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Movements around the place:

As I observe the movements around the place, I see the water moving, the birds flying, making various shapes in the sky, the trees dancing. I see people walking in different directions, others walk, others run, others stay still and admire the beauty around, or they are just lost in their thoughts. Various movements create an area full of life and activity. It reminds me, of their existence, my existence. People express themselves through their movements. As another form of language, movements can be powerful and meaningful, if we really pay attention. Movements can share stories, create events, affect people and places. Like the movements of the traditional custodians of the Port Melbourne land, fishing, cooking, dancing, these movements left behind them, their memorial activities, their spirits. In early childhood education, implementing activities based on engagement with place, can help students, to understand and value the importance of nature, respect and appreciate the environments around them as well as all the human and non-human agents. Through activities including, arts through movement and sound, children can express and connect themselves with nature as well as create, explore, and discover new ways of learning. Either through arts (music, movement, drama, drawing) or just by engaging and playing in natural environments, children learn how to engage, listen deeply, and move into places in meaningful ways. As educators, observing children when moving, can help us to understand more about their world, about their needs, capabilities, skills, talents, and personalities. If I have a great dancer in my classroom, how will I ever know, if I will never give the opportunity to this child to express himself/herself through movement? If I have a child who enjoys drawing and brings him/her joy as well as contributes to his/her mental and emotional health, how will I know, if I will never observe this child’s movements, sounds and expressions? Children have indeed a hundred languages to express themselves and learn, the only thing we need to do as educators is to listen to their sounds, observe their movements and discover their world with an open mind.

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City of Port Phillip- River home- The people of the river:

I, Foteini Hatzimihail, acknowledge, the Yalukit Wilum Clan of the Boon Wurrung people as the traditional custodians of the land. I pay respect to their Elders, both past and present.

How many times do we visit a place, wondering how this place changed overtime, which people occupied the land years ago, what is this land’s history and what are its events? Not many times. I personally try to engage with places, however, living a busy life in the city, connecting with nature, and exploring as well as engaging meaningfully with places, is sometimes difficult. This unit, gave me a great opportunity, to take a deep breath. It gave me the opportunity, to research about the history of the city of Port Phillip, acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land, engage with the place and most of all, take a break from a very stressful and busy daily routine. The city of Port Phillip is a beautiful area, with a rich history. Before the colonisation in 1835, this beautiful land was occupied by the Yalukit Wilum, one of the five clans of the Boon Wurrung people, members of the Kulin nation. The area had an abundance of natural elements, river, creeks, lagoons, sea, which beautifully surrounded the area, creating a flourished flora and fauna around. All these beautiful elements altered after the colonisation of Europeans and their occupation on the land. Today, city of Port Phillip remains a beautiful area, thanks to the beautiful sea and the soft sand. Many buildings, altered it’s natural form, however it is still in my point of view, a great place to visit, have a nice walk and engage with the area’s beautiful sea, sky and of course get some vitamin D, on those sunny days! I really enjoyed my walk; Port Melbourne beach is my favourite place in Melbourne and is also my old neighbourhood, in which I used to live for 3 years.

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Visit on country:
Port Melbourne beach
My thoughts, my reflections, my ideas.
The sounds as I walk…:

As I walk by the beach, I hear the wind, it brings a heavy breeze on my body and is making me feel cold. The sun is strong and thankfully it offers a balance to the cold temperature. I can hear the waves traveling, breaking into the sand, and making vibrations to the air. I can hear the bird’s singing, making sounds, I can see and hear many birds playing all together, maybe they enjoy the sun too, maybe the wind refreshes their wings, maybe they are just looking for food. I can hear people talking, I can hear myself walking, stepping on the concrete, and imaging myself stepping on sand being barefoot. I can hear the leaves of the palm trees, dancing to the wind. The wind is so strong, it is like it tries to cover all the other sounds, if you listen carefully though, you can hear all the other beautiful sounds, and as you concentrate on them, they become even more intense. From my observation on those sounds, I did realise how important it is to listen consciously, deeply. In a world with, so many distractions, so many noises, loud and ugly, these natural sounds, can heal our poor ears a bit. Maybe if we could listen deeply to people, to nature, we could understand a bit more about them, maybe we could appreciate more the things people say to us, the sounds they share with us, the sounds of nature which reminds us ,that nature is still there, everything is there, but we should take nothing for granted.