Sun falls on The Beacon to reveal sweet surprise

This article appeared in the Mackay Daily Mercury on 23 November 2018.

THE Beacon will stop shining tonight.

The lovely yellow glow from the sunflower crop, named The Beacon, at the Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens’ Meadowlands will be cut tonight at the community event – Sunflower and Song.

The sunflowers have been a part of “land art”, the work of Wollongong artists Lucas Ihlein and Kim Williams and Marian farmer Simon Mattsson.
Continue reading “Sun falls on The Beacon to reveal sweet surprise”

SUNFLOWER & SONG Media Release

the beacon in bloom

MEDIA Release (download PDF here)

SUNFLOWER AND SONG – HARVEST CELEBRATION AT THE BOTANIC GARDENS

FRIDAY 23 NOVEMBER 6PM-930PM
MACKAY REGIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS

A glorious field of sunflowers is in full bloom right now at the Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens. The brainchild of Wollongong artists Lucas Ihlein and Kim Williams and Marian farmer Simon Mattsson, this cheerful crop – nicknamed “The Beacon” – is both a stunning work of Land Art and a demonstration of farming innovation in the Mackay region.
Continue reading “SUNFLOWER & SONG Media Release”

CULTURE AND AGRICULTURE BLEND IN NEW EXHIBITION

news clipping from mackay mercury 2 november 2018

The following is a media release from Artspace Mackay, posted on the Mackay Regional Council website:

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An exhibition opening at Artspace Mackay tomorrow is called Sugar vs the Reef?

However, the theme is not one of conflict, but rather in-depth collaboration.

Wollongong artists Kim Williams and Lucas Ihlein have been visiting the Mackay region since 2014.

Over that time, they have sought to gain a deeper understanding of the sugarcane industry and investigate how artists and farmers can work together on large-scale ecology problems.
Continue reading “CULTURE AND AGRICULTURE BLEND IN NEW EXHIBITION”

Community engagement at The Beacon

Kids planting sunflower seeds at the Beacon
Kids planting sunflower seeds at the Beacon

We always envisaged The Beacon as a way of bringing culture and agriculture together at the Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens.

At the most basic level, The Beacon is a 26 metre diameter demonstration farm, showing how you can have diverse plant species living alongside sugarcane. So, we needed to put some sticks of sugarcane into the ground, and we had to plant a bunch of sunflower seeds in straight rows – two purely practical tasks. But we wanted to make these tasks special, by creating some meaningful rituals around what might seem a relatively straightforward farming activity.

Our planting site is located on “public” land at the Botanic Gardens, which gives us the chance to bring a range of different people together, gathered around this circle of soil we’ve been tending with great care since February.

Traditional Owners

While working with the soil, we’ve also been cultivating friendships and working relationships with the Yuwibara people, the traditional custodians of the Mackay region. Even though the Botanic Gardens is on land owned by the Mackay Regional Council, who give us permission to plant and dig, at a deeper level it is the Yuwibara Aboriginal Corporation that we turn to, to ask for permission to work, to dwell, to plant.

Uncle George Tonga performing the Welcome to Country at the SEED AND SONG event in August 2018
Uncle George Tonga performing the Welcome to Country at the SEED AND SONG event in August 2018. At the left is didgeridoo player Lyndon Francis.

Uncle Phillip Kemp and Uncle George Tonga have been very supportive, and through them we’ve been beginning to learn about some of the histories and cultures of this place. This is especially important since Kim and I live in Wollongong, on Wodi-Wodi and Dharawal lands, hundreds of kilometres to the south.

We’ve also recently gotten to know Aunty Deb Netuschil, who choreographs the Diranga Gangali Aboriginal Dancers. At our recent SEED AND SONG event, these local kids “danced us into the day” with a set of fantastic moves accompanied by the talented Lyndon Francis on the didgeridoo.

In the lead up to SEED AND SONG, we spent a few hours with Deb at the Beacon. She told us about her many community projects, including working with people in jail, and conducting linguistic history research to piece back together the Yuwi language of the Mackay region. Here’s something we posted on Instagram about that:

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A lovely late afternoon hour at The Beacon getting to know Yuibera Elder Deb Netuschil. Deb co-ordinates the Diranga Gangali Aboriginal Dancers, a group of talented local kids who will be dancing us into our community planting event this Sunday. . Deb told us about the work she's doing researching the local Yuwi language. At the moment she and her collaborators have pieced together about 1000 words. They’re working with a researcher from the state library in Brisbane, looking through archives for colonial records from early encounters to discover fragments of vocabulary. A fantastic cultural knowledge effort. . Come join us on Sunday 26 August, 12-4pm at The Meadowlands, Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens. Link to project website in bio. . #yuwibara #yuibera #Aboriginal #dance #language #knowledge #respect #land #country #agriculture #culture #indigenous #firstnations #education #research #linguistics #sugarcane #sunflowers #mackayregionalbotanicgardens #botanicgardens #gardening #permaculture #farming #planting #community #participation #sociallyengagedart #socialpractice #soil #soilhealth

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Australian South Sea Islander Connections

Crucial to our work at the Beacon is our relationship with MADASSIA, the Mackay and Districts Australian South Sea Islander Association. Without Starrett Vea Vea and Jemal Davis, and their team at the Community Hut located nearby, none of this tending would be possible. The fact that Jemal is on site every day with his work crew is the single most important thing helping the dual-crop grow and thrive.

Jemal Davis (orange shirt) with Uncle Doug Mooney (right) planting sugarcane at The Beacon. Far left: Uncle George Tonga applying natural fertilizer.
Jemal Davis (orange shirt) with Uncle Doug Mooney (right) planting sugarcane at The Beacon. Far left: Uncle George Tonga applying natural fertilizer.

As the chair of MADASSIA, Starrett jumped on board from the very beginning, recognising that a project about sugarcane has the potential to tap into the some important stuff for his community.

Uncle Doug Mooney, and Starrett Vea Vea tell stories at the SEED AND SONG event in August 2018
Uncle Doug Mooney, and Starrett Vea Vea tell stories at the SEED AND SONG event in August 2018

The South Sea Islander people have an indelible relationship with the establishment of the sugar industry in Australia. Without their yakka – which began as  slavery, (and was sometimes called “indentured labor”), the economy of a huge area of Queensland today would not be so heavily based around sugarcane growing and processing.

At SEED AND SONG, Starrett invited Uncle Doug Mooney, an elder in the ASSI community, to come along and share some of his stories about working with sugarcane by hand in the old days.

Sakwolo Islander Dancers perform at SEED AND SONG
Sakwolo Islander Dancers perform at SEED AND SONG

When we organise an event like SEED AND SONG, we think about how to shape the experience of the participants on the day. We try to bring together a whole mix of elements – fun, food, learning, work and entertainment. We’ve loved working with the Sakwolo Islander Dancers – who perform in their gorgeous costumes designed and handcrafted by their choreographer and visionary leader David Tass. Their work connects the yakka of agriculture with the rituals of contemporary Australian South Sea Islander culture.

Arts and Environment Support

This year we received events funding from two sources: The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), through their Reef Guardians program; and the Queensland Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF), through its “Green Arts” program. Both these programs encourage innovative cultural activities which have ecological benefit.

Kate Finch (right) from GBRMPA attending the SEED AND SONG event.
Kate Finch (right) from GBRMPA attending the SEED AND SONG event with her kids.

We’ve been collaborating with GBRMPA, and its Local Marine Advisory Committee (LMAC) for several years now as we develop our work in Mackay. Our approach has always been to celebrate the achievements of leading farmers in the sugarcane industry, and to create cultural events which help to share soil-focused farming ideas with the wider community.

Similarly, our RADF contacts, like Fiona Vuibeqa from the Mackay Council, have been very supportive of this unusual approach to using art to bring together diverse people, like farmers and the ASSI community.

The Beacon, in this sense, is a miniature “demonstration farm” – not only trialling and showcasing a range of methods which will help build soil, reduce chemical use, and cut down on the run-off which travels from the land out to the reef, but also testing out how land management can be done in a respectful, inclusive and cross-cultural way.

Future eco leaders get their hands dirty at the Beacon

Mackay primary school children visited the Beacon this September to learn about soil, water and biodiversity in agro-ecological systems.

65 students spent a morning onsite at the Beacon at Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens as part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s Future Leaders Eco Challenge (FLEC).

FLEC, GBRMPA’s annual event for Reef Guardian schools, invites students with keen interest in environmental issues to participate in a day of highly situated, hands on learning about environmental issues in their local community.

Students learned about the collaborative nature of the Watershed Land Art Project and the three workshops were designed to allow for meaningful and relevant learning experiences around  ecological farming innovations taking place in the Pioneer Valley watershed.

Sugarcane farmer Simon Mattsson facilitated an engaging workshop about soil health and how he achieves this in a practical sense on his farm. He spoke about growing legumes and the reasons he grows multispecies crops such as sugarcane and sunflowers. Simon shared his passion for improving the soil through regenerative agriculture and the positive outcomes this contributes to local waterways and The Great Barrier Reef. The highlight of this workshop was exploring the properties of good soil – especially handling the worms!

Reef Catchments project officer Carlos Bueno took the students on a learning journey about biodiversity. He sent the children on a walk to discover and assess the amount of vegetative diversity in a small area of land in the vicinity of the Beacon. Children learned about the many functions of plants and weeds. The takeaway of this workshop being that biodiversity is important in both ecological and farming systems.

Ecological educator Kellie Galletly provided children an opportunity to learn about land use in the Pioneer Valley watershed through play. In groups, children were given scenarios about regenerative agriculture practices taking place locally which they were able to model at a miniature scale using small loose parts in a valley-shaped mound of soil. In this way children were able to understand how agricultural land use in the watershed affects the health of waterways and ecosystems.

As well as learning about agro-ecological farming at the Beacon, the students attending FLEC also planted trees with Jonathon Dykyj from Mackay Regional Council, learned about the importance of fishways with Matt Moore from Catchment Solutions and built insect hotels for biodiversity with Lynette Keir and Kimberly Blythe from Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens.

These organic and visceral learning experiences are aligned with the premise of place-based education – an approach to learning that allows children opportunities for authentic connection to community and cultivates a sense of responsibility for the natural environment and the people it supports.

In addition to all the ecological knowledge, it is hoped that the children, as a result of learning about the Watershed Land Art Project,  will have gained a sense of the attributes required to work with others on social and environmental issues and ultimately recognise their own capacity to be change makers in the community.

Photo credits: Robert Bole Photography

This blog post was written by Kellie Galletly, a Mackay-based educator who runs Edutones, a social enterprise that facilitates opportunities for authentic, child-centred, outdoor and community-based learning experiences across Mackay and surrounds. Kellie is a key contributor to the Watershed Land Art Project.

SEED & SONG – news article by Michael Kane

Michael Kane, who was in 2018 working for Farmers for Climate Action (FCA) was a great support for our work at the Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens. Michael wrote this news article immediately following the Seed & Song planting event in late August 2018. He now works with the Mackay Conservation Group.

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SEED AND SONG – The Watershed Land Art Project at Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens.

Seed and Song was launched on Sunday afternoon at the Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens to a large and appreciative crowd of townsfolk, Yuwibara elders and family, farmers, Australian South Sea Islanders, artists and supporters from as far away as Brisbane and Melbourne.

Local grower Simon Mattsson teamed up with Lucas Ihlein and Kim Williams from the Watershed Land Art Project and a host of community groups and local businesses to create a living work of art – The Beacon – so called because it aims to attract the attention of visitors to the Botanic Gardens, sparking conversations about agriculture and ecology.

Over the coming months, The Beacon‘s circular crop of sugarcane and sunflowers will grow into a stunning visual demonstration of local achievements in eco-friendly farming systems.

The day began with a performance by the Diranga Gangali Aboriginal Dancers, and continued with a presentation from Australian South Sea Islander elder Uncle Doug Mooney, who shared stories about his history as a worker in the sugarcane industry. Later, participants took a break from planting sunflowers for a performance by the Sakwolo Islander Dancers – a local South Sea Islander dance troupe.

Artist Kim Williams said that involving the Aboriginal custodians and the Australian South Sea Islander Community was about paying respect to local culture: “While innovations in agriculture are the central focus of the project, in creating a community planting event we want to also acknowledge the cultural practices that are integral to the history of farming in the region.”

Local grower Simon Mattsson said the event was important to him because it was an opportunity to communicate the message of regenerative agriculture and make the story of farming accessible to everyone.

“It was a great cultural day and rewarding to receive support from local families who were willing to share their stories from over a century of cane growing history,” said Mr Mattsson.

Visitor Michael Kane, who was representing Farmers for Climate Action, said it was fascinating to see the cane planted. “It was a lot of fun to get my hands dirty with everybody while seeding the sunflowers too. The best part of the day was the light shower and double rainbow that appeared just after the planting was finished. A great way to end a fantastic community event,” said Mr Kane.

Local farmer John Sweet, a retired grazier, said he enjoyed catching up with everybody. “It’s a hot day but everybody is pitching in and there is a good community feeling behind it all. I’m looking forward to seeing the harvest event in November.”

The project received funding from the Queensland Government’s Regional Arts Development Fund, and from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) through the Reef Guardians Program.

Artist Lucas Ihlein said that this support recognised the critical connection between farming and the health of the Great Barrier Reef. “How farmers work their land affects the quality of the water in the Reef, and so it’s good that GBRMPA is encouraging projects like this which show how to reduce the need for chemical fertilisers and herbicides by focusing on soil health.”

In late November, the artists will host a community celebration for the blooming sunflowers at the Botanic Gardens, with local music, food and more opportunities for the public to learn about regenerative agriculture.