# data[].attributes.headline
Swan Hill Planning Notes -Zoom with Ian 24/09/24

# data[].attributes.subject
Swan Hill Planning Notes -Zoom with Ian 24/09/24

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
After weeks of relentless rain, this once-dry riverbed begins to brim with life-giving water

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The mesmerising transformation of parched sand giving way to the rush of fresh, flowing water has people across a vast outback region in awe as it carves a path from the bush to the sea.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Milloo Street Wetlands, Swan Hill - reviewed by RvTrips

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore Milloo Street Wetlands - Swan Hill with RvTrips and find out where to stay, what to do and what to see. Helping caravan, motorhome and camper owners have a great holiday.

# data[].attributes.body
Walkable distance to stay

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
BIG4 Riverside Swan Hill | Book Direct & Save With BIG4

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Situated in Swan Hill on the banks of the mighty Murray River, BIG4 Riverside Swan Hill aims to offer you a truly memorable experience in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Take a cruise on an original paddle steamer or sample a local drop at one of Swan Hill’s wineries.

# data[].attributes.headline
A poem a dear friend sent me for Borders inspo. From Public Open Space by Kate Larsen

# data[].attributes.subject
A poem a dear friend sent me for Borders inspo. From Public Open Space by Kate Larsen

# data[].attributes.headline
All the info for the Swan Hill exhibition. Would love to start a discussion below and what we are thinking about showing 

# data[].attributes.subject
All the info for the Swan Hill exhibition. Would love to start a discussion below and what we are thinking about showing 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
About the program

This program funds a range of activities that deliver benefits to the arts sector and wider public, including national and international audiences and communities.

Grants are available from $10,000 to $50,000. Supported activities must not last longer than two years from the proposed start date.

Please read through the following grant guidelines.

If you need advice about applying, contact an Artists Services Officer.

Who can apply

You can only submit one application to each closing date for Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups.

Only individuals and groups may apply to this category. You must be an Australian citizen or an Australian permanent resident, and a practicing artist or arts professional.

Applications for funding to the First Nations panel must come from First Nations individuals or groups.

Who cannot apply

You cannot apply for this grant if:

you have already applied to this closing date for Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups

you are applying to our International programs closing on Tuesday 9 April 2024 for the same activities

you have an overdue grant report

you owe money to Creative Australia

you are an organisation.

What can be applied for

We fund a range of activities, for example:

professional skills development, including mentoring and residencies

the creation of new work

practice based research

creative development

experimentation

collaborations and exchanges

touring

festivals

productions

exhibitions

performances

publishing

recording

promotion and marketing

market development activity

activities that creatively engage communities.

Activities can take place nationally, internationally, online, or in a combination of in-person and online.

If your project involves a partnership or collaboration with organisations in the National Performing Arts Partnership Framework you must discuss your application with us before applying. The Partnership Organisation must make a significant contribution to the activity, and the outcome must not be already programmed in the mainstage season of the company.

Access costs are legitimate expenses and may be included in your application. We encourage applicants to ensure that their work is accessible to everyone. Budgets may include costs associated with making activities accessible to a wide range of people (e.g. performances using Auslan, translation to other languages, captioning, audio description, temporary building adjustments, and materials in other formats).

If you are a d/Deaf applicant, an applicant with disability, or are working with d/Deaf artists or artists with disability, you may apply for access costs associated with the use of an interpreter, translation services, specific technical equipment, carer, or support worker assistance. Please contact Artists Services to discuss your specific needs.

What can't be applied for

You can't apply for:

projects or activities that do not involve or benefit Australian practicing artists or arts professionals

projects or activities that do not have a clearly defined arts component

projects that have already taken place

the same projects or activities for which you are applying to our International programs closing on Tuesday 9 April 2024

activities engaging with First Nations content, artists and communities that do not adhere to our First Nations Cultural & Intellectual Property Protocols.

Your application must comply with the following Protocols. We may contact you to ask for further information during the assessment process, or if successful, as a condition of your funding.

Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts

If your application involves First Nations artists, communities or subject matter, you must:

follow these Protocols, and

provide evidence of this in your application and support material.

More information on the First Nations Protocols is available here.

Commonwealth Child Safe Framework

All successful applicants must comply with all Australian law relating to employing or engaging people who work or volunteer with children. This includes working with children checks and mandatory reporting. Successful organisations who provide services directly to children, or whose funded activities involve contact with children, will also be required to implement the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.

You must address three assessment criteria in this category. For the third criterion, you will be asked to choose the main outcome your project will deliver.

Under each criterion are bullet points indicating what peers may consider when assessing your application. You do not need to respond to every bullet point listed.

First criterion
Quality
Peers will assess the quality of the artistic and cultural activities at the centre of your proposal. They may consider:

vision, ideas and artistic rationale

benefit and impact on career, artistic and cultural practice

level of innovation, ambition, experimentation or risk-taking

rigour and clear articulation of creative, engagement or development processes

significance of the work within the relevant area of practice and/or community

contribution to diverse cultural expression

timeliness and relevance of work

quality of previous work

responses to previous work from artistic or cultural peers, or the public.

Second criterion
Viability
Peers will assess the viability of your proposal. They may consider:

capacity to deliver the proposed activities or services

relevance and timeliness of proposed activity

skills and ability of artists, arts professionals, collaborators, or partners involved, and relevance to activity

realistic and achievable planning and resource use, including contingency and COVID-safe plans for activities involving public presentations, national or international travel

appropriate payments to participating artists, arts professionals, collaborators, participants, or cultural consultants

the safety and wellbeing of people involved in the project

role of partners or collaborators, including confirmation of involvement

the diversity and scale of income and co-funding, including earned income, grants, sponsorship, and in-kind contributions

where relevant to the project, evidence that the Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts have been adhered to

evidence of appropriate consultation with participants, audiences, or communities

where relevant, evidence that you have considered and addressed any access issues associated with your project

where relevant, evidence of an environmental impact plan which may include cost-benefits.

Third criterion

The third criterion tells us how the outcome of your proposal meet our strategic objectives, as described in our Corporate Plan.

You must choose one of the four options that best reflects the primary outcome of your proposal. Please contact Artists Services if you are unsure which strategic objective to select.

Peers will consider how your proposal contributes to the outcome you select. Remember, you do not need to respond to every bullet point listed.
Australians are transformed by arts and creativity
This strategic objective is about Australian audiences and experiences. For example, your project may:

create and share new work with Australians

create engaging cultural experiences

provide opportunities for communities to come together, celebrate and connect

provide creative and accessible experiences in unexpected places and ways

increase and diversify participation in arts and culture, particularly among diverse cultural groups and regional / remote communities

increase the experience of First Nations arts and culture by Australians

explore emerging mediums and digital technologies to create, share and experience art, creating connections with new audiences

demonstrate strong audience development and engagement strategies

foster international opportunities that benefit Australian audiences.

or
Our arts reflect us
This strategic objective is about diversity, access and equity. For example, your project may:

enhance, strengthen, and celebrate community and social connections

address barriers to participating in or experiencing arts and culture

support artistic and creative work that reflects the diversity of contemporary Australia

support artists and arts professionals from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and those in regional and remote Australia, to make work

supports artists and arts professionals with disability to extend their arts practice, networks, or skills

support First Nations people's artistic and cultural expression

engage young people in the creation of work

promote the diversity of Australian arts and creativity internationally.

or
First Nations arts and culture are cherished
This strategic objective is about First Nations self-determination and artistic and cultural expression. For example, your project may:

strengthen and embed First Nations arts and culture within arts and cultural organisations, leadership roles and sectors

grow experiences of First Nations arts and culture by supporting artists and organisations to create and present work locally and/or internationally

promote greater access and participation in First Nations arts experiences

support international opportunities for First Nations arts and cultural practitioners

support First Nations young people's artistic and cultural expression

uphold First Nations cultural rights through self-determination and recognition of cultural and intellectual property.

or
Arts and creativity are thriving
This strategic objective is about creation, capabilities, distribution, and reach. For example, your project may:

enable Australian artists to create new works

enable risk taking, experimentation and freedom of expression in the creation and realisation of new works

develop the skills and capabilities of artists and arts professionals

develop sustainable and viable artists careers, including diverse income streams or business models

support a safe environment and wellbeing for people working in the arts

enable national or international opportunities for Australian artists and arts professionals

engage international audiences and communities with Australian work

use emerging technologies to experiment with content, format, delivery, or business models

develop strong partnerships and collaborations.

The types of questions we ask in the application form include:

a title for your project

a summary of your project

a brief bio of the artist or group applying

an outline of your project and what you want to do

a timetable or itinerary for your activities

a description of the outcome your project delivers

a projected budget which details the expenses, income, and in-kind support of the project

supporting material as relevant to your project, including examples of your work, bios of additional artists, and letters of support or permission from participants, communities First Nations Elders or organisations.

You should submit support material with your application. The peer assessors may review this support material to help them gain a better sense of your project.

We do not accept application-related support material submitted via post. Application-related material received by post will not be assessed and will be returned to the sender. If you think you will have difficulty submitting your support material online, or need advice on what type of material to submit, please contact Artists Services.

There are four types of support material you may submit:

1. Artistic support material

This should include relevant, recent examples of your artistic or cultural work.
Types of support material we accept
Our preferred method of receiving support material is via URLs (weblinks).

You can provide up to three URLs (weblinks) that link to content that is relevant to your proposal. This may include video, audio, images, or written material.

These URLs can include a total of:

10 minutes of video and/or audio recording

10 images

10 pages of written material (for example, excerpts of literary writing).

Please note: Our peer assessors will not access any URLs that require them to log in or sign up to a platform. Please do not provide links to Spotify or other applications that require users to log in or pay for access.

If you are linking to media files that are private or password protected like Vimeo, please provide the password in the password field on the application form.
Other accepted file formats
If you cannot supply support material via URLs, you may upload support material to your application in the following formats:

video (MP4, QuickTime, and Windows Media)

audio (MP3 and Windows Media)

images (JPEG and PowerPoint)

written material (Word and PDF).

2. Biographies and CVs

You can include a brief bio or curriculum vitae (CV) for key artists, personnel or other collaborators involved in your project.

Brief bios or CV information should be presented as a single document no longer than two A4 pages in total.

3. Letters of support

Individuals, groups, or organisations can write letters in support of your project. A support letter should explain how the project or activity will benefit you, other artists or arts professionals, participants, or the broader community. It can also detail the support or involvement of key project partners, or evidence of consultation.

If relevant to your activity, letters of support must provide evidence of appropriate permissions and support from First Nations organisations, communities, and Elders. Please refer to the First Nations Protocols for more information.

You can include up to five letters of support, with each letter not exceeding one A4 page.

4. Travel risk management

Your project must consider the latest government advice regarding COVID-19.

If your application is successful, you will be responsible for your own COVID-19 safety planning and risk management.

If your project involves international travel, you must consider the costs and impact of quarantine and/or any additional travel and accommodation costs for all project participants. For the Australian Government's latest travel advice, go to Smartraveller.

You are strongly encouraged to submit a one-page risk management or a COVID-safe plan (in any format) with your application if it involves travel. If you require a template, you can download one here.

Additional information

Once you submit your application, we will send you an email acknowledging that we have received your application.

After we receive your application, we first check it meets the eligibility criteria for the grant or opportunity to which you are applying.

Applications to our grant programs are assessed by arts practice peer panels using the published assessment criteria for the relevant grant program.

We aim to notify you of the outcome of your application no later than 12 weeks after the published closing date for the grant round.

Once all applications have been assessed, you will be contacted about the outcome of your application.

If you have been successful, you will also be sent a funding agreement. This outlines the conditions of funding, how you will be paid and your grant reporting requirements.

The following accordion items outline these stages in more detail.

If your application is successful, you will receive an email telling you a grant is offered. You must then agree to the conditions of your grant, which represents our contract with you - this can be done online, by email or by letter. Payment of a grant will not be made until the grant conditions have been agreed and accepted by all the relevant parties.

You should not start a project that depends on a grant until all relevant parties have agreed and accepted the grant conditions and we have evidence of this acceptance on file.

Standard grant conditions require you to, among other things:

seek approval before making a change to a funded project (for example, changes in the activity budget; changes to key creative personnel; or changes to start or end dates)

respond to our requests for information about the project or grant

satisfactorily account for how the grant is spent (if you do not you will be required to return all the money which you cannot satisfactorily account for)

comply with all relevant laws

acknowledge our support in all promotional material associated with the project, including use of the Creative Australia logo and a standard text of acknowledgement

provide artistic and financial acquittal reports at the end of the project

return any unspent grant funds at the completion of your project or on notice from us to return such unspent funds.

Grant agreements must be signed by a legal entity - either a legally constituted organisation or an individual. For unincorporated groups, see the section on administered grants.

All individual or organisation grant applicants based in Australia must have an ABN. Individual applicants without an ABN may have their grant administered by an individual or organisation with an ABN. Organisations operating outside of Australia do not need an ABN to apply. Individuals based outside of Australia may not need an ABN to apply, depending on their circumstances (please check with your accountant or tax advisor).

The name of the applicant must match the name of the ABN and the name of the bank account we pay the funds into. There are no exceptions to this rule. If applicants cannot provide an ABN and bank account that are in the same name as the applicant's name, they will need to nominate an administrator for their grant.

Groups/ensembles/collectives, unincorporated associations/ unincorporated entities and other bodies with no legal status do not need an administrator if they have an active Australian Business Number (ABN) and bank account in their name. If they are unable to provide an active ABN and bank account that matches the name of the applicant, they must nominate an administrator. The name of the administrator must match the name of the ABN and bank account into which we pay the funds if the application is successful.

If we approve your application you will need to accept the conditions of the grant in a funding agreement.

After you accept your funding agreement online, we will automatically generate a payment for the grant on your behalf. You do not need to send us an invoice.

After you accept the funding agreement, we will pay the grant directly into your nominated bank account within two weeks. Grant payments cannot be postponed.

If you do not wish to have the grant funds paid directly into your bank account, you can choose to have your grant administered by another individual or legally constituted organization. Please note this does not apply to Arts Projects - Organisations.

When you apply, you will be asked to provide an active Australian Business Number or 'ABN'. The ABN that you provide must match the name of the applicant (or the administering body, if you have nominated one). When you accept your funding agreement, you will be asked to enter the details of the bank account you wish the grant to be paid into. The name associated with that bank account must match the name in which the ABN has been registered.

When you have completed your project, you must acquit your grant by providing a grant report. The grant report provides detail on your funded activities and how the funding was spent.

Please read your funding agreement to check details of the grant acquittal material you should provide.

The grant report is where you tell us:

how you spent your grant

what the artistic outcomes of your funded activity were.

If you do not provide a satisfactory grant report, we will not make any further payments that may be due to you, and you will not be eligible to apply for further grants. We may also ask you to pay back all or part of the funding provided to you.

We use grant reports to fulfil obligations of accountability to the Australian Government. They are also essential to the development work of Creative Australia. The reports help us evaluate the achievements of funded activities, monitor the effectiveness of grant categories and ensure our policy development is consistent with the experience of artists in the field.
Reporting for Multi-year Funded Organisations
Organisations that receive multi-year funding are required to submit financial, statistical, and artistic reporting on an annual basis.

All reporting is submitted online via our arts organisations reporting system.

If you are not sure what reporting you need to submit as part of your annual reporting, or what information to provide, please get in touch.

All recipients must acknowledge that Creative Australia provided funding for their activities. When you acquit your grant, we will ask you how you acknowledged us.

For printed or online material use our logo and this phrase:

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. OR,

(Company Name) is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

Logos for download.

Where projects do not have a public outcome, or do not produce any printed or online material, you will need to think about how best to acknowledge Creative Australia funding.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Up to $50,000 for a range of activities, both national and international, across all art forms.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Project Grants will fund high-quality arts projects benefitting regional or remote artists, arts workers, audiences and communities.

Applicants MUST be regionally based in order to apply to the Regional Arts Fund. More information on eligible regional locations can be found here.

You can apply for Project Grants of up to $30,000.

The 2024 Project Grant Round 2 is NOW OPEN! See timeline below.

How to apply

Please follow these steps carefully before booking to speak with an advisor or applying. Booking times are limited and staff may not be available close to the application deadline. We suggest you plan ahead and book early. Only one advice session per eligible applicant is allowed.
Click on each step from the menu below to view information.
Address: To submit an application, you must be a resident of Regional Victoria.

ABN: If you have not already done so, make sure your ABN registration reflects your current regional address. The postcodes match.

Status: You must be an individual Australian incorporated organisation local government organisation.

Unincorporated groups are eligible for funding if auspiced by an organisation that meets the above criteria.

Under 18: You are able to apply, but you must be auspiced by someone over 18 who has an ABN. Your auspice must be an individual, not an organisation.

View more information on eligibility and who is not eligible here.

Your application needs to show evidence of community partnerships and a demonstrated need for this arts activity to happen in a regional community.

Your application must be for a high-quality arts project that benefits regional or remote artists, arts workers, audiences and communities.

Look at previous recipients to see if your project is comparable:

You must read the guidelines before speaking to an advisor or applying.

All eligible applicants for Project Grants must speak with an advisor before applying.

Our Regional Arts Fund advisors are located across the state. You are able to discuss your project by making a booking.

You can discuss your submission with any of the Advisors, please choose based on their availability.

Contact a funding advisor

Please note, advisors are only available to discuss Regional Arts Fund Project Grants and Quick Response Grants.
If you are experiencing difficulties accessing the booking page, please call 1300 882 531.

If you have completed these steps, you may begin your application:

Checked your eligibility

Read the guidelines

Spoken to an advisor

Gathered your application material required for the application

Timelines

The Project Grant Round 2 is now open. See deadlines below.
Funding supports activities from 1 January 2025.
Applicants will be notified of outcomes within three months of the closing date.

Grant Round Opens
Deadline to discuss application with Regional Arts Victoria Staff Member
Deadline for Smarty Grants Support Grant Round Closes Notification of Outcome Activity to Commence

9am, Monday 1 July 2024

5pm, Wednesday 14 August 2024*

5pm, Thursday 15 August 2024**

5pm, Thursday 15 August 2024

Approximately three months from submission

From Wednesday 1 January 2025

*Advice and guidance from Regional Arts Victoria staff can only be provided on business days. Please consult with individual staff for their availability as some staff work part-time.
**Please note, this is an indicative time frame only and is subject to change based on the advice of Federal Government.

The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government program that supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote communities in Australia.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Regional Arts Fund - Project Grants - Regional Arts Victoria

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Project Grants will fund high-quality arts projects benefitting regional or remote artists, arts workers, audiences and communities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Windmill Trust Scholarship for NSW Regional Artists - Windmill Trust Scholarships

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Windmill Trust Scholarships for NSW Regional Artists. Supports regional NSW professional artists who need financial assistance in advancing their career.

# data[].attributes.headline
These are the notes from our last get together - planning for the future

# data[].attributes.subject
These are the notes from our last get together - planning for the future

# data[].attributes.headline
Paid residency opportunity in Mildura in August- applications close this Friday!

# data[].attributes.subject
Paid residency opportunity in Mildura in August- applications close this Friday!

# data[].attributes.headline
A message from our friends Rhonda & David McTaggart

# data[].attributes.subject
A message from our friends Rhonda & David McTaggart

# data[].attributes.body
The program looks wonderful, so beautifully presented. A great round up of facilitators, workshops, artists and performances!

What a fantastic effort from all the team.

Here's to you all for bringing artists, performers and experts in the field together to share a deeper exploration of the borders concept and engagement with so many different places and environments.

Hope the weekend goes well and many people engage and get inspired by the work.

Our work has certainly been inspired and nourished by the experience.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
John Wolseley - 'Heartlands and Headwaters' [HD] Books and Arts, ABC RN

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Murray River nurtures communities, grows food and sustains an Australia keen to make the most of a dry climate.

As new laws set out how the country's largest river network is to be shared, reporters Nathan Morris and Kath Sullivan seek a snapshot of life on the river.

For a moment Uncle Derek Walker is distracted.

Hindmarsh Island in South Australia is gently windswept under a blue, mid-November sky and the Ngarrindjeri elder is looking south from Sugars Beach.

"There's a seal, just put his flipper up," he says.

The seal lingers in the mouth of Australia's longest river - the Murray - at a spot Walker and the Ngarrindjeri people call the "meeting of the waters".

"The water that goes through here comes from the top of the end of the Murray-Darling Basin, which starts in Queensland, comes down through New South Wales, Victoria and ends up here," Walker explains.

He pauses, and then:

"A fair bit is taken out along the way."

Where Walker stands is more than 1,500 kilometres from the top of the Murray-Darling Basin and 2500 kilometres from headwaters of the Murray, near Mount Kosciuszko.

In between the creeks and the rivers, the channels and the billabongs provide a home for native species, water for drinking and farming, and cultural and spiritual connection.

It is water for washing, fishing and playing - for living and livelihoods.

It is a resource Walker believes must be better shared.

"If you understand, we had free and open access to the water system for millennia, which enabled us to thrive and grow. Then we had no access, we had no opportunity and so those lack of opportunities, or the removal of opportunity to access fresh water ... fresh water is a basic human right," he says.

Across the basin, less than 1 per cent of water entitlements are owned by Aboriginal people. In comparison, about 11 per cent of water entitlements are held by foreign-owned companies.

Walker believes greater access to fresh water will provide more opportunities for his community to work together and prosper.

Over the course of a morning, he speaks of floods and droughts, carting fresh water, algal blooms, fishing, children swimming, families coming together and, the man on Australia's $50 note - David Unaipon - who grew up at nearby Raukkan.

Restless flies zoom about Walker's face.

"It's not just nice; it's a beautiful spot and it's home," he says.

"It is like nothing else. I walk on this country, and I understand that generationally, we're not talking a couple of generations, we're talking hundreds of generations of our people, walked here.

"The DNA of our mob are in this country ... it solicits an emotional response from me, really."

Grapes of worth

Simi Gill is the first member of her family to be born in Australia.

The winegrape grower has returned from Diwali celebrations in Adelaide to her family's home at Barmera in the state's Riverland.

An old Dodge marks the driveway and the house is flanked by a Hills hoist.

The soil is red, the vines laden with foliage and fruit that is almost worthless.

"It is very sad to see," Gill says.

"Look how beautiful these grapes are, the greenery in the Riverland ... yet there's no value for the vineyards and the grapes themselves."

In a white ute she drives through vines, some of which her father planted about 40 years ago, after migrating from Punjab.

Irrigation water from the Murray has helped bring these plants to life, but a political stoush between Canberra and Beijing means their fruit won't be worth picking when harvest time arrives.

According to Gill, before China imposed tariffs on Australian wine, the shiraz and cab sav grapes might earn $650 a tonne. This year, the third since the tariffs were applied, the price could be as low as $120.

"A lot of the farmers, I would say the majority of the farmers, had to the put the grapes on the floor," she says.

Kind weather and cruel markets mean stainless-steel tanks across the region are full.

The cooperative Gill's farm supplies cannot handle any more grapes.

"Our farmers are starting to begin to feel numb," Gill says of her community.

"It's so stressful, it is the worst time farmers are experiencing. How much can you talk about this situation when you don't really see what to do and how to do it, or where the support is coming from?"

Irrigation, electricity, fertiliser, pest control, bank loans, the supermarket: as the bills pile up, watering of the vines must continue.

At this time of year, the water is on for up to four hours per day; at other times it could be longer.

"We are struggling to meet those bills, massive bills, bank loans to keep these vineyards alive," Gill says.

"I feel like all of Australia is not aware of what's actually happening ... [with] the sustainability of this industry."

The federal government is confident China will soon remove its tariffs from Australian wine.

In the meantime, a decision made in Canberra earlier this month allowing the Commonwealth to purchase more water from farmers to boost the environment could provide Gill with a new option.

"If there is a very good buyback scheme, and good value, we could use it on our loans, we could use it to reduce our bills," she says.

"It could definitely work for people who have the water to sell, that potentially the government wants to buy ... but then again, are we going to have enough water to irrigate our farms is another big question. Will there be enough water to go to everyone?"
A couple sits by the river in the late afternoon light. She threads a live worm, wriggling, onto a hook. He lights another smoke. A goanna skates up a hollowed-out tree.
Two rivers meet

At Wentworth in New South Wales, the Murray and Darling Rivers meet.

The Darling is a milky colour, the Murray slightly clearer and darker, the pelicans are plentiful.

A sign in the park on Cadell Street says it was here in January, 1830 that Captain Charles Sturt planted a flagpole waving the Union Jack to three loud cheers of his fellow expeditioners.

Having travelled up the "capacious river" by whaleboat to the junction, Sturt named the Murray after British secretary of colonies Sir George Murray, a Scot whose online biography suggests he never set foot on Australian soil.

Almost 200 years later, a gaggle of school kids and their mums are now using the waterways as a playground.

It's midweek, and the Wentworth Rowing Club is back at training after a successful meet at the Dimboola regatta over the weekend, the club's first since the pandemic.

Through a megaphone, rowers are reminded to look where they're going.

In the late part of the day, blisters are bandaged, someone gets called a "dingbat", a drink bottle is forgotten and for the most part everyone keeps dry.

The club, whose members are aged 10 to 70-something, prides itself on being the only rowing club in Australia to train on two rivers.

"I love both the rivers, but I think probably from a rowing point of view I like the Darling more; I feel a little bit safer on it," says Bec Marshall, the club captain, coach and the voice behind the megaphone.

"But they're both beautiful rivers."

Marshall is sidelined due to a hip injury.

The rivers and the rowing brought her to the region from Melbourne just four years ago. Already she's entrenched.

Her passion for her community, the sport and this place is clear.

"I love the peacefulness. I love the view; I just love it," Marshall says.

"I love how calming it is. And I feel so lucky to be able to have this on my doorstep."

The roadsides are thick with nut plantations, soldier settler blocks a relic of the past.

A flyer promoting a farmer field day says within five years this patch of Australia will produce more than 200,000 tonnes of almonds.

That's a trade worth more than $1 billion a year.

For an old man sitting on his houseboat it is difficult to comprehend.

"How many almonds are we going to eat?"

Real connection

At Barham in NSW, Lauren Mathers has a home filled with beautiful chaos.

The farmhouse is about 1km as the crow flies from the river. Its veranda overflows with puppies and a basket of boots topped with roller skates.

The kids have ridden their bikes down the lane to meet the school bus after showing off a rescued magpie they've nicknamed Swoop.

Mathers is recalibrating with a coffee, having baked Christmas hams into the early hours of the morning.

Her husband Lachy is away working on the grain harvest and it's a hectic time of the year on the free-range pig and chicken farm.

Not to mention at the wine bar, co-owned by the family, in town.

You get the sense Mathers wouldn't have it any other way.

"After a busy day, especially coming into summer, we know that we've got the river," she says.

"We just work like dogs and then take the kids out on the river, light the barbecue up and have dinner and a swim, catch the fish, it's pretty awesome," she says.

"You know you can leave the kids down the street, and you know they'll be looked out for. You can leave your wallet down the street, and someone will ring and say you've left your wallet ... there's no money in it, but we've found it."

The home's roof is covered with solar panels, the internet and phone reception boosted by Elon Musk's game-changing Starlink.

For Mathers, who grew up on the river at Barham, living and working here is a no-brainer.

She talks of thousands of years of culture here on Barapa Barapa country and a community that looks out for each other.

"I can't really explain it but it's real connection," Mathers says.

"When we go away, we always feel that pull ... when we get back it's like, you know, 'We're here, home', as soon as you cross that bridge."

Before she can elaborate, a dog walks past eating something it shouldn't and Mathers is on her feet, off to discipline the four-legged thief.
A voice cuts through the night. "You foul-mouthed mongrels, you wouldn't talk to your wives that way, now get to bed," it says. A pair of old drunks are put in their place. In the privacy of their individual hotel rooms, guests rejoice, thankful to the stranger for restoring the peace.
The Dunghala

It is less than two hours by car from Barham to Barmah, NSW: home to the world's largest red gum forest and the most narrow section of the river.

Here the river is known as Dunghala.

A few blocks from the river, Yorta Yorta elder Leon Atkinson helps to move a trailer on the front lawn at Kay Briggs' home.

Briggs is a Wemba Wemba woman who grew up at nearby Echuca.

She has brought together Atkinson and Yorta Yorta elder Rochelle Patten for a cuppa.

In the shade of a tree, a table is laid out with fresh scones and quandong jam made from Briggs' tree.

Somebody mentions something about how you're either born a "river person" or "beach person".

Atkinson recalls a trip to the coast with his grandkids who took one look at the ocean and asked him, "Where's the other bank, Pop?"

Conversation turns to the health of the river system.

"I wouldn't swim in it," Patten says.

"The fish are different; you cook a fish and their flesh is mushy, it's not in layers anymore."

She'd prefer that people use canoes rather than speedboats to see the river.

Atkinson says the banks are eroding.

Last year there was a flood so grand it forced water upstream.

"It flowed backwards ... it was definitely one in 100," Atkinson says.

"Unlike Rochelle I'd swim in it, because it's flowing and flowing water is good."

For Briggs there has been too much intervention in the way the river runs.

"I can remember as a kid going swimming under the Moama bridge, and my sister dived for big mussels. She wouldn't come up for a long time, and under the water you could see clearly it was that clean!

"Over the years Mum would say, 'Go on Kaye, you stand in that mud long enough the leeches will come up and get you'.

"Well there are no more leeches anymore, the shrimps are going and they're the filters of the river."

Swatting a fly, Briggs explains how once the river would run high only in the winter but now demand for water downstream means it can run high at all times of the year.

"I remember the floods coming in the cooler months and by September it was receding, and we knew as a kid it was getting ready [for us] to go swimming at the sandy beach, but now all these other interventions, the different lochs have been put in, there's so much control."

Atkinson's Jack Russell stirs as memories turn to a time when nearby floodplains filled with brolgas and frogs.

"That doesn't happen anymore," Briggs says.

Patten is softly spoken as she chimes in: "They don't put anything aside for the animals".

It's not clear if she means water or money.

She says the area used to be full of birds. Atkinson says the yabbies have died right off.

"You've got to worry about the health of the river. I mean, that's not just our lifeline. That's everybody's lifeline: the river, and the forest," Briggs says.

"Trees give off oxygen ... for everything and we don't get any power to look after it."

In the forest, Atkinson says, there are four trees to each hectare that are more than 400 years old.

He can also see the need for the water downstream and hopes farmers will make the most of the high flows, putting water into dams for when the next dry comes.

"Surely all this is not just going into the ocean, that's a waste," he says.

A sprinkler moves back and forward on a small patch of lawn and talk turns to those upstream.

Questions are asked about Cubbie Station, the largest irrigation property in the system.

What crops should the water be used to grow? How did those fish in the Darling die? Can tourism work without damaging the river? What could cultural water mean for a region like this?

"It's still very confusing in a lot of Indig [Indigenous] heads how cultural water works," Atkinson says.

He suggests one example might be at Lake Victoria, in western NSW, where skeletal remains are exposed when the water level drops.

"Cultural water would work well in there to raise the level in that lake and keep the skeletal remains covered and protected and out of sight and out of the elements," he says.

It's getting hot and the sun is high in the sky.

Briggs says the water must be shared.

"But because of colonisation and the way we live on the river now, it's so greedy," she says.

"Somehow we got to try and manage it a bit a bit better and be more accountable."

It is Patten who has the last word.

"We can do better, we can try, I don't think there's anyone trying."
There's an Irishman at the next table. Over a counter meal he shares a tip. The horse is to run on a soft track, interstate. The mind fills with grand plans for the winnings. When the race comes around, the horse doesn't run.
After irrigation

At Strathmerton in Victoria, behind an irrigation channel and a dairy factory, is a cactus garden so grand it attracts 30,000 tourists a year.

When John Hall grew up here it was an irrigated zucchini and yellow squash farm.

"If you're on the conveyor belt, cutting the ends off the zucchinis for the market, you'd dream about it," Hall says.

He clearly prefers the tourism business.

As well as marketing the brightly coloured Cactus Country, Hall owns and operates an accommodation business nearby.

He also works at the local shire.

Hall has seen a big shift not only at this property, but across the region where there's now less water used for farming.

"There used to be like 150 dairy farms between here and Numurkah, which is only like 20 minutes away. There's probably only three or four now," he says.

He admits there are several reasons for the consolidation,but believes chief among them is an earlier round of Commonwealth water buybacks and the fact that water, once tied to the farms, is now traded away from the area - most often downstream to farmers who can afford to pay the highest price.

"People have had to change industries," Hall says.

"You can imagine that's quite challenging from a mental health and an emotional perspective."

While his business appears to be thriving, he worries about the health of the region, if irrigated agriculture were to be reduced.

"I think the question we should ask is more around: 'What place does water have in our communities? And what place does water have for Australia?'

"How should we best use the water that flows down the Murray River? I think that would be a really good debate to have, because I don't believe it being a tradable commodity is actually good for Australia or Australian people."

Political disconnect

Evan Ryan says the current system of water management isn't working.

"It's so wound up now in toxic politics and party lines, that it's lost its way," he says.

The fifth-generation farmer at Yarrawonga in Victoria will harvest crops of wheat, canola, oaten hay and adzuki beans this year.

His family has farmed this land since the 1860s and this week the paddocks are golden.

Most of the crops are grown with water pumped directly from the Murray River, where Ryan sees increasing algal blooms and what he describes as accelerated bank erosion.

"There'll be no rain, and there'll be a massive rise in river height, and then a drop and when that occurs continually, week after week, through the season, the bank gets wet up, and then the water drops, the bank falls in.

"Then it gets washed away with a high flow, and then it goes up."

Ryan says he has seen the erosion cause several large gum trees to fall into the river over the past decade.

Unlike Gill, whose grapevines require water day in, day out for decades, Ryan's crops are planted annually, according to the availability of water in the system.

From the cool shade of a work shed, he explains his frustrations about the management of the rivers and channels.

"We're seeing a disconnection between here and the end of the river where they want fresh water flowing out, and there's a disconnection between us and Canberra, where a lot of the decision making [is]," he says.

"A lot of the control is now taken from the regional areas to Canberra, and they're being told when to release water, and how much.

"They're not really utilising the local knowledge that they used to in the past."

A few years ago, with assistance from a Commonwealth grant, Ryan upgraded the farm's irrigation infrastructure, putting pipes underground to negate evaporation from outdated open channels.

The result means on the farm not a drop is wasted.

The water that is saved is shared with the Commonwealth to boost environmental flows.

Across the basin the federal government says more water is needed for the environment, and recent changes to the law will allow the Commonwealth to buy more water from farmers to meet that need.

It means water that was used to grow food and fibre is no longer available for farming.

Ryan fears what that could look like, where he lives.

"The shire that we're in, Moira, is absolutely reliant on irrigated agriculture, for jobs, for growth, for schools, for health care, for everything," he says.

"[If] you take that away, you're going to kill the community."

He believes there are better ways to help the environment such as improved engineering measures and better-timed flows.

"They're just looking at getting water and shoving it down the river," Ryan says.

"But unfortunately, it seems that the political landscape at the moment is focused on numbers of gigalitres getting to the end of the river, which really is such a crude measure of river health and effectiveness.

"I don't think anyone can uphold that is best practice."
The dual-lane Hume is laden with trucks before the turn-off. Not far from here Prince Charles, Princess Diana and Prince William stayed in 1983. The road is narrow. The drive is picture-postcard material. Fat cattle roam sweeping hills.
Peaceful pub

Almost 2,000km and five days after a seal waves at Derek Walker at the mouth of the river, Peter Wilson is leaning on the back of a ute in front of the Bridge Hotel at Jingellic, NSW.

"This is the pristine end of the Murray," Wilson says.

He is a publican, fisherman, farmer and perhaps the best advocate for this region.

The river is wide and clear with little rapids glistening along the way.

The pub will soon turn 100 and takes in a spectacular view.

There are campers in the foreground, Victoria and its mountains on the horizon and Australia's longest river in between.

Kayakers emerge from the river and almost step straight into the beer garden, which is shaded by grand old trees.

"It's just beautiful. The people are incredible, the climate is beautiful ... nine times out of 10 it's the best place in the world to live," Wilson says.

"If you want peace and paradise this is the part of the world you come to."

Wilson has been here for 20 years, enough time to see several floods and one mega-fire.

He says he has worked in volatile pubs before but somehow Jingellic has a calming effect, and in this place, everyone manages to get along.

"Everyone comes here to relax, and they do," he says.

Proof the river doesn't always divide, but sometimes unites.

Credits

Reporting: Kath Sullivan and Nathan Morris

Photos and video: Nathan Morris

Digital production: Nathan Morris

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Murray is a lifeline for Australia's food and water supply, but the climate's changing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Its water creates a home, a playground and a food bowl - but those who live on the Murray believe it can be managed better. We take a look at life on Australia's longest river.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Wounded Country: The Murray-Darling Basin - a contested history
Quentin Beresford

Paperback | Sep 2021 | NewSouth | 9781742236780 | 432pp | 234x153mm | GEN | AUD$34.99, NZD$39.99
**Winner, Queensland Literary Awards 2022, Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance** Like many Australians, I looked on with horror as images of a million dead fish swamped the media and consumed the news cycle. I resolved to dig deeper.
The Murray-Darling Basin is under threat. This vast and spectacular geographical region, covering one million square kilometres from central Queensland to South Australia, has been exploited for nearly 200 years. Soil erosion, sand drifts, dust storms, salinity, algal blooms, threatened native flora and fauna, the drying out of internationally recognised wetlands and steadily worsening droughts have repeatedly brought large parts of the Basin to its knees.

In Wounded Country, award-winning author Quentin Beresford investigates the complex history of Australia's largest and most important river system. Waves of farmers exploited the region's potential, with little consideration for the environmental consequences. Dispossession and marginalisation denied local First Nations people their lands and European settlers the Indigenous cultural knowledge to manage the Basin sustainably. Instead, we've had 'nation-building' irrigation schemes and agricultural enterprises promoted by politicians focused on short-term profits and a development-at-all-costs approach. Expert advice and warnings about long-term environmental effects have been continually sidelined.

We're now at a point of reckoning. How can we save the once mighty Murray-Darling?
'One of the most important books to emerge in recent decades concerning both Australia's dangerous environmental mismanagement and the indivisible plunder of Indigenous society.' - Charles Massy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Paperback | Sep 2021 | NewSouth | 9781742236780 | 432pp | 234x153mm | GEN | AUD$34.99, NZD$39.99 **Winner, Queensland Literary Awards 2022, Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance** Like many Australians, I looked on with horror as images of a million dead fish swamped the media and consumed the news cycle.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
australian chamber orchestra river (original motion picture soundtrack) videos - Google Search

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
australian chamber orchestra river (original motion picture soundtrack) videos

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
River - Australian Chamber Orchestra Tickets

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A cinematic odyssey exploring the waterways that have shaped our world, in all their majesty and fragility.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
‎The Music Show: Rivers with Richard Tognetti, oceans with Iran Sanadzadeh, and remembering Chita Rivera on Apple Podcasts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
‎Show The Music Show, Ep Rivers with Richard Tognetti, oceans with Iran Sanadzadeh, and remembering Chita Rivera - 2 Feb 2024

# data[].attributes.body
I went to Wonga wetlands for a Birders event so I said many hellos to the wetlands from our Borders Community.

# data[].attributes.headline
Im so keen to get my hands on a copy of this book- has anyone come across it?

# data[].attributes.subject
Im so keen to get my hands on a copy of this book- has anyone come across it?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Booktopia has The River Scene, Ecology and Cultural Heritage by S. M. Haslam. Buy a discounted Paperback of The River Scene online from Australia’s leading online bookstore.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Re-thriving the arts communities residing along the Dhungala (Murray) river

The BORDERS project was inspired by revitalising connections between practicing artists residing on either side of the Dhungala (Murray River). This was to address some of the disconnect between communities, as a result and impact of the 2020/ 21 Covid-19 lockdowns.

Borders is a cross-disciplinary arts project. It is an initiative by Arts Mildura, produced by Regenerative Communities, supported by the Regional Arts Fund Recovery Boost-Renewal Grant Program*. The project is a practice-led process using the provocation of the word 'border'. This encouraged discussions about political human-centric borders, and questions such as:

Do rivers have borders? How do we experience borders of self? Where do we begin and end? Micro, shifting, ephemeral and transitional borders were all part of the investigation as well.

Underpinning this is the great Dhungala (Murray River) and the pertinent question of how, through art-making and performance, can we bring more awareness and responsibility to improve the health of this mighty river.

BORDERS is a three year project which unfolds across four cross-border communities; Albury/Wodonga, Echuca/Moama, Swan Hill/ Speewa and the Mildura region. By April 2024, we will have completed seven three-day on-site laboratories along the Murray; a ten-day residency at GreenHouse National Artist Residency centre in Albury; twelve online artist-led practice zoom sessions; an informal public exhibition/ performance event in each location, and a concluding three-day exhibition, forum and performance event in Mildura (April 2024).

The BORDERS team are - Creative producer Rhae Kendrigan; cultural advisor and Wergaia, Wamba Wamba and Nyeri Nyeri man, Mark Grist; practice-led facilitators Linda Luke and Peter Fraser; ecologist Craig Dunne; and project mentor Vic McEwan (Artistic Director, The Cad Factory).

I'm a choreographer, performer and researcher and I was invited to assist in conceiving of and co-facilitating - with long-time performance collaborator Peter Fraser - the practice-led labs for the project. Both Peter and my dance practice is grounded in Body Weather, a methodology originally developed by Japanese dancer and choreographer Min Tanaka.

Body Weather is not so interested in form, but rather, it is interested in 'being' and being 'moved' by the interconnections of the environment outside the 'borders' of who and what we think we are.

Dr Peter Snow, who has written extensively on Body Weather explains:

'Bodies are not to be seen as independent, singular, sealed off, coherent, stable, unchanging, and ordered; but rather as in process, open, multiple, changing, vulnerable, permeable, maybe dis-ordered, and perhaps even dis-organised. Bodies are vibrating, provisional, able to be manipulated, and subject to constant and ceaseless change.'

(Snow, P, 2003)

Over my twenty years practicing Body Weather, it has taught me to perceive our bodies as unique ecosystems that are shaped by the environments they reside in. Body Weather is first and foremost a training for dancers, however, my practical research also lies in facilitating processes with artists from other disciplines. The BORDERS project has attracted visual artists, curators, performers, singers and musicians who are interested in exploring the environment via a direct relational experience from within their bodies.

The length and breadth of this project has prompted Peter and I to ask deeper questions in regards to our role as facilitators of the labs. For example, how to best facilitate a group of multi-disciplinary, multi-generational artists? What activities from the Body Weather's vast compendium would serve such a group? How can we plan and yet remain responsive and open to changing tact along the way? Early on, we identified three main areas in which to construct the labs.

TUNING IN: A series of activities designed to heighten awareness of sensations, deepen sensitivity in the body, and shift the everyday way we perceive the world and ourselves.

EMBODIED / BECOMING: a series of activities in the natural environment that encourage an experience of embodying non-human elements.

CONSOLIDATING: Reflections, writing, discussions and (independent) art-making.

This article is too short to delve into the many extraordinary discoveries that have unfolded during these laboratories, however, I will share one insight that generated a lot of discussion, in regards to the idea of leadership and responsibility.

In many Body Weather activities, there is a 'leader' and a 'follower'. For example, in one activity the 'follower' wraps the end of a long length of red cotton on their forefinger and closes their eyes. The 'leader' holds the opposite end of the cotton and gently guides them through space. The idea is to maintain tension in the cotton between the partners, and for the follower to only unfold the body from where it is being pulled (ie from the finger joint first, to the wrist, shoulder joint, spine, etc). Both leading and following can be challenging. The leader needs to lead with clear directives and the follower needs to 'give up' (to some degree) their own agency and try to honestly follow what is given, in other words, to not interpret or add additional movement. People soon discover that this activity is not about a power relationship, but rather a symbiotic one. The leader cannot go 'faster' than the follower is able to follow truthfully. Both are responsible to pay deep attention to every tiny moment in order for the follower to experience the subtle unfolding of layers within their body. Effectively, the leader is there to serve the follower. It may sound simple in writing but the doing of this asks a great deal of trust from the participants, and judging from their feedback, this process engendered feelings of trust, intimacy, vulnerability, responsibility and connection. As a group, we wondered how this idea of leading and following could be used in listening to country more deeply?

The Borders Project has been rich, stimulating and challenging. Rich and stimulating because of the extraordinary and diverse range of artists who have been involved along the way. It is challenging in in regards to how to hold meaningful space for artists over a long period of time (three years) and distance (from Mildura to Albury and back again). I think this is a direct reflection of this enormous expansive country we call Australia. In November 2023, we head to Echuca/ Moama and then onto Swan Hill/ Speewa working with artists on creative responses to place from an embodied experience. In April 2024, we will invite all the artists who have joined the project to contribute to the final public event in Mildura which will culminate with performances, talks by artists and scientists, an exhibition and exceptional food and lively exchange.

Weblink: https://regenerativecommunities.com.au/borders/
References
Snow, Peter (2003), P4; Performance Making in Alice, About Performance: Body Weather in Central Australia, edition 5, University of Sydney.

Linda Luke is a lecturer for the Performance and Theatre discipline at the University of Wollongong. Linda has worked across multiple platforms in the performing arts for over 20 years: as a performer, choreographer and director. In her practice-led research, she aims to deepen sensitivity in our bodies and excavate the subtler undercurrents we experience in relation to self, each other and the external environment. Linda explores ideas around diminishing the 'human-centric' focus in dance-performance and instead explores how to foreground the rich diversity of non-human elements that exist in our environment. www.lindaluke.com.au
Main image credit: Artists (left, clockwise) Rhonda McTaggart, Linda Luke, Nicola Lambert, Peter Fraser, David McTaggart. Artwork (centre) by Maggie Ellis. By the tree (right): Peter Fraser. Photographer: Rhae Kendrigan.
* The Australian Government's Regional Arts Fund is provided through Regional Arts Australia, administered in Victoria by Regional Arts Victoria.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Powerhouse at night with projection on the side wall =)

# data[].attributes.subject
The Powerhouse at night with projection on the side wall =)

# data[].attributes.headline
Our land and water management is changing floods and moving country downstream. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Our land and water management is changing floods and moving country downstream. 

# data[].attributes.body
Mr Bourke believed changes to the landscape had also had an impact on the way the community flooded.

Between Shepparton and Mooroopna, "the river used to snake around because the river moves like a serpent", but the river was reshaped, cutting out the elbow and resulting in faster flows. Acres and acres of land being cleared so the water's not running out that way no more. Mr Bourke said trees were falling into the river because the bank was being chewed away.

"A lot of our cultural heritage that was in this bank is now way down the other end of the river,"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In Yorta Yorta, the Goulburn River is known as Kaiela.

The river snakes through northern Victoria, and communities including Shepparton and Mooroopna have been developed along its banks.

But after unusual flooding this month, local Yorta Yorta leaders are concerned the country their culture and community is built around is being mismanaged.

Rumbalara Aboriginal Cooperative chair Greg James, who is also the City of Greater Shepparton's first Indigenous councillor, said the river was everything: "It was life."

He said Yorta Yorta people's lifestyle revolved around water, so they were used to the floods.

"We understand that flood is a cleansing process," he said.

"It's a way of nature getting water up to the trees, the red gum trees which need it."

Mr James said there were high points to go to when a flood was coming and "our birds, and animals, and trees that tell us when that was going to come to us".

"We would have bark canoes and we'd go around and we'd get in amongst all of these little spots where there's dry land," he said.

After all, he pointed out, the area is a valley - now the Goulburn Valley.

Living with the land

Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung man Michael Bourke has worked with organisations including Rumbalara Aboriginal Cooperative, Parks Victoria and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action helping to look after country.

He said one of his main passions was his work with community group Wulumbarra, which shared information and stories around caring for the environment.

First Nations people would live with the land and move their camp above rising river levels, he said.

"The problem we have in modern times is we've got concrete structures and dwellings that we need in place, but they're in the wrong spot especially so close to the riverways," Mr Bourke said.

"Mob never had permanent dwellings ... right next to rivers.

"When the floods do come, they can just relocate somewhere else."

'Bank being chewed away'

There are concerns recent floods are something different; that they are the result of mismanagement of the river, changes imposed on the landscape, and a changing climate.

"We believe it is part of mismanagement in water control," Mr James said.

"We've had some really unique weather. We're not supposed to get this weather at summertime.

"That's Mother Nature rapping us on the knuckles to say, 'You're not looking after this country. You need to do better'."

Mr Bourke believed changes to the landscape had also had an impact on the way the community flooded.

Between Shepparton and Mooroopna, "the river used to snake around because the river moves like a serpent", but the river was reshaped, cutting out the elbow and resulting in faster flows.

"Acres and acres of land being cleared so the water's not running out that way no more," he said.

Mr Bourke said trees were falling into the river because the bank was being chewed away.

"A lot of our cultural heritage that was in this bank is now way down the other end of the river," he said.

He said cultural sites in the region had been tested and revealed a 30,000- to 40,000-year-old legacy.

This included burial sites and midden sites, areas where Yorta Yorta would have eaten meals together and discarded the evidence.

Mr James and Mr Bourke also have concerns that water is being commodified.

Mr Bourke said water was "becoming like gold".

'Read the language of the land'

Mr Bourke said the approach to the river and the landscape needed to shift.

"When we talk about looking after the country, it's not just for us as mob," he said.

He urged everyone, including land and water managers, to "listen to the mob first".

He noted "the old stories of not listening to the mob and coming to the mob at the end when there's troubles".

"Come to the mob at the start because we can help you understand and read the language of the land," he said.

"[The landscape is] a book and you've got to understand that book, and understand that language of that land to understand how things are working."

Find more local news
Browse for your location and find more local ABC News and information

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Indigenous leaders concerned country is being mismanaged, leading to severe flooding

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Yorta Yorta leaders want people to "read the language of the land" after January flooding along the Goulburn River.

# data[].attributes.headline
The draft program for the Mildura Lab and public program

# data[].attributes.subject
The draft program for the Mildura Lab and public program

# data[].attributes.headline
Our new venue for the public program in Mildura =)

# data[].attributes.subject
Our new venue for the public program in Mildura =)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Powerhouse Hall

The Powerhouse Hall is a versatile and unique venue that caters to a wide range of events, including commercial, community and private gatherings. Whether you're planning a wedding, birthday celebration, food and wine event, conference or any other special occasion, Powerhouse Hall is the perfect choice.

With a seating capacity of approximately 100-200 for sit-down dinners (dependent on layout), this spacious hall can accommodate a large number of guests. For events that require theatre-style seating or standing and dancing, the capacity can be expanded even further. The flexibility of the space allows for endless possibilities and ensures that your event can be tailored to your specific needs.

The beautifully renovated Powerhouse Hall has a distinctive local flavour with exposed red bricks and wood panels that come together to create a warm and inviting atmosphere, adding a touch of charm and character to any event. Whether you're hosting a formal affair or a more casual gathering, the ambiance of the venue is sure to impress.

Transmission Platform

The Transmission Platform is a versatile mezzanine space that is perfect for meetings and talks. It offers state-of-the-art conferencing facilities and provides a stunning view overlooking Powerhouse Hall and the Inspiration Station. Accessible by both lift and stairs, this space is ideal for a wide range of events including product launches, talks and business and community gatherings and meetings. The Transmission Platform can accommodate up to 40 people (dependent on layout).

Kitchen

The Powerhouse Place Kitchen offers a convenient on-site catering solution for all your events and activities at Powerhouse Place. Whether you choose to add it to your existing hire or opt for a standalone hire, the kitchen is available for individuals, businesses and community groups. The kitchen meets all regulatory health standards and is equipped with top-of-the-line features including a walk-in cool room and state-of-the-art induction cooking facilities. The kitchen is presented as a 'bare' space, meaning you or your caterer will need to supply all cookware, utensils, cutlery and crockery. The Kitchen can accommodate up to six (6) kitchen staff.

Subterranean Space

The Subterranean Space is a small and bespoke venue located in the belly of the Powerhouse. It features gallery lighting and a track system, allowing for flexible exhibition setups. The space has a capacity for up to 50 people, making it perfect for intimate gatherings. It welcomes exhibition proposals and can accommodate various functions, such as poetry slams, book readings and product launches. The Subterranean Space is both intimate and exclusive and offers a one-of-a-kind experience for its guests. The Subterranean Space can accommodate up to 50 people (dependent on layout).

Ghost Shelter

Experience the rich industrial history of Mildura at the Ghost Shelter, a venue that pays homage to the original boiler house at the Mildura Electrical Plant. This unique structure is the perfect "spill out" space, offering a versatile option for hirers of the Powerhouse Hall or on its own as a one-of-a-kind experience.

Imagine hosting an open-air event at the Ghost Shelter, surrounded by the beautiful Mildura Riverfront. You and your guests can enjoy the shade and take in all that the riverfront has to offer, and, with the use of barriers, you can ensure that the space is restricted to only you and your guests, creating a private and intimate atmosphere. The Ghost Shelter can accommodate up to 150 people (dependent on layout).

Don't miss out on the opportunity to create unforgettable memories in this unique and historic venue.
Book Venue Now

Staffing - Penalty Rates on public holidays. Overtime rates may apply. Minimum 3 hours.

'Staffing' is optional in that it is not mandatory for venue hirers to use Council Staff.

General

Subject to availability, hirers may include the following furniture and equipment:

Seating and tables for 150 people

Portable staging

Audio Visual and Sound equipment

Location

Hugh King Drive, Mildura 3500 View Map

Photo Gallery

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Situated on the banks of the Murray River, Powerhouse Place has multiple hireable locations and setups.

# data[].attributes.headline
Here is the full piece by Natalie Diaz- The First Water is the Body. Would love to hear some of your reflections below =)

# data[].attributes.subject
Here is the full piece by Natalie Diaz- The First Water is the Body. Would love to hear some of your reflections below =)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Natalie Diaz is a Mojave / Akimel O'odham poet, language activist, educator, and former professional basketball player. Her poetry collections include Postcolonial Love Poem, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry; and When My Brother Was an Aztec, winner of an American Book Award. She is an enrolled member of the Gila Indian Community and lives in Mohave Valley, Arizona, where she has directed a Mojave language revitalization program and currently teaches in the Creative Writing MFA program at Arizona State University.

James Lee Chiahan is a Taiwanese-Canadian artist and graphic designer. He is interested in creating images that recall moments in everyday life that are deeply affecting but difficult to explain. His clients include The Marshall Project, The California Sunday, and The On Being Project. He is currently based in Montreal, Canada.

The Colorado River is the most endangered river in the United States-also, it is a part of my body.

I carry a river. It is who I am: 'Aha Makav. This is not metaphor.

When a Mojave says, Inyech 'Aha Makavch ithuum, we are saying our name. We are telling a story of our existence. The river runs through the middle of my body.

So far, I have said the word river in every stanza. I don't want to waste water. I must preserve the river in my body.

In future stanzas, I will try to be more conservative.

The Spanish called us, Mojave. Colorado, the name they gave our river because it was silt-red-thick.

Natives have been called red forever. I have never met a red Native, not even on my reservation, not even at the National Museum of the American Indian, not even at the largest powwow in Parker, Arizona.

I live in the desert along a dammed blue river. The only red people I've seen are white tourists sunburned after staying out on the water too long.

'Aha Makav is the true name of our people, given to us by our Creator who loosed the river from the earth and built it into our living bodies.

Translated into English, 'Aha Makav means the river runs through the middle of our body, the same way it runs through the middle of our land.

This is a poor translation, like all translations.

In American imaginations, the logic of this image will lend itself to surrealism or magical realism-

Americans prefer a magical red Indian, or a shaman, or a fake Indian in a red dress, over a real Native. Even a real Native carrying the dangerous and heavy blues of a river in her body.

What threatens white people is often dismissed as myth. I have never been true in America. America is my myth.

Jacques Derrida says, Every text remains in mourning until it is translated.

When Mojaves say the word for tears, we return to our word for river, as if our river were flowing from our eyes. A great weeping is how you might translate it. Or a river of grief.

But who is this translation for and will they come to my language's four-night funeral to grieve what has been lost in my efforts at translation? When they have drunk dry my river will they join the mourning procession across our bleached desert?

The word for drought is different across many languages and lands. The ache of thirst, though, translates to all bodies along the same paths-the tongue, the throat, the kidneys. No matter what language you speak, no matter the color of your skin.

We carry the river, its body of water, in our body.

I do not mean to imply a visual relationship. Such as: a Native woman on her knees holding a box of Land O' Lakes butter whose label has a picture of a Native woman on her knees holding a box of Land O' Lakes butter whose label has a picture of a Native woman on her knees . . .

We carry the river, its body of water, in our body. I do not mean to invoke the Droste effect-this is not a picture of a river within a picture of a river.

I mean river as a verb. A happening. It is moving within me right now.

This is not juxtaposition. Body and water are not two unlike things-they are more than close together or side by side. They are same -body, being, energy, prayer, current, motion, medicine.

The body is beyond six senses. Is sensual. An ecstatic state of energy, always on the verge of praying, or entering any river of movement.

Energy is a moving river moving my moving body.

In Mojave thinking, body and land are the same. The words are separated only by the letters 'ii and 'a: 'iimat for body, 'amat for land. In conversation, we often use a shortened form for each: mat-. Unless you know the context of a conversation, you might not know if we are speaking about our body or our land. You might not know which has been injured, which is remembering, which is alive, which was dreamed, which needs care. You might not know we mean both.

If I say, My river is disappearing, do I also mean, My people are disappearing?

How can I translate-not in words but in belief-that a river is a body, as alive as you or I, that there can be no life without it?

John Berger wrote, True translation is not a binary affair between two languages but a triangular affair. The third point of the triangle being what lay behind the words of the original text before it was written. True translation demands a return to the pre-verbal.

Between the English translation I offered, and the urgency I felt typing 'Aha Makav in the lines above, is not the point where this story ends or begins.

We must go to the place before those two points-we must go to the third place that is the river.

We must go to the point of the lance entering the earth, and the river becoming the first body bursting from earth's clay body into my sudden body. We must submerge, come under, beneath those once warm red waters now channeled blue and cool, the current's endless yards of emerald silk wrapping the body and moving it, swift enough to take life or give it.

We must go until we smell the black root-wet anchoring the river's mud banks. We must go beyond beyond to a place where we have never been the center, where there is no center-beyond, toward what does not need us yet makes us.

What is this third point, this place that breaks a surface, if not the deep-cut and crooked bone bed where the Colorado River runs-a one-thousand-four-hundred-and-fifty-mile thirst-into and through a body?

Berger called it the pre-verbal. Pre-verbal as in the body when the body was more than body. Before it could name itself body and be limited, bordered by the space body indicated.

Pre-verbal is the place where the body was yet a green-blue energy greening, greened and bluing the stone, red and floodwater, the razorback fish, the beetle, and the cottonwoods' and willows' shaded shadows.

Pre-verbal was when the body was more than a body and possible.

One of its possibilities was to hold a river within it.

A river is a body of water. It has a foot, an elbow, a mouth. It runs. It lies in a bed. It can make you good. It has a head. It remembers everything.

If I was created to hold the Colorado River, to carry its rushing inside me, if the very shape of my throat, of my thighs is for wetness, how can I say who I am if the river is gone?

What does 'Aha Makav mean if the river is emptied to the skeleton of its fish and the miniature sand dunes of its dry silten beds?

If the river is a ghost, am I?

Unsoothable thirst is one type of haunting.

A phrase popular or more known to non-Natives during the Standing Rock encampment was, Water is the first medicine. It is true.

Where I come from we cleanse ourselves in the river. I mean: The water makes us strong and able to move forward into what is set before us to do with good energy.

We cannot live good, we cannot live at all, without water.

If we poison and use up our water, how will we clean our wounds and our wrongs? How will we wash away what we must leave behind us? How will we make ourselves new?

To thirst and to drink is how one knows they are alive and grateful.

To thirst and then not drink is . . .

If your builder could place a small red bird in your chest to beat as your heart, is it so hard for you to picture the blue river hurtling inside the slow muscled curves of my long body? Is it too difficult to believe it is as sacred as a breath or a star or a sidewinder or your own mother or your beloveds?

If I could convince you, would our brown bodies and our blue rivers be more loved and less ruined?

The Whanganui River in New Zealand now has the same legal rights of a human being. In India, the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers now have the same legal status of a human being. Slovenia's constitution now declares access to clean drinking water to be a national human right. While in the United States, we are teargassing and rubber-bulleting and kenneling Natives trying to protect their water from pollution and contamination at Standing Rock in North Dakota. We have yet to discover what the effects of lead-contaminated water will be on the children of Flint, Michigan, who have been drinking it for years.

America is a land of bad math and science. The Right believes Rapture will save them from the violence they are delivering upon the earth and water; the Left believes technology, the same technology wrecking the earth and water, will save them from the wreckage or help them build a new world on Mars.

We think of our bodies as being all that we are: I am my body. This thinking helps us disrespect water, air, land, one another. But water is not external from our body, our self.

My Elder says, Cut off your ear, and you will live. Cut off your hand, you will live. Cut off your leg, you can still live. Cut off our water, we will not live more than a week.

The water we drink, like the air we breathe, is not a part of our body but is our body. What we do to one-to the body, to the water-we do to the other.

Toni Morrison writes, All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Back to the body of earth, of flesh, back to the mouth, the throat, back to the womb, back to the heart, to its blood, back to our grief, back back back.

Will we remember from where we've come? The water.

And once remembered, will we return to that first water, and in doing so return to ourselves, to each other?

Do you think the water will forget what we have done, what we continue to do?

Natalie Diaz, "The First Water Is the Body" from Postcolonial Love Poem. Copyright ©2020 by Natalie Diaz. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of Graywolf Press, graywolfpress.org.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The First Water Is the Body - Natalie Diaz

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"We carry the river, its body of water, in our body." In a bracing prose poem, Mojave / Akimel O'odham poet Natalie Diaz articulates the continuity between her body and the body of the Colorado River.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
About 4,500 years ago, a single seed - spawned from two different seagrass species - found itself nestled in a favourable spot somewhere in what is now known as Shark Bay, just off Australia's west coast.

Left to its own devices and relatively undisturbed by human hands, scientists have discovered that seed has grown to what is now believed to be the biggest plant anywhere on Earth, covering about 200 sq km (77 sq miles, or about 20,000 rugby fields, or just over three times the size of Manhattan island).

The species - a Posidonia australis, also known as fibre-ball weed or ribbon weed - is commonly found along the southern coastlines of Australia.

But when scientists started looking for genetic differences in ribbon weed across the bay, they came across a puzzle. Samples taken from sites that were 180km apart suggested there were not multiple specimens of Posidonia australis, but one single plant.

"We thought 'what the hell is going on here?'" said Dr Martin Breed, an ecologist at Flinders University. "We were completely stumped."

Student researcher Jane Edgeloe, of the University of Western Australia (UWA), said about 18,000 genetic markers were examined as they looked for variations in the species that might help them select specimens for use in restoration projects.

But what they found instead was that the same plant had spread using rhizomes in the same way that a lawn can spread from its edges by sending out runners.

"The existing 200 sq km of ribbon weed meadows appear to have expanded from a single, colonising seedling," she said.

The one plant now spreads out like a meadow, providing habitat for a huge array of marine species including turtles, dolphins, dugongs, crabs and fish.

Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Ribbon weed rhizomes can grow up to 35cm a year and, using that rate, the authors of the research - published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B - estimate the plant will have needed at least 4,500 years to spread as far as it has.

Dr Elizabeth Sinclair, a co-author of the research at UWA, said they hadn't given the plant a nickname, and original samples - pulled from the seagrass meadow - originally had 116 different labels with GPS coordinates when they were stored in a deep freeze ready for genetic sampling.

The plant has formed huge, dense meadows that in some areas stretch as far as the eye can see in all directions. The ribbons of the plant are only 10cm long in some places, but up to a metre in others.

The plant's spread can be seen in this aerial view of Shark Bay. Photograph: Angela Rossen

Conditions in Shark Bay itself are challenging. The plant has found a way to survive in areas where the salinity is double that elsewhere in the bay, and can thrive in water temperatures as cold as 15C and as hot as 30C.

The seagrass plant's survival appears to be linked, Sinclair said, to how it had held on to all the chromosomes from its two parents, giving it inbuilt genetic diversity.

"Instead of getting half [of] its genes from mum and half from dad, it's kept all of them," she said.

Sinclair and colleagues are still working through the secrets of the giant specimen, but she said it appears to be "largely sterile" and so has to rely on its own ability to grow, rather than disperse seeds.

Breed said the fact the plant "doesn't have sex" but had survived for so long was a puzzle.

"Plants that don't have sex tend to also have reduced genetic diversity, which they normally need when dealing with environmental change," he said.

Breed said they had detected some very subtle mutations in the plant's genetics across the places it was growing that might also explain its extreme longevity.

The size of the Shark Bay ribbon weed is about 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) - making it much larger than a stand of quaking Aspen trees in Utah, often referred to as the world's largest plant, covering 43 hectares.

Associate professor Kathryn McMahon, of Edith Cowan University, was not involved in the Shark Bay research but is an expert on seagrass. She said the method used by the researchers gave her confidence they had identified one single specimen, which she said was "amazing".

Genetic studies of other seagrass species had estimated the plants could live for between 2,000 and 100,000 years, so McMahon said the estimate that the Shark Bay specimen was 4,500 years old fits into that range.

"They have a versatile growth pattern which contributes to this long life span," she said. "They can grow towards nutrient-rich patches to access the nutrient they need, or to gaps in the meadow where there is space for them to grow or away from stressful locations.

"All of these characteristics mean that if they are in the right place they can persist over long periods of time."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Scientists discover 'biggest plant on Earth' off Western Australian coast

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
About 4,500 years ago, a single seed - spawned from two different seagrass species - found itself nestled in a favourable spot somewhere in what is now known as Shark Bay, just off Australia's west coast.

# data[].attributes.body
Hiya . . for folx that want to be part of the MAMA Exhibition application, I've linked a Google folder here so that we can work on our application.

If folx could provide 1-2 high quality images of current artwork in the images folder that would be great. Please also include artwork/image details as the image file name ;)

# data[].attributes.headline
From Craig - Also on the topic of interconnected plants. 

# data[].attributes.subject
From Craig - Also on the topic of interconnected plants. 

# data[].attributes.body
Here are two examples of an entire forest and a whole seagrass meadow, that have been found to be composed of one single organism connected through their roots. The aspen forest is all one tree, and the seagrass is all one organism. This blurs the borders of what we consider a single organism.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Think of a tree and what comes to mind probably has some leaves, some roots, and a trunk.

But not all trees follow that formula. Some form what are called clonal groves: swaths of forest connected underground by a single network of roots, with each trunk genetically identical to the others.

The most famous example of a clonal grove is Pando, a grove of quaking aspen in Utah's Fishlake National Forest.

Its name means "I spread" in Latin, and for good reason. Pando is among the largest and oldest organisms on Earth. Its 47,000 stems cover more than 100 acres.

It's tricky to tell exactly how long Pando has been around, since the individual trunks only live up to 100 or 150 years. But scientists estimate Pando is at least 80,000 years old - and possibly more like a million years old. Those estimates are based on how quickly aspens spread.

Scientists have sequenced the genome of a couple dozen shoots of Pando and confirmed the main swath really is a clone, with very closely related but not quite identical trees surrounding Pando proper.

Clonal aspens like Pando can reproduce the traditional way, but they aren't as good at it. That's because they have three sets of chromosomes instead of the usual two. So when conditions aren't perfect, they stick to sending up new shoots from the mass of roots under the grove.

Pando has survived this way for a long time, but scientists are worried it may not be able to clone itself quickly enough to stay alive in the future. They've noticed that most of the aspen trunks are relatively old and when new shoots do develop, they don't last long enough to become full-fledged trees.

Scientists have a couple of theories why that is, but one of the most common is that deer and other animals nibble away at the shoots before they grow old and thick enough to protect themselves. In response, sections of Pando have been fenced off. Deer still sometimes sneak in, but in places where the fence is well-maintained, young shoots inside the fence are doing better.

See more of Pando in this video:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
This looks like a forest, but it's actually just one tree - and it's one of the oldest and largest organisms on Earth

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Think of a tree and what comes to mind probably has some leaves, some roots, and a trunk. But not all trees follow that formula. Some form what are called clonal groves: swaths of forest connected underground by a single network of roots, with each trunk genetically identical to the others.

# data[].attributes.headline
From Craig- Here are some basics about how Fungi in the soil infiltrate the root system of plants to form a connection for exchanging nutrients etc. 

# data[].attributes.subject
From Craig- Here are some basics about how Fungi in the soil infiltrate the root system of plants to form a connection for exchanging nutrients etc. 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
MYCORRHIZAE: How does the symbiosis take place?

# data[].attributes.headline
From Craig- Heres a video about how water, gas and light enter the surface of a leaf.

# data[].attributes.subject
From Craig- Heres a video about how water, gas and light enter the surface of a leaf.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
GCSE Biology - Structure of a Leaf and Stomata  #50

# data[].attributes.headline
From Craig- Here's a cool animation of water moving from the roots of a tree, through its trunk and out through the stomata

# data[].attributes.subject
From Craig- Here's a cool animation of water moving from the roots of a tree, through its trunk and out through the stomata

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Do Trees Transport Water from Roots to Leaves? | California Academy of Sciences

# data[].attributes.headline
From Sandra - Please see below new installation info, Bungambrawatha | AlburyCity

# data[].attributes.subject
From Sandra - Please see below new installation info, Bungambrawatha | AlburyCity

# data[].attributes.body
I had the pleasure yesterday of touching and rubbing parts of trees carbon dated 6,000 - 12,500 years ago. A buzz, still tingling. Opening December 10th.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bungambrawatha is the Wiradjuri word for this place. Located at the entrance of the Riverside Precinct, Bungambrawatha is a landmark sculpture by the internationally recognised and locally raised artist Marley Dawson.

Bungambrawatha connects people to the Murray River as an ancient site that continues as an important place in the present. Reclaimed from the sands of the river, the redgums are aged from 6400 to 12000 years, according to carbon dating reports from Australian National University. Facing the river, visitors would see the main tree hover above the ground connecting the land, water and sky.

The artwork is a place for people to meet, prompting a consideration of the natural and human history of the site. The locality of materials alludes to the river, which has played a crucial role to the evolution of the Albury area. From the same river flood plain are the trees and sand embedded in the base. The perimeter of the sculpture features grasses and small plants endemic to the area. Other sections of reclaimed trees are 'submerged' in the sand referencing the origin of the material while creating seating areas.

Bungambrawatha invites us to contemplate what was, is, and can be, on this site. As the river has flowed through the flood plain for millennia, it has been constantly evolving and changing. Throughout this process, mighty river redgums have grown by the side of the river to hundreds of years of age. The river slowly erodes the banks and claims the trees which are then buried in thousands of years of sand.

The reclamation of the trees that have been waste products of sand mining speaks to human intervention and the alteration of the natural environment through extractive processes. The trees would have likely remained interred if the mining had not taken place. When humans intervene in the land, how can the land and the history it holds continue to be honoured?

About the Artist

Marley Dawson is an internationally recognised local artist, raised in Albury and who currently lives in Canberra. He is of Scottish, English, Irish, Mauritian (African, French) and Jewish descent with his ancestors first arriving in Australia as convicts. Dawson has exhibited extensively across Australia and the United States.

He is known for work that is connected to and tells the stories of place using materials and processes that are accessible and recognisable. His work celebrates sculpture as a deeply human activity, a way of connecting people to their histories and imagining their future through a connection to the present. His work is often handmade and responsive to the tradition of the artist as maker.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
albury; alburycity; alburycity council; bungambrawatha; marley dawson; bungam

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bungambrawatha connects people to the Murray River as an ancient site that continues as an important place in the present.

# data[].attributes.body
Following on from the Moama & Speewa labs, I've been thinking a lot about the floodplain and the objects that are deposited on it following a high flow. I'm exploring how these are both physical objects and memories/words.

I'd like to invite everybody to send me a list of words describing things they have seen floating down the Murray ... dead cow, washing machine, giant tree. This could have been during recent floods, if you're based along the Murray, or further back in memory.

I'll absorb all these words and hopefully feed them into my thinking about an installation for Mildura.

If you could send me any words by mid-December, that would be wonderful. Please email me at kwehner01@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Kirsten

# data[].attributes.body
Albury Wodonga Health is calling for Expressions of Interest for an original artwork commission.

Albury Wodonga Health has shown an ongoing commitment to the inclusion of original visual art in their shared spaces as well as commissioning artists within our region to produce art that relates to our community’s experience and connection with place.

Albury Wodonga Health are commissioning a new visual artwork in triptych form, by a local visual artist which will feature in Albury’s new Emergency Department, currently under construction and due for completion in early 2024.

Applications close Sunday 17 December.

For more information contact Murray Arts Executive Director Lauren Black director@murrayarts.org.au

# data[].attributes.body
Online Community of Practice

Sundays 4-5.30pm

21 Jan

11 Feb

3 Mar

24 Mar

14 April

19 May

Mildura Lab Finale!

25-28 April

# data[].attributes.headline
If you have been enjoying Bodyweather training during our labs- can highly recommend this workshop with Frank in Venus Bay 1-4 feb!  

# data[].attributes.subject
If you have been enjoying Bodyweather training during our labs- can highly recommend this workshop with Frank in Venus Bay 1-4 feb!  

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
1-4 February 2024
Venus Bay/Point Smyte Coastal Reserve
South Gippsland Victoria

We are lodged at Raven's Nest - 14 Acres of Water Front, Forested Sanctuary right next to Point Smythe Coastal Reserve.
We acknowledge the Gunai / Bunurong people as the Traditional Custodians of this unceded land and pay respect to their Elders past & present.

This Body/Landscape workshop takes an embodied approach to place.

The workshop includes:

physical/dance training,

mental training and reflection

walking and silent wandering

multiple modes of experiencing body, movement and landscape

developing diverse senses of space and time

drawing, writing, mark-making and mental topographies of place

This workshop will appeal to artists and students working in performance, dance, art, sculpture, photography, theatre and visual arts and people interested in the environment, ecology, eco-somatics and natural history. No previous (dance) training is necessary but the workshop is physical and requires a reasonable level of fitness.

Frank van de Ven, dancer and choreographer, spent his formative years in Japan working with Min Tanaka and the Maijuku Performance Company. Since 1993 he has led Body Weather and Body/Landscape projects worldwide - through Body Weather Amsterdam, founded with Katerina Bakatsaki. With Milos Sejn (Academy of Art & Design, Prague) he set up the interdisciplinary Bohemiae Rosa Project in 1995, connecting body and landscape with art, geology and architecture. For more info on Body Weather in Europe see bodyweatheramsterdam.nl

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Dates: 1-4 February 2024.

Arrival: Thursday 1 February, late afternoon to set up tents. Departure: Sunday 4 February after dinner or Monday 5 February

Address: 816 Lees Rd, Venus Bay VIC 3956, Australië

Transport: 200 KM South East of Melbourne. We will exchange addresses to facilitate car-pooling or take public transport to Venus bay from where we can pick you up.

ACCOMMODATION

Participants will be camping (BYO Tent) amongst the beauty of the bush on this land. There are also rooms available in the house, for those wishing more comfort ($25 per night)
Beds are limited - book your spot now!
Bring: a tent, all bedding or swag, hiking boots/shoes, light sandals, notebook, hat, backpack, raincoat, insect repellent, lightweight warm clothes, head net or scarf, torchlight, water bottle/containers, sun-protection, moisturiser, chair and/or mat, toiletries. There is full access to toilets, showers and kitchen.

WORKSHOP FEE

Early Bird - $650 Full/ $600 Concession, if fully paid by 20 December 2023

Standard - $690Full / $640 Concession

(All meals are included, vegetarian)

APPLICATIONS

Send your name, address, age, short personal history, and a brief statement of your motivation along with any questions to Frank at:

On acceptance we will ask for a non-refundable enrolment deposit of $150. To be sure of a place book early!

Queries:

Frank: 0455 454 782 / frank.bwa@xs4all.nl

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
1-4 February 2024 Venus Bay/Point Smyte Coastal ReserveSouth Gippsland Victoria We are lodged at Raven's Nest - 14 Acres of Water Front, Forested Sanctuary right next to Point Smythe Coastal Reserve.We acknowledge the Gunai / Bunurong people as the Traditional Custodians of this unceded land and pay respect to their Elders past & present.

# data[].attributes.body
here is an interesting link that we used as reference as well have been diving into dancing/ moving as river body. Upstream and downstream being moved by currents, eddies, pockets, pools, cross currents, speed of currents.

# data[].attributes.headline
Artlink - Eco-Critical Creative Writer Callout

# data[].attributes.subject
Artlink - Eco-Critical Creative Writer Callout

# data[].attributes.body
I’m always happy to co-author something with folx or if you’re keen to go solo go for it . . it’s a fab opportunity 😉

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Issue 44:1 | Parnati–Kudlila / Autumn–Winter (Apr–Jul 2024)

# data[].attributes.body
This looks like a wonderful ‘water bird’ project!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder's Exhibition of Waterbird Photography and the Cowra NRM Committee's Archibird Native Bird Photography Winner's Exhibition.

Waterbird Breeding Spectacular
An Exhibition of Waterbird Photography

Curated by Steven Cavanagh, Arts OutWest

COWRA JAPANESE GARDENS
Wednesday 1 - Wednesday 8 November

Following two years of record-breaking waterbird breeding seasons, the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) has collaborated with numerous photographers to present a stunning photo exhibition at Cowra Japanese Gardens.
Come and see the majestic, awe-inspiring and sometimes quirky beauty of Murray-Darling Basin waterbird breeding!
Floods are Mother Nature's trigger for large-scale waterbird breeding events, and over the past two years such conditions have been perfect across the Murray-Darling Basin for various species like pelicans, Ibis, egrets and spoonbills to gather in their thousands and breed in large wetlands.

When the wetlands are full, water levels need to stay high to make sure chicks have everything they need to grow. If the water levels drop quickly the adult birds can abandon their nests and they can be exposed to predators such as foxes and feral pigs.

Sometimes nature can use a helping hand and that's where the CEWH comes in - delivering water for the environment ensures that water levels are right, water quality is good and the water is provided for long enough for waterbirds to successfully raise their chicks.

Water for the environment is a collaborative effort between the CEWH and other water managers and partners. The CEWH acknowledges the invaluable contribution of State Governments, First Nations peoples, landholders, environment groups and community members.

The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder works with its partners to deliver water for the environment in support of these incredible natural wetland events. This exhibition is a collaboration and we also sincerely extend our thanks to Cowra NRM Advisory Committee, Pixel Perfect and Arts OutWest.

The photo exhibition will be held at: www.cowragarden.com.au/cultural-centre
We hope you enjoy the exhibition!
Image: Pelicans at Lake Brewster, NSW
Photographer: Mal Carnegie Cowra Japanese Gardens
8:30am - 5:00pm
Ken Nakajima Place, Cowra NSW 2794
All images were taken during approved scientific monitoring and adhering to ethical standards.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Waterbird Breeding Spectacular at Cowra Japanese Gardens

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder's Exhibition of Waterbird Photography and the Cowra NRM Committee's Archibird Native Bird Photography Winner's Exhibition. Waterbird Breeding Spectacular An Exhibition of Waterbird Photography Curated by Steven Cavanagh, Arts OutWest COWRA JAPANESE G

# data[].attributes.headline
An incredible response to River as Border

# data[].attributes.subject
An incredible response to River as Border

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Zoe Leonard: Al río / To the River | MCA Australia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Zoe Leonard's Al río / To the River is a large-scale photographic project of the Río Bravo/Rio Grande on the border of Mexico and the United States.

# data[].attributes.body
I thought I'd pop this up here as its an interesting read on art and critical plant studies. I have the book, so happy to share with folx at the next Echuca/Speewa Border sessions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Plant Contract - How to Become a Posthuman

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"The Plant Contract" postulates that visual and performance art can change our perception of the vegetal world and enables us to return to nature and thought. Via an investigation into the wasteland, robotany, feminist plants and nature rights, this phytology-love story investigates how contemporary art is mediating the effects of plant-blindness, caused by human dissociation from the natural world.

# data[].attributes.headline
From Peter: Shepparton has an interesting community project that relates to how people respond to the flooding they experienced.

# data[].attributes.subject
From Peter: Shepparton has an interesting community project that relates to how people respond to the flooding they experienced.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Get Tickets
Share this Event
Where were you during the 2022 Floods? The Shepparton Festival is presenting 'An Item of Connection'
After one year, the people of Greater Shepparton and across Victoria are recovering from the floods. This project is designed to create space for conversation and story sharing that is just as important as physical and property recovery. The aim of this project is not only to represent our grief and recovery but to celebrate our community and tell our story of resilience and healing.

From October 2023 until the end of the year, a series of portrait photo sessions will "pop-up" at different locations around flood affected areas of the Goulburn Valley. The portraits will be of people who experienced the floods in different ways and have a story they would like to share. The photographs will be shown in a large-scale outdoor exhibition in Shepparton as part of the 2024 Shepparton Festival before touring to surrounding communities.

Each participant having their portrait taken is asked to bring an object to be photographed with to help us talk about and represent all of our very different experiences throughout the floods. We would also like to record your story in audio to accompany the photographs on the Shepparton Festival website.

The sessions at Mooroopna Education and Activity Centre on Monday 15th November and Shepparton South Community Centre on Tuesday 16th November will also include an art making activity with a visual artist if you would like to record your story this way as well or instead.
Invite others you know with stories and objects to be part of this too! WHAT TO EXPECT

These are drop in sessions, so come along any time between the times of each session. Your photo and story recording should take between 5 and 10 minutes, but can be longer if you need more time.

Tea, Coffee and light snacks are provided.

Some very simple activities for kids will be available, but if you bring them along, they will need to be supervised.

WHAT TO BRING

An item that could symbolise what you lost, that you rediscovered cleaning up, something related to volunteer work, something that gained significance during the floods, or represents a positive experience, even a person connected to your healing process.
About the photographer

Cam Matheson has been a documentary and portrait photographer for thirteen years. He was born and raised in Tatura and is now a Toolamba resident. On October 15th he lost all of his personal possessions to the flood.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Get Tickets Share this Event Where were you during the 2022 Floods? The Shepparton Festival is presenting 'An Item of Connection' After one year, the people of Greater Shepparton and across Victoria are recovering from the floods. This project is designed to create space for conversation and story sharing that is just as important as physical and property recovery.

# data[].attributes.body
For reflection here are some of the Key touch points we covered during the on-site labs drawing from  Bodyweather

-        Daisy Chain – ie through the leader/ follower cotton activities

-        Earth: Clay body – ie density and weight, dry, wet

-        Water – tidal flow and mist
-        Dry - such as shedded curled bark

-        Changes of Scale of space and time
-        Bizoku – very slow speed

-        Moved by the Outside; air currents or your partner (also about receptivity)

-        IMAGE WORK: Power of embodying (not interpreting) an image in the environment (ie embody a blade of grass moved by air currents)

-        Drawing and responding to the weight of the body you had manipulated as ‘clay’

-       Leader/ Follower: an understanding of the Leader/ Follower relationship; that both are equally responsible for the activity. It is not a relationship of power.

-        Time based performance. How to approach time for performance, in order to unfold and transmit meaning for the audience

-        Stillness and Motion, speed, various.

-        Invisible connectivity’s, flows and

-        Eyes and Focus – close up and far away and what we can’t see necessarily

-        Dissolving of the borders of our body or changing the perception of how we perceive our body
- Engendering Trust, Receptivity, Vulnerability and a sense of Intimacy between people but also between oneself and the environment

-        Offerings to the river. The river gives us so much but what promise could we make to give to the river. Speewa, bundles of materials, sculptures: offerings to the river. Moama:

-        What is it to be a river? Where does river end? Not just about the channel where water flows but much more and implicates and impacts everything…

-        Opportunity for connection (but not social) more energetic connection with nature

-        Let go of your ‘social’ body. Body becomes a medium not dissimilar to a material we work with in art making. Acutely present and actively listening

# data[].attributes.body
Coactivity: Between the Human and Nonhuman
A very interesting read in regards to our conversations in Borders and Body Weather

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A new generation of artists is exploring the intrinsic qualities of materials "informed" by the activities of humanity, and bearing its memories. Today, the most common principle of composition refers to the class of molecules called polymers(from Greek: poly"many" + meros"parts") whose characteristics reside in a chemical agglutination of sometimes totally dissimilar elements. Liquid or solid, polymers consist of molecules linked by the "pooling" of "single" atoms, that is to say, a covalent bond, which may take the form of a collar, a constellation, or a complex network. Much like a polymer, an artwork can hold together the most heterogeneous elements, and so enables a process of subjectification: things indirectly reflect human reality, while humans appear to be caught in mechanical networks, reduced to the status of an exchangeable work force, or to the chemistry of their DNA. That is what I call molecular anthropology:it is a continuous, expanded anthropology, going beyond the human species as such. It considers humans as a mass divided in an infinite number of molecular cases. That definition of anthropology is the key notion for the 16th Istanbul Biennial, "The Seventh Continent."
It is crucial to understand that today's anthropology canno longer be centered on the human species: Back in the 1960s, Claude Lévi-Strauss saw its ultimate goal in the "dissolution" of the human figure. Acknowledging the end of the classical Western division between nature and culture, both anthropology and contemporary art embrace together animals, plants, stones, and machines: they reintegrate culture into nature. The phenomenon of the Anthropocene obviously contributed to this awareness, as the impact of human activities on nature generates an intertwined world, in which art has become an anthropology of global life, connecting humans and nonhumans. Through its research pattern (cross-pollenated anthropologies), this biennial is necessarily global: even more than "human diversity," it has to enhance dialogue and mutual commentaries within a hybrid, creolizing, globalizing world that includes nonhumans.

Forms and Encounters: Coactivity
The Anthropocene is the space of a new promiscuity, a brutal bringing-together of all reigns and spheres in a space suddenly devoid of boundaries. This image of a universe without fixed boundaries (without skin) allows us to better understand the ambition of Pierre Huyghe: "Not to exhibit something to someone, but to exhibit someone to something."In the Anthropocene, everything is being exposed, and the subject has lost its monopoly on the gaze. In 1964 Jacques Lacan proposed a strikingly similar thesis: the world is an "omnivoyeur," he explained, but without reference to the notion of human consciousness: "I see only from one point, but in my existence I am looked at from all sides."He continued: "In our relation to things, in so far as this relation is constituted by way of vision, and ordered in the figures of representation, something slips, passes, is transmitted, from stage to stage, and is always to some degree eluded in it - that is what we call the gaze."This difference between vision and the gaze "in our relation to things" and "ordered in representation" could well be the key to allowing us to address the new status of the subjectin the art of today.
Contemporary art plays host to a productive entanglement between the human and nonhuman, a presentation of coactivityas such: indeed, the universe is made of multiple energies working side by side or together; the work of human beings is nourished by bacteria, other mammals, or the flow of nature. In many artworks, organic growth proceeds with the operation of software, and human relations are entangled with marketing channels or algorithms. All relations among different regimes of the living and the inert are in tension.
But today technology is seen as one sphere among others, or a "subject" supplementary to the human subject. What matters to the artist of our time are not the things in themselves, but the circuits that distribute and connect them. Art no longer occupies a dominant symbolic position: a trace among traces, an activity nourished by multiple parallel activities, an object within a world of objects. A work of art no longer enjoys a special status. In this space of coactivity, the term formtakes on new meanings. How should one define it, beyond the famous classifications of Roger Caillois, who proposed that forms should be distinguished by how they are brought into being - growth, accident, will,or molding? How should one describe the subset within which, in an exhibition, these different regimes interact? Katja Novitskova, author of PostInternet Survival Guide, writing in reference to Manuel De Landa, asserts: "The key word in any contemporary materialist philosophy (and I think the kind of animism to which I relate is a materialist animism) is morphogenesis-the birth of form. Whether it is the birth of the form of mountains, clouds, plants, animals, flames-everything has form, interesting forms, driven by self-organizing properties of matter."
Contemporary art takes into account all of these formations. Thus, it represents a gateway between the human and the nonhuman, a space where the binary opposition between subject and object dissolves and branches out in multiplicitous images: the reified speaking, the living petrified, illusions of life, illusions of the inert, biological maps redistributing constantly. And the mise-en-scène of this coactivity by artists today reinforces a notion that appeared in the 1990s: the primacy of the encounter over form. In other words, it is the idea that artistic practice is based on relationships rather than on objects and on a materialist view of contingency. On this point, we agree with speculative realism. Human beings are no more than one element among many in a wide area network, and we do not occupy its center: it is reality-that is to say, the relationship among all beings and things in coactivity- which occupies it.

But reality is often confused with either the world or with human society. In this regard, Alain Badiou cites Jean-Luc Nancy, for whom "the world is the expansion of existence beyond mere human reality. It is the application of the category of existence to something other than humanity. It is a meditation on animals, stones, the stars..."The world and society end up merging under the effect of a growing and "intense proximity," to use the title of an exhibition by Okwui Enwezor. When everything is close to everything, due to the acceleration of transport and the interaction between humans, animals, and plants, the problems of society are transposed to the whole world: another definition of the democracy objects. Alain Badiou does, however, accept the opposition between World and Society, defining the former as "the situation of the visible living."But the pseudo-world in which we live, he continues, "erases the visibility of most human beings. It is not covered up, but removed. It is a protocol of exclusion from the visible, not of situation within the visible."What characterizes our time, according to Badiou, and is the true emblem of the contemporary democratic world, is the decline in the visibility of human beings at the expense of the object-product: in other words, the exact opposite of the observation made by speculative realism. The question that arises, for Badiou, in the field of politics is this exclusion, what he calls "invisibility," that is to say, the refusal to make designations. But "there is no need to name," he quips, "since we are all equal before goods."And the market is characterized by the equivalence of all objects within the mechanism of commerce. The capitalist world, says Badiou, is governed by the law of the object, "in the sense that [capitalism] claims that there is no... subjectivity unchained to objects" - that is, our passions and desires must translate into things.

But the domain of art is precisely that of exchange without common measure: all artistic experiences are unique. A work by Francis Bacon cannot be measured against one by Marcel Duchamp, outside of critical interpretation, because nothing quantifiable unites them. Except, precisely, when these works are found on the market, where prices differentiate them. Apart from this case, art is the refuge of the immeasurable: we cannot exchange an artistic experience, we can only share it. "What has never been looked at" is precisely the opposite of art, which postulates a priori the visibility of its productions. Moreover, they are received by a human consciousness that reflects upon the enrichment of an experience. Just as one cannot find a common measure between a rock and a human being, except that of their coexistence in a common biotope.

***
One of the engines of economic globalization is the ideology of "growth,"i.e., the narrative that exponential growth is essential, according to the prevailing ideology, for the future of humanity. Or, as Jean-François Lyotard put it, "Development is not attached to an Idea, like that of the emancipation of reason and of human freedoms. It is reproduced by accelerating and extending itself according to its internal dynamic alone."Likewise, the "Great Acceleration" is capitalism's process of naturalization: organic and universal, it is the natural law of the Anthropocene. Its main tool is the algorithm, on which the global economy is nowfounded. The only known limitation of industrial "development," for Lyotard, resides in the life expectancy of the sun - "the only challenge objectively posed to development."
Since the 1990s, art has highlighted the social sphere and held inter-human relations, whether individual or social, convivial or antagonistic, as its domain of reference. The current critical fortune of speculative realism in the field of art appears to signal another acceleration: the evacuation process of humanity. Relational art has been criticized for its anthropocentrism, even its thinly veiled humanism, for considering humans as an aesthetic or political milieu, indeed, for extending its range invasively into the realms of objects, networks, nature, and machinery, in a manner now deemed by some as untenable or old-fashioned. It seems to me, on the contrary, that the major political issue of the twenty-first century is precisely the return of humanity, to all the areas we have vacated: computerized finance, delivered in mechanically regulated markets, and primarily in policies fixed on the sole objective of profit - that is to say, the quantifiable world. A return not to the center- for nothing can be the center of a coactive universe, of multiple coexistences in a shared ecosystem- but to the heart of these activities that are no longer "human" in name.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Coactivity: Between the Human and Nonhuman | | Flash Art

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A new generation of artists is exploring the intrinsic qualities of materials "informed" by the activities of humanity, and bearing its memories. Today, the most common principle of composit

# data[].attributes.headline
Happy to hold space if anyone wants to meet online more often, let me know your needs/wants below!

# data[].attributes.subject
Happy to hold space if anyone wants to meet online more often, let me know your needs/wants below!

# data[].attributes.headline
The launch of a new doco Kirsten been working on with the CAD Factory

# data[].attributes.subject
The launch of a new doco Kirsten been working on with the CAD Factory

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Documentary film screening and panel discussion

By National Museum of Australia

Date and time

Location

National Museum of Australia, Visions Theatre

Lawson Crescent Acton, ACT 2601 Australia

Refund Policy

Contact the organiser to request a refund.

About this event

1 hour 30 minutes

Mobile eTicket

See the premiere of the new documentary, More than a Fish Kill, after a panel discussion exploring the story.
Panel
Before the screening, ABC RN Big Ideas host, Natasha Mitchell, will be joined by artist Vic McEwan, Barkandji Elder Barbara Quayle, fisheries manager Matt McLellan and Director of Clontarf Academy Narrandera, John Ingram, to discuss the film and the issues it raises.
Film screening
More than a Fish Kill explores how artists, fishery managers and First Nations custodians came together in the aftermath of devastating fish kills along the Barka/Baaka (Darling River) and turned these ecological disasters into catalysts for cultural connection and revival. The film tells the story of a remarkable collaboration that interweaves art, science and ancient knowledge to care for communities, honour our rivers and reshape how we live, now and into the future.

Biographies
Natasha Mitchell is an award-winning journalist, radio presenter, podcaster and documentary filmmaker. She is host of ABC RN's flagship Big Ideas program, was founding host and producer of the radio show and podcast All in the Mind as well as the podcast Science Fiction, and hosted the daily social affairs program Life Matters.

Natasha served as vice president of the World Federation of Science Journalists and was recipient of the prestigious Knight Fellowship at MIT/Harvard. She has an engineering degree with first class honours and a postgraduate qualification in science communication.

Vic McEwan is a contemporary artist whose practice involves sound, photography, video, installation and performance. His work explores socially engaged and site-specific art, with a deep interest in the creation of cross-sector partnerships and the ethics involved in making artistic work in relationship with the lives of other people.

Vic is the Artistic Director of the Cad Factory. He sits on the Arts and Health Network NSW/ACT and is a board member of MusicNSW. He recently submitted his thesis as the first artist to be accepted into an arts-practice-led PhD in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney.

Barbara Quayle is a Ngnugu of the Barkindji/Malyangapa language groups living in the small community of Menindee, on the Barka/Darling River and surrounded by Wontanella/Place of Many Waters. She is passionate about her culture and heritage and represents her community in many ways.

Barbara sits on the Barkindji Native Title Board and the Elders Council at Kinchega National Park. She is a strong advocate for water management and environmental matters affecting future generations. For Barbara, water is what helps keep people connected to Country and especially to each other. Barbara is also a jewellery artist.

Matt McLellan is Senior Fisheries Manager with Department of Regional NSW Fisheries, based in Narrandera in Wiradjuri Country. Matt grew up on a farm in the Riverina and has been fascinated with the natural world from an early age. This led to studies in marine and environmental science. Matt has worked in native fish breeding and conservation, and currently manages Fisheries' stocking program.

Matt has a strong appreciation for both science and the arts, along with the synergies these two disciplines can deliver when brought together.

John Ingram is a Wiradjuri educator and the Director of the Clontarf Academy in Narrandera, NSW. He has recently taken up this position in his hometown, after two years in Nowra leading the Shoalhaven Clontarf Academy. John is married with four children.

Getting to the Museum
You can travel to the National Museum of Australia by private car, taxi, ride share, the Route 53 bus or bicycle. More information about getting to the Museum can be found here: https://www.nma.gov.au/visit/plan
Getting to the venue
The film will be shown in Visions Theatre at the Museum, on the Mezzanine level. To access the theatre:

* Go past the front desk towards the orange 'Galleries' sign at the far end of the Gandel Atrium.

* Pass through the glass sliding doors and continue through the Bunya Pine tree exhibit in our Great Southern Land gallery.

* You will come to a red staircase on your left, and a lift in front of you.

- Up the stairs: Visions Theatre will be ahead on your right.

- Up the Lift: Visions Theatre is on your left.

* A staff member will be stationed on the landing to scan your ticket and direct you into Visions Theatre.
Accessibility at the Museum
Accessible parking spaces for visitors are available free of charge near our main entrance. The building is fully accessible by wheelchair; however, the building is large so the distances are long.

Wheelchair seating spaces are available at the front of the theatre with companion seating. Wheelchairs and electric scooters are available to borrow from the front desk of the Museum. You can call ahead to reserve them on 02 6208 5110 or talk to a staff member at the desk on the day of your visit.

There is a hearing loop available in Visions Theatre that can be accessed when you sit in the first two rows of the central block of seats. T﻿his event will be live captioned.

We recognise all Companion Cards. Please email us at programs@nma.gov.au and we will issue a Companion ticket.

Trained, registered and visibly identified assistance animals are welcome at the Museum when accompanied by their handler, including at this event.

You can find more information on accessibility at the Museum here:
https://www.nma.gov.au/visit/accessibility
If you have questions, or so we can tailor services to your needs before you visit, please email us at programs@nma.gov.au

About the organiser

Where our stories come alive

The National Museum of Australia brings to life the rich and diverse stories of Australia through compelling objects, ideas and events. Our exhibitions, collections, programs and research focus on three interrelated themes; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture, Australia's history and society since 1788, and the interaction of people with the environment. These define our conceptual framework through the themes of; land, nation, and people.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Eventbrite - National Museum of Australia presents More than a Fish Kill - Sunday, 15 October 2023 at National Museum of Australia, Visions Theatre, Acton, ACT. Find event and ticket information.

# data[].attributes.headline
From Kristen- This is the River Country community day:

# data[].attributes.subject
From Kristen- This is the River Country community day:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
corporateName=National Museum of Australia; address=Lawson Crescent, Acton Peninsula, ACT; contact=+61 2 6208 5000

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
River Country Community Day | National Museum of Australia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Join us at the National Museum for a day of art, music, performance, storytelling and conversations exploring Australia’s remarkable river places and celebrating the launch of Living on the Edge.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/musicshow/sco-clemence-williams-celeste-lazarenko-jim-denley/102838454

# data[].attributes.body
Discussion point about Bodyweather and performance from Mondays Zoom session (linda's thoughts on this)
Discussion: a question came up from Ian Tully and others about why when watching the bodyweather performances (as in the Albury perf) all the performance seemed really slow and ‘peaceful’?. This is also reflective in the workshops and the Albury performances were a result of how we approached the work in the workshops. Is this our interpretation of what ‘nature’ is or our emotional response that is informing the kind of performance. My thoughts are that, yes this could be part of it but mostly it is because people are new to this way of working. The slowness of the movement is so people are perceiving, listening and responding to the aspects of the environment. They are paying attention to the deeper sensations of their body in order to track and move in a wholly different way than our conditioned way of moving (ie move like a blade of grass asks you to change your concept of the structure of your body). So the slowness is mainly because of this. But I do think there is interpretation as well. The environment seems ‘peaceful’, it is non human centric and therefore is not a ‘social’ space. However, if we actually investigate the environment on a deeper level, we can perceive all kinds of turbulences, dynamisms, even ‘violence’s’ (although this is a human interpretation of what is perceived). These dynamics are physically  and technically more difficult to get a hold of as a performer (ie performer being not just movement technique but capturing the poetic and energy of whatever it is you are inhabiting) and therefore take time and training to find a full(er) expression.

# data[].attributes.body
BORDERS PROJECT: exploring the relationship between creative communities in Victorian and New South Wales cross-border towns and their Murray River environment.
Albury/Wodonga artist residency. As a culmination of this residency the Borders team and artists presented a small public performance and exhibition.

Sunday 2nd July 2023,  3pm - SHOWING
Credits:
1. Performance under the shelter by Linda Luke and Peter Fraser
2. Poem by Elizabeth Masters
3. Bark Island
- Group piece – Grass in Wind; and Bark Body (Sandra Collins)
- Kris Tito – Homage to Huge Tree
- R’baahn Lah, Peter Fraser, Linda Luke - Bark Peel
- Kris Tito, Maggie Ellis, Carm Hogan – Song and inhabitation by water
- Rhae Kendrigan: Bark Mask #1
- Maggie Ellis: on log
- Ellen Clark, Kris Tito – winding trees
- Peter Fraser – upsidedown at waters edge
- Maggie Ellis – Creature on log
- Rhae Kendrigan: Bark Mask #2
- Julie Briggs: homage to home and tree
Artworks by Andree Cozens, Maggie Ellis, Julie Briggs, Ellen Clark, Kris Tito

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
BORDERS PROJECT: exploring the relationship between creative communities in Victorian and New South Wales cross-border towns and their Murray River environment.
Albury/Wodonga artist residency. As a culmination of this residency the Borders team and artists presented a small public performance and exhibition.

Sunday 2nd July 2023,  3pm - SHOWING
Credits:
1.	Performance under the shelter by Linda Luke and Peter Fraser
2.	Poem by Elizabeth Masters
3.	Bark Island
- Group piece – Grass in Wind; and Bark Body (Sandra Collins)
- Kris Tito – Homage to Huge Tree
- R’baahn Lah, Peter Fraser, Linda Luke - Bark Peel
- Kris Tito, Maggie Ellis, Carm Hogan – Song and inhabitation by water
- Rhae Kendrigan: Bark Mask #1
- Maggie Ellis: on log
- Ellen Clark, Kris Tito – winding trees 
- Peter Fraser – upsidedown at waters edge
- Maggie Ellis – Creature on log
- Rhae Kendrigan: Bark Mask #2
- Julie Briggs: homage to home and tree
Artworks by Andree Cozens, Maggie Ellis, Julie Briggs, Ellen Clark, Kris Tito

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The anthropologist Deborah Bird Rose was one of the founding and most significant figures in the emergence of the environmental humanities. Over a career spanning roughly four decades, Debbie made major contributions in a range of fields: from the environmental humanities and the anthropology of Indigenous Australia, to extinction studies, animal and multispecies studies, and philosophies of ethics, justice, religion, environment, temporality and place. At the same time, Debbie also inspired the development of new modes of scholarship. Hers was a scholarly practice of paying close attention, of drawing together disparate voices from within and far beyond the academy, a practice grounded in a skilled refinement of the crafts of writing and storytelling, and a deep commitment to and creative intervention toward better possibilities for life and death.

Matthew Chrulew and I recently published an edited collection honouring Debbie's life and work: Kin: Thinking with Deborah Bird Rose, published by Duke University Press. 'Kin' was a central, animating, obligating, notion for Debbie. As we note in the introduction to the book:

"The life and work of Deborah Bird Rose were grounded in and animated by a world of kin. This is a world of interwoven, intergenerational, more-than-human connectivity that both sustains and obligates, calling out for care and responsibility. Kinship is reciprocal, situated, tying human beings to other kinds of animals and plants, vulnerable and creative bodies all, and to the wider seasons and patterns of Earth and the cosmos. While such an understanding always carries great significance, the particular challenge of Debbie's work - the question that she returned to relentlessly - is how we are to keep faith with such a world in the midst of ongoing processes of colonization and extinction, of ecocide and genocide."

In approaching these topics in this way, Debbie drew on the insights of decades of work with her Aboriginal teachers, friends, and adopted family, especially from the communities of Yarralin and Lingara in the Northern Territory. She sought to bring their understandings of the world into dialogue with both relational Western philosophies and the ecological sciences. In so doing, "she sought to articulate and advocate for a world of kin, grounded in a profound sense of the connectivities and relationships that hold us together, vulnerable and responsible to one another."

The chapters in the collection aim not so much to explain or summarise Debbie's work as to think with it - to take up key ideas and apply, redo or stretch them. The book seeks to keep Debbie's work alive and moving in the world, in the same way that she so often sought to do with the work of her own teachers and major influences. Chapters in the book are contributed by a range of leading scholars in the environmental humanities and associated fields, including Bawaka Country, Colin Dayan, Linda Payi Ford, Donna J Haraway, James Hatley, Stephen Muecke, Catherine Rigby and Owain Jones, Catriona Sandilands, Isabelle Stengers, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Thom van Dooren and Kate Wright.

Shortly before Debbie passed away in 2018, I conducted an audio interview with her about her life and work, discussing many of her own major influences and key ideas. We decided at that time that it would be nice to release that interview around the publication of Kin. That interview has been beautifully edited by Jane Ulman and is now available here.

At the time of her death, Debbie was just finishing work on her book, Shimmer: Flying Fox Exuberance in Worlds of Peril. This has also been published recently and provides another invaluable opportunity for all of us to continue to learn from, be inspired by, and think with, Deborah Bird Rose.

Learn more about Kin: Thinking with Deborah Bird Rose here. For more information on SEI research projects that contemplate the ideas explored within Kin, see The Living Archive and Animal Stories.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kin and connectivity: thinking with Deborah Bird Rose

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
SEI Deputy Director Thom van Dooren reflects upon the legacy and impact of anthropologist Deborah Bird Rose.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Abstract

Towards the end of her eventful and productive life, Val Plumwood was turning toward Indigenous people and cultures as a way of encountering the lived experience of ideas she was working with theoretically. At the same time, she was defining herself as a philosophical animist. As I understand her term, she was making connections with animism as a worldview, but rather than mimic or appropriate indigenous animisms she was developing a foundation that could be argued from within western philosophy. Her beautiful definition of philosophical animism is that it "opens the door to a world in which we can begin to negotiate life membership of an ecological community of kindred beings." Thus, her animism, like indigenous animisms, was not a doctrine or orthodoxy, but rather a path, a way of life, a mode of encounter. In the spirit of open-ended encounter, I aim to bring her work into dialogue with some of my Australian Aboriginal teachers. More specifically, I focus on developing an enlarged account of active listening, considering it as the work participants engage in as they inter-act with other sentient creatures. I take a country or place based perspective, engaging with life on the inside of the webs and patterns of connection.
An earlier version of this paper was presented as the Val Plumwood Memorial Lecture at the Minding Animals Conference, held in Newcastle, Australia in July 2009.
Introduction

Val died in 2008, and we gave her a green burial at home on her beloved Plumwood Mountain. As we stood around the open cardboard coffin a large butterfly flew amongst us and settled on Val's body. It stayed there long enough for us to feel that the moment was truly significant. Then it took wing and disappeared into the forest. We were awed by the connection between Val, the butterfly and the forest, and many of us felt re-inspired to continue her work in the world. This awesome moment was expressive of much of Val's philosophy. We saw before us the intentionality of other creatures-always mysterious, but never mindless-and we experienced ourselves as creatures who are attentive to others and who are participants in the life of the world.

I begin with a brief account of Val Plumwood's life and thought. My main focus is the philosophical animism she was working with at the time of her death. Many of the ideas that go into her animism had been implicit in her earlier work, but unfortunately no article or essay specifically addresses philosophical animism. I cannot write what she would have written; I seek, therefore, to open a wider dialogue by engaging with her ideas from the perspective of my encounters with Indigenous animism. Specifically, I will take up themes of attentive presence, knowledge and gratitude, and will explore them in the context of Indigenous animism.

A Life of Action

Philosopher, ecofeminist, and activist, Val Plumwood was passionately committed to the understanding that the living world is powerful and possesses its own agency and sentience. She was one of the great intellects of the late 20 th century, an eminent Australian environmental philosopher and ecofeminist. Her book Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (1993) has become a classic. The more recent Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason (2002) is becoming a classic too. She is included in the Routledge publication Fifty Key Thinkers on the Environment, along with Gandhi, Buddha, and others.

Along with her vigorous academic writing, Val was an activist right to the end. The first book she and Richard wrote was The Fight for the Forest (1973)-the book that launched the struggle to protect Australia's old growth forests. At the same time, she was living her philosophy. On a mountain near Braidwood in New South Wales, in a wilderness area known as the Budawangs, she and Richard built a house using local stones. Val became Val Plumwood, while Richard took the surname Sylvan. When they divorced, Val stayed on at Plumwood Mountain, caretaking and defending the patch of earth she loved so much.

Philosophical Animism

The term animism has its origins in 19 th century anthropological work that sought to demonstrate an evolutionary hierarchy within the human family such that primitives could be defined in ways that radically distinguished them from civilised folk. It was, in short, another structure marked by hyperseparated dualism, and one of the distinguishing criteria for making the cut between 'us' and 'them' was animism. According to Edward Tylor, a foundational figure in the earlier use of the term, primitive people imagined that everything had within it a soul. As a secular thinker and materialist, Tylor argued that primitives failed to understand the absolute differences between humans and all others. According to Harvey, Tylor asserted that "animists have no sense of the 'absolute psychical distinction between man and beast' or between humanity and plants or even 'objects.'" His words indicate the pervasiveness of the binaries; he equates recognition of hyperseparated boundaries with civilisation, and thus he uses hyperseparation ideology to denigrate and dismiss Indigenous knowledge.

Val was a significant thinker in philosophical debates about ethical relationships between humans and nonhumans not only for what she offered, but for how she side-stepped many approaches that may be defensible through logic but that do not lead us into ways of opening ourselves to an ethical involvement with our earth others. Her aim was to open ethics for action, not to offer further iterations of abstract analysis of the logic of ethics.

Most of her argument was laid out extensively in Environmental Culture. Here she put forward an interspecies ethic of recognition which depended on a particular stance toward the nonhuman world. That is, she was not making a set of truth claims about the world, but rather was asking what kind of stance a human can take that will open her to a responsive engagement in relation to nonhuman others. Her answer was that to recognise "earth others as fellow agents and narrative subjects is crucial for all ethical, collaborative, communicative and mutualistic projects, as well as for place sensitivity." One effect of opening one's self, as human, would be to dispel the myth of mindlessness, not through a logical account of mind, but through the experience of being one amongst many in a world already replete with mindfulness. In opening one's self to others as communicative beings, one places one's self in a position of being able to experience communication. She saw this as a step toward a post-Cartesian reconstruction of mind. It would recognise intentionality, and it would include communication, exchange, and agency.

This gateway (or 'door' as she described it in her definition of what philosophical animism does), entails interspecies communication. Here again, she is not defining communication in strictly human terms; there is no suggestion that other creatures sit around debating philosophy, but she is asserting that as other creatures live their lives, so they communicate aspects of themselves. Amidst all this communication, one finds one's self encountering expressiveness and mindfulness within the world of life. And amidst all this mindfulness, there arises a dialogical concept of self for both the human and for others.

Indigenous animism

One of the Australian Aboriginal people who taught me was an Elder named Steve Meredith, a Ngiyampaa man whose country is in western New South Wales. In his words:

What happens is because the fellow went to school, for birds, they're a bird expert, and then you get somebody went to school, they're a plant expert. And the birds eat the plants, which is related to the soil which is related to the water which is related-that all interacts with the people, but they never seem to look at it that way. So that's why we say they pigeonhole things.

This ecologically sparked-up animist thinking works with a logic of connection: it asserts relations of mutual inter-action, and tells us that humans are not only acting upon the world, but that others are also taking notice and acting upon humans.

Creature communities

I turn now to a more detailed discussion of Australian Indigenous animism. In 1980 I began my ethnographic research with Australian Aboriginal people in the Victoria River region of the Northern Territory of Australia, and that research is on-going. It led me from philosophical questions about the meaning of life and death to a study of ecological knowledge, for it became clear to me that the answers to many of the questions I was asking are located dialogically within the world of living beings.

Communication and intelligence are integral to the flow of life in the world, using the term intelligence in its standard everyday meaning of "capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding." Most of the Elders who taught me have used another term that is more inclusive: they speak of culture, and they vigorously assert that culture is a specific way of being in the world. It follows that nonhuman beings have, and live by, culture. The evidence of life in action shows us that other beings have and follow their own ways. They have their own foods, foraging methods, forms of sociality and seasonality; they have their own languages and their own ceremonies. According to one Elder: "birds got ceremony of their own-brolga, turkey, crow, hawk, white and black cockatoo-all got ceremony, women's side, men's side, ... everything." Plants as well as animals are sentient, and, according to many Aboriginal people, the earth itself has culture and power within it. In this line of thought, we are all culture-creatures. We are intelligent, we act with purpose, we communicate and take notice, we participate in a world of multiple purposes. It is a multi-cultural world from inside the earth right on through.

A further consequence of situated knowledge amongst sentient beings is that knowledge is relational. To live in a world of sentience is to be surrounded by others who are also sentient. I will consider some of the consequences of situated, relational knowledge through a conversation I had with another Elder, Snowy Kulmilya, a terrific hunter and a fascinating story-teller. On one occasion he got talking about how to hunt echidnas ( Tachyglossus aculeatus), also known as porcupine, or, in Ngarinman language, which was Snowy's native tongue, junkuwuru. In the following passage I have changed his English slightly to bring it more in line with standard English, but I have kept his dialogical storytelling style.

When they want to go hunting porcupine, night time, they can't talk like that, can't talk "I'm going hunting junkuwuru. " They can't. You can't call him name, you can't find him then. When you go hunting night time, you can't findem porcupine. Porcupine might be gone bush somewhere. Inside the cave.

So what do you have to do?

You just gotta talk, oh I'm going walkabout kirinjin, they call him. Kirinjin.

Kirinjin, that's that name now, porcupine hunting. They know. And they talk ' kirinjin'. You can't talk junkuwuru. You frighten him. That's different, eh? They call out to each other: "what there old man?" "I go kirinjin, this one." We go at night, you know. Full night time, you know.

Tricky, yeah. Well porcupine he's tricky too, I think. Might be, I don't know. I don't know how he does it.

Snowy's story tells us that there are many active intelligences out there paying attention. Indeed, within a context of hunting, killing and eating, creature-culture intelligence can be highly charged. Here is Kathy Deveraux, an Aboriginal woman from the floodplains southwest of Darwin, telling about what it takes to be a great hunter:

An exceptional good hunter-gatherer is known to have milityin powers. They are regarded highly for their hunting prowess in providing food for the camp. A milityin rarely comes back empty handed. ... the milityin may not only have to consider where a barramundi or long-neck turtle may be resting in the middle of a hot day, but must take extra precautions for the big crocodile who regularly cruises up and down his territory. A milityin has to out-think and out-smart them all.

The term milityin is not gender-specific. Kathy was an outstanding milityin, and she spoke from years of personal experience when she described watching out for the big crocodile who cruises up and down his territory.

Val Plumwood had the experience of actually being taken by a crocodile. While canoeing in Kakadu National Park during the season when crocodiles become territorial, she was attacked and taken into the death roll three times before escaping up the river bank. Wounded and bleeding, she crawled for hours trying to reach the ranger station, and was finally rescued and rushed to hospital. This experience had a formative impact on her understanding of being a creature in a world in which other creatures have their own intelligence and objectives:

Active Attention

Consider the crocodile: its silent and concealed attentiveness is very far from passive! Often it exercises its intelligence precisely by paying attention without drawing attention. Good hunters (nonhumans and humans) do this: they know others are paying attention, they know the ways in which others pay attention, and they find ways to circumvent that attention. The exercise of agency calls for both communication and attention; one is not so much an actor as an inter-actor or participant. Let us think that to participate is to be attentive, to be knowledgeable, to act on knowledge, or to refrain from acting (which is also a form of intelligence). Snowy was explaining all this in relation to porcupines: part of what makes porcupines intelligent and hard to hunt is that they are actively paying attention, actively knowing what is going on in their world, and inter-acting on the basis of that knowledge. Successful inter-action, for an echidna who is being hunted, is to elude the hunter. That too, that capacity to remain hidden, is a form of action.

Another facet of communication is that the world is full of what the Elders who taught me called 'tellers.' Tellers are those who provide information: they give news of what is happening in the world. A few examples will convey the sense of tellers:

When the march flies bite, the crocodiles are laying their eggs.

When the jangarla tree ( Sesbania Formosa) flowers, the barramundi are biting.

When the cicadas sing, the figs are ripe and the turtles are fat.

A type of swift flies high in the air before the cold weather begins, but comes down to make its nest and stay at the lower altitudes during the cold weather.

When the fireflies come, the conkerberries ( Carissa lanceolata) are ripe.

A significant aspect of the knowledge system based in country and made up of many participants is that no one knows everything. Snowy Kulmilya expressed this in his discussion of hunting echidnas. His 'I don't know' is fundamental to being a participant in country. To be on the inside is to know that one's knowledge does not encompass all the others; to know that country exceeds the knowing of any given knower or any given type of knower. In contrast to a human-centric understanding of knowledge that would see a lack of human knowledge as an epistemological gap waiting to be filled, in creature communities knowledge is widely and patchily distributed. There is a multiplicity of perspectives and knowledges, and there is no privileged perspective. Where one person's or species' knowledge stops, someone else's knowledge picks up the story.

Attention on the Inside

One of the many interesting things about creature languages is that they do not always require an audience: march flies will do what they will do whether anyone is paying attention or not, and so will swifts and cicadas and many others. Their way of living is communicative, but it is not necessarily targeted at anyone in particular. This thought is helpful to westerners, I think, as many of us may find ourselves embarrassed at the thought that country might really be addressing us in particular. For my part, I have from time to time encountered real discomfort around the idea that any nonhuman being really gives a darn about me and my projects, outside of the obvious contexts of, say, hunting-as predator and as prey. However, the corollary to the idea of nobody giving a darn would be that what I do doesn't matter, and that is clearly not true. Certainly, we do not get off so lightly in Indigenous thought: while march flies may not be telling us to dig croc eggs, any more than they may be telling crocs to lay their eggs, those who understand the teller and act on the message, are putting themselves into the story. They are interacting with the patterns of country, and so they too become part of the patterns. And if there is information, and if the person does respond, then there is a patterned relationship that can be, and often is, described in its particularity in ways that can be understood as targeted. To go back to an earlier story, ants probably do not care deeply about Deborah Rose, but I can assert that they have carried out inordinately intrusive research on me. I have my ant stories, and for a while there, when I was targeted for intense investigation, they were clearly communicating something amongst themselves concerning the apparently fascinating terrain of my swag and my flesh. The inter-action disturbed me, and seemed to stimulate them. We were certainly co-present in our conflicting desires, and the words with which I addressed them are best imagined rather than published.

One of my most interesting teachers was Old Jimmy Manngaiyarri. He lived well into his nineties, had walked through huge stretches of country, and had a magnificent memory. In one of our long conversations he tried to tell me about how the earth itself communicates. The conversation took place not long after we had made a trip to a place called Neave Gorge, south of Daguragu, an Aboriginal community along the Victoria River in the Northern Territory. During the course of the trip we had a couple of flat tires, and got into an area of washaways that were difficult and increasingly dangerous. Good judgement suggested that we turn back. In a subsequent conversation Jimmy used the words mind and memory interchangeably in his effort to get me to understand that our decision had a story:

That's what this earth makes you to do. Makes you go this way. Or you go up here. You get up first thing in the morning, when you camp you get up first thing in the morning, and you go. That's the word earth give you-whatever way you go, see?

If earth is trying to tell you, do you hear that with your ear?

You got to think! Well, this earth must be tell you: "Ah, go this way." Well, you must be go that way. Well, you must be good. You go up that way.

How does it tell you?

On your mind. Earth got to tell you all thing. Might be say: "Ah, you leave me. What for you go away? You go over there, you get hurt." You got to go only what this earth tell you to. Where you going to go, you going to go right way. That's the way you got to follow this earth. Tell you everything right way. Right way to go, see?

How?

You and me went down to Neave Gorge. And come back straight away. That's nobody been tell you and me to do that? This earth tell you! In your memory. Well that's the way. You and me can't miss. Do it properly, looking after ourselves. Do the right thing. This earth understand EVERYthing. Think on your memory now! You got that word from this earth.

"You got that word," Old Jimmy tells us, but this language, which seems to give guidance as to how to be a good and safe person, remains elusive. Goodness involves being responsive to what earth says, but Old Jimmy brings me to a frustrating limit-not of ethics but of epistemology. How do we learn the attention that would enable us to admit earth 'words' into our lives? It seems that if communication is to occur, people have to learn to understand many, many other creatures, paying attention, for example to the multitude of creature-languages-the sounds, smells, and behaviour, the flowering trees, the seasons, and the comings and goings of birds, insects and other creatures, and the silences too. In Old Jimmy's explanation, it seems one also has to be attentive to one's own experience, to regard the living of life itself as always communicative. Life on the inside of country includes one's self, and thus one's own experience is communicative, too. The work of a lifetime is a never-completed project of participatory goodness, in which goodness means paying attention and acting properly.

Gratitude

He said: "You got to hang onto this story because the earth, this ground, earth where you brought up, this earth he grow you," and he repeats the point elsewhere: " This piece of ground he grow you. " Val remarks that "this piece of ground that grows you (in the same way ... as it grows a plant or a tree)" reflects a view in which country is "an active agent in and co-constituter of our lives," along with the view that growing something or someone up is "a process in which the energy of others is actively invested."

Crow:

The sound of crows is known to us for its mournfulness, its insistent black edge to a bright world. There was a day when she stepped into a clearing and surprised crows at their other speech, the cheerful joyous rapture they know from time to time when no one is about, when they are completely free of all other creatures' expectations. It did not last long, less than a minute before the crows perceived her startled presence. In that minute how taken home she felt to the world's deep joy.

Coda:

Earth language is never monological; always relational, it is a call to enter into encounters, to be co-present and engaged. We know that nonhumans communicate in multiple registers, and perhaps it is necessary, therefore, to be able to listen in multiple registers. Surely there must be on-going inter-action, and surely the stories we tell must be woven with the stories we acknowledge others to be telling? Living things, including humans, are expressive, and if we take Old Jimmy at his word even if we do not fully understand it, the earth speaks too. Like the butterfly that came and rested in Val's coffin, the communicative life of earth keeps us in its ken.

Perhaps it seems like magic, this butterfly, or perhaps like some amazing coincidence, but it is neither. In a sentient world, the world speaks.

Its great story is that it speaks, and our great story is that we are part of its speaking.

Acknowledgments

I am the grateful recipient of numerous helpful comments on this paper, and I thank all the scholars who have read it and offered thoughtful advice.

References Cited

Val Plumwood, "Review of Deborah Bird Rose's Reports from a Wild Country," Australian Humanities Review 47 (2007).

See for example, Chaone Mallory, "Val Plumwood and Ecofeminist Political Solidarity: Standing With The Natural Other," Ethics and the Environment 14, no. 2 (2009): 3-21; Freya Mathews, Reinhabiting Reality: Towards a Recovery of Culture (Albany: SUNY Press, 2005); Ariel Salleh, "Deeper than Deep Ecology: The Eco-feminist Connection," Environmental Ethics 6 (1984): 339-46; Karen J. Warren, "The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism," Environmental Ethics 12, no. 2 (1990): 125-146.

Marc Bekoff, Minding Animals: Awareness, Emotions, and Heart (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002); Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce, Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009).

Val Plumwood, "Prey to a Crocodile," Aisling Magazine (n.d.). I am using the term inter-action in an epistemological sense. It is not intended to contradict Barad's ontological work on 'intra-action.' Rather, I see the two terms as complementary. See Karen Barad, "Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter," Signs 28, no. 3 (2003): 801-831.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). This license permits use and distribution of the article for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work is cited and is not altered or transformed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Val Plumwood's Philosophical Animism: Attentive Interactions in the Sentient World

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Towards the end of her eventful and productive life, Val Plumwood was turning toward Indigenous people and cultures as a way of encountering the lived experience of ideas she was working with theoretically. At the same time, she was defining herself as a philosophical animist.

# data[].attributes.headline
May be of interest to those of you working with sound- a course on field recording

# data[].attributes.subject
May be of interest to those of you working with sound- a course on field recording

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Expressions of interest in the 2023/24 online course due to start in November are now being taken

Please use the link above to receive information on pricing in AUD. Prices have increased since the pilot course of 2022/23.

Bookings will open in October 2023. This course is based in New South Wales, Australia however being online, interstate and international participants are welcome provided we can work around time zones. The summer 22/23 course had participants from three different time zones.

This is a 3-part small group course designed and delivered by field recordist, sound artist and content producer, Kim V. Goldsmith, for creatives interested in using quality field recordings in their work - video/film, music compositions, sound art installations, podcasts and more. The starting point is having a mobile device you can record with, in the field.

No previous experience is required but a willingness to learn and play, and turn up for group sessions is essential. Equipment requirements-at a minimum, a mobile device (phone) to record on is the basic equipment, but professional equipment may also be used if available to you, and anything in between. This is about getting the most from what you have available.

The 3 self-paced modules in the manual will provide the basics of field recording, with professional tips, links to many resources, and exercises - all supported by 3 monthly group face-to-face sessions on Google Meet that are recorded in case you miss them. When we can, we organise a special guest for one of the online sessions. You'll also receive email support.

PLANNING TO USE SOUND FROM PREPARATION TO POST-PRODUCTION

LOCATION PREPARATION, EQUIPMENT PREPARATION, TIPS + TECHNIQUES IN THE FIELD

CREATIVE FIELD RECORDINGS + CREATIVE USES OF FIELD RECORDINGS

SHARING EXPERIENCES AND IDEAS IN THE GROUP

FILE SHARING YOUR RECORDINGS WITH YOUR FACILITATOR FOR FEEDBACK

RECORDED ONLINE SESSIONS FOR WATCHING BACK

Why was this course developed?

The Power of Sound was developed by Kim V. Goldsmith during COVID in 2020/2021 as a 3-part course made up of online and face-to-face workshops extending the idea of deep, active listening to the environment through the use of readily available audio recording technology, and gaining a greater understanding of field recording to create sound art, music, and soundtracks for videos.

The pilot course was delivered to a group of young people from Mudgee with assistance from Mudgee Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC), Orana Arts, and funding from the Country Arts Support Program (CASP) through Create NSW in 2021. Guest contributor, Stephan van der Merwe provided additional professional input into course materials.

This course also looked at deepening connections to and understandings of the environment-both the natural world and built environments. This aligns with the mission of ecoPULSE.art and the practice of lead artist, Kim V. Goldsmith.

It has been designed to be accessible using basic technology such as a phone and earbuds with an inline microphone, and free editing software, with exposure to prosumer and professional quality field recording equipment.
TO ENQUIRE ABOUT THE POWER OF SOUND CONTACT KIM V. GOLDSMITH

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Expressions of interest in the 2023/24 online course due to start in November are now being taken EOI IN THE POWER OF SOUND Please use the link above to receive information on pricing in AUD. Prices have increased since the pilot course of 2022/23.Bookings will open in October 2023.

# data[].attributes.body
Recap of Some of the Key Ideas Learned from Bodyweather LABS during BORDERS labs
-	Daisy Chain – ie through the leader/ follower cotton activities
-	Earth: Clay body – ie density and weight, dry, wet
-	Change of Scale – orientation
-	Moved by the Outside; air currents or your partner (also about receptivity)
-	IMAGE WORK: Power of embodying (not interpreting) an image in the environment (ie embody a blade of grass moved by air currents)
-	Engendering Trust, Receptivity, Vulnerability and a sense of Intimacy between people but also between oneself and the environment
-	True understanding of the Leader/ Follower relationship, ie that both are equally responsible for the activity. It is not a relationship of power.
-	Time based performance. How to approach time for performance to unfold in order to transmit meaning for the audience
-	Bizoku – very slow speed
-	Swan Hill – the drying out and curling up of the bark
-	Stillness and Motion, speed, various. 
-	Dissolving of the borders of our body or changing the perception of how we perceive our body
-	Offerings to the river. The river gives us so much but what promise could we make to give to the river. Speewa, bundles of materials, sculptures: offerings to the river. Moama: 
-	Opportunity for connection (but not social) more energetic connection with nature
-	Let go of your ‘social’ body. Body becomes a medium not dissimilar to a material we work with in art making

# data[].attributes.headline
Last months community of practice scribbles. It was great to catch up with everyone informally. There were some themes coming through around noticing the changing season, ecological grief, and creative recovery

# data[].attributes.subject
Last months community of practice scribbles. It was great to catch up with everyone informally. There were some themes coming through around noticing the changing season, ecological grief, and creative recovery

# data[].attributes.headline
From Donna: Are you aware of  this call for entry from MAMA.  A perfect something for someone who participated in the Borders Project

# data[].attributes.subject
From Donna: Are you aware of  this call for entry from MAMA.  A perfect something for someone who participated in the Borders Project

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.mamalbury.com.au/artist-residency-cultures-of-drought

# data[].attributes.headline
Link to our shared database - please add your contact details if you wish and feel free to reach out to anyone you may want to chat with or collaborate with =)

# data[].attributes.subject
Link to our shared database - please add your contact details if you wish and feel free to reach out to anyone you may want to chat with or collaborate with =)

# data[].attributes.body
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yUP3nvChCuA4wYV_8CeCH8r-1kUL-KBz/edit?rtpof=true&sd=true

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Borders Community of Practice Database.xlsx

# data[].attributes.body
https://events.humanitix.com/eartharts-8aug?mc_cid=ee1b32883b&mc_eid=502c74f916

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
AELA's Earth Arts program connects with artists and creatives around Australia, and in 2023/2024 we're inviting amazing artists to share stories about their work and what inspires them.

On 8 August, please join us for a fantastic conversation with artists Jude Roberts and Helen Hardess. Jude and Helen will talk about their personal methods in art-making in relation to the "Remapping Mitchell" Arts Project. Their work and research sees them embed themselves in the land and water scapes. Specifically the Maranoa River in Western Queensland is the focus for the Remapping Mitchell Arts Collective.

Jude and Helen are long standing members of AELA's "Earth Arts Collective", and have been involved in a range of AELA Earth Arts exhibitions and programs. The webinar will be facilitated by Dr Michelle Maloney, AELA's National Convenor.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS Jude Taggart Roberts
Jude is a visual artist and facilitator of arts related projects. She completed a Doctorate Visual Art in 2015 to research drawing and print methods to explore the water/landscapes of the Great Artesian Basin. Jude has taught across the mediums of drawing and print media in Brisbane and regional areas. From 1984 to 2005 she lived and worked across the Maranoa region with drawing, tutoring and other arts related projects and has continued to make connections with the land and people of Mitchell since her move to Brisbane. Jude's practice is about collaborating and creating work in different communities to contribute to the understanding and appreciation of inland water environments.

Jude Roberts website, Instagram; jude_taggart_roberts

Helen Hardess https://www.helenhardess.com

Helen Hardess (she/her) is a Meanjin-based artist. In 2022 she completed a Bachelor of Visual Art (Honours) at Queensland College of Art (QCA), Griffith University. Her spatial practice works at the intersections of non-human agencies, the "age of humans", and colonial legacies. She is active in Meanjin's contemporary art community and has shown her work in BLINDSIDE (Naarm), Sydney University, as well as Meanjin's STABLE, Redland Art Gallery, Springhill Reservoir, and POP, Webb and Project Galleries, QCA. In 2017 she completed a residency at House Conspiracy (Meanjin). During 2021 and 2022 she co-presented workshops on stop motion animation, mark making with objects, and one step casting, at Redland Art Gallery and Queensland University of Technology.
ABOUT AELA's EARTH ARTS PROGRAM
The Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) is a national not-for-profit organisation working to increase the understanding and practical implementation of Earth-centred governance, with programs that focus on shifting towards Earth-centred law, economics, education and ethics. Cultural change is a vital part of building Earth-centred governance, and AELA's Earth Arts Program (www.eartharts.org.au) showcases artists and creatives from around Australia who are working on nature inspired creative practice.

Visit our Earth Arts website to see our Virtual Galleries, read our 'Earthwords and Artlings' Anthologies, listen to the sounds of nature and read about the amazing artists who connect with AELA's work ( www.eartharts.org.au)

MORE INFORMATION

Earth Arts website: www.eartharts.org.au
AELA's website: www.earthlaws.org.au
Get in touch - aela@earthlaws.org.au

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
AELA's Creative Conversations: with Jude Roberts and Helen Hardess | Humanitix

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Get tickets on Humanitix - AELA's Creative Conversations: with Jude Roberts and Helen Hardess hosted by Australian Earth Laws Alliance. Online. Tuesday 8th August 2023. Find event information.

# data[].attributes.headline
Song inspiration from Minor Gold called "Around the Bend" 

# data[].attributes.subject
Song inspiration from Minor Gold called "Around the Bend" 

# data[].attributes.headline
From Linda- Gaston Bachelard, Intimate Immensity, as referenced in todays Lab.

# data[].attributes.subject
From Linda- Gaston Bachelard, Intimate Immensity, as referenced in todays Lab.

# data[].attributes.body
Thought you might enjoy this podcast from RN 2021 about an ANU project mapping the Murray River with field recordings.

Really interesting

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If a river could speak, what would it tell you? Climb aboard and be prepared to get wet.

An ambitious adventure, microphones in hand, into a world of sound, science, and sonification.

Two guys. Two kayaks. And 2500 kilometres to paddle along the mighty Murray River.

From its source as a trickle amidst the snow caps of Mount Kosciuszko in Ngarigo country, NSW ... to where it meets the sea in the Coorong in Ngarrindjeri country, South Australia.

And at the end, a mission by Meredith Hope to help the controversial Murray speak for itself.

Guests:
Meredith Hope
Honorary Lecturer
Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU

Dr Sara Beavis
@Sara_Beavis
Environmental geologist and Senior Lecturer
Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU

Xavier Anderson
Honours student (graduated in 2021)
Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU

Dr Scott St.George
@scottstgeorge
Associate Professor in geography
University of Minnesota

Jordyn Beazley
Former aid worker, now cadet journalist at The Citizen at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Advancing Journalism.

This project was supported by a grant from the Science Journalists Association of Australia
Further information:
Can a river sing? ANU researchers say 'absolutely' (ANU)

Making climate data sing: using music-like sonifications to convey a key climate record (Scott St. George)
Helping the River Sing - an innovative approach to communicating river health
Reporter: Jordyn Beazley
Producer and presenter: Natasha Mitchell
Producer: Jo Khan
Sound engineer: Brendan O'Neill

Thank you to the Australian National University for use of the Murray River field recordings and sonification pieces:
© The Australian National University ABN 52 234 063 90 (ANU) 2021, as represented by the Fenner School of Environment & Society and School of Music.
Artists: Xavier Anderson, Jason Macqueen , Sebastian Hope and Meredith Hope.
All rights reserved. This material is reproduced with the permission of ANU.
This material should not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form whether in whole or in part without the prior written permission of ANU.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Two guys. Two kayaks. And 2500km to make the Murray River sing - ABC Radio National

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If a controversial river could speak, what would it say? Climb aboard and be prepared to get wet.

# data[].attributes.headline
 six-part podcast of stories from business owners, farmers, artists and community members fom Echuca-Moama, Womboota, Bunnaloo, Barham Koondrook, Caldwell, Deniliquin and Mathoura. 

# data[].attributes.subject
 six-part podcast of stories from business owners, farmers, artists and community members fom Echuca-Moama, Womboota, Bunnaloo, Barham Koondrook, Caldwell, Deniliquin and Mathoura. 

# data[].attributes.body
-Maggie

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Backroads Trail podcast offers locals and visitors an opportunity to delve deeper into the Backroads Trail journey.

The six-part podcast series offers another layer to the experience, with stories from people along the trail including business owners, farmers, artists and community members whether you are looking for an introduction to the trail or to delve deeper into familiar stories, the podcast series offers something for any listener.

The Backroads Trail Podcast is available now on the Spotify App. https://open.spotify.com/show/4G2opnhDYJw49Jvdvladdn.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Backroads Trail podcast offers locals and visitors an opportunity to delve deeper into the Backroads Trail journey. The six-part podcast series offers another layer to the experience, with stories from people along the trail including business owners, farmers, artists and community members whether you are looking for an introduction to the trail or to delve deeper into familiar stories, the podcast series offers something for any listener.

# data[].attributes.headline
Flooded forest and desert creek : ecology and history of the river red gum

# data[].attributes.subject
Flooded forest and desert creek : ecology and history of the river red gum

# data[].attributes.body
This book might interest you, it's amaaaazing!

There is an e-book copy at the Albury library and one copy in Wodonga library

Abstract: The river red gum has the most widespread natural distribution of any Eucalyptus species; from Geraldton to Grafton, from the Yorke Peninsula to the Cape York Peninsula. As extensive forest and woodland it forms the structural and functional elements of important floodplain and wetland ecosystems. Yet we know remarkably little about the ecology and life history of this tree: its longevity; how deep its roots go; what proportion of its seedlings survive to adulthood; the diversity of organisms associated with it and the nature of those associations. This tree has played a central role in the tension between economy, society and environment. Since the 1870s it has been the subject of repeated government enquiries over its conservation, use and management. We have now begun to move from a culture of wholesale exploitation of river red gum forests and woodlands to one of sustainable uses and conservation. The author traces this shift through the depiction of river red gums and inland floodplains in art, literature and the media.

# data[].attributes.headline
CALL FOR ENTRIES - REFLECTIONS ON A RIVER RED GUM

# data[].attributes.subject
CALL FOR ENTRIES - REFLECTIONS ON A RIVER RED GUM

# data[].attributes.body
Closes 9 July
Here's your chance to share your love for our beautiful River Red Gums. We are calling for postcard sized works (210mm x 99mm), in any medium, as your response to this important cultural species. It’s your love letter to a river red gum. You can take a photo, write a poem, draw on a leaf or print a piece of bark. Submit your work to projects@murrayarts.org.au or drop them into the Albury LibraryMuseum. Include your name, title of the work, contact phone number and email. All works will be printed or reproduced in a postcard format and included in ‘Reflections on a River Red Gum’ exhibition opening at the LibraryMuseum 29 July – 17 September.

# data[].attributes.headline
Linda and Peter have done lots of training with Tess de Quincey- Check out the resources tab on their website for lots of BodyWeather articles etc

# data[].attributes.subject
Linda and Peter have done lots of training with Tess de Quincey- Check out the resources tab on their website for lots of BodyWeather articles etc

# data[].attributes.body
https://dequinceyco.net/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Links to recent De Quincey Co E-news and BodyWeather bulletins below. Sign up to our events n...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Since 2017, rivers around the world have experienced a profound transformation in law: they have become legal persons and/or living entities. This alchemical transfiguration from legal object to legal subject renders the river uniquely visible, and legible, to the law in ways it has not been before, and often brings with it new legal rights and powers.

In this webinar, we examine the implications for water law, including the power of law as a mode of repair, to restore our relationship with rivers. We will consider leading international examples, as well as Australia's first and so far only river to be recognised as a living entity in settler state law, the Birrarung (Yarra River).
OUR GUEST SPEAKER - DR ERIN O'DONNELL
Dr Erin O'Donnell is a Senior Lecturer and ARC Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne Law School. Erin is recognized internationally for her research into the ground-breaking new field of legal rights for rivers. Her work explores the challenges and opportunities these new rights create for protecting the multiple social, cultural and natural values of rivers. Since 2018, Erin has been a member of the Birrarung Council, the voice of the Birrarung (Yarra River) in Melbourne.
AELA'S MODERATOR - DR MICHELLE MALONEY
Dr Michelle Maloney (BA/LLB(Hons),PhD) is Co-Founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), Adjunct Senior Fellow, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University; and Director of the New Economy Network Australia (NENA) and Future Dreaming Australia. Michelle's work focuses on creating systems change (across law, economics, education and ethics) to shift industrialised societies towards regenerative, Earth-centred governance.
ABOUT AELA

The Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) is a national not-for-profit organisation working to increase the understanding and practical implementation of Earth-centred governance, with a focus on law, economics, education, ethics and the arts.

For more information, please visit our website: www.earthlaws.org.au

Or get in touch - aela@earthlaws.org.au

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Repairing our relationship with rivers: the role of law, with Dr Erin O'Donnell - Earth Laws Webinar Series - Australian Earth Laws Alliance

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Since 2017, rivers around the world have experienced a profound transformation in law: they have become legal persons and/or living entities. This alchemical transfiguration from legal object to legal subject renders the river uniquely visible, and legible, ... Continue reading

# data[].attributes.headline
Notes from our sixth Community of Practice session- The Tyranny of Distance- staying connect along our Murray River Communities

# data[].attributes.subject
Notes from our sixth Community of Practice session- The Tyranny of Distance- staying connect along our Murray River Communities

# data[].attributes.body
Notes from our fifth Community of Practice session- The archaeology of Borders with Mark Grist

# data[].attributes.body
Notes from our fourth Community of Practice session- Where are our borders now? A gathering to reflect on times of flood

# data[].attributes.body
Notes from our third community of practice session- The art of Farming- regenerating our connection to landscapes

# data[].attributes.body
Notes from our second Community of Practice session- Nature as personhood, The role of nature in our creative practice

# data[].attributes.body
Notes from our first Community of Practice session- How artist research and interpret place

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.earthlaws.org.au/event/aela-4may/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Since 2017, rivers around the world have experienced a profound transformation in law: they have become legal persons and/or living entities. This alchemical transfiguration from legal object to legal subject renders the river uniquely visible, and legible, to the law in ways it has not been before, and often brings with it new legal rights and powers.

In this webinar, we examine the implications for water law, including the power of law as a mode of repair, to restore our relationship with rivers. We will consider leading international examples, as well as Australia's first and so far only river to be recognised as a living entity in settler state law, the Birrarung (Yarra River).
OUR GUEST SPEAKER - DR ERIN O'DONNELL
Dr Erin O'Donnell is a Senior Lecturer and ARC Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne Law School. Erin is recognized internationally for her research into the ground-breaking new field of legal rights for rivers. Her work explores the challenges and opportunities these new rights create for protecting the multiple social, cultural and natural values of rivers. Since 2018, Erin has been a member of the Birrarung Council, the voice of the Birrarung (Yarra River) in Melbourne.
AELA'S MODERATOR - DR MICHELLE MALONEY
Dr Michelle Maloney (BA/LLB(Hons),PhD) is Co-Founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), Adjunct Senior Fellow, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University; and Director of the New Economy Network Australia (NENA) and Future Dreaming Australia. Michelle's work focuses on creating systems change (across law, economics, education and ethics) to shift industrialised societies towards regenerative, Earth-centred governance.
ABOUT AELA

The Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) is a national not-for-profit organisation working to increase the understanding and practical implementation of Earth-centred governance, with a focus on law, economics, education, ethics and the arts.

For more information, please visit our website: www.earthlaws.org.au

Or get in touch - aela@earthlaws.org.au

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Repairing our relationship with rivers: the role of law, with Erin O'Donnell - Earth Laws Webinar Series - Australian Earth Laws Alliance

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Since 2017, rivers around the world have experienced a profound transformation in law: they have become legal persons and/or living entities. This alchemical transfiguration from legal object to legal subject renders the river uniquely visible, and legible, to the law in ways it has not been before, and often brings with it new legal rights and powers.

# data[].attributes.body
https://art-museum.unimelb.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/IPM_Water_online.pdf

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
AELA's Creative Conversations: with Merete Megarrity and Renata Buziak, Hosted online, Wed 12th Apr 2023, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm AEST | Humanitix

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
AELA's Earth Arts program connects with artists and creatives around Australia, and in 2023/2024 we're inviting amazing artists to share stories about their work and what inspires them.On 12 April, please join us for a fantastic conversation with artists Merete Megarrity and Renata Buziak, about their nature-inspired arts practice.

# data[].attributes.headline
Mark Grist recommends this lecture for more knowledge sharing on the archaeology of the River. Dr Colin Pardoe on Barapa Country. I really enjoyed the use of an archaeological, ecological and social lens for the regeneration of this site. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Mark Grist recommends this lecture for more knowledge sharing on the archaeology of the River. Dr Colin Pardoe on Barapa Country. I really enjoyed the use of an archaeological, ecological and social lens for the regeneration of this site. 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dr Colin Pardoe – Villages and Environmental Water: Archaeology & Conservation on the Murray River

# data[].attributes.headline
I know a few of you went to this- I missed it because I was driving- keen to watch the recording. Here is the link and would love to hear your thoughts.

# data[].attributes.subject
I know a few of you went to this- I missed it because I was driving- keen to watch the recording. Here is the link and would love to hear your thoughts.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This continent would be uninhabitable without its ancient rivers, deep aquifers and wetlands bursting with abundant wildlife.

But inland rivers have taken a hiding in the last 130 years, with unlimited irrigation up to the mid 1990's bringing the Murray-Darling Basin to its knees during the shocking millennial drought.

And so a Plan was made. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is a world-first across borders plan. A bold plan to manage the vast, intricate Basin as a connected whole.

Political compromises diluted the Plan, and a decade of political inaction has derailed it even further. How can we get the Plan back on track?

How can we truly manage the entire basin - from the Mighty Murray to the Darling-Baaka - as an interconnected whole?
Watch a recording of the NCC NSW Online Water Forum here
We heard loud and clear from Gamilaraay Elders Aunty Polly Cutmore, Aunty Marlene Weribone and Aunty Judith Duke that their rivers are dying, and that as a consequence, so are they. First Nations people have had their rights to manage water stripped off them, and with it their ability to live strong, healthy lives on their own terms is significantly diminished.

The NSW Agriculture Minister Dugald Saunders, NSW Environment Minister James Griffin, Member for Barwon Roy Butler and NSW Water Minister Kevin Anderson sent their apologies.

Former Independent Member for New England Tony Windsor was in the think of Basin Plan politics during it's inception. He reflects on his experience of the political resistance to the Basin Plan by Coalition Governments, and his concerns that the connection between ground water and rivers is not well understood.

Professor Richard Kingsford described the impacts decades of water diversions are having on floodplains and wetlands. He explained the importance of using actual recorded data, and taking the predicted impacts of climate change into account when decisions about water use are made.

Professor Stuart Khan explained that new dams do not create new water in a fully allocated system. All that happens is that water if taken off those downstream and transferred to industries upstream.

Independent candidate for the NSW Upper House, Elizabeth Farrelly encourages wholistic thinking about land and water management, employing the principles of r egenerative agriculture.

Greens Water Spokesperson Cate Faehrmann MLC showed her depth of knowledge of water management as she spoke to the Green's Plan to Save the Darling-Baaka River. The Green's plan includes fully implementing the recommendations of the 2020 ICAC investigation into NSW Water Management.

Shadow Water Minister, Labor's Rose Jackson MLC was then given the floor, and assured the crowd that a NSW Labor Government would fully support the implementation of the Basin Plan in full. Rose also spoke with feeling about the horrendous quality issues facing regional First Nations communities, often worse than many third world countries.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This continent would be uninhabitable without its ancient rivers, deep aquifers and wetlands bursting with abundant wildlife. But inland rivers have taken a hiding in the last 130 years, with unlimited irrigation up to the mid 1990's bringing the Murray-Darling Basin to its knees during the shocking millennial drought.

# data[].attributes.headline
Recommended by Mark Grist- "Colin Pardoe, my father of science and archaeology/physical anthropology, doing his thing on the Murray… much can be said for Aboriginal sites within the river system."

# data[].attributes.subject
Recommended by Mark Grist- "Colin Pardoe, my father of science and archaeology/physical anthropology, doing his thing on the Murray… much can be said for Aboriginal sites within the river system."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dr Colin Pardoe – Villages and Environmental Water: Archaeology & Conservation on the Murray River

# data[].attributes.headline
More on the positive ecological impacts of flooding on dry floodplains

# data[].attributes.subject
More on the positive ecological impacts of flooding on dry floodplains

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A rare set of floods is helping the Victorian outback bloom.

The 2022-23 Victorian and New South Wales flood crisis is officially over after the Darling River at Burtundy dropped below the minor flood level this week

Scientists are beginning to evaluate the transformation of local ecosystems after the unusually wet summer

They say moisture from the floods and heavy rainfall is expected to remain for years to come

While La Niña rainfall and the summer flood crisis ripped through towns in the state's north, some usually dry areas flourished.

Creeks and rivers broke their banks sending riverine floodwater into areas where locals have not seen it for decades.

Phil and Fiona Murdoch do conservation work on the 490-hectare property next to Hattah-Kulkyne National Park.

Raakajlim Creek at their property in Colignan got wet for the first time in nearly 50 years.

"It's been really dramatic," Ms Murdoch said.

"We're in a semi-arid climate so rainfall is pretty irregular and the response from the birds, and especially the ducks, was instantaneous."

The Murdochs say plumed whistling ducks and pink-eared ducks have appeared "from nowhere".(ABC Mildura-Swan Hill: Jennifer Douglas )

'Flush of biodiversity'

The moisture from the unusually wet summer is expected to remain for years to come, giving scientists a rare chance to study the impact of flooding.

CSIRO water ecosystems expert Tanya Doody said floods were crucial for local ecosystems, and scientists would be tracking the rejuvenation of floodplains.

"The floodplain itself [normally] looks grey, but with the floods, we've got waters coming up over the banks, there's little ponds with green vegetation floating on top, and there's birds flying in and out," Ms Doody said.

"The trees themselves have become really beautiful and lush and green. I love that transformation from a drab environment to this really lush, vibrant area."

Murray River flooding spread across vast floodplains that haven't had water since the 1970s.(ABC Mildura-Swan Hill: Jennifer Douglas )

Riverside wetlands rely on riverine floods to refresh the water table.

"We had a quite a severe drought in 2019 and during these drought periods, the trees start to drop their leaves because they don't have enough water and particularly around the Mallee region, the groundwater is saline as well," Ms Doody said.

"That can also have an impact on the tree canopies. But when a flood comes, it comes up over the bank onto the soil, and it starts to flush away some of those soils, but it provides a beautiful fresh water source for those trees.

"From that, what they do is they start to grow all these lovely new leaves and just increase their biomass substantially.

"We get this flush of biodiversity."

Ms Doody said plants that were not normally visible during dry periods were starting to grow across the Mallee.

"What that also does is create shade on the ground, but also that water in the the soil itself allows seeds that are a part of the seed bank to germinate," she said.

"Without floods, we're not going to be able to maintain these beautiful environments so that we can enjoy them."

'It will thrive for decades'

Wyperfeld National Park at Patchewollock in outback Victoria experienced a different kind of flooding, caused by extreme rainfall.

Louise Nicholas and Michael Gooch are conservationists who own land joined to Wyperfeld National Park.

She describes Wyperfeld National Park as a "sea of green".

Louise Nicholas says grasses, shrubs and trees have grown ... as well as weeds.(ABC Mildura-Swan Hill: Jennifer Douglas )

"There's been so much growth, everything from the grasses all the way up to the shrubs and the trees along with all the native species, there's been a lot more growth of the weeds as well, so it'll be really interesting to see how that goes," Ms Nicholas said.

"There's going to be so much moisture in the ground for for years and years to come so I think it'll really thrive for decades."

Ms Nicholas said the water event would have a flow-on effect for the wildlife that rely on trees for food and habitat.

"River red gums need a good drink so that they can continue to flower and provide food for lots of different species like region parrots, for instance, that nest in the hollows," she said.

"Blackbox provides food for loads of different birds, honeyeaters, and parrots and little birds as well ... and it'll be great to see that just continue over the coming years.

"Away from the trees, there's things like lignum, which is a tangled mess of a shrub, and that's really good for small birds like fairy wrens and thornbills who need that sort of protection from the bigger birds, and that lignum will have had a good drink as well."

Local news direct to your inbox
ABC Mildura Swan Hill will deliver a wrap of the week's news, stories and photos every Wednesday. Sign up here

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Rare set of floods transforms parts of outback Victoria into 'sea of green'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A rare set of floods is helping the Victorian outback bloom.

# data[].attributes.headline
We have a map where you can add your contact details and location so we can connect with each other =)

# data[].attributes.subject
We have a map where you can add your contact details and location so we can connect with each other =)

# data[].attributes.headline
This one belongs to a friend of mine- I will ask if I can bring it along to the next Lab

# data[].attributes.subject
This one belongs to a friend of mine- I will ask if I can bring it along to the next Lab