Day 02 - On Country/In Residence

On Country/In Residence Day 02

Starting from Upper Ferntree Gully this morning, we walked up One Tree Hill, stopping to do some drawing and writing introduced by Tammy. Further up the hill, Rebecca facilitated our creation of sun-printed impressions using cyanotype, and a cheeky kookaburra stole Jill’s sandwich. In a clearing down the other side, Gulsen shared some choreographic processes. We also met Gawarrn the echidna beside the path, glimpsed Bunjil high above, and witnessed the termites taking flight for the season. Back in the garden of our accommodation, Mandy invited us to join her in a powerful chant, ‘Ngulu-nganjin’ (Everybody’s voice) that left us all tingling.

In the evening we had a rich and inspired conversation (A Yarn with the Artists) at Birdsland. Laki and Gretel did a spontaneous dance-place-photo improvisation under the supermoon in Sherbrooke Forest, rounded up abruptly by leeches.

Our journey absorbing this Country and place - Corhanwarrabul - feels well underway. Its gradients, textures, creatures and weathers have etched a presence upon our bodies.

Photography: Laki Sideris

Baban Darrung

Mandy Nicholson’s reflections in Woi wurrung language from listening to Country, along Bellview Terrace, Segment E, ngurrak barring.

Come to be moved

Aarti Jadunundun

Come to be moved 
Come to be moved 
Just come 
Theres not too much to do
The weathers of sky 
Weather of emotions
Move and reveal 
A different Colour
A shadow 
My shadow 
When what i think was to be still

When i still, i notice a worm
And then a spider 
And shudder 
I move 
I calm
And still move

Even if nature just brings for me an urge 
To drink 
To pee
The ground and sticks wetten
So does my skin

Then it all moves, wets and dries 
and then a yearning leech 

Then I move 

Then it moves 
Then I move 

Theres not too much to do

But just come to be moved

Spilled water dries 
On a dead log
Brown, tan , glistening and then tawn 

We all need to drink 
So just
Come to be moved 

And may be theres enough time to watch what else dries 

And what else moves and what else wets 
What trickles down and what then will rise

What just came to be moved 

Come to be pained 
Come to sweat
Come to be drawn
Come to ache 
Come to be warm and come to be cool 
Come to itch and come to cry
Just a little tear in the eye
Come to be moved 

Come to forget and do it all again
Come to remember and sing its praise
Come to be lost in its gentle maze
Come to be moved

Rebecca Murray

Cyanotype is an early photographic process, producing Prussian blue impressions. Using a light-sensitive solution of iron salts combined with paper, our chosen organic materials and sunlight, we watched the transformative process begin. Once washed, impressions were fixed, and the colour continued to deepen.