Weaving Waters 2023 - Public Workshops
Yindi: how waterways reflect kinship, country and place
Wiradjuri Language Workshop at the Bribie Island Sea Museum, 29 Nov 2023
Dr Nola Jensen Turner presenting to residency participants and members of the local community
Dr Nola Jensen Turner (Wiradjuri|Australia) is leading a Wiradjuri Language restoration Project to help restore knowledge of clan/family boundaries of her mother’s people. Nola teaches us that the purpose of language is to honour the inner purpose of all things. Language lore is based on modesty, self discipline and courage. She invites us to think about our current perspectives, and to expand our lens, by looking through indiegnous ways of knowing and being. As an author, hostorian, anthropologist, linguist, and consultant, Nola has creative graphics, cool animations, and visually rich teaching tools to support the communication of her research. I shared some activities with my remote buddy in real time: Write down your kinship responsibility Family - physical and spiritual. Now circle the members you are financially, emotionally, and physically responsible for. She then shared how she is mapping and articulating what the elders convergence on kinship responsibility entails. It is much like the freshwater system across her country. In fact, it is not just a representation, it is lore. Nola invites systemic barrier removal by sharing lenses of anti-racism and ancestral accountability, and is teaching us how to advance sustainable water futures. Water is life in Nola's people's world. The language and knowledge of waterways is sacred and special.
Dr Nola Jensen Turner (Wiradjuri|Australia) workshop introducing Wiradjuri Language at the Bribie Island Sea Museum, 29 Nov 2023. Photos Sarah Jane Pell, used with permission.
Clay Wall Hangings: Māori art of air dry ceramics
Hands-On Creative Workshop at the Bribie Island Sea Museum, 29 Dec 2023
Jean Yern creating with residency participants and members of the local community
Jean Yern (Aotearoa|New Zealand) Ngāti Tamaoho te hapu, Mangatangi te Marae, is connecting communities sense of belonging to the land and its people through Te ao Maori. Jean teaches us how to make and decorate a clay wall hanging. She shares techniques with moulding, cutting and trimming. How to make functional items for home which are visually appealing and usable. Respecting sacred knowledge, she briefly introduces us to ancestral knowledge and customs and connections with indigenous cultures with ceramic traditions that helped shape Māori air-dried expression in clay. Jean advocates for exploring and participating in cultural customs, being creative, having tactile experiences with natural resources and social interaction as beneficial to learning and development. As an artist, musician, and a facilitator of play and learning, Jean rocks. Speaking of rocks, my clay turned into balls, bells, and flat wall hanging elements that progressively steered from their natural, visual and functional intentions to contemporary personal references. I created a relief-print in my clay from a marine invertibrate that I found in the water. It had a remarkable and uncanny resemblence to an aquanaut/astronaut. My clay Star Sailor | Astronaut would become my avatar. I moulded a bell that would not sit flush with the wall, and while sterdy in its architecture, would shatter if ever someone tried to stike it. Unfired clay bells will not resonate and sing. Oh the pathos of mere potential. And finally, I imprint the palm of sister sitting next to me, and the red seaweed which stains the white clay pink, to share the moment with our beloved ocean. My clay manifest artefacts of symbolic acts of grace then escape and rebellion then reconcilliation, but mostly fun and connection.
Jean Yern (Aotearoa|New Zealand) leads a public workshop in Clay Wall Hangings at the Bribie Island Sea Museum, 29 Nov 2023. Photos Sarah Jane Pell, used with permission.
Portholes and parallel realities in cross-material practices
Creative World Building presentation at the Bribie Island Sea Museum, 2 Dec 2023
Kim Newall presenting to residency participants and members of the local community in the physical space.
Kim Newall (Aotearoa| New Zealand) is a creative technologist hacking realities at the intersections of natural and digital worlds. A performer, puppeteer, imagineer and educator, Kim shares his transdisciplinary work with a focus on dialogues between Yarun with Te Tai Tokerau. These include mixed and augmented reality, interactive installations, generative and live-mixed visuals and sounds (VJ/DJ), e-textiles, additive manufacturing, coding and performances. Featured projects include Awhi Tower: a site specific interactive work with AwhiWorld located in a old water tower at the Nathan Homestead in Manurewa, South Auckland with an unforgetable ladder moment. "AwhiWorld turned the tower into an interdimensional sound transmitting device that was triggered by movement in its surrounds. Sounds were uploaded regularly as they were recorded in and around the community. The tower became a a conduit to connect different parts of the Manurewa community, embracing, transmitting and amplifying love." See https://wiredvisual.net/wp/awhi-tower-site-specific-installation/
Kim Newall (Aotearoa| New Zealand) introducing Digital Portholes and parallel realities in cross-material practices at the Bribie Island Sea Museum, 2 Dec 2023.
Dr Maggie Baxter presenting to residency participants and members of the local community via a virtual portal.
Maggie Baxter (Aotearoa| New Zealand) is director of Awhiworld, who with Kim Newall, are ongoing partners and collaborators with Treecreate. Maggie works with innovative strategies, creative practices and new technologists to build communities engaged with developing resilience, by imagining, and creating, windows into alternative worlds. Together, their practice and partnerships have been successful in supporting transdisciplinary place-based practices as Tasman Threads. See https://awhiworld.com/portfolio/tasman-threads-treecreate-collaboration/
Maggie Baxter (Aotearoa| New Zealand) introducing Awhiworld and Tasman Threads via video to the Bribie Island Sea Museum, 2 Dec 2023.
Essence of place: plant collaborations
Paper making and plant dyes presentation at the Bribie Island Sea Museum, 2 Dec 2023
Harete Tito presenting to residency participants and members of the local community.
Harete Tito (Aotearoa| New Zealand) shares her expertise in papermaking and crafting natural dyes from indigenous plants and trees. Nature serves as both a language and a storyteller in her artistic practice. What is good for the land, must come first. Her sustainable materials and artistic approach, reinforces the ability to return her work to the earth (whenua) at any point. If you have plenty, you must share. Haretes creative process involves land reclamation and the preservation of native trees. Do not touch anything that does not belong to you. She also explores the significance of harakeke (flax) as a vessel for water and knowledge, as well as the role of toi Māori in carrying traditional wisdom.
Harete Tito (Aotearoa| New Zealand) introducing her papermaking practice from indigenous plants and trees to the Bribie Island Sea Museum, 2 Dec 2023.
Murri Tukka: bush tucker
Local indigenous food presentation and tasting at the Bribie Island Sea Museum, 2 Dec 2023
Uncle Bruce Phillips presenting and feeding residency participants and members of the local community.
Uncle Bruce Gululai Phillips (Batjala man, Australia) runs the very popular Murri Tukka initiative which is all about the educating people about the local bush foods in the Bribie Island| Yarun region. He generously shared his knowledge and locally sourced bush tucker for us to sample. The locally sourced, personally gathered, traditional plant-based food, was exquisitly presented and described. We learned how for thousands of years, First Nations people would gather and prepare these foods. We gained insights into where the plants grow, what they are used for, and how to harvest, store and serve or use them. As the tasting samples were shared amongst the attendees, panelists yarned about the significance and influence of plants in our respective Culture's, and how to re-introduce or sustainably incorporate them into our lives.
