Paradiso No. 09

am free

LOVE ...

Our Paradiso is love love love, sustainable architecture, mindfulness, honouring country, getting out among the trees

Look Touch and Feel

Issue No. 09 May/June 2019 we are one but we are many and from all the lands on earth we come

So many muses Baker & Daughters, Martin Johnston, Zana Wright, Pru Chapman, Delta Kay, John Wolseley, Bello Winter Music

POKHARA, NEPAL I’ve walked the loudest streets of India, I’ve seen the wonders of Vietnam and taken the obligatory Bali trip, but I have never experienced streets like this before.

Pokhara – the city of calmness where the horns are quieter, people are humble and

the haggling of anything is at an all-time low. Combine this with a constant view of the Phewa Lake surrounded by tall, layered mountains stacked wonderfully beneath the snow-capped Himalayas. And whether you’re up high looking down in the valley or residing lakeside, the landscape leaves you

feeling small yet infinite all at once. The food, traditional or not, is made with love and generosity, stacking the plate up or filling the bowl completely. And whilst being consumed in it all, if the sun isn’t setting, the eagles are taking flight above your head. Pokhara, Nepal … a visceral delight.

POSTCARD

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FROM

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PARADISO

Postcard from Paradiso

WELCOME

ISSUE NO. 09 ~ MAY–JUN 2019

THIS IS PARADISO

PHOTOS & WORDS–

Monique Barton @mons.monday

Pokhara, Take me to:

Nepal

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+ WELCOME

WE ARE HERE

LOVE ...

Welcome to issue 9, our issue of Love. What started out as an ode to mother earth – an eco issue by any other name – became a broader, more urgent message of love. Guided by our wonderful Guest Editor, Nat Woods, we use this issue to pause and reflect on what is happening around us, for those who suffer, for those who help, and for the love that is all around. Enjoy this heartfelt issue of ours.

Hello– Issue No. 09: LOVE ... / May–Jun 2019

HELLO

Paradiso is so very proudly brought to you by: Beck Marshall, Co-Founder, Managing Editor @sixgallery_ Lila Theodoros, Co-Founder, Production Manager/Design @ohbabushka Aarna Hudson, Partnership Manager @aarnakristina Nat Woods, Guest Editor @nat.woods_ Marty and Matt, Team Distribution Chris Theodoros, Accountant businessmatters.com.au Our Mums, Tania Theodoros and Lorraine Marshall, Proof Readers Thank you to our wonderful contributors– Aarna Hudson Monique Barton Angus Goozée Anna Hutchcroft Pru Chapman Danielle Purcell Ellie Beck Ella Noah Bancroft Jessie Prince Katinka Smit Todd Clare Chris Theodoros From the bottom of our hearts– thank you to our incredibly supportive families – we love you! xx Printed by Cornerstone Press, Northgate Qld. Published by This is Paradiso Trust. © This is Paradiso Trust 2019, all rights reserved.

Disclaimer No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publisher. The views expressed in Paradiso are those of the retrospective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the publisher. Contributions and submissions are welcome but no responsibility is taken.

Information and credits are correct when going to print but may change afterwards. Paradiso is published six times a year and we are sorry for any mistakes :) thisisparadiso.com.au @paradiso_magazine_ Paradiso is created on the land of the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung nation.

We acknowledge and pay our respects to the traditional custodians and elders of this land.

And we extend that respect to the traditional owners of wherever this magazine is read.

Team Paradiso ;) xx

Club Paradiso There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known Nothing you can see that isn’t shown There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be It’s easy All you need is love All you need is love All you need is love, love Love is all you need – Th e Be a t l e s

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Come for the fun, stay for the best membership in town. Join the club and receive our OUT NOW newsletter – you will be the first of your friends to find out when our latest issue is hitting the streets; you’ll get a mid-mag-month sneak peak at the amazing features we are putting together for your reading pleasure; AND you will be the first to be invited to all of the very exciting Paradiso events such as Breakfast Club.

Sign up now. thisisparadiso.com.au/club

THIS IS PARADISO

Enjoy reading–

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Worlds colliding –16 Welcome to Quandong Cottage –22 Slow.Down. –28 Good People: Delta Kay –34 Muse: John Wolseley –50 Lanzarote to the Sahara –58

Food + Drink

10 Feature:

Pickle it!

12 Me, my shop and I:

Baker & Daughters

Home + Design

14 Feature:

Shop Local 16 Feature:

Worlds Collide:

Martin Johnston 22 Where I live:

Welcome to Quandong Cottage 5

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Wellbeing

28 Feature:

Slow Down

with Pru Chapman 30 Listen:

The Activists 32 Essay:

Seasons – letting go

Community

34 Good people:

Delta Kay – Culture Aware 32 Essay:

Connect to Country

Fashion + Beauty

Travel

Arts + Events

62 Crossword

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Photo essay: I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone

48 Arts Guide 50 Current Muse:

John Wolseley 54 Book Club:

Bruce Pascoe 56 Music:

Bello Winter Music

58 Feature:

Lanzarote to the Sahara 60 Ten things I love about:

Federal 61 Weekend Itinerary:

Walk among the trees

Cover image– Todd Clare @toddclare

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HELLO

+ WELCOME

THE WARMEST OF WARM UPS

A note from our Guest Editor

LOVE ...

GUEST EDITOR’S NOTE – PARADISO 09

Originally we planned for this issue to be on the theme of nature, of celebrating it, living within it and working to protect it, but throughout the editorial process we were shaken to our cores by the horrific terrorist attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand. While these attacks were so close to home, especially for so many of our Kiwi brothers and sisters who live here in the Byron Shire, they are unfortunately not a unique occurrence in the world.

Our hearts break for people across the world, and right here in our community, who are oppressed, discriminated against, and attacked for their faith, their ethnicity, or for simply being ‘different’. But in the midst of all the pain, we see so much love in the world – we see Jacinda Ardern demonstrating leadership based on love and not fear, we see school children all across the world striking against climate change, and we see the love and kindness in the smallest of actions everyday.

So while the world feels heavy and filled with hate, let’s celebrate love and all the people in the world who live with love. Because if we look to the core of what is causing all the hate, heartbreak and destruction in the world, it’s a lack of love – a lack of love for our planet and for all people.

We’ve filled the following pages with people we see living with love in so many different ways, many who probably don’t realise it because it’s just who they are and how they live. We need more people like this.

And before I let you continue on to read about all these incredibly inspiring people, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we live and create Paradiso Magazine, the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung Nation. I pay my respects to the elders of this land, and across this continent, both past, present and emerging. And I would like to also pay my respects and send gratitude to Delta Kay, who you will read more about in this issue – Delta is the epitome of someone who leads with love, for this land, for Aboriginal people, and for all indigenous peoples around the world.

I don’t know how to fix the world, or how to make people reconnect to nature and stop destroying it. I don’t know how to break down hatred, racism and bigotry. But I know that we can’t fight hate with hate, we can’t get people to fall in love with nature by attacking them – somehow we have to find a way to come together.

Big love, Nat xox

Nat Woods is the CoFounder of Clean Coast Collective and The Corner Palm.

Find her and follow the amazing things she does here: @nat.woods_ @cleancoastcollective @the_corner_palm

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BYRON RITERS FESTIVAL 2019

HELLO

+ WELCOME

THE WARMEST OF WARM UPS

The Good News is—

May–June Top 5 to look out for: 01– Byron Writers Festival 2019 announces first guests Three days with story creators, idea makers and risk takers in one of the world’s most beautiful coastal settings. Early Bird tickets are on sale from 8-14 May, with all tickets on sale when the full line up of over 140 writers and thinkers is revealed on 12 June.

2–4 August, Byron Bay byronwritersfestival.com

Date nights just got supernatural Check out Byron’s new gorgeous wine bar, Supernatural. Tucked away down Bay Lane, enter the moody warmth and wrap your hands around a ceramic bowl of natural wine, before diving into the Peruvian salty snacks (we love the Mushroom puffs).

And don’t be fooled by the super chic interiors, Supernatural is as down-to-earth as their wines— eat with your fingers, lick the plate, slurp the wine, and throw your napkins on the floor when you’re done. We’re finding excuses to go there weekly. @supernaturalcellars

Moreton’s serene Circles

Showcasing smoky guitar riffs and the captivating vocals of lead singer Georgia, local four-peice Moreton have released their single Circles, a solemn yet addictive track overflowing with serene sonics. Intrepid, gritty and dynamic, the single is drenched with earnest lyricism matched by an undeniably stirring voice, pitted against reverb drenched and hook laden guitar melodies and the minimalist triumph of the band’s rhythm section. Their sound is reminiscent of late 90s grunge icons like Jeff Buckley and PJ Harvey, with unique guitar riffs, sincere lyricism and a soulful energy. Circles was written about Georgia’s experience through the 2017 Northern NSW floods, which flooded her property and that of her peers. It explores universal themes of hardship and bad luck, particularly when disaster and adversity strikes those already living on the fringes of society. Moreton’s new EP – The Dog Years – will be released in July. For touring dates visit their facebook page or follow them on instagram. facebook.com/thisismoreton @moreton_

Win! Win!! Win!!!

Join Club Paradiso to win Join the Club to win a Coco Paisley Cooler Bag kindly gifted from our friends at Wandering Folk. This cooler is essential for weekend adventures, keeping your drinks and snacks well chilled – perfect for a picnic party of four! To win – we’ve made it super easy – simply visit thisisparadiso.com.au/club and sign up to Club Paradiso. Thank you Wandering Folk! wanderingfolk.com

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02– The Kinship Festival The Kinship Festival is an annual free community event held in Murwillumbah to celebrate National Families Week.

The event celebrates community and offers a range of activities, workshops and performances that aim to connect families with community, culture, and country.

Saturday 18 May, Knox Park, Murwillumbah 03– German Film Festival Proudly presented by Palace Cinema, the German Film Festival program includes a selection of 26 feature films varying from award-winning dramas and box office comedies to documentaries.

29 May–12 June, Palace Cinemas, Byron Bay. palacecinemas.com.au 04– The Banff Mountain Film Festival An annual presentation of short films and documentaries about mountain culture, sports, and environment, the nationally touring Banff Mountain Film Festival offers a program of more than two hours of thought-provoking films.

May 20–21, Byron Theatre, Byron Bay banffaustralia.com.au 05– Get in the Green Room The Beach Hotel’s new Green Room highlights the best Byron has to offer, while taking ‘shop local’ to the next level with all of their food and beverages locally sourced. Join them for the Sunset Special, 3-6pm daily, $12 selected cocktails and half-priced oysters! @greenroombyronbay

Born and raised in Byron Bay, Stone & Wood Brewery is proudly local and independent, brewing approachable beer in the Northern Rivers. Inspired by the idea of the ‘village brewery’, we strive to operate as a conscious business and give back to our community.

Our recently constructed brewery is a spacious steel-and-timber complex that combines 31 brewing tanks, a canteen, brewery tours and a Tasting Room under one roof.

Besides good beer, our brewery reflects a simpler, slower approach to life best known in the Northern Rivers. Pop in for a beer, lunch or a tour and we’ll show you how good that really tastes – cheers.

TASTING ROOM OPERATING HOURS (*NSW time): Weekdays 11.00am – 5.00pm | Weekends 12.00pm – 6.00pm (02) 6685 5173 | www.stoneandwood.com.au

FOOD

+ DRINK

LET’S EAT WITH THE SEASONS

WORDS–

PICKLES–

Aarna Hudson @aarnakristina

Peace Love & Vegetables @peaceloveandvegetables

PHOTO–

Alive Foods @byronbayalivefoods

Lila Theodoros

Pickle it!

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As we head toward the end of autumn and into winter, we embrace the cool change, shorter days and the opportunity to go slow and reflect.

but the results are worth it. And the cooler months are the perfect time for a leisurely pace. We took inspiration from Cultured Foods for your Kitchen by Leda Scheintaub – enjoy this perfect pickle recipe!

We crave hearty, wholesome meals and sip on warm hydrating drinks, taking the time to enjoy the beauty of autumnal sunsets, early dinners and deep, relaxing slumber. Add some yoga, deep breathing and long walks into your routine.

And it’s also the perfect season to embrace your roots. Get grounded and earthy and support your gut!

Just like the soil, our gut microbiome needs the right elements to support healthy growth.

Nutrients and bacteria need to be in harmony as more research shows that our general health, skin and wellbeing are reliant on a balanced gut rich in good bacteria. Our gut plays an important role in the development of white blood cells which help our body to fight infection.

We love the benefits of traditionally fermented and probiotic cultured sauerkraut and pickled vegetables to keep our gut flora healthy and diverse.

Hearty root vegetables take well to fermentation and are the perfect side dish to slow cooked stews, as part of an antipasto platter, or to give that sour crunch in a nori roll. It takes time,

Basic Salt Brine: – 2L filtered water – 5 to 6 tablespoons fine sea salt

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In a small saucepan, combine 480mls of water and the salt and bring to a simmer. Set aside, stirring occasionally, until the salt is dissolved. Pour into a glass jar and add the remaining 1.5L of water.

Cover and store in the fridge.

Brining Method for Root Vegetable Pickling: – 2 x 500ml wide mouth jars – Clean tea towel Ingredients: – Handful of whole black peppercorns, four bay leaves, fennel seeds – 650gm carrots or beetroot, scrubbed and cut into crudites (if carrots are small you can keep them whole, you just may need to ferment them longer) – 2 cups Basic Salt Brine Method: Put the herbs and/or spices in two 500ml jars; turn the jars on their sides and, working horizontally, tightly

pack the vegetables into the jars (they will shrink a little as they ferment so packing them tightly prevents them from floating as they shrink). Pour enough of the salt brine over them to cover, leaving at least 2 ½ cm of space remaining at the top. If they float in the vrine, wedge in another stick or two. Cover with a lid. Place the jars on a rimmed plate (a glass pie dish works nicely) to catch any potential leakage or bubbling over when you open the lid, cover with a clean tea towel, to keep insects at bay, and set aside in a cool place away from sunlight to ferment. After a few days, check your veges, removing mould if any develops.

The brine may start to look a little cloudy, and bubbly froth will form at the top.

You may also see bubbles forming in the carrots at the top, which is a normal sign of fermentation. When you check your veges, occasionally taste one to see how far they’ve fermented and decide if they’ve soured to your liking. Your veges will be ready in three days to two weeks, depending on the season and kitchen temperature and how tangy and crunchy you like them. Place in the refrigerator, covered where they will keep for about six months.

PICKLE IT!

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FOOD

+ DRINK

ME, MY SHOP AND I

Bread and pies. Coffee and smiles. This is exactly what you get when you walk into the welcoming space of the brand new Baker & Daughters – as well as the most delicious baked and handmade takeaway treats you can imagine!

Owners Matt and Beck Marshall 28 Burringbar St Mullumbimby, NSW @bakeranddaughters

Baker & Daughters Can you describe the concept behind Baker & Daughters?

Baker & Daughters is a happy place to be. Our intention is to serve good honest wholesome food. The best bread you will find in the Shire, the happiest faces. A place to meet – to chat – to inspire.

What deliciousness will we discover in your shop?

You will find daily racks of very very very good bread. Excellent pies and rolls, a growing menu of fresh sandwiches made daily on fresh l’ancienne rolls. We serve up Blackboard Roasters coffee – we love working with companies that have such honest ethics and integrity. Our blueberry spelt scones have been legends since the day they were invented at The Organic Republic Bondi Beach. We are endlessly coming up with ideas and trying out 12

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new things – the balance is in getting it just right. We like listening and responding.

Why did you choose Mullumbimby for your shop location?

We live in Mullum so it is the perfect location. No more 3am starts in Byron Bay! We love our little town and growing a business in a growing community felt just right.

What do you love about working in your community?

Community is how we open the doors everyday. So we feel really grateful to be part of such an strong, vibrant and nurturing one. We love the diversity of our customers and their interest in good quality food and produce.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Lots of places. Matt (hubby/baker/dad/ all round captain) is a massive inspiration. He is humble and calm yet extremely talented and

knowledgeable when it comes to all things baking and bread. He is very inspiring to work alongside. Lately we have been looking around the USA. We are kind of in love with the deli sandwich concept – it is a fine line between what’s cool at Tartine Bakery in San Francisco and how that translates to Mullumbimby. But we are giving it go.

What’s on the menu?

At the moment we are serving up some pretty ace bagels. Pies are the new crush – we are expanding our range over the next few weeks. You can also find bread, pastries and daily sandwiches. Chris (think Milk and Honey circa 2014) has been making a lunchtime pizza debut. We are also working on our winter menu. Lots of roasted yum.

BAR. FOOD. COCKTAILS.

Open from 12pm-Midnight everyday Sunday until 11pm @loftbyronbay

loftbyronbay.com.au

Paradiso-Half-Page-Ad.indd 3

3/4/19 12:00 pm

Jatana Interiors specialises in stunning antique and reproduction tiles, in capturing moments that take your breath away, and the beauty of life.

@jatanainteriors Ph: (02) 66 884 235 jatanainteriors.com.au

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CHOOSE TO

Buy

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Local 07

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SHOP LOCAL

From homewares to jewellery to interiors to a delicious breakfast, feast your eyes on what our local makers have to offer ...

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01+04 Argenton Design

05 Farmer Jo

Rose Gold Regal Crown Black Tourmaline and Black Diamond Ring + Yellow Gold Tourmaline Moroccan Clover Bracelet

Salted Maple Baked Muesli with Cashews and Roasted Almonds + Coconut Porridge Roasted in Maple Syrup with Chia Seeds

Why is it important to choose local?

Shopping locally supports people and not big corporations, and allows artists to express their creativity. It also allows the buyer to find something unique to treasure or to gift, that is personal and not mass produced. Shopping locally also reduces environmental impacts Tell us about your business?

Argenton Design is relatively new to Byron Bay, opening last year, but has been in business since 2001. Specialising in Rose, Yellow and White Gold. All of our gold and silver pieces are made with ethical metals, and are manufactured in Australia with environmentally friendly methods. All diamonds used are conflict free.

What do you love about being in business in Northern NSW? What’s not to love?! Northern NSW has this lovely story and history of being a place that nurtures your health and wellbeing. So it makes complete sense that it has become a hub for some incredible brands who are innovators in the natural food and beverage market with a shared vision of doing good business and producing natural, real foods. We are so grateful to be a part of this community.

Tell us about your business?

Farmer Jo is a small family business and we have been producing muesli and granola for almost 10 years now. We make products that are made from whole foods, are nutrition focussed and taste delicious.

Our blends are free from any nasty or unnecessary ingredients. We love food and giggles and hope to share what we learn along the way.

@argentondesign

02+06 Hawker Vintage Vintage Terracotta Pots + Vintage Rosewood and Leather Danish Armchair

Tell us about your business ...

Hawker Vintage is a curated homewares and furniture store filled with personally sourced vintage from the USA. Through Hawker we hope to encourage consumers to source their pieces from the pool of beautiful products that already exist in our world.

What is your business mantra?

Hawker has three main principles: personal, artisanal and sustainable. This keeps Hawker grounded and has firmly set our intentions on the direction of the business and what we want to put out into the world. @iamhawker

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Why is it important to choose local?

Because we can! Living in the beautiful Byron bubble gives us all this opportunity to live sustainably by choosing local. There’s no telling where the good will go when we all help to sustain local business.

Tell us about your business?

From start to heart, Love Mae strives to ethically bring beauty and functionality to the world of kid-focussed décor, dinnerware and design. @lovemaestudio

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@farmerjomuesli

07 Clean Coast Collective Vegan Reusable Straw Set

Tell us about your business ...

We're a not-for-profit, helping clean up our coastlines and switching people away from harmful single-use plastics. We believe in slowing down and always purchasing with our planet in mind. Our selection of plastic-free products help people move towards a lowimpact life, with all profits helping fund our annual clean up expeditions in remote Australia.

What do you love about being in business in Northern NSW? The business community in Northern NSW is beautifully collaborative – so much so, that I get a rude shock when confronted with the competitive 'city' mentality! We seem to work together more here, and follow the ethos of 'collaboration over competition'. @cleancoastcollective

HOME

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MAKE

WORDS–

Angus Goozée @breathing_rooms MUSE–

Martin Johnston @martin_johnston_

Worlds Colliding Following an afternoon swim in the Brunswick River, it’s golden hour when I show up at Martin Johnston’s wood shop in the little town of Billinudgel. A big goanna scurries off into the scrub next to the shed as I let myself in. I find Martin finishing off what I learn is the collaborative effort between himself and a Japanese architect who’d commissioned the table. It’s beautiful. Solid American Oak, clean original lines, minimalist, modern, seamless joinery, a timeless piece. He tells me how he had to hand cut each pin holding the tenons into their mortises because he couldn’t find any dowel to match the timber. He tells me how the brass bracing and bolts that support the top onto its elegant frame were hand forged and tapped by a local bike manufacturer. He shows me the underside of the table, its flawless finish mirrors that of the top, and although no-one will ever know that, he tells me that he would. This is a place where the devil does not live in the details, this is a level of craftsmanship where nothing gets overlooked, and frankly, I’m kind of in awe as we sit down with a beer for a chat.

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MARTIN JOHNSTON

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MAKE

Where did this all start? How did you get into making furniture?

Well, I guess the real story starts at the beginning. I did my apprenticeship with my father and he was a very successful cabinet maker, really respected here in the area. They’d moved up from Sydney, doing the whole post Morning Of The Earth search for greener grass thing.

I was about fifteen so I started tinkering about in his workshop, making skateboards and ramps and stuff like that, which was all pretty fun.

At high school I guess I didn’t have a heap of direction, so Dad threw me into the deep end with an apprenticeship, which seemed pretty intense at the time, but now, in hindsight I know that completing it was probably the best thing I ever did. But to be honest, at the time I didn’t really like the job and was looking for something else. I wanted something more creative so I started shaping surfboards and I was also really getting into my photography. I invested a fair bit of money into that, I bought a decent camera, and I wanted to travel and shoot, so I filled a backpack and my partner and I left on an around the world ticket, through The States, Europe, Northern Africa, and then into India. When we were in London, we worked for Urban Outfitters in a huge five story department store. Down below, in the basement of the building was this workshop where they made all the shop fittings. There we were, these hillbillies from Billinudgel, and we were rubbing shoulders with all of these cool and interesting people who were making furniture for the shop. They were really talented guys, and they just had this really inspiring way of making things. They brought that creative element to the process of cabinet making that I was really hungry for. I’d found it making surfboards and I’d found it taking photos, but until then I hadn’t really experienced it through cabinet making, so suddenly my whole 18

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perspective had changed. I saw how I could apply my traditional skills and have fun designing and creating modern furniture. Also, my bus stop at the time was right out the front of a really big, high end furniture shop. Everyday I was looking into this warmly lit, beautifully designed building, with all of these incredible famous pieces, and I guess that was like dangling the cherry in front of me, showing me what was possible.

When we landed back home nine years ago, I just got straight back into the workshop, got the ball rolling and it’s just been slowly getting bigger and bigger ever since.

How did you find that transition, moving from London back to Billinudgel, and what were the challenges in setting up your business here?

I often laugh at that now, being here in Billinudgel, I really feel like I couldn’t be any further away from that life. Growing up here and having always lived in this area, when I first started to get into furniture, it was fairly apparent that I wouldn’t be able to stay here. I always thought I’d have to move to Melbourne or Sydney to make a name for myself. But in the last ten years, or even less, this area has jumped forward. It hasn’t moved slowly, it has literally just boomed. To the point where a small furniture business, that makes one-off pieces in little old Billinudgel can actually really flourish. It’s sort of weird to be in this situation, but I feel really lucky that I am, and now it seems like a strong point to be based here in Byron. It feels like the whole world wants to come to you.

When I talk to my dad about it, he is completely perplexed by the current state of the furniture industry here. For an old school tradesman like him, to think that I’m dealing with an architect from Japan, making a table here in Billinudgel that’s going down to Broken Head, he just can’t

MARTIN JOHNSTON

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I’m always battling with [my ethos of sustainable practices] internally and constantly thinking about ways of reducing our waste as a business. I understand that it all comes down to my decisions around what products I choose to work with.

even consider how that works. I’m blown away by it too to be honest.

It’s wild. The Byron Shire that I know, it was once upon a time this sleepy coastal village that had nothing much going for it but really good waves.

Now, all of a sudden there are so many interesting people here, and people who are excited to support the arts, and of course, we now have the internet, which means there’s some bloke in Osaka who now knows how to say Billinudgel. So living and working here is a breeze compared to what it used to be.

Are you wanting more of these international clients?

While I’d like to get more international work, at the same time, I’d like to go down the street and see a café or a restaurant filled with my pieces, or bump into someone at the markets and have them say “Hey, your dining table is doing so well in our home.”

I’d like to remain a part of the local community just as much as I like being recognised by the national or international community.

I found myself in IKEA the other day, and it is insane to see how cheap that stuff is getting. I was thinking that while it might seem cheap for us, someone must be paying for it, whether it be the planet or the underpaid workers doing the manufacturing. Do you think this new appreciation for bespoke, heirloom furniture is coming forward as a resistance to the questionable ethics behind our disposable culture?

One hundred percent! I think everyone was excited maybe twenty years ago that you could get stuff cheap and quick. But people know the quality now. People understand that just because you can click a button and have it delivered tomorrow, doesn’t mean it’s going to still be around for the next tomorrow. People were excited by it, but now they’re kind of over it. I mean the pieces that we make, we pick our materials because they are durable and they are going to age gracefully, the finishes will only get better and better with time. We run a traditional pricing setup, in the sense that we buy the materials, we do the time, and that’s how we price a piece. But, the family who buy it, they might keep it for multiple generations and every time it gets used, they’re saving money. The initial price might shock people who have become accustomed to pop-out products, but when you consider the fact that it’s going to be around for such a long time, in the long run you’re actually saving a fortune.

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What’s your ethos around sustainable practices?

I’m always battling with this internally and constantly thinking about ways of reducing our waste as a business. I understand that it all comes down to my decisions around what products I choose to work with. For example, with our finishes, we try to use oil based or water based finishes as opposed to polyurethanes. This not only helps us breathe when we’re on the job, it also means we’re not emitting toxic, poisonous fumes into the air. The water-based products are better for you and way better for the environment so we encourage our clients to take on that small extra cost for the sake of the planet. With all of our solid timber pieces, we’re working with beautiful and expensive material, so we don’t waste any of it. All of the offcuts end up getting used in future projects, and the really small pieces are used as firewood to cook the stove when we go camping or light a fire on a winter’s night. So essentially there’s no waste when it comes to solid timber furniture. It’s really about educating our clients on using the better products to help steer the ship in a greener direction. My theory with regards to waste is that if we design it better, and we build it better, then we’re essentially not having to throw it out because it’s lasting so much longer.

Looking into the future, how do you think the current generation of furniture designer/makers in Australia are going to be characterised?

When I was travelling, I bumped into a lot of Americans and my eyes were really opened to the fact that people overseas were excited by our fashion, art and music scenes here in Australia and I think equally with our furniture makers. There are so many design fairs, books and magazines that are focusing on Australian and New Zealand designers now and they’re only getting stronger as the industry moves forward. I think it’s a good thing that we’ve got these quiet achievers here. We’ve always been a working class country, we prove ourselves through hard work and making really good quality pieces and now we’re being recognised for it so it’s exciting. I’d like to think I’m part of that by making things well, things that look cool, and things that are going to be around for a long time. They’re the boxes I’m trying to tick and if that’s becoming the trend, then great, but that’s not why I’m doing it, I’m just doing it because it feels like the right approach.

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HOME

+ DESIG N

WHERE THE HEART IS — IS WHERE I LIVE

Welcome to Quandong Cottage 22

Paradiso ~ May—Jun 2019 ~ LOVE ...

WORDS–

MUSE–

Nat Woods @nat.woods_

Zana Wright @zanawright

PHOTOS–

STYLING–

Anna Hutchcroft @annahutch_photo

Rosie Brown Hawker Vintage @iamhawker

QUANDONG COTTAG E

WO R DS TO I N S P I R E– 01 . E A RT H 02 . S U R RO U N DS 03 . C O N T E M P O R A RY 04 . S PAC E 05. N AT U R E

When we create our own homes, we tend to shape the design around what suits our lifestyle and our aesthetics – for local architect, Zana Wright, designing a cottage on her parent’s land was more about creating something that suited the local landscape. We spent a glorious morning basking in the soft sunshine at this beautifully low-impact home.

Who lives here?

My partner Sam, myself, and lots of tiny creatures.

The first thing you notice when you visit Quandong Cottage is the way that natural materials are celebrated so beautifully, but also in quite a contemporary way – as the architect who designed the home, what was your vision for the home?

Alan Watts once said “I define a materialist as a person who loves material, and who reverences it, and

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who delights in using it to its best advantage”.

I wanted to create a house which honoured its materials in their most raw form, made sense in relation to its ‘place’, and had a minimal environmental footprint.

We hear so much about ‘food miles’, yet we hear very little about ‘material miles’ when it comes to shaping our homes. So I looked at what natural materials were available in our surrounding area, and allowed these to play a large role in generating the design. I wanted to challenge the assumption that natural building techniques and earth materials can only be used for making “hippie-hobbit-homes”, by showing that they too can shape a beautiful, simple, contemporary place to live.

My initial (idealistic) vision was to excavate into the hill and use the earth to build the rammed earth walls, but when we tested the soil we found it was almost 100% clay which wasn’t appropriate, so the materials for the walls mostly came from local quarries at Broken Head and Pottsville.

We did, however, manage to use the clay from

HOME

+ DESIG N

WHERE THE HEART IS — IS WHERE I LIVE

So many of the spaces we inhabit keep us so comfortable that they disconnect us from what is happening in the natural world around us.

This allows us to easily forget that we are part of nature also.

the site to make the earthen floor, which also comprised Broken Head sand, and sugar cane mulch from a farm at Mullumbimby, instead of the more conventional straw.

Rather than opting for commonly used Indonesian rainforest timbers or Tassie Oak, we limited our palette to timbers which grow in North Eastern NSW and South East Queensland. Everybody loves to use birch plywood which is shipped all the way from Scandinavia or Russia, but I found that our local Hoop Pine plywood grown and manufactured a couple of hours away in South East Queensland, was a very similar colour and equally lovely.

We used it to line the ceilings, and all of the ceiling’s offcuts were used to build the joinery.

The retaining walls are made from our local columnar basalt, collected from a farmer’s paddock at Alstonville. This type of stone is a very identifiable part of the Byron vernacular, and one of the few locally sourced materials commonly seen in buildings and landscaping around this area.

I tried to keep every element of the house true to the vision throughout the process, but I certainly had to learn to relinquish my idealism at times, pick my battles and make plenty of compromises, as many decisions still had to come back to the budget and practicality.

The home seems to nestle into its surroundings and gracefully sit upon the landscape, tell us how you’ve designed the home to work with nature.

The home should feel at one with its surroundings because it is literally made from them! I hope that when experiencing this home, one should be able to locate themselves as being situated right here in this part of our vast land, and not feel like they could be in some other corner of Australia, or even Europe or Asia.

The home also works with nature to keep you cool in Summer and warm in Winter. It has been designed to open up during the hotter months to harness the breezes, with the ideal eave depths keeping the rammed earth

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QUANDONG COTTAG E

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HOME

+ DESIG N

WHERE THE HEART IS — IS WHERE I LIVE

walls, slab and earthen floor shaded during this time so that they radiate this cool throughout the day and night.

During the colder months the house closes up, while the eave depths allow the Winter sun to enter and warm the solid materials, radiating this warmth into the house even once the sun has set.

The creation of the home was a bit of a family affair, with you also joining in on the construction, tell us about the journey and who has been involved.

The main structure of the house was primarily built by local sustainable builders Balanced Earth, whom my partner Sam was also working for. Then they signed off and it became a family affair with Sam, my Dad, and I having a great time collaboratively building all of the in-built joinery, kitchen, bathroom, earthen floor and many other details. My Mum did all of the planting and landscaping, and my brother provided manpower from time to time.

Working as an architect can be quite dissatisfying, just sitting in front of a computer screen pushing lines around, sending the drawings off for someone else to build, then moving on to the next project. I personally felt trapped being valued only for my cerebral offerings, and rarely getting the tangible feeling of using my hands to bring an idea into fruition.

When my parents offered me the opportunity to design this small house for their rural property, I saw it is an amazing opportunity to change this, get dirty and actually build something! For this (and much more) I am very grateful to my parents!

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The living spaces, including the bathroom, flow seamlessly between the indoors and outdoors.

What’s it like living in a space that isn’t completely sealed off from the outdoors?

I love how living in a house where I must walk outside to move between spaces brings me so into my body. It allows me to intensely feel the changes which are constantly happening in nature – the cycle of the seasons, when the wind turns westerly, the brewing of a storm, when the koala mating season is happening!

I remember working in offices in the city where I would be inside all day, then leave the building to go home and only then realise that darkness had already fallen, or that it must have been raining earlier judging by the puddles on the footpath.

So many of the spaces we inhabit keep us so comfortable that they disconnect us from what is happening in the natural world around us. This allows us to easily forget that we are part of nature also.

If you could share some wisdom with the whole world on how to design their living spaces, what would you say?

Have a look around you. What natural or recycled materials exist in your local area that you could use to create your space? Allow these to generate your design rather than starting with an aesthetic or a Pinterest board.

Oh, and don’t fall into the trap of feeling like you need to be too comfortable all of the time! A chilly nip between cosy spaces or a hot shower in a cold rainstorm beneath the stars is good for the soul.

WELLBEING

+ PAUSE

MINDFULNESS

slow down 28

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PRU CHAPMAN

CONVERSATION–

Nat Woods @nat.woods_

MUSE–

Pru Chapman @ownerscollective @pruchapman

The seasons change. Nature flows with this transition and changes to suit. Our energy is different in summer than it is in winter. So why do we stay so rigid to a repeating work/ life schedule for 365 days a year? We ask Pru Chapman, Founder and Head Hustler at Owners Collective, in the land of ‘Busy’, how do we let go and slow down ...

Maybe it’s just the ‘Byron bubble’, but it feels like #startuplife is a bit less hustle and bustle, and a little more flow these days—have you noticed this transition?

Globally right now we’re seeing a shift away from the masculine, patriarchal, top-down style of business, and into a more feminine style of working. Within this transition we’re becoming increasingly aware of the natural cycles at play, being the seasons, the moon, and a connection with this land’s traditional custodians. Through this awareness comes knowledge and a greater sense of our own intuition, and as we increasingly trust our intuition, we’re able to work in flow.

Environment plays a huge part in facilitating and supporting this shift, and of the many things I love about our community here in Byron is we work to live, not the other way around. I believe as an engaged and aware community we’re committed to living balanced lives, which is further supported by the traditional heritage of the Byron shire, as well as our breathtaking natural environment.

As a community of business owners I see us all keeping each other accountable to this balance, supporting one another where we can, and ensuring that the lines between work and life are blurred – in the best possible way. After all, it’s all life!

That said, I mentor 30 to 40 business owners each week across Australia and NZ, and I can assure you that the hustle is still real. I just think that we’re ‘doing’ with more awareness, and that it’s for a period of time, rather than a permanent way of being.

Our ancestors lived their lives by the seasons, taking their cues from nature – is it possible to bring a seasonal flow into our modern working lives?

I firmly believe that we’re much less in control than we think we are. There are a huge number of influences much larger than us at play in every given moment, in both business and in life. Looking at seasons and their influence on business in autumn, it’s time to figuratively (and literally) ‘cool down’. This is the season that we reflect on all that outward pouring of energy we did in summer, and assess what worked for us, and what didn’t. It’s also the season where we begin to transition inwards to focus on both the physical and spiritual work – guided by the cooler winds we receive through the autumn currents.

From here we’ll move into winter, which is very much a season influenced by inward energy. The time we go deep within and start asking ourselves the bigger questions in business and life, about how closely aligned we are with our truth and purpose. When shifts need to happen we see the beginnings of them in winter, it’s where the seeds of change are mediated upon and planted. Spring will bring new life, new beginnings, new products, services and offerings. If we’ve allowed ourselves to be guided by this seasonal change we’ll see this new alignment revealed in the springtime. With our energy reserves all topped up we’ll be ready to reenter the world, with fresh energy and perspective. Finally comes summer, typically associated with high energy, big output, and social times. It’s here that our energy is at its highest as we celebrate bringing our new offerings into the world, and the impact they create.

In January you posted on Instagram about working half time, which I loved—do you think we fixate too much on sticking to the modern calendar and work week?

I think it’s so easy to get caught up in collective energy and momentum that sometimes we forget that we make our own rules. Many of us run to age old paradigms with the first being around ‘must work 29

9am-5pm’, and the other being ‘the more successful I want to be, the harder I have to work’. Put simply, both of these are very outdated. It’s so important, particularly for those of us who have chosen to launch our own gig, to bring awareness to our patterns, and whether we created or inherited them.

For me personally at the time, I was reflecting on the yearly cycle that I’ve known growing up in Australia, in that even from school days, we worked all year and then took a solid six weeks off to spend time with family and friends, connect with nature, and have fun! This cycle was repeated for the best part of my first 23 years on this planet, and significantly thereafter in my working life too, so it’s almost as if my body was rejecting anything that looked remotely like a full time working week. Indeed, there were things to be done, so I found the commitment to half-time work played out beautifully. It ensured that all my responsibilities and ’have to’s’ were met, and then allowed plenty of guilt-free time to play.

Any tips for starting the day with less rush and more ease?

I’m naturally an early riser, Type A personality, and action taker, so flow and ease have to be a very conscious choice for me – so that’s where I begin my day, with choice. In the moment between when I wake up and before I open my eyes each day, I ask myself, “How do you want to feel today?” This simple question immediately brings awareness and presence into my day.

I then get up and begin my day with a mindful cup of tea looking over the incredible view from my balcony. Before I returned to Byron a few years ago and was living in the city grind, I used to dream about having a view, so I’m sure that I take a few moments of gratitude for that each morning. From there, I’m a big fan of getting into nature to feel in flow, so it’s a lighthouse or Lennox point walk to start the day.

To really protect this time I never schedule meetings before 10am, and I also steer clear of email until then. While I’m present and in flow first thing in the morning, I work on creating things—which is always the best way to start the day.

We’ve become so disconnected from the natural world that we forget that our planet can only supply so much—yet the entrepreneur world is obsessed with bigger and better. How do we set a limit on how much is enough?

I think this comes down to making mindful decisions about what we want, and why we want it. Bigger is not always better, and I’ve seen this time and time again having literally worked with thousands of business owners.

The advice I’d give here is to encourage people to get clear on the lifestyle they want to be living in five year’s time. To really consider where they want to live, how often they want to work, and most importantly how they want to spend their days. A bigger business most often also brings bigger overheads, bigger responsibility, bigger team and bigger risk. For some people the pay off of bigger impact and bigger dollars is worth it, but for many the ‘bigger is better’ paradigm never served us in the first place.

I’m much more interested in the impact people create. Big or small. The positive impact both individuals and business can create through our local and global communities, is much more impressive than a bunch of dollars in the bank. Serendipitously I’m just about to launch a project talking about just this! One Wild Ride is an exploration of living more meaningful and connected lives. Check it out at onewildride.co

WELLBEING

+ KNOWLEDG E

LISTEN

WORDS–

Nat Woods @nat.woods_

The Activists:

I got asked a while back whether I consider myself an activist, and at the time I shied away from the label—I wasn’t out on the frontline chaining myself to trees, so did I deserve to add ‘Activist’ to my title?

Now I see that activism can take many forms, all as necessary as each other.

We can all be activists, whether it’s calling out injustice in everyday situations, to voting with our wallets, to signing online petitions, or joining a protest.

The world needs activists, maybe now more than ever. We chat to Lauren Hill and Dave Rastovich— lovers, surfers, parents, and activists. Dave and Lauren are those special people who are not tied to just one small issue, but are committed to the broader cause of protecting our oceans and planet from whatever threat they are up against. Beyond adding their voices to important causes, the pair also live on this land as gently as they can.

Lauren Hill, Surfer, Writer, Mumma @theseakin Dave Rastovich, Professional Free Surfer and Patagonia Ambassador

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Do you remember the first time your activist spirit was activated within you and for what cause?

Lauren: I first felt the pangs of injustice as a high school student. I think I was 15 or 16 and President George W. Bush was sending troops to Iraq to wage war. I remember feeling like warfare seemed so illogical to making the world more peaceful. It was the first time I took to the streets and peacefully protested with a bunch of elders, and the first time I had someone spit in my face and tell me I was ‘a disgrace to my country.’ There was an enduring lesson about activism and tenacity in there.

Dave: Well ... for me it came through travelling as a surfer and seeing ecosystem destruction occur from season to season.

Do you think activism manifests itself differently within women and men?

L: I reckon we all have our own gifts to offer to the world, and gender definitely shapes how those gifts manifest in our lives.

D: I feel like it just manifests differently for people in general. There are effective activists from every walk of life – doesn’t matter the background, gender,religion or age – if you are motivated to act, then nothing will stop you.

Sometimes the problems of the world seem so heavy, so big, so complex. How do you stay optimistic?

L: I get in the ocean, make love, fossick for shells, fall in love again and again, laugh or cry with my son. In other words: re-connect. And not be tempted to substitute connectivity (via social media or digital device) for real world, full sensory, deep eye-contact connection. Do whatever helps you remember the magic.

D: Localising my focus keeps me realistic and free from that feeling of being too small or powerless to make positive change. I don’t participate in mainstream news so I don’t get that propaganda in my head and I think that is a big reason I stay upbeat.

What do you think is the most important thing we can do everyday to protect our planetary home and the people in our community?

L: If you’re going to buy something, support a local business. Local legend Helena NorbergHodge calls localism the “solution that begets solutions” because supporting local food,

industry or business has far reaching effects socially, environmentally and economically.

Supporting a local bank, like the local Credit Union is a great way to keep money circulating in our community, to bolster local efforts and keep your money from funding the kinds of dubious projects some of the big banks invest in (like fossil fuels).

D: I feel it is good to not label things as more or less important, when we feel it in our guts that we have to act on an issue we know it is truly what we need to be doing. If you need to convince yourself of the importance of something then maybe it’s not truly what you should be doing. We gotta do something about what keeps us up at night – something that rattles our bones and sparks a fire in us.

If you could send a message to our global leaders, what would it be?

L: I guess I’d like to sit down with each one individually and have a conversation about what makes their heart sing and what made their heart sing as a child. And then talk about policy from that heart-forward space of openness. Haha. Have I lived in Byron too long?

D: Well ... to be honest I don’t see too many world leaders. I do see people down the beach or around my local town and usually it feels right to talk about our local area and how to look after it – that feels like a good conversation and one that I can focus on that might actually take some shape. Otherwise I don’t really give much thought to those vacuous people in politics.

WORD

What Women Want

Media and marketing tells us what we should love, want and need every single day, but what do the women of the Paradiso community really want? We put it out to the community, and this is what they said…

Equal pay.

Not being asked to “smile”.

For young girls to understand their self worth and have women role models to be proud of.

To not have the societal pressure to wear a bra.

F**k underwire!

To be able to be assertive, without being labelled ‘bossy’.

Not having a man apologise to you for swearing when you’re the only woman in a meeting.

— No f**cking worries, Bill.

Not being asked “Is your husband babysitting tonight?” — I don’t pay him to look after his own children.

Autonomy over our bodies.

To be heard, really heard.

For you to not be surprised that I am a woman and speaking with such truth and transparency and honesty, and for you to not challenge my authority just because I am in a female form.

More women running countries from a place of feminine power.

Education for girls and women everywhere around the world.

Not being asked “Do you plan to have children?” in a job interview.

Not being asked ‘Is the business owner here?’... at your own business.

To be able to talk about money without emotion or feeling like we’re not “worth” it.

For intersectionality to be recognised, acknowledged and addressed by the majority.

And for all the people out there in our community who identify as a woman, here is a message from our beautiful friend, Danielle Purcell, a wonderfully wise woman we are honoured to know – she speaks of a quiet revolution, a return to a matriarchal consciousness, a way of making change inspired by mother nature: “You can be a quiet little Audrey Hepburn and you can still move mountains. Learn how to enjoy quiet power. Just go plant the forest.

You don’t need to expend such an enormous amount of energy to rally. Reserve that and begin your quiet revolution.

Women will save the planet. And it will be done in a quiet and calm, harmonious position.

Flowers do not get up and rant and rave. They just shine beauty. Trees just grow. We accept seasons. We go with the flow of nature. She knows. Ride the river. Ride the tide.

Plant that forest.”

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WELLBEING

+ PAUSE

ESSAY

WORDS–

Ellie Beck @petalplum

Seasons – letting go Across my garden I see the shifts in the season. The small persimmon tree is the first to colour, then loose its leaves, followed slowly slowly by the large persimmon tree, that always seems weeks behind in its colour stories.

I love this, the way that in our garden the change in season from the heights of Summer to the glow of Autumn is an evolving wave of colour-shift.

The deep glossy green leaves turn golden, red, russet, brown, yellow. Slowly the tree is turning inwards, removing the layers – the leaves – that it won’t need during the colder months; conserving its energy. A tree knows, from deep in its seed memory, that Winter is slower for growth, less food and warmth, so it slows down its growing cycles, little by little, over the coming weeks the tree stops or slows down the production of chlorophyll which means green leaves become those glorious Autumn hues.

Living in this climate, where Winter becomes an antidote to Summer’s heat and humidity, we sometimes forget to slow down, to turn inwards, to rest and nourish ourselves. Autumn is the gentle middle of wondering what day will be the last frolic in Summer’s ocean, or finally having a cool breeze and the vague thoughts of gathering firewood.

Our Winter nights are soft and cool, our mornings sometimes frosty, but we aren’t dictated by a deep cold like other regions, and sometimes I think we forget the importance of letting go, of easing gently into the seasonal changes. Of creating some rituals or rhythms with which to guide us through the longer nights.

By noticing and reflecting upon the seasonal changes within our gardens and landscapes, we can become more attuned to watching the seasonal growth or decline in our own selves. To accept that the shortening days are coming, means we can learn to accept the flow in our personalities, our work output, our energy levels. To recognise that seasons move less

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with the calendar and more with a wild cycle shows us that our human nature can ebb and flow, without criticism, guilt or timetables.

Learning to read the trees, the way they let go of unneeded leaves or branches can be a beacon of understanding for allowing ourselves to let go of things that no longer serve us. Slowly choosing what emotions, actions, reactions, projects, even friendships we might be clinging to and knowing that by shedding our leaves we’re giving ourselves the extra energy to nourish ourselves through the colder leaner darker months.

Standing bare-branched in the Winter sky brings about a new sense of freedom in yourself, giving space for the emerging growth and blossoming of Springtime. *I like to use capitals when I talk about the seasons, as I feel sad the English language hasn’t given them the respect of being proper noun.

By noticing and reflecting upon the seasonal changes within our gardens and landscapes, we can become more attuned to watching the seasonal growth or decline in our own selves.

A travel and experience annual Northern NSW, Australia No.01, 2018-2019 OUT NOW – found at stockists throughout Northern NSW or buy online.

Brought to you by Paradiso

Published annually, Take Away is an exploration of the unique creative consciousness thriving in Northern NSW, Australia and the key elements that support and sustain this community. Enjoy feature stories with local creatives, experiential essays, fashion editorial, photo essays and a curated selection of the area’s best food, drinks, retailers, experiences and accommodation. thisisparadiso.com.au/takeaway

THIS COMMUNITY

OF OURS

CELEBRATING

WORDS–

Nat Woods @nat.woods_

Good People

Delta Kay – Culture Aware Delta has a quiet and humble presence that commands your attention.

While some people feel the need to raise their voice to be heard, Delta speaks gently, with strong conviction and truth – if you’ve seen her open a local event with a Welcome To Country, then you’ll know what I mean. Delta is the local Arakwal Bumberbin representative, a role passed down to her from her Mother. Her family has lived on this land for thousands of years, caring for it and for its visitors. I sat down with Delta to speak about a new initiative, Culture Aware, which supports indigenous people here on Bundjalung country, and all around the world, to stop cultural appropriation.

Most people would recognise you from your Welcome To Country ceremonies at the commencement of events – what is a Welcome To Country?

A Welcome To Country is done by the traditional people of that specific area. It is a ceremony to welcome visitors, because we are responsible for all visitors to our land. We welcome you, and you are part of our family while you’re here, and in return you’re expected to behave appropriately while you’re here as a guest. Even myself, as an Aboriginal woman, I’m also a guest on this land, on Mother Earth. I’m expected to behave appropriately too.

The ‘modern’ idea of ownership over land has really destroyed our ability to see the land as a whole, rather than just as little plots that we own, hasn’t it?

As humans, we are all here for such a short time. Sharing and looking after each other is so important – they’re the basic elements of being humans and of community. We should be looking after each other and our land – she’s our Mother, and we rely on her for everything, so shouldn’t we look after her so our children’s children can rely on her?

The colonised mindset is to see the land as a resource.

But how can we make a community if we’re going to have that mindset? We want people to come here and feel welcomed, to entrench themselves in our community, to work together in harmony and respect.

We’ve all got something to contribute – we can all share something in the community, such as knowledge, resources, skills, and stories.

You’re now part of the team building Culture Aware, an initiative to protect indigenous culture from cultural appropriation – why is this an important initiative to you personally?

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I noticed through my role performing Welcome To Country over the years I was feeling uncomfortable and confused with the presenters at most events. At the time I couldn’t label why I felt wrong but I knew what I was seeing and hearing wasn’t right so I would leave the event.

I’d see these ceremonies with a mish-mash of different cultures – taking a little bit from this native culture, and a little bit from another – and I’d leave the event because I knew in my heart that it wasn’t right what they were doing, that they didn’t have the birthright to be performing those cultures. So I’ve been watching these ceremonies that people are doing at events – giving themselves labels or titles, and cherry-picking parts of different native cultures around the world, and presenting it as a ceremony that they have a right to perform – and the more that this was happening, I just felt that events in this region were losing their integrity. Culture Aware is about educating people and helping protect indigenous cultures from losing their culture.

Do you think that we’re seeing more people adopting parts of other cultures and claiming them as their own because of globalisation?

Sure. People can go on Youtube and learn everything now – they think they can learn how to play didgeridoo and then become a didgeridoo healer, but it doesn’t work like that, it’s not your birthright and you’re doing that ceremony out of context.

Those ceremonies are traditionally being done by senior law holders – people who had learned these ways over many years and earned that role within the community. You can’t just watch Youtube, or go to a workshop, and then go out and think you can do these things.

I guess some people would say that they are just appreciating another culture by learning about it and sharing parts of it.

GOOD PEOPLE

“We want to strengthen communities, to give indigenous and nonindigenous people the tools to call people out if they’re not doing the right thing on country.”

Native people deal with their cultures holistically, we take the good with the ugly. For Aboriginal people in Australia, our people have the highest rates of imprisonment, the highest rate of infant mortality – we are such a minority in our own country, on our own land.

Being culturally aware will protect native cultures around the world. If we sit back and ignore this stuff happening at the moment, then it dilutes our cultures and what will our young people do? There won’t be a culture left … it will be so mixed up. Imagine in ten year’s time, are people going to understand the truth of native cultures if they’re all mish mashed together? We need to keep our cultural integrity. Of course, native cultures are always evolving and we have to evolve to survive, but we will evolve our own way to protect our culture, not by westerners getting involved and taking our culture for themselves.

It’s great that the Byron Shire has this appreciation of native cultures, but for us to appreciate it in the future, we need it to be strong and practiced by native people. Everyone can still participate and experience some aspects of native culture, but only when it is performed by people of that birthright, in the right context, and with an invitation to join the ceremony.

What is your hope for native communities through Culture Aware?

I feel real hope being affiliated with Culture Aware that people will listen and have more of an awareness about cultural appropriation and the harmful effects. We want to strengthen communities, to give indigenous and non-indigenous people the tools to call people out if they’re not doing the right thing on country. It can feel quite vulnerable to go into these ceremonies and communities to ask people to stop what they’re doing, but the circle of people we have already gathered through Culture Aware gives me strength and feel safe enough to say that I don’t like what they’re doing.

As a global indigenous community, through the connections made through Culture Aware, we now have authority to call out ceremonies from different cultures that we see being disrespected – so there’s this network of indigenous people all over the world and we’re all looking out for each 35

other’s cultures. And when we travel, if we attend events or venues that are Culture Aware accredited, then we can trust that the event will be authentic and in right relationship with the traditional owners – that you’re paying for something authentic.

And what do you hope for locally?

Through Culture Aware I’d love to unite the Bundjalung People and strengthen our nation. I want to protect our languages, our art, our stories, and I want to share our culture so people have a deeper awareness and understanding of the First Peoples. We’ve got a really important role to play to look after our country, to look after our visitors, but we need this platform to be empowered to do it in a proper way.

So let’s protect our ceremonies and sacred sites, and let the first people do it in our own way.

Are there sacred sites in Bundjalung country that you’d like to be more protected?

I don’t want to talk too deeply about sacred sites, because of my upbringing by my elders – sacred sites are a deeper level of our cultures and it’s really important that we keep it in our family, because we have a duty of care to protect those sacred sites. And they’re sacred for a reason!

All I ask is that people avoid sacred sites. I ask people to choose avoidance out of respect of these sacred places.

Bundjalung people didn’t go to sacred sites for ordinary business, they were visited during important times for important reasons. And that’s why they’re sacred. Two well known places we ask people to avoid are the women’s lake at Suffolk Park, and Wollumbin (Mount Warning). I ask people to make the choice not to climb Wollumbin and to not go to the women’s lake.

Thank you so much, Delta, for your time. What can people do to support Culture Aware?

If you’re at an event or see something and your gut is telling you that it’s wrong, then don’t support it. Don’t give your money to it. Pay attention to those red flags. And you can go to the Culture Aware website to learn more. We welcome feedback and we’d love for people who are interested in getting involved to get in touch. www.cultureaware.org

THIS COMMUNITY

OF OURS

ESSAY

WORDS–

Ella Noah Bancroft @ellanoahbancroft_ @yhi_creations

Connect to Country When I stand on country and become mindful of the surrounding environment, I am constantly in awe of the beauty and magic within the natural world. At five years old I was living in the middle of the rainforest, two and a half hours inland from the east coast of Australia. As I got older I moved to the city and became domesticated, although I still held onto the connection to country. In my cellular memory, the natural environment always felt like home.

Have you ever had a bad day, then you head to the beach and see the vast sea and suddenly all the problems seem to dissolve through your feet and into the sand below? The absolute power of nature to make you grateful and happy and connected.

There is research that has been done that shows the more time we spend in nature, the healthier and happier we can become and the more connected we feel to her.

When we become connected to the land and animals around us we become invested in their survival. We want to coexist and co-create in order for all to thrive. I believe there is a huge link between our consumption epidemic and our dislocation with the natural world. We have become consuming machines, rather than natural beings.

We cannot reduce our environmental footprint until we reduce our consumption, they are intrinsically linked.

Recently I have become perplexed by the sustainable movement. First I was excited and ready for the change. I thought this is going to shift a generation of humans to become more connected and conscious of consumption, but as the sustainability epidemic runs through our communities and country I am starting to see a capitalist undertone.

The definition of sustainability is to avoid the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance. But, suddenly sustainability has become about buying more products when we should be looking to reduce, reuse and recycle. I feel a sense of sadness that we as a global community cannot see that consumption is our biggest problem. We have tricked consumers to believe that they are doing good by the environment by buying reusable coffee cups, bottles, wooden cutlery, reusable straws and lunch boxes. And don’t get me wrong, I do believe we need to reduce oneuse plastic and these items can help, but here’s the hot tip – use an already existing mug to take to your coffee shop, use an old glass bottle as a water bottle, and just say no to straws. And when we are buying, let us buy one coffee

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cup and use it till it no longer holds coffee, let us carry around a water bottle for years to reduce the impact that has already been created. Sustainable practices include buying local, using fewer resources such as petrol and food or counteracting your footprint by gardening and planting trees. The problem with trends is they end and sustainability really can’t end. It has to become a way of life and not a trend. We need to start to develop systems about how we can meet our current needs without jeopardising the ability of future generations to be able to meet theirs.

My passion for protecting the earth has fueled my projects and now I live with integrity and knowledge of my inner truth. My Indigenous heritage has played a key role in my environmental beliefs, but we must all start to see our place on this planet and our connection to country. I am the social entrepreneur and founder of the sustainable clothing brand YHI. Yhi (pronounced Whee) was created to bring about awareness of fast fashion and bring to light the devastating effects that the fashion industry has on our environment. It is the second biggest polluter of our world directly after oil.

YHI produces 100% upcycled clothing. We take secondhand items and give them a new life. Our t-shirts are all saved from going to landfill and are repurposed and resold. We screen print powerful messages on them and send them back into the world. The organisation is a social enterprise and is invested in improving financial, social and environmental well-being for all Australians.

I describe the company as an activist brand. I hope to inspire people to wear their choices and use clothing as a way to fight back against fast fashion, big business, and consumption.

I am deeply passionate about conscious consumption, ethical fashion, community development and reigniting human’s passion for the environmental world.

Let us all try to reconnect to country.

I feel a sense of sadness that we as a global community cannot see that consumption is our biggest problem.

coworking community

Casual and per manent desk s from $20 / day. @the_cor ner_palm thecor nerpalm.com

FASHION

+ BEAUTY

THE GOOD LIFE

PHOTOS–

Jessie Prince @jessiexprince @yaga.journal

I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone

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I WANT TO BE WITH THOSE WHO KNOW SECRET THINGS OR ELSE ALONE

I am too alone in the world, and yet not alone enough to make every moment holy.

I am too tiny in this world, and not tiny enough just to lie before you like a thing, shrewd and secretive.

I want my own will, and I want simply to be with my will, as it goes toward action; and in those quiet, sometimes hardly moving times, when something is coming near, I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone.

I want to be a mirror for your whole body, and I never want to be blind, or to be too old to hold up your heavy and swaying picture.

I want to unfold.

I don’t want to stay folded anywhere, because where I am folded, there I am a lie.

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and I want my grasp of things to be true before you. I want to describe myself like a painting that I looked at closely for a long time, like a saying that I finally understood, like the pitcher I use every day, like the face of my mother, like a ship that carried me through the wildest storm of all.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

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THE GOOD LIFE

I WANT TO BE WITH THOSE WHO KNOW SECRET THINGS OR ELSE ALONE

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THE GOOD LIFE

I WANT TO BE WITH THOSE WHO KNOW SECRET THINGS OR ELSE ALONE

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THE GOOD LIFE

I WANT TO BE WITH THOSE WHO KNOW SECRET THINGS OR ELSE ALONE

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FASHION

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THE GOOD LIFE

I WANT TO BE WITH THOSE WHO KNOW SECRET THINGS OR ELSE ALONE

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ARTS

+ CULTURE

ARTS GUIDE

PHOTO BY CARNIVAL CINEMA

Darcy Grant – from Nimbin to Berlin Nimbin based acrobat, director and performer Darcy Grant is a busy man. He recently premiered a new work at Adelaide Festival, he is performing in NORPA’s sitespecific show Dreamland in Bangalow in May and his own work Fold: A Domestic Circus premieres at NORPA in June before a European tour.

What inspired you to ‘run away and join the circus’?

As a kid in remote far north Queensland I loved sport and my folks were artists. I found out about the amazing Flying Fruit Fly circus school when I was about to go to high school and it seemed like the best way of combining my interests. My parents are adventurers and they encouraged me to apply and I got in. I moved 3500kms to “run away” with the circus and haven’t looked back.

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What are the challenges of working in the arts in a regional area?

Freelancing in the arts from the country is not for the feint hearted. I can safely say that there is no way I could have done so over the last two years without the continual support from NORPA (Northern Rivers Performing Arts). They are one of the few remaining professional theatre companies based in regional Australia creating new work. Not only have NORPA provided me solid local employment but the work is

TO INSPIRE

Get inspired— May and June is a great time for ...

MUSIC Yosa Haile — Ethiopian Jazz Night A night of Ethiopian Jazz and food at The Corner Palm. Tickets on sale soon.

Saturday, 1 June, The Corner Palm, Byron Bay thecornerpalm.com Tijuana Cartel with Special Guests Saturday, 22 June, The Northern, Byron Bay thenorthern.com.au

PHOTO BY KATE HOLMES

always consistently important, interesting and in my opinion, world class.

What character do you play in NORPA’s Dreamland at Bangalow A&I Hall?

I play Jason, a thirty something tree changer whose situation hits scarily close to home for me. He finds balancing work and family life in the country tough. The dream is not always the reality ... or maybe it’s just a different dream. It’s such a pleasure to be part of a work that is rooted in the here and now and tells a Northern Rivers story. Jason’s story (and indeed the history of place in the piece) has currency in our little slice of paradise.

Are you a tree changer? What do you love about living in the Northern Rivers?

Of sorts. I’m from Far North Queensland originally and the Northern Rivers has a homely feeling to me. I moved here to have kids with my partner who is also an acrobat and grew up in Nimbin. I love its wildness and proximity to the city. The best of both worlds.

You have a new work, Fold: A Domestic Circus, premiering at NORPA in June – tell us a little bit about it…

I always wanted to make a show with good friends and long-term collaborators Lewie West and Mieke Lizotte. The content is intentionally close-to-home. It’s a story about lust, partnership, co-dependence and what might be – in a domestic setting. We are very happy to be premiering it at NORPA before we head to Europe.

How did you go about developing the idea for Fold: A Domestic Circus?

Whether it’s your kid, your partner, or your mate, life happens and things get more challenging. I like starting from a really loose 49

place, and building physical things, and then seeing what they tell me in terms of content and themes. With circus making, as opposed to regular theatre or dance, you’ve got to carve out the physical work before you arrive at the central idea. Rather than going, ‘I’m going to be Romeo and you’re going to be Juliet and I’m going to do some backflips to impress you,’ with Fold we explore familiar gestures and transform them into highly-skilled acrobatics.

We take a mundane act like folding a shirt and magnify it. It becomes a complicated, virtuosic spectacle. When that’s happening, and it’s working, you don’t need any words.

You recently premiered a new work at Adelaide Festival – tell us a little bit about that work and what the experience was like …

Yes, I’ve just picked myself up off the floor after my second major festival commission with acrobatic company Gravity & Other Myths. It went extremely well but it was a complicated birth! There’s no greater honour (or pressure) as a director than to be backed by a major Australian festival to make an original work. Out Of Chaos will head to Ireland and the Netherlands before it begins a seven month season in Berlin. I’m lucky and exhausted.

What’s next for Darcy Grant?

Freelance hustling is exciting and hard.

Anyone got any jobs?!

Darcy Grant performs in NORPA’s Dreamland at Bangalow A&I Hall 15-25 May. Fold: A Domestic Circus premieres at NORPA 28 & 29 June. Visit norpa.org.au for details.

MAKE The Craft Parlour Get crafty with a host of creative workshops, Bruswick Heads thecraftparlour.com.au COMMUNITY Old & Gold Festival The one day of the year when the whole of Brunswick Heads turns into one giant garage sale!

Saturday 8 June, Brunswick Heads ART Dean Home: On a walk in the poet’s garden until 18 August, Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre, Murwillumbah artgallery.tweed.nsw.gov.au The Murwillumbah Art Trail An exhibition of contemporary art that showcases more than eighty visual artists from the Tweed Valley and surrounds, 16-19 May, Murwillumbah murwillumbahartstrail.com.au Martin Baptist & Lee Ralph: Inhabit 14 June to 10 July, Lone Goat Gallery, Byron Bay lonegoatgallery.com SHORT COURSES Life Drawing with James Guppy and Michelle Dawson Six Tuesday evenings, 6–8:30pm, 14 May to 18 June, Byron School of Art, Mullumbimby byronschoolofart.com Keep Cup Workshop 6–8pm, 14 June, Byron School of Clay, Byron Bay bsoc.com.au

ARTS

+ CULTURE

CURRENT MUSE

WORDS–

MUSE & IMAGES–

Nat Woods @nat.woods_

John Wolseley

John Wolseley is an artist who works within nature – he doesn’t capture scenery, he brings the audience deep inside landscapes, immersing them in the intricacies of an entire ecosystem. For the past nine years he has been collaborating with Mulkun Wirrpanda, a Yolngu artist and senior artist of the Dhudi-Djapu clan of the Dhuwa moiety. Through their exhibition Midawarr / Harvest, John and Mulkun share the edible plants of East Arnhem Land through their two very different perspectives – one steeped in the ancient wisdom and connection of Yolngu dreaming, and one shaped by western science and education. I had the pleasure of speaking to John about this collaboration and the greater purpose of his work.

John Wolseley You say that your art captures how we move and dwell within landscapes. What do you mean by that?

I think I was sort of getting at the way that, our society and our culture, is so unbelievably disconnected from nature, for various reasons, but I have always moved within nature, and done paintings which are trying to get into or unite, into nature, I realised that I carry on my life by doing that all the time in different parts of Australia, so by dwelling I mean being within. And then if I can do the paintings, which are more like in-scapes, or in-dwellings, or inter-beings, then I could actually help reconnect people to the natural world.

The show at the moment which is the extension in a way to Mulkun’s show [Midawarr / Harvest], the one in Sydney, I’ve done a lot of paintings of mangrove swamps. Now, I’ve done that by trying to get into the life world of the trees, the beetles, the moths, that live in that particular ecosystem. And what is so fascinating is that if you find an ecosystem, you’ll find that everything moves and lives in a different way, and that if you can get into, truly look into, all those creatures, then something amazing happens. A lot of it is to do with a behaviourist writer, called Jakob von Uexküll who wrote a book called A Foray Into The World Of Animals And Humans – the buddhist poets said once that ‘in order to paint a cicada, you have to become a cicada’ and so Uexküll in a similar way said that you have to try to get into the ‘umwelt’, the life world, of that cicada. So where I am looking at the mangroves, I have been doing the strange thing of getting into the life world of the mangrove worms that move up and down those trees, but also into the energy and 50

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amazing flow of the trees themselves. So I think that’s what I mean of dwelling within.

Yes, I’m looking at your piece from Midawarr / Harvest, ‘Distant glimpses of the great floodplain seen through a veil of trees and hanging vines’ and I can see that it’s not just a landscape, there’s all these different layers like the root systems, the trees, and you can see off into the distance, but you can see that everything is interacting – you’re not just capturing the beauty, you’re capturing all the intricacies of the whole ecosystem like you said.

And you see Mulkan does this far more than any white person, for instance she sometimes comes in to the art centre and says “Oh I think I’m going to paint a fig tree” and she immediately starts on a big painting, because she knows how that fig tree moves and lives. And then the next day she’ll do another species of plant. In other words, because she hasn’t lost connection with the natural world, she can actually sit down and paint something like 35 or more different plants [from memory alone].

I read that in the book that you would both be going out and gathering these bush foods and bringing them back, and it sounded as though you were really observing and getting up close to the plants, whereas Mulkun was just painting the plants from what she knew, from memory I guess – from the disconnected white perspective we have to have things right in front of us to capture it, we can’t just bring the essence of the plant to mind from memory.

That’s right.

JOHN WOLSELEY

‘Djalkurrk’, bark painting, native plant species, John Wolseley 51

ARTS

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'Djalkurrk', bark painting, native plant species, Mulkun Wirrpanda

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CURRENT MUSE

So tell us how Midawarr, the exhibition and your collaboration with Mulkun Wirrpanda, came about.

It came about because some wonderful people in Darwin, Angus and Rose Cameron, who run the Nomad Art Gallery, decided to try and get four balanda (or foreigner) artists to meet up in Blue Mud Bay, with four Yolngu artists, and for us all to make prints. And so they had Basil Hall who is a wonderful print maker, he turned up with masses of etching plates, and for ten days us artists wandered around painting the place. And then they were all printed, and all the prints went on tour around Australia.

The exciting thing was, in answer to your question, that while we were doing that, Mulkun out of the blue, asked me to be her Wawa or brother, and since then, ever since then, it might be nine years ago, she has made perhaps 200 amazing bark paintings, and I’ve been painting the same plants. We sort of hatched a plot that in a way that while she was doing hers, I’d also do a lot.

It almost sounds like a friendly competition between the two of you… I’ll paint this and you paint it too and we’ll see what happens.

I think it comes back to the reason of why she was painting these plants, and one of the strong reasons she was painting them all is that her people have become disconnected from these edible plants, and as she says, “my people are dying”. And if you’ve been to these communities, it’s quite extraordinary that there’s always a shop that sells real dreadful junk food, while outside in the forest there is an absolute supermarket of gorgeous foods which are incredibly healthy. So she wanted to do it and then she could see the divide in it too, and that I’d be part of the same project.

And you’re both reaching different audiences by working together.

Yes I think it’s rather amazing that she could see that it was important that I explained it to a white audience too.

Yeah, in the book it’s such a lovely mix of the botanical, I guess scientific description, then you’ve got the description from Mulkun in language, and then you’ve got the translation in English which shares how they harvest each plant, and how they cook it, and what they use it for. It seems such a nice mix and a coming together of two perspectives.

Yes, that’s right.

What sort of responses have you been getting to the exhibition?

Absolutely amazing responses actually. I get lots of emails and letters saying that they’ve found it incredibly moving and I think it’s partly because, when you went to the exhibition, you could see her bark of, let’s say, an amazing yam with its flowers and everything, and the exhibition was shown in such a way that you could look past that bark to my rendering of it on the painting. So they all said that was so wonderful to have two different visions of the same plant.

And sometimes they’re quite different – like the Buwakul, the vine, you had depicted it growing up a tree, and Mulkun had depicted it in these concentric circles … like the vine minus the tree.

Yes, absolutely right. That particular plant, Buwakul, she did about six paintings of that plant and each one was different. What was so fascinating was in one, I painted it here as this fascinating plant that wound around the tree – it’s beautiful, it’s got these yams in the ground and then it enters into the bark with more yams, and then goes round and round.

So in my version, in the traditional western perspective, you could see that it was going round. But in her painting, you’ll see in some of them, she almost made a painting of circularity. And in the most abstract one, it was a

JOHN WOLSELEY

“What I’m trying to do is show the power and beauty of the world, and how natural systems work, and get people to get excited about that.

Which is another way of saying I am trying to get people to connect and look at that, and then my perhaps my belief is such people will stop doing all these terrible things.”

circle, and that’s saying so much about the plant. But in another painting she painted it as she would’ve put her hand down and found the delicate stem of the yam and dug around it. In other words, she was painting the kinetic act of finding the yam, so that it is almost like a painting of the fascinating action and movement of a human being as it harvests something. Do you see what I’m saying?

Yes. It’s such a nice depiction of different ways of seeing and interacting with the plants.

Exactly, that’s what it’s all about.

Another thing that struck me in one of the descriptions of one of the other types of yam, it was saying that the Yolngu would harvest the yam and break off what they needed, leaving a few centimetres still attached, and then replant that part of the yam so it could be re-harvested year after year, season after season.

Yes and you have to contrast that with what we western people do – we kill off all the natural plants that are in a place, then we plow it up, and then we sow foreign seeds into it, which we then harvest with a machine that uses masses of diesel, which is causing global warming. It’s something that I was continually up against, the way that those people [the Yolngu] relate to the earth, while we [white people] are doing more and more, just raping the land, and using it and not putting anything back.

You can see looking at this exhibition, at Midawarr / Harvest, it opens your eyes to whatever landscape you’re in. I’m reading the book here in Byron Bay, and I’m like ‘oh we have pandanus here’ and I’m going to the beach and looking at the pandanus more closely. You don’t have to be up in Arnhem Land to connect to the ideas and essence of the project.

It’s quite true and in fact there in Byron Bay you have quite a few of the vines and climbers. There are several I have actually seen in Byron Bay which are relatives of those in Arnhem Land.

Do you feel like there is a way to reconnect western society back to nature and to open our eyes and senses back to everything that’s around us?

Well this is what I was trying to talk about in my happening last week in the gallery in Sydney where I got everyone to enter into the umwelt, or life world, of beetles. And I had a strange kind of performance where people had to be drawn to different beetles that I’d made on tissue 53

paper, and then when they chose the beetle they were drawn to, they were given big lumps of graphite and they drew all along the gallery walls, the paths that the beetles make under the bark.

It was really such fun because I was in sort of a drawing lesson, because I’d put the paper on a carpet on the wall so in order to make their lines, they had to push these lumps of graphite, rather than draw in a traditional way, so they had to feel like they were a grub and make the markings.

It sounds like you’re such an observer of nature, of these intricacies, and it seems like we all just need to open our eyes more.

That’s right. And somebody said once, that learning to paint, is actually learning to see.

And I suppose that what I should say is that a lot of this I do because I want to talk about the way we’re treating the world and in particular about climate change. And a lot of artists now are attempting to tell people about what shocking things are happening. About how we’re burning all these fossil fuels and how the climate is actually changing.

And a lot of artists tend to lecture the public, and people are actually fed up with being lectured, they’ve got what’s called ‘eco-fatigue’, and what I find is that actually that way doesn’t work for me. What I’m trying to do is show the power and beauty of the world, and how natural systems work, and get people to get excited about that. Which is another way of saying I am trying to get people to connect and look at that, and then perhaps my belief is such people will stop doing all these terrible things.

‘Midawarr / Harvest’ by John Wolseley and Mulkun Wirrpanda is currently on exhibition at Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Melbourne Museum until 14 July, 2019. You can then find part of the exhibition at Australian Galleries (Melbourne) from 23 July - 11 August, 2019. ‘Midawarr / Harvest’ is a touring exhibition and book developed by the National Museum of Australia.

You can also view the duo’s other collaboration, ‘Molluscs / Maypal and the warming of the seas’, at Geelong Art Gallery until 2 June, 2019. johnwolseley.net

ARTS

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BOOK CLUB

CONVERSATION–

Katinka Smit

MUSE–

Bruce Pascoe

Shifting paradigms Bruce Pascoe and hidden history

Yuin author Bruce Pascoe’s interest in history led him to the archives and early explorers’ accounts of Aboriginal society. Here he found a very different take on Indigenous technology, customs and ingenuity to many of the popular perceptions. The resulting book, Dark Emu, argues for a reconsideration of the ‘hunter-gatherer’ tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. He discusses his research and writing with Katinka Smit on behalf of the Byron Writers Festival.

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The Neil Gaiman poem ‘The Mushroom Hunters’ is predominantly an ode to women as ‘the first scientists’, but it also references how the first scientists in the world were Indigenous peoples.

We were involved in science and engineering. Some of our fish traps are beautiful pieces of architectural design and engineering, and I talk about them in Dark Emu, in reverence of the skill. But our women invented bread; 36,000 years ago (and probably much earlier than that) a woman in an act of incredible intellectual foresight decided to harvest grain, grind it into flour, mix it with water and, with an incredible understanding of chemistry, heat it and make bread. In terms of world science, it’s one of those breakthroughs in human development, and it started here.

How do you feel about the history of Australia having been so misconstrued, considering the evidence in the archives?

What of the apparent obligations of historiographical practice?

I think that’s European intellectual life. If we’re going to repair that damage, we need to look at a different form of education. European intellectual life is so Eurocentric, it doesn’t really take in other forms of thought. If we’re going to repair that lack, we’re going to have to look at the mind. I’m very tempted to write a book called ‘The European Mind’, but I don’t want to because it’s going to be painful to do it. But I think the world needs to understand that the way Europeans think is not the only way to think.

There was a discussion on a panel at Byron Writers Festival 2017 with Kim Scott about Noongar classification systems, how plants and animals are placed in relation to where they are from, which is a whole paradigm shift away from the European classification system.

Classification systems are fascinating to study. I’m a bird observer and interested in botany, so I use European classificatory systems and I enjoy it. I like to know that a parrot is related to these other birds. But in the

BOOK CLUB

“The more I become immersed in my culture I’ve realised that in Aboriginal life, storytellers are revered.”

Aboriginal mind, often we’re taught about the voicing – who is talking when – and that groups birds together. The magpie, the currawong and the raven are actually having a conversation: these creatures are interacting with each other. That changes your whole attitude to Country.

You pronominally identify as Indigenous – ‘this is who we are, this is what has happened’; but also as European – ‘we have done this, we’ve colonised’ – and also as Australian. Is this what decolonising the mind looks like?

I had to decolonise my mind from the assumption that whatever Europeans do is the pinnacle of human life so far on Earth. I questioned my own Elders’ description of history, because I hadn’t been taught it at school. I was already at university learning history, European history. I thought I knew Australian history, yet they told me a completely different version of life in this country. I struggled with the idea that there could be any other form of life. I was inculcated with the European mind. But I also have to admit that I am part of that system. My family is solidly Cornish, and solidly Aboriginal. Without either of them, I don’t exist. You can’t deny any part of that which produced you. You have to pay respect.

But that doesn’t mean to say you can’t criticise.

You mentioned once that we need to learn to write about blackfellas as well as we do about white fellas. Why do you think that (non-Indigenous) Australian authors generally find it difficult to adequately imagine Aboriginal characters?

We don’t understand our history. That avoidance of the real, 55

fundamental facts of our occupation of this continent prevents us from really seeing Aboriginal people, because we’re actually not supposed to see Aboriginal people. So how can we write about them? We can only write about them in a distant sense. We don’t know how little we’ve extended ourselves to learn about it. We don’t hold a mirror up to ourselves, we don’t examine. I was forced to do it. I’m not any better than anyone else. I knew nothing. But that meant that I was exposed to all the tricks, and all the lack, and the tininess.

You’ve written an array of books across genres, and multilingual stories as well. What was the genesis for this array of diversity?

I love writing and I love telling stories. There are different ways to tell stories and I don’t feel any of them are forbidden to me. Our old people were storytellers. The more I become immersed in my culture I’ve realised that in Aboriginal life, storytellers are revered. A community wants a spiritual person, a practical person, a nurturing person. They also want a storytelling person. My role in Aboriginal life has sanction. I’m continuously being asked by my own people to tell this or that story, or not to tell that story. Fellow writers think that’s terrible, but it’s not like that in Aboriginal ways or story; it’s something you can treasure. That story is within, you find a way to tell it in another way.

Dark Emu is published by Magabala Books. Bruce Pascoe will be a guest speaker at the 2019 Byron Writers Festival, 2–4 August. Visit the website for details: byronwritersfestival.com

ARTS

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MUSIC

Bello Winter Music has announced yet another phenomenal line-up for 2019 ensuring their fifth annual festival will go off with a big Bello bang!

With more than 70 artists set to descend on the small NSW town of Bellingen during the July school holidays (11–14 July) it looks as if this year’s event will be bigger and better than ever.

Bello Music Festival 2019 –artist announcement

Paradiso spoke with festival programmer, Kate Atkinson about the event and quizzed her on what to look out for.

“We like to think of Bello Winter Music as a festival of discovery and encourage people to explore. Go see an act you have never heard of before, as you may well discover your new favourite band! We program the festival as such that at pretty much any time of day, you can have a dance, immerse yourself in an intimate concert or learn a new skill,” says Kate.

Acts to grace the halls, pubs and market places of the tiny riverside town include NZs Auckland-born, Dunedin-raised, Nadia Reid who has attained global success off the back of her first two albums; the ever popular and always brassy Bullhorn; magnetic five-piece, Pony Face; and the amazing Emily Wurramara, a young indigenous artist who is taking the Australian music world by storm. Joining them will be Blues legends, Hat Fitz and Cara; Australia’s top Zydeco band, Psycho Zydeco; unique one man band, Juzzie Smith and the always stunning, The Maes (formerly The Mae Trio); and Melbourne-based Laura Jean (pictured) and her classically inspired folk songs.

Bello Winter Music is a boutique family friendly festival that takes place within existing venues in the town during one of the cosiest months of the year.

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“The cafe lined streets and markets are a good place to chill, watch some street theatre and live music, whilst grabbing a delicious meal to energise yourself for the night of dancing ahead” says Kate. “And of course, there’s the Magic Bus which transports you not only around the festival, but straight into a disco dimension!”

The event has proved popular ever since its inception due to its relaxed intimate vibe, diversity of line-up, environmental edge and unexpected quirks including one-off performances that encourage surprise collaboration between artists.

The event has sold out each year, reinforcing the backing it has received from patrons and performers alike.

Tickets for the musical adventure that is Bello Winter Music are now on sale but be quick as the festival sells out each year. www.bellowintermusic.com

ART ON BUNDJALUNG MARKET 1 June 2019 10am - 4pm The Quad, Lismore

EXPERIENCE THE LARGEST ABORIGINAL ART MARKET ON BUNDJALUNG COUNTRY MARTIN PAIN – AYURVEDIC PRACTITIONER

artonbundjalungcountry.com

OFFERING AYURVEDIC CONSULTATIONS AND TREATMENTS AVAILABLE AT THE MUDITA INSTITUTE 55 STUART ST, MULLUMBIMBY T: 0413 865 368 E: martin@lightayurveda.com.au

weaving | ceramics | carving | photography | painting | textiles Image | Kylie Caldwell, Bloodlines #1 (Bundjalung/ Gamilaroi) (detail), 2017

@lightayurveda

lightayurveda.com.au

N O RPA P RESENT S

# N O RPA 2 01 9

COMING TO BANGALOW IN MAY

DREAMLAND A NORPA PRODUCTION

DREAMLAND WAS ORIGINALLY CREATED WITH SUPPORT FROM IF THESE HALLS COULD TALK AN ARTS NORTHERN RIVERS PROJECT, CREATE NSW, LINNAEUS ESTATE AND REGIONAL ARTS NSW.

Joyful and poignant and potent …

ArtsHub

WED 15 – SAT 25 MAY, 7:30PM Bangalow A&I Hall

T IC KETS & MO RE INFO

norpa.org.au | 1300 066 772

FOLD: A DOMESTIC CIRCUS A NORPA PRODUCTION

This is unmissable contemporary circus…

Julian Louis

FRI 28 & SAT 29 JUN, 7:30PM Lismore City Hall

TRAVEL

+ ADVENTURE

I WANT TO GO TO THERE

WORDS & PHOTOS–

Todd Clare @toddclare

Lanzarote to the Sahara Lanzarote is an island that sits just off the coast of northwest Africa – a stone’s throw away from Morocco. A few hundred years back it was rattled by a series of volcanoes, leaving the island covered in obscure, molten rock formations. I’d been researching some locations to shoot abstract landscapes and my friend suggested this place. To be honest, I’d heard a little about the Canary Islands but nothing really of Lanzarote. The images he showed me of the island blew my mind and I immediately jumped on some flights.

Morocco, on the other hand, was a no brainer.

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LANZAROTE TO THE SAHARA

When I arrived, I was pretty overwhelmed by what I saw. I don’t normally shoot traditional landscape images and if I see something that’s slightly different, I’m hooked. This place was different. This place was really out there. The island was an artwork within itself. Driving around in a rental car alone wasn’t ideal because I had my explorer face on trying to seek out locations. I was looking all over the place like a madman. I wanted to turn down all dirt roads at the same time – everywhere I looked got my attention.

For days I drove around exploring, I had no plan, I just wanted to capture the scenery. There was, however, one particular day that stuck with me. I was trying to find the entrance to Caldera Blanca – an ancient volcano in the national park south of the island – where I ended up on a dodgy road. I felt like Matt Damon in The Martian driving around in a space buggy, but I was in a little two-door Toyota Yaris. I realised it was a bad idea and started walking.

I walked for a good hour along the road in the sweltering heat and eventually found a track that looked like it led off the road – I got lucky and it linked up to the summit walk. As I approached the top I looked down into the volcano, I could see hard layers of ancient earth-crust oozing from the crater. The clouds dappled light over the burnt surface. It made me think how fragile the earth is, so much of the island had been blown apart, and with time nature found its way and the land healed. I sat there and took it all in.

From the top, I could vaguely see my car and how far out of the way I had walked to get to where I was. To save myself the long trek back, I decided to take a short cut. I can clearly remember the sound of the dried-up molten rock crunching beneath my feet as it broke apart. The

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rocks were sharp, and I was worried that my foot might fall through the loose surface. As I trekked through, I eventually made it to the road – I came out unscathed.

I arrive in Morocco. The road from Marrakech that crosses the Atlas Mountains is the gateway to the Sahara. Long winding roads etch lines through the valleys and the temperature drops as you climb. Our driver had done this a bunch of times before and moved with speed. Cars and buses had come unstuck on this wild road before – I was shitting myself. The sun shot holes through the mountains and faces pressed against the windows, trying to catch a glimpse of the red, dusty peaks.

The landscape eventually opened up into vast, arid plains.

Nomads walked along the sides of the roads herding goats, their faces hardened by the heat and sun. Some of the locals rode donkeys or travelled by foot, others sat by the side of the road gazing at passing traffic. Oasis villages emerged out of the dust, many built with hay, water and cow manure – this kept their homes cool in the unforgiving heat.

After a few solid days of driving, we arrived in the desert where we would camp the night. We rode camels through the dunes as the sun set over the mountains. The afternoon shadows accentuated the vast, clean lines of the dunes. Like a slow-moving ocean of sand, the wind had sculptured them to perfection. I thought about art school. In abstract art, marks and gestures are explored over and over. From my experience, the ones that work happen when you’re in flow, like water, in the moment. Like the lines of the dunes.

Mother Nature doesn’t think twice about mark making.

Stars began to crack through the sky as the city lights were far behind us. We finished the day eating tagine and listened to the locals drumming traditional Moroccan hymns.

TRAVEL

+ EXPLORE

TEN THINGS I LOVE ABOUT

GUIDE–

Aarna Hudson @aarnakristina

LOCATION–

Moonshine Coffee, Federal @moonshineroasters

Federal 2480 For such a tiny town, Federal offers so much. From the perfect cup of coffee to incredible sushi to inspiring natural beauty – find it all in Federal.

01 A drive through the hinterland to Federal is not complete without a visit to renown DOMA CAFE. Enjoy the incredible flavours of modern Japanese food for breakfast and lunch seven days a week. Savour your espresso and feast on traditional Japanese dishes with a modern twist. Expect a burger as well, some classic cafe fare and daily specials all served with signature Doma deliciousness! Open from 7:30am daily. 02 FEDERAL FILMS builds community through film and food! Every second Saturday of the month Federal Films serves dinner from 6:30pm followed by a film at 7:30pm at Federal Hall. Share this community evening with friends and watch out for the children’s films too. 03 Federal is home to the incredible beauty that is JATANA INTERIORS. Specialising in unique reproduction and encaustic tiles, Jatana Interiors is what design dreams are made of. Find them at jatanainteriors.com.au 04 Need caffeinating? Nestled on Albert St is Moonshine HQ. MOONSHINE COFFEE is a small family owned and operated Wholesale Roastery and Espresso Bar. Get your fix. 05 JASPER CORNER is the collective name for Federal Hall and the former church next door. Jasper Corner is host to yoga classes, meditation, community acupuncture, cooking classes, pop-up restaurants, performances and more! 06 FEDERAL LOVES REFUGEES is a not-for-profit that gives practical support to local refugees. Follow on FB to find out how you can lend a hand! 06 THE HILLS EMPORIUM is a lifestyle concept store for men, women and children featuring artisan works including pottery, fashion, homewares, furniture and KULCHA COLLECTIVE a local label specialising in women’s clothing and jewellery. 07 Federal is the gateway to the beautiful NIGHTCAP NATIONAL PARK and the spectacular MINYON FALLS. Put your walking boots on and enjoy the Minyon Falls walking track, or have some lunch at the bbq’s and picnic tables and just take in the incredible view. 08 Need supplies? Want to post something? THE FEDERAL STORE is the local Post Office, grocery, newsagent and bottleshop rolled into one! 09 FEDTALKS is a local initiative whose aim is to engage our community in public conversations on global issues from a local perspective, discussing topics that affect us all. Follow them on FB at FedTalks.

10 And in the heart of town you’ll find FEDERAL PARK. The perfect location for picnics, family hangs, catch ups with friends, and the annual Federal Park Party in Spring. Skate park, tennis courts, children’s playground and lush shady trees make this the perfect community meeting spot.

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YOUR WEEKEND ITINERARY

GUIDE–

Nat Woods @nat.woods_

Walk among the trees Inspired by John Wolseley’s intimate observation of nature? Step outside into our lush backyard and stroll slowly through the trees. Breathe deeply.

Open your eyes to the tiny details and abundant life. Who knows what you might see.

Bar Mountain Circuit, Border Ranges National Park 4km loop, 2-3 hours Wander beneath the tall canopy of ancient trees, following the sound of the wind rushing through the valley ahead, before emerging at the lookout with trees as far as the eye can see.

Walk On Water, Tweed Heads Historic Site 1km loop, 30-45 minutes This short wheelchair-accessible walk takes you through beautiful eucalypt forests, woodlands, and out along a boardwalk over the mangroves.

The walk starts at the Minjungbal Aboriginal Cultural Centre in South Tweed Heads. Check out the centre and then take a self-guided walk or join a guided tour to learn more about the bush food and cultural significance of this site.

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Tallow Creek (pictured), Arakwal National Park 1.7km return, 50 minutes One of my favourite walks to regularly clear my head before or after work. Start at the end of Scott Street (or if you want a longer walk, start at the beach entrance on Beachcomber Drive).

Walk to the beach, keeping an eye out for the Rainbow Bee-eaters and Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos that call the park home. Once on the beach head south until you reach Tallow Creek, another great spot for wildlife watching.

From Tallow Creek you can head back up the beach or take the fire trail behind the dunes back to your starting point.

Christmas Beach, Brunswicks Head Nature Reserve 1km return, 30 minutes Start from the end of North Head Road and follow the dirt road through the coastal ecosystem, emerging at Christmas Beach and the north breakwall. A great place for a short walk and swim with little ones.

Big Scrub Loop, Nightcap National Park 1.5km loop, 30-60 minutes One of the last remaining patches of big scrub forest, this short walk takes you deep beneath the tall rainforest canopy. A beautiful spot to escape the noise of the modern world.

Head towards Rocky Creek Dam Road, take Gibbergunyah Range Road (small dirt road across the cattle grid), until you find the sign for the walk at the end. Cross the creek causeway and follow the arrows.

** Tread lightly—Remember that these ecosystems are fragile and we all have a role in protecting them. Leave only footprints. Collect any rubbish you find. Don’t remove anything from the parks. And respect others to have their own experience by not playing loud music on these quiet walks.

THIS COMMUNITY

OF OURS

SMARTY PANTS

Partner up or go solo with this puzzling puzzle.

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AC ROSS 1 Rinse 5 Snuff 9 Loosen 10 Build 11 Limb 12 Sows 13 Greeting 14 Consumed 16 Spyglass 19 Dubious

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D OW N 1 Wiener 2 Spontaneous 3 Skins 4 Band 5 Pavilions 6 Nevertheless 7 Brutal 8 Result 13 Has Not 15 Care For

17 Panorama 18 Tomorrow 19 Ignorant 21 Bunched 23 Unhappy 24 Guide 25 Skim 28 Flee

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