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The site of my On Country visit was Sanatorium Lake. I often go here with my children, we like to explore the forest, walking, hearing the many birds and exploring the hidden paths. I believe the best time to explore this lake is in the Autumn, Winter time, the cold wet dew on the green moss of the trees, the raindrops on the trees and the lake make a almost humming noise and the different bird calls within the frost is nurturing, heard but not seen. The rain brings out the smells of the different barks, and plants and draws your attention to the different textures of the leaves.

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This is a picture of a white faced Heron, I named him Bill and he is the inspiration for my creative response. I watched as Bill soared in from the other side of the lake, his wings wide and destination exact. He landed and perched himself on a long branch that led into the water. He stayed in that spot for the duration of my presence. I wondered what he was doing sitting there all by himself, I wondered if he had any other birds friends to play or chirp (Sing) with and I started to feel lonely for Bill. As I was at the lake by myself too, I thought that this would be nice to share this moment with someone and began to feel a little isolated and lonely. I imagined Bill listening to all the noises of the birds as I was and imagined him finding a friend.

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Creative response - Dramatic storytelling

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Creative response - Dramatic storytelling

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I chose to do a dramatic storytelling as it is one of my favourite things to do with my own children, we will read books and do different voices, act out actions and pretend we are in the moment with the characters.

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This could be the larges tree stump I have ever seen, I imagined children using this tree to act out senarios of kings and queens, standing on top and acting out dramatic scenes of princesses being rescued. I also imagined children running through the hole and or using it as a doorway to another dimension.

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Movement through the trees, I imagined myself weaving myself through the trees, feeling the green moss through my hands and skipping almost with the sound of the water and the birds, playing peek a boo and such games jumping from one side of the log to the other, fun games that can provoke others to join in, creating laughter and amazement. I also notice the reflection on the ground from the water and the leaves and how this can create another layer of wonder for children, how the light creates shadows and how it lightens up more on the leaves than other parts of the ground, experimenting with different reflections on different surfaces (Wilson, 2018)

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As I engaged in my On Country visit, I began by remembering that I needed to slow down, and use deep listening while I was there (Ungunmerr-Baumann, 2002) . The first thing I noticed was the sound of the birds. I closed my eyes and faced my head towards the sounds. As I listened I could hear the calls of more than 4 or 5 different birds. The noises were so different, some long chirps and others sounded like a song. I wanted to mimic the sounds with a whistle as I would if I heard a bird in my back yard. As I stood there I could also smell the air, it was cold but fresh and I could smell the wet bark, plants and flowers around me. I used different listening techniques such as listening through my eyes (Giudici, 2001) and I noticed the fog, it had an eerie sound to it, creating drama in the space, I was alone and I felt alone, and a bit anxious. I noticed the sound of the rain and it sounded different on the water, how it sounded as it fell through the trees, how the drops landed on the plants and leaves around me, and how the sound changed on the fallen bark on the path in front of me. The bark on the path also crunched under my feet, I was drawn to look up to see where it was coming from, I could see that the bark had been peeling off the trees and some was still hanging down, I imagined that children would try to use these to swing off or try to pull down, I imagined that they would use these as horse tails and pretend to prance around, neighing and clopping, which also prompted an experience idea of using natural props such as the bark, and using dramatic storytelling to go on a horse adventure through the woods. (Wilson, 2018., pp. 5-17)

The sound of the water on the lake and the ripples the drops created, made me think about cleansing, and how water can feel like it washes away negativity, I also imagined how the bark from earlier could be a way of connecting to place, the tree stripping itself of the old and bringing in the new, (Slater, 2020) I imagined a scenario where children could use the bark as an example of collecting all the negative things people have said, or anything that has made them feel bad about themselves, and then stripping it away from themselves, scrunching it up and making it fall away, feeling a sense of relief and new positive thinking.

As I continued around the lake I saw a White faced Heron soaring across the lake in front of me, unfortunately I was unable to capture this magical moment, but I found myself still waiting to see what it would do, It landed on a branch that had fallen in the water, it stayed there for the rest of my visit.

The overall experience for me was very connecting to nature, I thought about different ways nature can be used as learning tools and the importance of freedom to explore all the temporal arts through nature (Wilson, 2018) I loved just sitting there and taking in all that nature had to offer.

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Giudici, C., Rinaldi, C., & Barchi, P. (2001). Documentation and assessment: What Is the relationship?
Making learning visible: Children as individual and group learners (pp. 78–93). Harvard Graduate
School of Education. ISBN: 8887960259

Slater, O. J. E. (2020). Storying: A reflection on entanglements with Indigenous Australian methodology.
Cambridge Educational Research E-Journal, 7, 9–17.
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.58324

Ungunmerr-Baumann, M.-R. (2002). Dadirri: Inner deep listening and quiet still awareness (pp. 1–4). Emmaus
Productions.
http://www.dadirri.org.au/wpcontent/uploads/2015/03/Dadirri-Inner-Deep-Listening-M-R-Ungunmerr-Bauman-Refl1.pdf

Wilson, R. A. (2018). Nature and young children: Encouraging creative play and learning in natural environments
(3rd ed.). Routledge.
https://go.openathens.net/redirector/vu.edu.au?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.taylorfrancis.com%2
Fbooks%2Fmno%2F10.4324%2F9781315148533%2Fnature-young-children-ruth-wilson

Wilson, R. A. (2018). Nature play. Nature and young children: encouraging creative play and learning in natural
environments (3rd ed., pp. 5–17). Routledge.
https://go.openathens.net/redirector/vu.edu.au?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.taylorfrancis.com%2
Fchapters%2mono%2F10.4324%2F9781315148533-2%2Fnature-play-ruth-wilson%3Fcontext%3
Dubx%26refId%3D0d7722f07a2c-4261-98f8-3761519f9acd ISBN: 9781351373203