A quiet little valley
In an adjacent post (An unusual offer) I offer a workspace here at the Studio, and say what might be possible.
But the kind of person I am might matter to someone considering settling into a space at the Studio, and while the way I have set up the Studio suggests a certain kind of person, my ‘out in the world’ projects present another perspective. Here are four projects, from big picture to the gritty earth.
The practice of living in a place, with its people and all its creatures.
I’m following the practice that is developing as I live here in Riddell. By practice, I mean action that arises from attention to circumstances, in this case, local circumstances, with theory thrown into the mix of action and reflection. Because practice is collegial and develops with those who share a specific endeavour, this means that what I am learning and creating is rooted in local relationships. I read and cogitate and join the dots of the macro and global, but for me, the place those big ideas get turned into action is resolutely local.
I thought I was onto a sure thing with the local, but Bruno Latour has put the wind up me:
“People find themselves in the situation of passengers on a plane that has taken off for the Global, to whom the pilot has had to announce that he has had to turn around because one can no longer land at that airport, and who then hear with terror (‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking again’) that the emergency landing strip, the Local, is also inaccessible.”
Reading this in Douglas Hine’s At work in the ruins, I realised I’ll have to read Latour’s Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climate Regime. Sigh! Another book.
Community design.
I’m tired of getting organised at local level to chase away bad ideas. I’m tired of bad design. How might a local community quickly generate and publicise alternatives to the dumb-arsed proposals we get from developers, agencies and special interests? I’m exploring that in projects like these …..
The Water Think Tank Review in May will design a call out for what needs doing in water and waterways management. That will be an alternative to the very bad idea of pretending we can go on getting all the water we need, and treating it in lagoon systems that shed water back into waterways, and pretending that governments will take action ahead of crisis. They won’t. They need enlightened communities telling them what is needed.
A 4 hour workshop on The Snowgums and the Memorial Cross is all it would take to work up some alternatives to the very bad idea of poisioning the snowgums to restore a viewline inherited from last century and meant to commemorate the sacrifice of those who died in wars protecting the land that will now be cut down to remember that sacrifice.
After we recover from the up-coming Enviro/Energy Expo, What Riddell Wants will reconvene to keep supporting people organising for what they want in the town. If the Minister pushes aside the Shire’s decision not to proceed with the Amess Road development in Riddell, a very bad idea that would put 1310 lots 2-4 kms out of town on 400m2 lots, then we may have sally forth again, but in the meantime, the town has priorities for walkability to put to the Shire, VicRoads, and the local MP, and the matter of a pedestrian bridge into a town that only cars can safely enter.
Reimagining the Riddells Creek Main Drain, with a side serve of stormwater/creekflow design for Riddell South, has sprung to the surface, and I would dearly like to help it along.
And while we wait for someone to gift $7m to buy the private lots in the land Riddells Creek Landcare cares for, what will we do with Barrm Birrm?
How can community members quickly work up proposals that better fit their aspirations and the places they live? That’s what I want to test out.
Getting the stories out.
How can we get stories about caring for the place you live into the mainstream? Creek Stories has been my major investment here: stories of creeks and the people looking after them. For this 6 year project, there are two next steps: build local story-telling. both production and distribution, digital and actual events, and wire that into the weave of participation around looking after creeks.
Stories from Barrm Birrm was costed for a funding bid, but didn’t attract $, but the methodology is sound. I need a sustainable way to bring in digital production/distribution capacity. I’m good at face-to-face interaction processes - media production isn’t my craft, and perhaps things would move easier with someone with these skills.
Places to meet.
Seems simple enough. I organise a monthly walk in Barrm Birrm. I’d like to host a pot luck dinner three times a year for the greenies. Most of all, I want to start a monthly Record Club. Come and play what you’ve been exploring, rediscovering, enjoying again. CD, YouTube music, yes, and LPs, but watch the nostalgia. What’s waking up your ears?
I’m the email and zoom organiser for the New Ecological Discourses reading group. Our numbers have dwindled. I hope it keeps going; I need people to talk to about what I’m reading and thinking.
The Garden.
From the abstract notion of a practice of place I descend to the earthly delight and detail of growing vegetables. On my knees, hands in the dirt.
I live on 5 acres. I have been learning how to run a domestic vegetable garden, and I swear the garden and the valley have taught me the most about myself these last 13 years. It gives me the deepest joy to pick a corn cob and roast it for lunch.
I want to lift my composting game, and some company in the garden would be lovely, but I could stay happily domestic were it not for the nagging sense of opportunity going begging. There’s a substantial market garden possible here, with soil, and sun (most of the year) and water (all year), storage sheds, power, access for vehicles, proximity to markets. Take it on and take the produce back home or to market.
In 15 years, I figure we’re going to need these smallish local gardens.
