Golden Bee – Hive Alive! Catalogue / Zine A Gar Gah Gag Production Australia 2016 Golden Bee Design and Management Team: Bernadette Boscacci Kieren Sand Simon Peart James Barrett Fairlie Sandilands Gemma Jane Garner Leonie Sanderson Daniel Bracegirdle. Thank you to Alpha House Housing Collective; all the hardworking members of the collective; project and zine contributors and exhibition participants; to all the artists, poets, performers, beekeepers, ecologists, researchers that have engaged with Golden Bee to date; Chuffed Campaign donors and buyers of our art and merchandise. Proceeds of the sale of this catalogue go towards covering our project and printing costs. Profits will be donated to Alpha House Gallery, Mundy Creek Natureway Regeneration Project, (a Townsville based catchment-care group that intends to run pollinator and bee education workshops) and the Urban Habitat Tree Program (Addison Road Community Centre) in Sydney, Australia. Golden Bee is an international culture and ecology project aimed at establishing a permanent network and resource base for the history, mythology, ecology and cuddliness of bees. In the coming 12-months we will be working with Tribe Magazine (www.tribemedia.org) from the UK as well as continuing our work with art, ecology, culture and community. Visit our website at https://goldenbee.com.au/ or join us on the greater beast of Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thegoldenbee/ Buzz Buzz!!
BEE
LORE
Bees evolved over 100 million years ago. As soon as there were humans , the collecting of honey began. Then, many thousands of years before present,
in all different parts of the world , we formed cultural and spiritual connections with bees.
'In all cultures where the Great Mother was worshipped, the bee was given a sacred status... Its swarming signified rebirth, while its love of caves, the deepened clefts leading to the underworld, revealed its connection with death.' Source : The Theosophy Trust
The connections are vast, the world is awash with tales, myths, ancient practices, images. Here are but a few: •
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Ancient Egyptians believed bees to grow from the tears of the sun god Ra when they fell on the desert sand. Honey was associated with reincarnation and used in sacred rituals . The Sumarians, whose civilisation flourished between 7300 to 5500 BP are said to be the originators of apitherapy - healing with bee products. They were also some of the first to depict winged figures in art, including images of their Bee Goddess. It has been suggested that these images may have been the inspiration, the archetype for angels. In the Hindu tradition there are allusions to Madhu-Vidya, the "Wisdom that reveals the Delight or 'secret honey' of the Creative Spirit, the Absolute. In Hindu tradition, the Rig Veda often refers to the bee and depicts Kama as carrying a bow whose string is a chain of bees. Lord Vishnu himself is represented as a blue bee on a lotus flower, perhaps signifying his azure repose while at the same time suggesting the commencement of a creative cycle. The Ancient Greek Orphic tradition held that the bee was the symbol of the soul. Like a great colony winging out from the hive, so souls were seen as swarming out from the Divine Unity. Honey was called the 'awakener'. The Delphic oracle was referred to "the Delphic bee" long before Apollo had usurped the ancient oracle and shrine. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo mentions that Apollo's own gift of prophecy first came to him from three bee maidens, usually identified with the Thriae, pre-Hellenic Minoan bee goddesses.
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Mayans had the Ah-Muzen-Cab (the Bee God), designating honey-producing cities (who prized honey as food of the gods). Aztecs also had a Bee God. The Kalahari Desert's San people ascribe the Creation of humanity to bees: A bee carried a mantis across a river, but when exhausted it left the mantis on a floating flower, simultaneously planting a seed in the mantis's body before it died. From that seed grew the first man. Honey bees, signifying immortality and resurrection, were royal emblems of the Merovingians, revived by Napoleon. The bee is also the heraldic emblem of the Barberini. In heraldry, the bee symbolizes diligence and indefatigable effort.
Who are some of the Bee Goddesses?
Anatolian Mother Goddess – dates back 10000 bc. She wears a beehive-shaped tiara, symbolizing “streams of honey” and being an example of status and abundance. Bhramari Devi – Hindu Bee Goddess. A form of Shakti who changed into a bee to fight demons and negativity. Artemis of Ephesus – the statue of Artemis of Ephesus is frequently inscribed with bees around the base and on her legs. Freya – Norse Goddess. In Norse legend, the tears of Freya were said to be made of bees of gold.
A brief summary compiled by Fairlie Sandilands 2016
The information in these pages has been derived from numerous sources on the Internet
The Bee in Mythology - A Plundered Journey Through Lore By James Bee In making this inquiry into the mythology of the bee, I acknowledge the unbroken chain of knowledge that is held by the Indigenous peoples of Australia. In Arnhem Land in the far central north of Australia, for over 45, 000 years, the Yolngu clans have danced, sung, painted and spoken the Dhuwa and Yirritja kinds of bee. Small, black stingless bees that store honey in trees and that the Yolngu gather “during Rarranhdharr, or late in the dry season (generally late August-October) and within particular environments, such as Stringybark or Paperbark swamp habitat” (Fijn, 43, 2014). Sugarbag Dreaming is widespread among the Indigenous peoples of Australia, where it has been practiced for a very very long time. Sugarbag is not just the collection of the honey for human consumption. Sugarbag is the system of bees, hives, honey, larvae, the season and places for collection, and the art, songs, images, stories and laws that surround and define the interactions humans have with the world. The Ancient World Just a few thousand years ago the societies of the Northern and Western Hemispheres began domesticating the venerated bee and cultivating its gifts. The bee was one of the first animals domesticated by humans. In the cultures of the Ancient Near East and Aegean the bee was still believed to be a sacred insect, especially associated with the connection of the natural world to the underworld.
A bark painting from Central Arnhem Land entitled Sugarbag Dreaming by Jimmy Wululu
Minoan gold bee pendant, from Chryssolakkos, Crete, circa 1700-1550BC
The bee was the symbol of the Minoan-Mycenaean goddess Potnia, meaning “mistress”, who was also referred to as “The Pure Mother Bee”. Her priestesses, too, were given the name Melissa, meaning “bee”, and some of our extant literary sources, such as Pindar, indicate that this practice carried on long after into the Greek culture of mysteries and rituals. In ancient Egypt, the bee was an insignia of kingship associated particularly with Lower Egypt, where there may even have been a Bee King in pre-dynastic times. After the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, this symbol was incorporated in the title usually preceding the throne name of pharaoh and expressing the unity of the two realms, “He of the Sedge and of the Bee”.
The Pure Mother Bee, Knossos Crete 1500 BCE
On the walls of the Sun Temple of the Pharaoh Nyuserre Ini (2400 BC), workers are depicted blowing smoke into hives as they remove honeycombs. Bees have often been associated with the divine.
Egyptians believed bees were the tears of Ra
Like the Minoans, the Greeks held the bee to be sacred and featured it prominently in their mythology. Not only did the Greeks believe that honey was ‘the food of the gods’ and that bees were born of bulls, they believed that bees were intricately entwined in the everyday lives of their gods. Take for example Zeus, the Greek ‘King of the Gods’ who was born in a cave and raised by bees, earning him the title Melissaios, or Bee-man. Similarly Dionysus, the Greek god of ritual madness, ecstasy, and wine was called the Bull God and was fed honey as a baby by the nymph Makris, daughter of Aristaeus, the protector of flocks - and bees. Additionally, Dionysus was said to have assumed the form of a bull before being torn to pieces and reborn as a bee. Intriguingly, the cult of Dionysus consisted of a group of frenzied female worshippers called Maenads’s (Greek) or Bacchante’s (Roman), who were renowned for their dancing and who were believed to have had wings. The frantic movements of the ecstatic Maenads have frequently been compared to the movements of bees.
Trophonius is a Greek hero and Demi-God that is often portrayed with the symbol of the Beehive. According to tradition, Trophonius and his brother Agamedes constructed the Temple of Apollo at the oracle at Delphi, and the oracle then told them that they could do as they wished for six days, and on the seventh day their greatest wish could be granted. They proceeded to live life to the full for six days, but on the seventh day, they were both found dead. Another story has the brothers building a treasure chamber for a king, and using a secret entrance that only they knew, they stole the treasure. Agamedes was however caught in a trap, and Trophonius cut of his head so he would not be recognized and fled to a cave were he disappeared.
The god Indra was the namesake of ancient India and the deity who separated heaven and earth, and is said to have received honey as his first food. Similarly, the Indian bee goddess Bhramari Devi derives her name from the word Bramari, meaning ‘Bees’ in Hindi. It is said that Bhramari Devi resides inside the heart chakra and emits the buzzing sound of bees, called ‘Bhramaran’. Likewise, the sound of a bee humming was emulated in Vedic chants and the humming of bees represented the essential sound of the universe all across India. The most ancient of India’s sacred books is the Rig-Veda, and it contains countless references to Bee’s and honey. So do other texts, such as the Atharva-Veda, which speaks at length about the Bee and the twin horseman lords of light known as the Avsvins; “O Asvins, lords of Brightness, anoint me with honey of the bee, that I may speak forceful speech among men.” In Indian mythology, goddesses frequently turned into Bees to ward off demons and purify the land. The god Prana, sometimes shown surrounded by a circle of bees was the personification of the universal life force. The goddess is said that to have applied nectar – or honey, to the roots of the ash tree in order to keep it alive and well – and green. Even Krishna, the sacred Hindu deity, was sometimes depicted as the Bee goddess Madhusudana, the divine Bee of loving mellows. The Eleusinian Mysteries were an initiatory tradition that played an important role in the lives of those who experienced it. In these rites, the priests and priestesses of Demeter led the initiates, known as mystai, on a procession toward Eleusis. This was a symbolic initiatic journey in which they purified themselves in preparation to ceremonially return Persephone from the underworld and take part in other sacred acts.6 As in the wider Greek culture, the bee symbolized divine concepts of life and death, so in the Mysteries and other traditions it took on the connotation of initiatic death and rebirth: that is, of personal regeneration and transformation.
Roman Mellona or Mellonia "a goddess important and powerful regarding bees, taking care of and protecting the sweetness of honey."
Persephone’s nickname among the ancient Greeks was Melitodes or “the honeyed one,” and the priestesses of Persephone and Demeter were known as Melissai or “bees” in a continuation of earlier Minoan-Mycenaean bee goddess worship. There is evidence that an exalted priestess of Demeter lived at Eleusis in a dwelling known as “the sacred house.” She served for life, and the years at Eleusis were dated by her name. In the sacred plays at Eleusis, the priestess of Demeter played the roles of Demeter and Persephone. The bee is a companion of the shaman. In rock painting from deep in the Sahara in Algeria the anthropomorphic figure of a man with the head of a bee and mushrooms all over his body testifies to the pre-historic connection between hallucinogens, the bee and knowledge. In many shamanic traditions the human soul usually manifests itself in the form of a fly or a bee. Siberian peoples know several souls; after death one flies into the sky with the smoke of the pyre, another descends to the underworld, where it continues an existence exactly like its life on earth. The Early Christian World and the Bee “The bee is the wisest and cleverest of all animals and the closest to man in intelligence; its works is truly divine and of the greatest use to mankind. Its social life resembles that of the best regulated cities. In their excursions bees follow a leader and obey instructions. They bring back sticky secretions from flowers and trees and spread them like ointment on their floors and doorways.” - Geoponika, a 10thcentury Byzantine work on farming.
The Algerian Tassili mushroom shaman with bee face, 6,000-9,000 B.C.E.
Medieval Beekeeping skeps
The Renaissance Bee The bee continues to be a model for human society and endeavour in the Renaissance, when William Shakespeare creates an analogy for the entire society of the modern world through the ways bees worked: Therefore doth heaven divide The state of man in diverse functions, Setting endeavour in continual motion, To which is fixèd as an aim or butt Obedience; for so work the honeybees, Creatures that by a rule in nature teach The act of order to a peopled kingdom. They have a king and officers of sorts, Where some like magistrates correct at home, Others like merchants venture trade abroad, Others like soldiers armèd in their stings Make boot upon the summer’s velvet buds, Which pillage they with merry march bring home To the tent royal of their emperor, Who, busied in his majesty, surveys The singing masons building roofs of gold, The civil citizens kneading up the honey, The poor mechanic porters crowding in Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate, The sad-eyed justice with his surly hum Delivering o'er to executors pale The lazy yawning drone. I this infer: That many things, having full reference To one consent, may work contrariously, (Shakespeare; Henry V, Act 1, Scene 2)
In the play Henry V (1599) William Shakespeare provides us with a vision of the ordered state, based on the form and function of a beehive. In this example the perfect society is portrayed as patriarchal, hierarchical and an autocracy. Where wealth moves to the top and the bottom layers stay silent and obedient. Justice is swift and unquestioned and delivered at the behest of the sovereign. Shakespeare commends the bee’s artistry and order, and asserts that humankind can learn from this. In addition, the poet describes the ruling body of the Queen, whose presence assures life in the hive; the drones (magistrates), who lazily inhabit the hive and await the return of the workers (soldiers), off whom they steal the fruits of their labour. Finally, the brutal massacre of the drone is described, whereby the workers kill their brothers, and banish them from the security of the hive. War is the best strategy for the emperor to pursue, with his subjects surely behind him and ready to give up their lives.
The Rosy Cross of the Rosicrucians - Dat Rosa Mel Apibus - The Rose Gives Honey by Johann Thedore deBry (d. 1598)
In Germany in the early modern period, if bees swarm on a branch, this branch when used to direct cattle to the market will ensure that the animals sell at a good price. If a bee alights on someone’s hand, it connotes that money is close to hand, and if a single bee lands on someone’s head, this person will experience great success in life. The presence of bees is said to promote productivity, as demonstrated by the story of the Reaper, who always kept a bee close to his scythe: “Once upon a time there was man cutting oats with two other men and he was able to show two swarths [piles of grass] to their one, and he went over the ditch and the other men went to look at his scythe and there was a little box at the bottom and there was a trap door on it and they opened it and a brown backed bee flew out and when he came back he could not row [cut] at all and went off home.” Similarly, the reward of the worker’s labour, honey, is also endowed with good luck and fortune. In Germany, the custom of anointing a baby’s lips with honey guarded against any death in family. In fact, in early Christian days, honey was often used at Baptisms along with holy water. In other parts of Europe, it was customary to use honey in matrimonial ceremonies, again, by placing honey on the lips of the bride. Moreover, the sign of the cross, made with honey, was often put on the door of the new house to bring luck and banish demons. It is also a custom for the bridegroom’s mother to await the newly-wed couple in their new home, bearing the gift of a jar of honey.
In Renaissance times in Europe it was a custom for the bridegroom’s mother to await the newlywed couple in their new home, bearing the gift of a jar of honey. It is possible that this custom was the seed from which the ‘honeymoon’ was born, or perhaps it evolved from the belief, which regards honey as a powerful aphrodisiac! Other associations between bees, honey and lovers, demonstrate people’s trust in a bee’s ability to distinguish true love from a mockery of love. One tradition from Central Europe describes how women used to lead their lovers past beehives, believing that if their partners were unfaithful, the bees would detect this, and sting them. In contemporary times, the American author Truman Capote also adopts the hurtful implications of a sting in such a situation in his story House of Flowers (1960). Here, the confused character of Ottilie resorts to the God of Houngan to discover how one is to know when one has experienced true love. Houngan gives sound advice: ‘You must catch a wild bee, he said, and hold it in your closed hand [...] if the bee does not sting, then you will know you have found love...’ Good luck!
Acknowledged Citation Fijn, N 2014. 'Sugarbag Dreaming: the significance of bees to Yolngu in Arnhem Land, Australia', Humanimalia, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 41-61 (All the rest is thunder stolen from Ancient Gods)
Participating Artists: Chai Balcombe (VIC) James Barrett (Sweden) ‘Bee Time artist residency, Spring 2016’ (Europe/ UK) Blue-banded Melissae (NQ) Edwina Blush (TAS) Bernadette Boscacci (QLD) Kassandra Bossell (NSW) Daniel Bracegirdle (QLD) Aaron Davis (QLD) Nina Dawson (QLD) Frances Elcoate (NT) Mandy Evans (NSW) Juliah Faith (QLD) Gemma Garner (NSW) Global Generation (UK) Jessica Hannah Creative Writing (NSW) Weniki Hensch (NT) Jeanette Hutchinson (QLD) Forest Keegal (VIC) Sharon Kitching (NSW) Eloise O’Hare (UK) Elodie Oxenham (ACT) Simon Peart (NSW) Tobias Richardson (VIC) Tony Rive (NT) Fairlie Sandilands (QLD) Viv Sinnamon (QLD) John Skuja (NT) Robyn Veneer Sweeney (QLD) Michelle Tyhuis (QLD) Miguel Valenzuela (NSW)
The Sound Wandering Bee The hive of dreams that but follows the sun Without the separate life of one who has a name We have given vision over to tones of color And we live but weeks and then are reborn Again hum again buzz again drone rumble again
Where the bee sucks, there suck I: In a cowslip’s bell I lie; There I couch when owls do cry. On the bat’s back I do fly After summer merrily. Merrily, merrily shall I live now Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
As the bee drones song there drone I: In the blind tunnel of light; There I rest but tis never silent. On the wing and in the hive With but the sun, Entranced I love all now. Under the canopy of sky I fly.
We are with the Earth In sound and all movement The work is the balance Of life and all things living The Hum
Honey Sacks
by Chai Balcombe
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The honeybee’s pollination of our food supply is a crucial point in human dependence on them, for our survival. The more time I spend observing, collecting and rescuing bees, the more I consider their actions to be altruistic. Due to the sentient nature or bees, I can’t avoid feeling my own private connection with these creatures and a moral obligation to care for them. My art practise is a means to celebrate the life of bees, and create awareness of their current demise, Colony Collapse Disorder.
www.hahmani.com
‘Bee Time artist residency, Spring 2016’ Bee Time Artist Residency is a place where participants explore the multidimensional
worlds of the honeybee, experience social cohesion by practicing self organising principles inspired by Hive consciousness, and work with a shared vision in a fluid, seamless way. This residency was created to accompany the educational natural beekeeping community project called Two Sides of the Strait. https://issuu.com/earthspeaks/docs/2_sides_of_the_strait BeeTime Spring 2016 is the first residency consisting of the artists below, coming together from different parts of Europe and originating from countries Bulgaria, Israel, England, Wales and Spain. https://issuu.com/earthspeaks/docs/presentation.docx Of the rich and abundant research carried out between us as a group and our work with bees and bee keepers, there grew a fundamental understanding of the inner and outer worlds that occur within us and outside of us as individuals, and the tension between them. Parallels can be drawn between our being and the being of bees, the constant flux and fluidity of movement that allows a hive to breathe and gather. Our exploration focused on learning from the bees in this way so as to continue questioning the most symbiotic methods and processes with which to live together. “Outside and inside form a dialectic of division, the obvious geometry of which blinds us as soon as we bring it into play in metaphorical domains. It has the sharpness of the dialectics of ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ which decides everything. Unless one is careful, it is made into a basis of images that govern all thoughts of positive and negative. Logicians draw circles that overlap or exclude each other, and all their rules immediately become clear. Philosophers, when confronted with outside and inside, think in terms of being and non-being. Thus profound metaphysics is rooted in an implicit geometry which– whether we will or no–confers spatiality upon thought; if a metaphysician could not draw, what would he think? Open and closed, for him, are thoughts. They are metaphors that he attaches to everything, even his systems. “ Gaston Bachelard, Poetics of Space
My mediums are predominantly watercolour, pencil, and paper. I use a scalpel to cut into and create layers and elements that I can play with to make images. My process is often repetitive. I work to combine abstract mark making and figurative illustration. This creates a tension with the processes that I use. There is a multiple reciprocity between the three and two-dimensional work that I make-each process informs the other. When designing I reference visual language that I use or am inspired by in illustration, such as my use of silhouettes and bold, dark and graphic figures and symbols. In turn, a sculptural element informs my fine art and illustration. There is a playful approach to the materials I use. The illustrations fluctuate-my creative process involves movement of different elements of paper and textures, until the final composition is reached. A lot of the research I do is based around an individual or personal story. I aim to create work that can invoke a shared sense of empathy.
I make new visual languages by breaking down stories into their fundamental elements. These form the backbone to my translation of the narrative. After drawing out the most powerful visuals that I feel best represent my story, I build it back up with different mark making. Each element holds a considered significance. My process is a combination of literal and visceral reactions.
Florence Boyd
www.florenceboyd.com
Pol Parrhesia
I have an interdisciplinary practice that includes production, research, curation, collaboration and activism. My work is focused around the question: ‘How do we want to live together?’ and explores arts role in imagining alternative futures and producing counter narratives to capitalist models. I am also currently Gallery Manager for ONCA in Brighton, UK. An Arts and Ecology charity that seeks to inspire positive action in the face of environmental change: www.onca.org.uk. Over the past few years I have embarked on a journey to re-educate myself - learning skills that move me towards self-sufficiency and becoming more connected with the materials and processes involved in day-to- day life. This has involved growing my own food, foraging, making cosmetics and cleaning products, setting up swap shops, time banks and alternative currency workshops. I am interested in how these acts can become performative gestures and function as political resistance. The blurring of everyday life and creative practice underpins my work, as well as an interrogation into whether art can actually bring about social change or merely provide a commentary to it. I am interested in how some of the political and social characteristics of honey bee colonies can be translated to our urban landscapes and used as tools to engage with our surroundings. What can we learn about work/labour, our relationship to each other and where we live from how the bees operate? By seeing myself as a ‘worker’ within the town I live, how can I gather and process the resources around me to contribute to sustaining the community I’m part of? Michael Weiler in ‘Bees & Honey - From Flower to Jar’ describes the worker bees as the limbs of the hive that interact with the landscape to gather in the resources it needs and how their movements resemble the lungs of the colony: ‘The movement is constantly oscillating, almost breathing, interpenetrating itself, reaching out and bringing back in again. The form of the sphere embraced is in constant change, larger, smaller, now tending more one way, now switching to the other, depending on how attractive the goal is that draws the force living at its centre. In this way we get the impression of something limb-like that is reaching out over and over again beyond the hive in order to accomplish something out there and then fetch it back to itself.’ Using this image of the lungs and limbs of the hive as a starting point, how can I connect with the breath and rhythm of my surroundings? I have begun to use yogic breathing exercises (Bhramari Pranayama) and perform acts that imitate movements bees make in order to meditate on these questions and tune into the landscape I’m part of. I have also started performative walks which involve going out into the area I live and observing the flow of people and activities around me. I then retreat to draw from memory what I have witnessed. These drawings act as maps for a journey towards a greater level of connectivity with my surroundings - and ultimately ‘oneness’. I have entitled this ongoing body of work ‘Worker, Be.’ to represent an attempt to use my creative practice in a meditative way to gain a greater understanding of how to be present, whilst also working with purpose.
Lydia Heath http://lydiaheath.co.uk/#/Home
Jorge Gallardo Jorge Gallardo develops performing work as a playwright, stage designer and performer in contemporary dance pieces and physical and object theatre. He studied Medias and Theatre in Málaga and Barcelona, and he is currently a doctoral research on contemporary ritual practices in the West cultures. “Polli nation” is a role game for 5 to 15 people, which will go adjudging different roles of a hive to the “audience” who will became performers. From the birth of the larva to the fulfilment of the tasks of a mature honey bee, the audience will receive instructions how to play in a video projection. The idea is to transpose the organisation of a bee colony to our social life, proposing a collaborative system in which individual decisions are integrated into the medium in which the hive cohabits. j.gallardoaltamirano@gmail.com Spain
'propuesta foto'
The Blue-banded Melissae The bee is oft “looked upon as a symbol of the feminine potency of nature, because it create[s] the magical, good-tasting substance and store[s] it in hexagonal cells of geometric mystery.” Over 3 Sunday afternoon workshops we came together equipped with a sense of play, and sweets (or savouries) to share, to create a piece for Golden Bee that comprised many handmade bees – our little talismans inspired by nature. Women and their daughters, operating either independently or working together to create something of beauty and interest. We are the Blue-banded Melissae. We’ve talked about whatever is occupying our worlds; the conversation always starting off about bees, and frequently returning to this subject via circuitous routes at some point in the yarning. Through our name we identify with blue-banded bees (Amegilla sp.) and the name given to Aphrodite’s priestesses who were called melissae meaning ‘bees’. Blue-banded bees are one of Australia’s solitary bee species (there’s about 11 species of Amegilla) and they’re found all over the country. They have a sting but aren’t aggressive. “Each female builds her own nest burrow but many females often nest together in the one place.” “According to Porphyry, all bees were the souls of nymphs (priestesses) who had been in the service of Aphrodite during their lifetimes, especially at her temple in Eryx (Sicily), where her symbol was a golden honeycomb.” The Blue-banded Melissae are Naomi Smith and daughters Ellen, Izetta and Pearl, Monique Briggs and her daughters Rufina and Orlanda, Ally Lankester and her daughter Astrid, and Bernadette Boscacci (with her fur-daughter Jonquil).
Reference: 1.Walker, Barbara; The Women’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, Harper, USA, 1988. 2.Owen, Robert; The Australian Beekeeping Manual, Exisle Publishing Pty Ltd, NSW 2015 3. Walker (ibid)
Blossom Blessing Blue water lilies on a melaleuca lake of tea No morning cuppa when I rise But I can drink you with my eyes Such loveliness I wake to find It shames the dreams I’ve left behind Sweet as that golden syrup sun Here I come One… We become joined in bloom Swimming in song All in tune Blossom blessing Blue water lilies on a melaleuca lake of tea White petals drifting from the trees Bush honey perfume on the breeze Mantra of dragon fly and bee vibrations buzzing into me Sensation setting spirit free Ecstasy One… We become joined in bloom Swimming in song All in tune Blossom blessing
Copyright Edwina Blush 2015
Bernadette Boscacci aka Brigit Mihit
www.bernadetteboscacci.com.au
Golden bee is a labour of love, a return to the hive, an opportunity to reconnect with kindred spirits in the inner-west Sydney arts community (of which I was a part in the late 80s and 90s) and to become part of something bigger. It’s a chance to tend old and dear friendships, make new ones and share my work with a wider audience after many years spent foraging, gathering and producing around my home turf of North Queensland. My work is inspired by learning about bees through observation, literature, art, photographic and video documentation. I have also learned from demonstrations and knowledge shared with me personally h by Indigenous and non-Indigenous elders and beekeepers. In folklore from around the globe, bees were always identified with fertility and mortality (life and death) which is an enduring theme in my work. So it was easy for me to focus my practice around them. I’m interested in bee anatomy, behaviours, methods of production and storage, their delicate intricacies, myriad of forms, their mythology and ecology. Our ecology... Their blessed honey and all its healing, nourishing and preservative properties. The modern and ancient, the sacred and the mundane. The myriad of metaphors and the symbolism. The politics of bees, and people when they collaborate. I am concerned for the existence of our pollinators - all of them, including bees. My practice involves contributing to nature and cultural conservation projects at home and abroad, to foster a culture of care for each other and our natural world. If we work together, as bees do, we can achieve marvellous things with mutual benefits that will be far-reaching and sustainable. The analogies, bee puns and play on words are seemingly endless and so interconnected with how we express ways of doing ... and beeing. North Queensland 2016
Kassandra Bossell 2016 My art work addresses the fragility of natural environments and the interdependence of life forms. Working alongside scientific exploration, I trace patterns and states of transformation shared by different levels of life and show links between micro and macro worlds. Flame, carbon and wax are deliberately used to present a visual discussion reflecting on the global polemic around carbon and oil. I engage with the work as a 'conversation' played out between interconnected life forms, using the wax's qualities of reflection, opacity and transparency to indicate the complexity and limits of human perception. I explore processes of creation and destruction whilst addressing notions of healing. Using a blowtorch to burn timber panels, I then 'draw' lines with chisels. I cast hardened waxes to 're-flesh' the carved and burned panels. My vision is to track and learn from symbiotic relationships in order to develop ideas on collaborative systems, cycles and structures.
Proposed work: A Documentary Video Trailer Work for presentation: A Documentary Video Trailer Title: Awin Udnum - Working Title: Awin Udnum - Working TogetherTogether. Artist: Daniel / Wik Media Artist: Wik Bracegirdle Media Descriptor: Descriptor: Awin Udnum - working together for healthy people, healthy Awin Udnum - Working Together for healthy people, healthy culture, healthy country. culture, healthy country. A collaboration with Kowanyama Community, A collaboration with Kowanyama Aboriginal Community, Bernadette Boscacci, Viv Sinnamon, Bernadette Boscacci, Viv Sinnamon, Kowanyama Culture andCorporation, Research Kowanyama Culture and Research Centre, Abm Elgoring Ambung Aboriginal Centre, Abm Elgoring Ambung, Kowanyama State School and Council. Kowanyama State School and Council. Dedicated to Alma Wason Luke (d.2015). Dedicated to Alma Wason Luke (b. circa 1933 - d. 2015)
Installation requirements: Video Monitor and headphones.
Synopsis: Community programs often focus on just one element of a community’s development, such Synopsis as health, education, housing or even culture. A more holistic and collaborative approach is proposed in achieving Awin Udnum’s ultimate goal of the development of a functional and healthy Community programs onto just one of social a community’s community. (Putting an end to the often old silo focus approach dealing withelement “community issues”)
development, such as health, education, housing or even culture. A more holistic and collaborative approach is proposed achieving Awinhave Udnum’s goal Kowanyama Aboriginal Community traditional groupsinand their leaders workedultimate in partnership of health, the development of land a functional and professionals healthy community. (Putting an end with arts, education and management to plan and run a series of to the old silo approach to dealing with “community social issues”) holistic workshops hosted on Country by clan groups, and in the township over a four-year period. The Awin Udnum project adopted a traditional learning and sharing approach to deliver health education that integrated knowledge retention and arts development activities.have The Kowanyama Aboriginalcultural Community traditional groups and their leaders program continues to operate on limited resources and grapples with many challenges common to worked in partnership with arts, health, education and land management remoteprofessionals communities. The documentary community based programs such as Awinby to plan and run explores a seriesways of holistic workshops hosted on Country Udnumclan can be sustainable long term impacts the spiritual, physical, mentalUdnum and groups, and delivering in the township over a upon four-year period. The Awin social wellbeing of Kowanyama. project adopted a traditional learning and sharing approach to deliver health
education that integrated cultural knowledge retention and arts development activities. The program continues to operate on limited resources and grapples with many challenges common to remote communities. The documentary explores ways community based programs such as Awin Udnum can be sustainable delivering long term impacts upon the spiritual, physical, mental and social wellbeing of Kowanyama. Wik Media ~ danbracegirdle@gmail.com
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RESONANCE – is the name of Julia Cazita-Mazeaud’s latest building project, and she has included a couple of her talents, with that same name, for exhibition, here in Sydney. Julia’s exhibition works, support an opportunity to didactically proclaim the Need for Bees, while concurrently offering one solution to our sad state of affairs, in the form of a 30 minute Binaural beat, designed to stimulate the production of Seratonin, (the “Cheer Up” hormone), as people walk in, to view the exhibition. Initially, Julia Cazita-Mazeaud plumbed her creative juices into the study of Gold and Silver-smithing, Fibre Arts, and Public Murals. Acting in the role of her family’s first university encounter, she helped transfer a TAFE course over to a JCU Fine Arts Degree, as Student Union President. In the last decade, she has sought to focus her energies on reducing consumption and waste.. any which way. Her every step is a strivance to avoid the waste.. of resources, of energy, and time; while fostering mutual respect, deep connection and Awakening. Trained in a wide range of subjects, Julia has occupied a diverse place on our Earth. Playing the role of Bank Teller, Casting Agent, Arts and Science Teacher, Radio Announcer, Bobcat Driver, Fine Artist/Mural Artist, Lifeline Counsellor, Community Arts Officer, Interior/ Exterior Designer, trained in Construction Management, Julia is currently supervising an Alternative Building Project, while teaching Technology in a Queensland State High school. She was recently dubbed a polymath. Julia is a very hard person to pin down, as she creates the “Financial Energy” to support her dreams of a Binaural Beats Recording and Sound Studio within an Earthship, built in the lush forest of Far North Queensland, on the beautiful Atherton Tablelands. Recently she studied “DJ”ing for performance at SAEQ Sydney, while investigating the effects and production of Binaural Beats, and the resounding white noise affecting all life on earth.
Julia speaks: “The Tablelands is a food growing district, dependent on pollinators, and can be interpreted as a microcosm of our earth. Our earth WILL stop, if the pollinators are not given the space and respect that they deserve. Today, “WE NEED BEES!” is one of the truest statements on the planet, especially if we refer to (currently) my favourite documentary, “Resonance - Beings of Frequency” directed by James Russell and John Webster, on the subject of electromagnetic radiation and radio frequencies.”
Cuckoo Bee, oil on silky oak, 2016
Wing, oil on silky oak, 2016 My name is Kathy Cornwall, I am practicing my art in Townsville. I predominantly paint in oils on canvas. I like the wooden surface as a layer in an artwork, and have used this in the works I have offered for the Golden Bee. They evoke the thought of smells associated with being in nature, as does the thought of bees for me.
Aaron Davis has an extensive background in photography,
videography and graphic design and is passionate about the relatively new world of mobile photography. “A tool that allows you to capture, manipulate and share from the palm of your hand.” Aaron’s mobile photography or “iPhoneography” has been curated in group exhibitions in Auckland and Los Angeles and can be found at leading genre sites including Pixels at an exhibition, iPhoneography Central, Eye’em and Life in Lofi. All images in the ‘Interagent’ series were captured on an iPhone 5S using an Olloclip macro lens attachment and edited in various photography apps including Snapseed and Decim8. Contact email: aaron.davis@y7mail.com
Interagent By Aaron Davis
Matchmaker, Life broker Go-between Pollinator Dive in Honey Bee Spread your interagency
GOLDEN BEE ~ What will our future be(e)? ‘What will our future be(e)?’ questions our human future on the earth, as the numbers of bees and other insect pollinators are disappearing throughout the world. We depend on bees and other insects to pollinate our food, medicine and resource plants and without these pollinators doing this important job, humans and many other species on the earth cannot survive. Bees are also under threat due to industrial farming practices, including the use of pesticides on our food crops. Without the bees what will our future be(e)?? I chose to create the artwork using an antique silk baby suit which represents humans and our future generations. It is becoming brittle and breaking down like our ecosystem due to human greed and disrespect. I used native plants collected locally to my area and also some beeswax from a friend’s hive. I then used the Eco print technique to dye the silk fabric using leaves, pods, flowers and bark. I also applied wax from a friends beehive to try a type of batik technique on the fabric. The golden bee carved from Amber (found treasure) is like a thread linking the ecosystem together as represented by the silk threads linking the plants prints. The threads also represent the interesting relationships our native bees have with our native plants such as the Cadaghi. The Cadaghi (Corymbia torrelliana) tree and the native stingless bees have evolved an interesting mutually beneficial relationship, in which the tree produces sticky resinous droplets inside their seed pod gum nuts which entice the bees to visit and collect the sticky resin for their hive building. While they are collecting the resin droplets, many seeds stick to the bee’s bodies to be carried off to their hives. The weight of the seeds is quite heavy in relation to the bee, so they try to remove the seeds and therefore disperse them on their way. So bees are an important pollinator, but also important dispersers of seed for this tree.
(Based on work by Helen Wallace)
Nina Dawson Birdtribe
Sugarbag Dreaming (2014, 7:52 min) Filmmaker and ethnographic researcher: Dr Natasha Fijn For Yolngu, living on country, in the homeland communities of Northeast Arnhem Land, the relationship with local, endemic stingless bees is quite different from the 'domestication' of the honeybee for consumption on an industrialised scale. A highly anticipated activity is sugarbag season where men, women and children undertake excursions into the bush in search of these tiny bees to extract honey from their hives. Clans are connected to different totemic, or philosophical sugarbag complexes, with accompanying Dhuwa and Yirritja kinds of bee. On a behavioural level, one kind of bee bites in defence of its hive and the other does not.
Gemma Jane “Frances” Garner (described as a “mischievous comic genius”), has been involved in theatre, music, comedy, performance, art, environmental and social activism since her early teens. An accomplished singer and MC, Gemma has worked festivals and hosted award ceremonies and fronted several bands from punk, dirty jazz, blues, experimental to gospel and cabaret. After relocating from Sydney to the Central coast, Gemma has been actively promoting art and sustainability, working on several funded projects as an artist in residence, facilitator, presenter and performer. Returning to the Sydney comedy scene in 2014, Gemma is currently working on her 3rd full-length comedy show “A Taste, not Honey?” and will presenting a part of this show for Golden Bee. https://www.facebook.com/gemma.j.garner
These Films, Being a Bee and Dear Nature are part of Global Generation's Stories for a Better World and Bees for a Better World Projects, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. In young people have been engaging in practical, hands the spirit of Action Research, These Films, Being a Beeinand Dear Nature partcommunity of Global Generatio on activities and artful reflections of the changes themselves, theare local Better World and Bees for a Better World Projects, funded by the Herita and their contribution to the Planet. They have learnt about the workings of a hive, In the spirit of Action Research, young people have been in These Being a Beeand andother Dear pollinators, Nature are part Global Generation's Stories forengaging a plantedFilms, flowers for bees takenofphotos, written poems and made activities artful ofeyes the changes themselves, the BetterYoung World people and Bees for on a Better Projects, funded by Heritage Lottery Fund. films. endeavored toWorld seeand the world reflections through thethe of a bee ininorder to and their contribution to the Planet. They have learnt about the wo In the spirit of Action Research, young people have been engaging in practical, hands open up a doorway into a better world. planted flowers for bees and other pollinators, taken photos, written p on activities and artful reflections of the changes in themselves, the local community films. Young people endeavored to see the world through the eyes of and theirfilms contribution to the They have learnt aboutalongside the workings of people a hive, Pivialex (Alex Carulli andPlanet. Pivia Pedretti) have worked young open up a doorway into a better world. planted flowers for bees and other pollinators, taken photos, written poems and made involving them in all the different steps of the filmmaking journey, from storyboard, to films. Young people endeavored to see the world through the eyes of a bee in order to direction, to post-production. They have created educational short-films that embrace Pivialex films Carulli and Pivia believes Pedretti) that havetheworked open a doorway into a better world. youngup people's perspective on the world(Alex around them. Pivialex film is alongsid involving them in all the different steps of the filmmaking journey, fro already in a young persons mind and Pivialex only helps to find the film, curate it and direction, to post-production. They have created educational Pivialex (Alex Carulli and Pivia Pedretti) have worked alongside young people short-film bring it tofilms the world. young people's on the world from around them. Pivialex involving them in all the different steps ofperspective the filmmaking journey, storyboard, to believe already in a young persons mind and Pivialex only helps to direction, to post-production. Theyhave havesaid created short-films that embrace find the fi Here is what the young filmmakers abouteducational their experience: bring it to the world. young people's perspective on the world around them. Pivialex believes that the film is “I woke up explore mind more about this world andhelps our ancestors, asking that already in wanting a youngtopersons and Pivialex only to find the film, questions curate it and Here is what the young filmmakers have said about their experience: are unanswerable.” bring it to the world.
woke to explore more about of this world and our ancestors, ask “Beingiswith nature - beingfilmmakers in “I time withup it -wanting gives me peace and calmness mind.” Here what the young have said about their experience:
are unanswerable.” “Nature me, connectmore to it. about I cannot words how it makes me feel but I am “I woke connects up wanting to Iexplore thisexplain world in and our ancestors, asking questions thata “Being with nature being in time with it gives me peace and calmness of mi part of nature.” are unanswerable.”
connects me, I connect tocalmness it.isI around cannot explain in words how it makes “With each day, I am learning to be for all that “Being withnew nature - being in “Nature time with it more - givesgrateful me peace and of me.” mind.” part of nature.” “I am theconnects universe.me, I’m Icommitted my creativity imagination.” “Nature connect totoit.using I cannot explain inand words how it makes me feel but I am a “With each new day, I am learning to be more grateful for all that is around me part of nature.” “I want to thank all bees and pollinators - without you I wouldn’t be here today.” “I am to thebe universe. I’m committed to isusing my me.” creativity and imagination.” “With each new day, I am learning more grateful for all that around “Like worker bees, my friends and I work together to make this world better.” “I want thank bees and pollinators - without you I wouldn’t be here today “I am the universe. I’m committed to to using myall creativity and imagination.” “Like worker bees, my friends and I work together to make this world better.” “I want Generation, to thank all bees and Garden, pollinators - without I wouldn’t here today.” Global The Skip Tapper Walkyou King's Cross, be London, N1C 4AQ www.globalgeneration.org.uk “Like bees, my friends and I work together to make this world better.” email:worker generate@globalgeneration.org.uk Global Generation, The Skip Garden, Tapper Walk King's Cross, London, N1C www.globalgeneration.org.uk email: generate@globalgeneration.org.uk Global Generation, The Skip Garden, Tapper Walk King's Cross, London, N1C 4AQ www.globalgeneration.org.uk email: generate@globalgeneration.org.uk
Weniki Hensch
‘ Honey Ancestors ‘, 25cm x 25cm Embossed print, charcoal, ink, gold wax, paper bark Uncontrolled burning has a devastating effect on the bee population of the Northern Territory. The largest NT based Apiary company has recently been forced to relocate to Queensland where there are stronger governed regulations of native bush burning. Some of the native trees take between 5 to 7 years to flower after a burn, while many of them seem to have sadly not recovered at all. ‘ Honey Ancestors ‘ is a response to the escalating plight of our native bees specifically in the Northern Territory, who are traditionally linked with the paperbark (Melaleuca) wetlands. The native stingless bees have a longstanding connection within the Arnhem Land communities and is a crucial part of Aboriginal culture. Through a greater understanding of the ecological importance of these bees perhaps we can find a new resolution merging the knowledge of the old and the new.
The Birds and the Bees Headdress materials: mostly recycled, including donated treasures, paste jewels from San Remo Italy, Maria George beads, clay, wire and wax bees by Brigit Mihit, Sunbird and Kite feathers and Swarovski crystals.
Jeanette Hutchinson North Queensland, Australia jeanettehutch@gmail.com
Edmund Dulac, Ariel and the bee, 1908
Please listen to this when you are busy bee-ing: Ariel: V. Where the bee sucks, there suck ¡ Phoenix Chorale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SKfdC3yi38
I would like to acknowledge the Dja Dja Wurrung as the traditional owners of the land I live and work on. Sovereignty never ceded. Without pollination we have no food, the plants that form the basis of our food require pollination. There are more than 1,500 species of Native Solitary Bees varying in appearance and size from 2mm to 10mm. Solitary Bees do not live in hives but nest and lay their young in hollow logs or twigs, old plant stems or cracks in walls. These bee hotels made from repurposed food tins, beeswax and pampas stalks provide somewhere to live nest and rear their young. The stalks are from seed heads of pampas grass which have been harvested to stop this environmental weed spreading. Pampas grass was planted by the Sludge Abatement Board to remedy erosion and rivers of mud that formed from frenzied gold mining activity in Central Victoria from the 1850’s onwards and turned the land upside down. Forest Keegel
www.forestkeegel.com
Mysterious Building of Concrete Boxes Tobias Richardson, 2016
Save the Sirius Building http://tobiasrichardson.blogspot.com.au
tony rive artist’s statement
How do we neglect the world that surround us? How do we define our relationship to the unremarkable? Can we train ourselves to see beyond an object’s practical use? Perhaps it’s what Jean Baudrillard suggests: that as we continue to develop as a species, we lose touch with any sense of the natural world, and we note only those things that directly impact us. My vision in distilling my work to one basic element is to invite the viewer to explore the beauty and movement of the subject without distraction — we rarely get to experience the minutiae of nature. This work documents a seemingly mundane event, yet one that impacts our very existence. In isolating the movement of the subject from its environment, a new sequence is created revealing an inseparable relationship between motion and survival. In the case of a bee, there is an inherent beauty to their implausible physics — how can something so round and heavy fly? By taking daily life as subject matter, while commenting on the everyday aesthetic of the unnoticed world, I find this movement reveals an inherent awkwardness, a subject that echoes our own vulnerabilities.
Fairlie Sandilands
We search, explorers of this lifetime. On mountains, through valleys, across oceans, in the depths - of the earth and heart. We search, through our visions and our dreams.
Writer, photographer
It has been a wonderful pleasure to be part of
Golden Bee in this, its most recent incarnation.
My focus is with the things we often dont notice,
What mysteries before us. The synchronicity.
the hidden, the possible, the 'other'. The fleeting
moments that have their own substance. What is it like being a bee? How does it feel to exist with
such intensity, such constant focus? What secrets does the hive hold ? Can images and words help people fall in love with something that is so
irrelevant to their daily lives, yet so crucial to their entire existence? For to fall in love is so often the
The bees live, their purpose astounds, their tenacity, their sacrifice, their communality. Their alchemy.
pathway to caretaking, continuance, compassion. By romancing the bees, by exploring their
otherness, by imagining their secrets, we see the
bigger picture of how we connect with each other, all species, on this one earth , this one planet.
So, living in this moment, pausing, being thankful, creating, celebrating, then resuming the journey, through new eyes. The eyes of the bee.
fairliebeth@hotmail.com
Failure and Success - John Skuja digital photos on canvas 2016 I don't see myself as an artist. Nature is the artist here. I am just documenting what I see through photography. There are no European bees where I live in Arnhem land just the native stingless bees. The yolngu have been harvesting their honey for thousands of years but this results in the destruction of the physical hive. We established two hives from the brood of some opened natural hives and this was the outcome. Success and failure. One is a healthy hive of Tetragonula hockingsi the other is the remnants of a failed hive. There was no queen or queen egg in the robbed brood. After a few months the last bees died after dutifully constructing the basic nest structure. Apparently hives of native bees can be used to pollinate trees and they have an increasingly important role in food production. More photos on Instagram @johnnyskuja
Robyn Veneer Sweeney I grew up with an ambivalent attitude towards bees as a result of alarming reactions to the odd childhood bee sting. I am glad to say I have adopted certain strategies to avoid appearing as a threat. It seems to work. I have lived in 2 houses with well established ‘in-wall’ hives, 1 of which was relocated because the many bees were stingers. Where I live now, I have had 3 resinous, waxy entrances to what I believe were 3 individual hives of our native Sugar Bag Bee. 2 hives in close proximity have now been abandoned after a vicious & long running war where none were left standing. My remaining hive, apparently well-functioning, has become used to me briefly but regularly placing my ear beside the entrance. To listen to the sound of another community inside my bedroom wall gives me a strange sense of pleasure & calmness. So in this spirit, I have the guidance of my bees to show me the direction for my work. They have shown me how important is the balance between population and resources … & how an imbalance can cause the seemingly communitarian bee to be as murderous towards their neighbours as humans. But I have faith that these creatures follow the plans of nature & behave as is necessary for their own survival. BEE-attitude. Rather than reiterate the worries about Colony Collapse Disorder & its various causes, rather than bemoan what we humans are doing to upset the balance of our beautiful Blue Planet, I am drawn to exploring how BEE-ness has presented itself to me over time. In this work for Hive Alive, I reflect upon how BEE-tecture has influenced our own cultural production in art through the ages. In these most difficult of times, I am allowing my Bees to reflect back to me the beauty & joy of human creativity. “The artist, then, is sipping from the flowers of life and is offering us the sweetest thing it is possible to imagine: the honey of creation.” - Juan Antonio Ramirez, The Beehive Metaphor-From Gaudi to Le Corbusier
enviropairs@msn.com
Facebook: Robyn Veneer Sweeney Artist
Mob: 044 8477661
Location: Qld
Pictured above (clockwise from far left): Cop A Bee; The Place to Bee; Queen of Hearts, Free Bee; Nature’s Challenge; Bee Cause; Busy Bees; Bee Heehee
‘message bee’
ARTWORK COLLECTION Bee blessings offered through a series of 8 mini artworks from North Queensland Indigenous artist Michelle Pilot Tyhuis. Every artwork has a spiritual message that captures the magic of believing that anything is possible. ‘Cop A Bee’ A symbol of abundance leading to prosperity.
‘Natures Challenge’ Embrace the will to seek out opportunity. Life is your motivator.
‘The Place To Bee’ The intriguing dance of abundance – love, cooperation & community.
‘Bee Cause’ Our passion to save the beautiful bee is a rich nurturing energy.
‘Queen of Hearts’ You have the power to attract your desires and the love you want.
‘Busy Bees’ Mesmerising movements that lead us on the dance of the bees.
‘Free Bee’ Chase your field of dreams to reach the height of excellence.
‘Bee Heehee’ Sweet abundance and the magic of believing can be such purposeful fun.
To place your own artwork commission, email Michelle at creativenorthdesign@gmail.com
CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTIST
Michelle Pilot Tyhuis Artist Biography Michelle is an Indigenous Australian contemporary visual artist that is largely inspired by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, spiritually and storytelling as well as her love of nature and Mother Earth. Michelle is also a creative media professional – journalist, graphic designer, radio/tv broadcaster – that lives in Townsville, North Queensland, with her partner and three young sons.
Bee Poems
from Jessica Hannah Creative Writing Workshop
Chloe Woodhead ~ 7 years old
Honey Sticky golden-brown Oozes through my fingertips Amber wave of honey (HAIKU)
Sting They remind me of flowers and sadness There stingers remind me of nettles I’m petrified of bees I step away cautiously They fly silently as owls Yellow makes me feel joy Black makes me feel miserable
Bees Beautiful stripes yellow and black Enthusiastically flying over flowers Extracting nectar from flowers Singing, buzzing and flying
(FREE VERSE)
(ACROSTIC POEM)
Joshua Tong ~ 8 years old
Bees Bees make honeyycombe Honeycombe is quite crunchy I love honeycombe! Bees live in gumtrees Their hives are very high up Bees do not have knees Bees have quite black stripes Bees are quite small and furry Bees stings are quite painful Workers make honey The queen instructs the workers Each bee is unique. (HAIKU)
Extracting and delivering Buzzing through the trees Collecting pints of nectar The Jasmine tastes sweet Going to the hive I deliver the honey I go to collect Dripping sweet honey I am delivering it The honey is sweet
Temperence ~ 7 years old
Dripping Honey Bees wings are honey Honey is golden and thick Tastes like sunlight (HAIKU)
Bees Body Bees have a furry body They have antennae and they can sting you
Bees wings Bees wings shimmer in The sunlight and make a lit-tle rainbow sparkling
(HAIKU)
(HAIKU)
Evie Winrow ~ 7 years old
Jasper Hannah ~ 11 years old
Flying in the sky Is a great experience Beautiful nectar Collecting nectar And we’re flying gracefully Yummy pollen too
The Queen rules all Buzzing through the sky Making honey for the Queen Working all day long (HAIKU)
(HAIKU) Lily ~ 11 years old
Honey Bees buzz all day long Flying around happily Collecting nectar Bright yellow daisys Lilac Lavender White and pink Jasmine swaying
Sweet golden liquid Super delicious on toast Made in a bee hive (HAIKU)
Newtown, Sydney 2016
Bee image: Maria Sibylla Merian (1647 – 1717)
A beautiful and important film about bees, flowers and beekeepers.
A pleasant philosophy evolves, on relationships between people, and the vegetables and fruit that we eat. Queen of the sun – is a documentary film about bees and bee farmers. The small-scale beekeepers in the film are critical to how the big businesses run their bee farming. Swedish readers, can read the original review online at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/skribent_ erika_chotai/sets/72157639598167894 The particular newspaper the article was written for, is created to better suit people with language or reading issues. I would say young children could also read the text, because of that level. Queen of the sun: What are the bees telling us? Directed and produced by: Taggart Siegel/Jon Betz Casting: Vandana Shiva (activist and physician), Gunther Hauk (biodynamic beekeeper), Michael Pollan (writer), among others. Film Company: Collective Eye Inc. Queen of the sun is a documentary film about people’s interest in having bees and getting honey. It’s also about the threat against bee-farming, which comes from the big companies who treat bees badly, so that many of them die. Without bees we would receive no honey, nor would we have fruit. The farmers in the film all have small farms. They feel disempowered by the big companies. And they are afraid that the plants’ natural pollination done by bees might not work in the future. They hope that more people are getting interested in bees, so that the problems can come to light so then there can be a change. When pesticides are being used on growth, it is damaging to the bees. They get poisoned and ill. They can get so ill, that they can’t find their way back to their hive. The poison also gets into the
honey, that which we eat. If there were no bees, plants would not be able to reproduce. Then we would have no fruit or vegetables. We wouldn’t have meat either, because animals eat plants, or other animals who eat plants. The film shows our human responsibility and how strong everything is tied together – people, animals and plants. You cannot give up on insects just because they’re small. The film also brings up the issues with transporting bees across the whole of USA. Many bees die while being transported. When they finally arrive, they are being force-fed and they have to live on huge farms with GMO and pesticides. Those sort of farms don’t attract insects the natural way, and that is why the owners have to buy bees. The people that are being interviewed in the film say that we have to keep the biodiversity intact and also the plants’ natural pollination processes. Otherwise we won’t have any animals or plants left, the big bee company owners must realize that, they say. Insects want to live where there is a variation of plants, with different colors, forms and smells. The bees want to make their own choices. When they live on monotonous, sprayed cultures, millions of bees can die. Every now and then the film is really beautiful. It displays colourful flowers and tells us about human relationships with animals and plants. The message can be heavy, but the film also says that we can correct what is wrong. We have to start acting for change. A pleasant philosophy evolves, on relationships between people, and the vegetables and fruit that we eat. It wouldn’t be possible if the bees didn’t spread pollen between flowers, on their gathering of nectar. I never looked at it that way before. They are so small, but oh so crucial. The film, or a book, or the film music, can be ordered from http://www.queenofthesun.com
Erika Chotai 2011
Kultur, konst, hälsa & miljö - Skribent Erika Chotai ¤ Webb: http://kulturkonsthalsamiljo.com/ ¤
A GAR GAH GAG /Golden Bee PRODUCTION 2016