When we regard a plant, we usually only see what’s above the surface: stems, trunks, branches, leaves, buds and flowers. But there’s so much more below ground – intricate nets of roots, radicles and fungal bodies through which water, nutrients, knowledge and community flows. Plants are always connected, always talking and listening to each other, even in the most constructed of landscapes. A plant knows and makes worlds; it is always in communication with others. Through root-listening, through practices of sharing words, time - and seeds - can we cultivate a vegetable-based consciousness?

featuring

Uncle Des Sandy, who is the senior elder for the Yuggera Nation, will reflect on place and plants in Mt Coot-tha.

Traditional Owner Dr Robert Anderson AOM, Bob Anderson, who is a Ngugi elder, will offer some reflections.

Derek Oram Sandy from Yerongpan dancers will give a short performance.

Dr Glenda Harward-Nalder will talk about the Tradition of walking in the footsteps of Ancestors, and discuss her collaborative project with Libby Harward, Ngugi Bajara (Footsteps).

Libby Harward, who is a Ngugi woman from the Quandamooka, will share findings, analysis and thoughts from her research residency at the Botanical Gardens site. Libby will lead an artist walk to visit her works throughout the Gardens, including a performance at the Tropical Dome. Through her practice of Gangga (a Yugambeh/Bundjalung word that best translates as “to call out and to hear simultaneously”), and Ganggalanji which extends this action to thinking, she will reflects on the colonial practices of planting for a controlled aesthetic, and how it interacts with the inter-relationship of the flora and fauna that already occupies country. It is Libby’s intention to utilise sound and language to understand some things about the interactions and what they might be communicating in an under-heard sovereign dialogue about colonisation, display, danger, and resistance.

Libby and Glenda are descendants of Junobin of Mulgumpin (Moreton Island) in the Quandamooka (Moreton Bay), through their Great Grandmother, Rose Gonzales-Campbell, whose Tribal name, Wijumbaregun, relates her to the Black Dolphin. The tribes of Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island) and Mulgumpin (Moreton Island) in the Quandamooka are known as Yulu-burri-bah – people of the sand and sea places. Mulgumpin and Minjerribah are two of the three largest sand islands in the world.

The world’s leading plant bioacoustic scientist, Monica Gagliano (Perth) will give a reading and thoughts from her latest book, the phyto-biography Thus Spoke the Plant (North Atlantic Books; 2018).

Leah Bar­clay will respond to Monica’s book with a loca­tive sound instal­la­tion explor­ing the acoustic ecol­ogy beneath the sur­face of the soil. Acces­si­ble by mobile devices, the instal­la­tion will include live streams with micro­phones buried (‘planted’) deep in the ground beneath the Botanic Gardens site.

Renata Buziak’s phyto-graphic abstractions will offer alchemical readings making the sign language of plants legible to human perception.

Through­out the day, Mutual Making (Caitlin Franz­mann and Dhana Mer­ritt) will gen­er­ate a space for plant thinking and the cre­ation and shar­ing of plant wisdom and expe­ri­ences over conversation, divination, and tea-drinking.

Michelle Xen with Shane Rudken’s proto-scientific med­i­ta­tion on plant-being stems from inves­ti­gat­ing ampli­fied root sys­tems and native insect sounds. Michelle's sen­su­ous sonic cam­ou­flage will sym­pa­thet­i­cally sound eco-sexual plant sys­tems via sub­mer­sion in sub­ter­ranean sub­terfuge.

Primitive Motion (Leighton Craig and Sandra Selig) will invite audiences into their sun-drenched secret garden of sound.

Please note: Meet at the Lychee Lawn at 1:00 for 1:30 start. This is a free event. No bookings or reservations are necessary but seating is limited; we recommend you bring a picnic blanket. We walk from Lychee Lawn to the Tropical Dome and back to the Lychee Lawn over the course of the event. The Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens are wheelchair accessible.