Tender Places

Tender Places was my creative doctoral research project. Over four years I developed a series of creative processes and practices that support communities to grapple with the underlying drivers of the poly crisis through creative and place based learning, reflection and experimentation.

For some, climate change is out there, hovering just beyond today’s bad weather. For others it is already unfolding, with catastrophic consequences for the people and places they love.

The disconnection between people and land is not only a driver of climate change, it informs how we experience, understand and respond to it. This disconnection is underpinned by stories of separation; colonialism, capitalism, extraction and racism keep us locked into cycles of fear, denial and domination.

Our different histories, bodies and locations give us different skills, knowledge and responsibilities in these times of global crisis and change. More than ever we need to develop ways of learning from and with each other other about how to dream and build more just, connected and caring futures.

Through my doctoral research I developed a philosophy and practice of grappling and unsettling the stories that keep my body, and the settler colonial culture I belong to, locked in stories that keep us stressed, disconnected and engaged in cycles of structural violence.

This exploration and learning continues through my ongoing community philosophy and creative practice, and through my involvement with collectives such as A School Called Home and The Australian Walking Artists Network. This ongoing learning underpins my community consulting through a commitment to practices that support social and ecological justice.

You can access my doctoral exegesis here

Postcards

Postcards are the first physical research arteacts for the Tender Places project. Created from photographs and field notes, they are mailed to a network of creative peers in Australia and beyond.

Shadow Work

Shadow Work is an autoethnographic* cyanotype map of settler impacts and interactions with the ‘Ilparpa Claypans’ – a series of 12 interconnected claypans located on Arrernte land, 13km from the township of Alice Springs.

Testing Ground: A Ritual of Recovery

Testing Ground was a ritual of recovery, that made visible the damage to the ‘Ilparpa Claypans’, caused by dumping and invasive weeds.

Summer School: Love, Resistance and Other Survival Strategies

It’s getting hotter and harder. Last Summer felt like fire and death. Some talking about leaving. Some can’t imagine ever going away.