In October 2023 I spent 5 days on Worimi Country, around Medowie outside of Newcastle (NSW). The purpose of the trip was to visit my external cultural supervisor Liz Cameron (Dharug, NSW) to talk about many things sensory and Place-resonant as part of my PhD practice-lead research project exegesis titled ‘Recognition of the Moment: Resonant methods in engaging with Places’ (2019-2024).
The photos included below outline the 4 days spent out with/on Worimi Country. Intuition, memory, olfaction, the imaginative and a speculative new music genre called ‘gut music’ were some central themes of our wandering conversations. The outcome of this field trip was to extend the PhD exegesis into connecting sound and listening to a more resonant, embodied experience at and with Places as living Country. Another outcome was an invitation from Prof Liz Camron to co-publish a paper on the sensory… due for development and publication in 2024.
Boolah-Dillah (Bulahdelah Mountain) holds Guarding Trees, Birthing Trees and Burial Trees. The mountain was mined for alunite in the 1890’s and is now edged by a large-scale highway which drones in the background. You can see in slow motion how the mountain was formed volcanically, with rocks coming away from the top and cliffs over time. Huge pieces of granite, kree-pun (spotted gum), wayila (black cockatoo) nun-doo (grass tree) and yellow beetles gathering in the grass and flying off…
