time-place-space:

On sharing what you know

 

This video only tells part of the story, the unresolved one.

You found yourself on the TPS bandwagon by choice.

When the call for proposals was out you jumped at it: 3 weeks around NSW with a bunch of creative practitioners sharing, connecting and talking about big issues? Perfect, you thought, lets go.

 

We are now preparing for the final day: a public presentation of what it came out of it.

 

Hard to fit so much into a half hour slot, so it will just be a bunch of teasers, born out of communal sharing.

 

You shared knowledge about plants a lot, as you do.

The video above was shot at Ganguddy, or Dunns Swamp in white man’s tongue.

And there you were, paying respect to indigenous spirit and wisdom: a white man sharing indigenous knowledge.

 

Your ancestry is related to exotics (or weeds, depend on who’s talking), and you crafted an art practice out of that, pointing your fingers to the floor while introducing guests and friends to the wonder and possibilities of introduced botanical species.

 

Although these time it felt strange. Ganguddy did not offer many weeds, and that is good, good to see a place that despite being totally devastated by the mining industry – indeed Dunn’s swamp never was a swamp at all, that only came after the dam was built- it had an incredible healthy endemic re-vegetation.

So when proposing to take fellow creatives for a wander to look at plants, you had to talk about natives for the most part.

You are always unsure about authority – as a Caucasian talking about indigenous plants- for the knowledge does not belong to your ancestry. Yet you had something to offer, and people wanted to know what they were looking at.

 

Indigenous authority is an interesting aspect to reflect upon, particularly at this point in time, with loss of knowledge and species at alarming levels.

 

TPS gave you the chance to reflect. It did not provide answers, but surely helped you devise better questions.

 

Next is the showing of progressing thoughts: a smorgasbord of rewarding collaborations.

Thanks folks.

 

More please.

-Diego Bonetto