A Poem for the Trees – saving nature with art

Last week, I had the pleasure of working with local artist-in-residence and forest ambassador Gloria Florez. As part of her six-month artist residency at the Eramboo Artist Environment, sponsored by Northern Beaches Council, she’s been using sustainable printmaking methods and unique handmade paper techniques to create an artist book and collage installation that celebrates the ephemeral beauty of the Pittwater Spotted Gum Forest, a local but endangered ecological community likely to become extinct. Her exhibition, opening on 15 June, features an artistic and environmental collaboration between children from Cromer Public School After School Care, video installation artist Alyson Bell… and me!

The Pittwater Spotted Gum forest is formed by 44 plant species. It shelters an extensive array of birds, marsupials and insects, and is made up of both coastal dry and coastal moist spotted gum forest. Associated trees include grey ironbark, grey gum, bangalay, smooth-barked apple, red bloodwood, broad-leaved white mahogany, turpentine and rough-barked apple. I love trees! Nature grounds me, as I mentioned here on my blog earlier this year.

So it was disappointing to learn that the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee has determined that the Pittwater Spotted Gum Forest is likely to become extinct in New South Wales, unless factors threatening its survival are addressed. Factors include clearing land for housing, fire mitigation and rapid weed invasion (especially Lantana Camara and Acacia Saligna). As artists, one of the things Gloria, Alyson and I can do, however, is raise awareness and tell the story of this fragile habitat and the close symbiotic relationships within it. Gloria’s artwork expresses this fragility, and the beauty of interconnectivity, and my task was to inspire a group of children to write a poem about their understanding of this.

To do this, I engaged them with creative strategies to think beyond their immediate environment to envisage experiences in the Pittwater Spotted Gum Forest, using familiarity and empathy to develop a personal literary response to its ecological story. Together we explored and developed the power of imagination, words and self-expression. They loved it! And apparently I’m hilarious! Here are some photos of our session, and the glorious children who participated:

With children ranging in diversity, age and skill (from Year 1 to Year 5), it was amazing to see how quickly they formed a communal response and, using collectively selected words, moulded their expression together into this poem:

Leaves fall on the brown dirt, animals crawl among it,

Flaky trunks and warm clouds,

Breathe freely,

Sunlight shines over wise trees,

Calming breeze flows through the leaves,

Earth, roots, connecting together,

Relaxing greenery, the way to life.

Nature is as peaceful as can be.

If you’d like to learn more about the project, and see how the poem gets incorporated into the exhibition, here’s a link to the upcoming exhibition’s details. When it comes to protecting and celebrating the beauty of nature, we can all make a difference.