Angharad Wynne-Jones on art, ecology and what you can expect at Planting Party
Can you tell us a bit about what Creative Climate is and what you do?
Creative Climate is a consortium of four organisations and two facilitators and an environmental consultant, and we are the national arts and culture peak body for climate action.
We support the sector in helping to provide tools and resources and doing work in advocacy and engagement.
We connect people and organisations, building a community around the problem that we have, knowing that we’ve got incredible people and capacity as artists to tell the critical stories, to move people’s hearts and minds, which is, I think, going to be the secret to any kind of systemic change.
And some of that is also around modeling different kinds of public engagement. That’s really where the Planting project fits in the gamut of the things that we’re doing as a consortium.
- Planting will happen at nine sites across Melbourne in the morning, followed by the Planting Party at Fed Square. Photo: courtesy Fifteen Trees.
What will Planting Party be like? What will people be learning or experiencing as part of the Planting events?
It will be the best kind of school fete you’ve ever been at.
Uncle Dave Wandin will be doing a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony.
There’ll be really cracking talent on stage, singing amazing songs about that relationship to Country.
There’ll be interactive workshops like weaving and bird nest making.
You’ll get inspired and excited about getting involved in native planting, and there’ll be information about how you can do that.
We’ll have Barkandji artist and researcher Zena Cumpston’s amazing poster that people can pick up, featuring beautiful botanical drawings of the different plants that will be planted across the different sites, with their Indigenous names, their functions and cultural and spiritual uses.
We’ll also be hearing from some incredible writers and artists and explore where First Nations-led regeneration meets arts and culture.
It’s Poorneet season. It’s the start of spring in Melbourne – we know how cold and wet and miserable the winters are. And I feel like we’re just starting to get that little flutter, as the days are getting longer and you can smell spring.
You’ll go home feeling super connected, have learnt some new information, maybe found a new sense of possibility about what it is, what ‘place’ means to you and how you can get involved.
- Artists Lichen Kelp and Dylan Martorell will present music and plant sculptures as part of Planting Party. Photo: Gregory Lorenzutti.
- Ngarrindjeri artist Emma Stenhouse will be running an all-day drop-in Nest Weaving workshop, as part of Planting Party.
Alongside the planting activities in the morning, you can get your hands dirty in a creative way with artist-led workshops, and also explore art installations by some amazing artists. How does or can art contribute to how we talk about or tackle climate justice?
Art and storytelling open up a space to feel wonderment and awe, to feel confusion and grief.
In the face of ecological and biodiversity loss, this capacity to hold complexity and difficult topics in a way that is generous and joyful – I feel like that has the capacity to be the kind of transformative energy we need.
Then it needs to be backed up by policy, legislation and advocacy.
But I feel like change begins in hearts and minds, and no one does that better than artists.
And I would say, no one does that more powerfully than First Nations communities.
Climate change does feel like quite a heavy topic that is quite depressing. Do you think experiences like Planting and the Planting Party are the antidote to climate despair?
I feel like it is the perfect antidote. It is regenerating the land, physically addressing the problem in a pragmatic way, which will have immediate benefit – and have a long-term benefit.
But it’s doing it in the company of others and it’s doing it in support of those communities that are doing that work all the time.
When I go for a walk along Merri Creek, now I think about the volunteers that are doing that work most weekends that make it a beautiful space. But we all have a role to play, and we can all contribute.
Planting Party and the morning planting event are coming up on Sunday 7 September – who do you hope comes along?
As all good school fetes are, everyone will be there, from grannies to the babes in arms. And I feel like that’s so important in terms of the intergenerational knowledge exchange.
We’ve got people like Pam Robinson, who was one of the founders of Landcare Victoria and she’s talking with Annette Cavanagh, who’s from Intrepid Landcare, which is a new organisation that is working with young people, engaging them in care for Country.
We have the young people from House of Muchness who’ve made the banners, to show us what they think and feel about climate justice, but in a beautiful, joyful way. These will be hung on the stage, so you’ll see them behind the bands as they’re playing.
It’s also Father’s Day, so hopefully that’ll be a beautiful family activity to be out with folks.
- dirtgirl will be hosting Planting Party at Fed Square.
And dirtgirl will be hosting Planting Party?
That’s right – dirtgirl, who has been around now for 10 plus years. There’s a whole generation of young people that have grown up with her and now as teenagers, are re-engaging in a different way.
But they’re informed by the ideas that she’s always championed: that we need to know where our food comes from. We need to know what land we’re standing on. We need to get our hands in the dirt. We’re humans. We’re animals. We’re part of this ecosystem.
We’re part of the problem of the ecosystem, but we can also be part of the solution.
Can you tell us a bit about The Practice of Planting: a conversation?
We’re lucky enough to have some incredible people involved in the Planting events. The Practice of Planting happens a couple of days before the Planting Party celebration.
That’s a chance to get into the nitty gritty of what it is to regenerate and care for Country at this time, and think about climate justice as a critical starting point for any of this work.
At that talk, we’ll be hearing from First Nations leaders like Uncle Brendan Kennedy, who is a Tati Tati, Latji Latji, Wadi Wadi and Mutti Mutti man who looks after the riverlands in the far north of Victoria, and hearing him speak about his relationship to his land and the care of land.
There will be storytelling from First Nations knowledge holders that has the possibility to open up a new kind of way of thinking about what regeneration.
What Planting offers is the chance to learn about our native plants, learn about Country, understand the history of what has always been here before colonisation, and think into the future about what we do together to create a sustainable future for next generations.
Planting Party will be held on Sunday 7 September in the Test Garden at Fed Square, following a morning of planting. Visit the event website to sign up to the morning planting activities, and to explore the full Planting Party program. You can also register online for The Practice of Planting: a conversation on Thursday 4 September.
About Angharad Wynne-Jones
Angharad Wynne-Jones (she/ her) is Cymry (Welsh) Australian and lives on the unceded lands of Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung in Naarm/ Melbourne. She is the facilitator of Creative Climate, the national peak body for arts and climate, which delivers sector support, engagement, participation and systemic transformation and is funded by Creative Australia.She has held leadership roles at State Library Victoria and Arts Centre Melbourne and now works as an independent curator and creative consultant.
As artistic director at Arts House, she initiated Refuge – a six year publicly engaged investigation into the role of cultural institutions in climate catastrophes. She was co-founder of Chunky Move, associate director of Adelaide Festival, artistic director and CEO of London International Festival of Theatre and founder and director of TippingPoint Australia – energising the cultural response to climate change.
Wynne-Jones designed and delivered the Cultural Leadership MFA course at NIDA as well as leadership programs with Creative Australia. She is Chair of the artist-led experimental art organisation APHIDS, and a member of the Centre for Reworlding collective.
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