees show epicormics shoots.
Yellow box flowering.

Possums have young in pouch during chunnup.
Sugar gliders give birth.
Echidnas are searching for mates.

Several bird species nesting including:

brown thornbill building first nests

scrub wrens

jacky winter flycatcher returning to nesting sites

dive bombing magpies and lapwings

Many birds active and on the move:

shrike tits tear bark off manna gums

yellow tailed cockatoos on the move

first calls can be heard of fantailed cuckoos

flocks of sittellas pass through

yellow tailed cockatoos seek new feeding grounds

newly flowering eucalypts attract honeyeaters

noisy miners call loudly at dawn

satin bowerbirds on the move

little ravens flocking

powerful owls laying eggs

The wetland areas during Chunnup

Birds
Large flocks of pink eared ducks seen on lakes.
Swans and coot graze on lake shores.
Rising waters cause ducks to seek new feeding and nesting areas.
Lapwings are nesting on eggs.

Reptiles and amphibians
Frogs actively calling during chunnup.
Pre-spring: Late July-August
Insects
Ponds full of little water creatures.

Larneuk-season of nesting birds

Larneuk is depicted by owls and eagles; tubers (orchids and murrnong) providing underground larders; and, cultivation.

The lifestyle for the Gariwerd communities during Larneuk

Murnong and other tuberous roots were dug up by women using long, pointed sticks, collected in large baskets and cooked in underground ovens.
Baskets were frequently being made during larneuk.

The woodland areas during Larneuk

Plants and fungi
New growth can be seen on eucalyptus trees.
Many ground orchids in full flower including greenhood, donkey and spider orchids.

Many plants in flower:

pultanaea bush peas

manna gums and long leafed box

purple coral pea, stackhousia and wattles

grass tree spikes

Tree ferns unfold new fronds and cup fungi grow under large eucalypts.

Birds
Many small birds are nesting, including lapwings.
Early nesters can now be seen feeding young.
Spotted pardalote build nesting tunnels for first brood.
Cuckoos return and call continuously.
Fledgling powerful owls and wedge tailed eagles emerge.

The wetland areas during Larneuk

Birds
Some migratory birds return:

sandpipers and stints arrive on mud flats

reed warblers return from north

Early ducklings walk to water.
Spring: September-November
Insects
Mosquito wrigglers are abundant.

Fish
Rivers run high and galaxias migrate from the sea.

Petyan-season of wildflowers

The spring season is depicted by bird eggs, wildflowers and great meetings.

The lifestyle for the Gariwerd communities during Petyan

There were great meetings of Aboriginal bands of up to 1000 people for settling legal conflicts, singing and dancing corroborees, wrestling and boomerang throwing competitions, football games, trade, seeking partners for marriage.

Clans were summoned by smoke signals or message sticks.

The woodland areas during Petyan

Plants
Many orchids and lily are in flower, including:

leopard orchids, hare orchids, pink fingers and sun orchids

leaves of common bird orchid appear

leek orchids appear

nodding blue lilies

flying duck orchids

Trees are in flower including silver banksia, yellow box and late black and silver wattles.
Many shrubs/grasses are in flower including parrot peas, mint bush, bauera, tetratheca, rice flowers and christmas mint bush.

Many herbs and grasses in flower, including:

yam daisy

lomandra mat rush has fresh spiky flowering heads

Fringe lilies, tall sundews, grass trigger plants, grass trees and kangaroo grass flowering.
Cherry ballart is fruiting.

Insects
More butterflies emerge:

wanderer and common brown butterflies are plentiful

caper white and wood white butterflies emerge

Insects active, including:

bees swarming

hover flies visit guinea flowers

cicadas emerge, leaving pupa case on tree trunks

first termites take wing

red ichneumon wasps common

large number of insects visit the bush pea and lily flowers

moths and beetles collect around lights

Caterpillars create leaf damage on eucalypts and sawfly grubs are now large.

Mammals
Many mammals are breeding during petyan.
Ring-tailed possums carry young.
Koala young leave pouch at approximately 7 months old.
Koalas mate again.
Lots of mammal activity with holes appearing everywhere as bandicoots dig for grubs and echidnas dig for ants.
Reptiles
Many birds are breeding and nesting, including:

grey butcher birds

superb fairy wrens

currawongs

wood swallows nesting after migrating south

Many birds returning south:

Migratory birds return.

Snakes and skinks are active:
Reptiles and amphibians

skinks and snakes basking in the sun

lizards becoming active among the rocks.

The wetland areas during Petyan

Plants
Swamp paperbarks are in flower.

Mammals
Platypus lays eggs.
Early summer: Mid November-late January
Frogs active:

loud frog chorus

pobblebonk and growling grass frogs on the move

Fish
Eels migrate downstream.

Ballambar-season of butterflies

The lifestyle for the Gariwerd communities during Ballambar

Bands moved back to the plains taking minimal possessions, e.g. weapons, digging sticks, baskets and cloaks. Stone tools were left behind.
Sweet drinks made from banksias and manna gums with water ribbon cooked and eaten.

The woodland areas during Ballambar

Plants
Many plants still in flower:

teatrees, shaggy peas, hop goodenia and guinea flowers in bloom

banksia, grass trees, blue dampiera and christmas mint bush

sweet bursaria at flowering peak

hycathinth, tongue and duck orchids

Murnong is flowering in heathlands

Some plants in fruit/seeding:

Reptiles
Snakes and lizards bask in sun including copperhead snakes and jacky lizards.

Birds
Birds active include:

Many birds still have young including:

bee-eater chicks hatch in nesting tunnels

kookaburras and sacred kingfishers feeding young

bee-eaters feed on young dragon flies

pardalote and yellow robin nestlings leave nests

Many birds have post nesting moulting.

Mammals
Pygmy possums have young.
Echidnas seeking ant nests.

The wetland areas during Ballambar

Plants
Water ribbons in creeks develop flowering spikes.
Nardoo are growing vigorously.
Cumbungi grows in streams and wetlands.

Birds
Grebes build floating grass nests on lakes for second brood.

Reptiles and amphibians
Water dragons sit on riverside rocks.

Tadpoles can be seen in ponds.

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There are six distinct weather periods recognised in the Gariwerd seasonal cycle. The language groups, Djapwurrong and Jardwadjali are the languages used by the custodians for the Grampians/Gariwerd region.