From kunanyi to Arthur's Seat : reimagining Home

Arthur's Seat: Gary Campbell-Hall, inset: Irene Groeneweld Dekker.

“Your soul knows the geography of your destiny. Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore you can trust this indirect, oblique side of yourself. If you do, it will take you where you need to go, but more important it will teach you a kindness of rhythm in your journey.” 

John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom


From kunanyi to Arthur's Seat - Reimagining Home 

A creative research project to design video storybooks to assist children displaced from their homelands to form deep connections with their new environments.


In the project, I will be working with eco-literature, drawing, photography, sound recording and video imagery - as well as connecting with the Scottish Poetry Library, Scottish Storytelling Centre and Intercultural Research Centre in Edinburgh.

I am applying for funds to purchase a return airfare between Sydney and Edinburgh - approx: 1,500 - and for funds to assist with 4 weeks living expenses - $1000 - to undertake research.  I only have a short time to manifest funds - until June 3rd this year, now 8 days away- so will be coming up with lots of creative strategies and gratitude boons.

The project has already begun - I have left my home in Hobart, under kunanyi/Mount Wellington, and am preparing to transit from Sydney to Edinburgh on June 11th.  Please see the list of Gratitude Boons below to see how you can be involved and benefit from sponsorship - including name and photo credits on the Video Voyaging and interacting with Hamish and the Hero's Adventure...


Image: Adavd

I am an Art and Integrated Health Therapist, designer and writer with a passionate interest in storytelling and in assisting children in recovering after trauma and displacement. I have worked in Integrated Health for over 18 years and in the last 9 years have been learning about ethnomedicine in Aotearoa/New Zealand with the award-winning First Light Flower Essences of New Zealand http://www.firstlightfloweressences.co.nz/. I trained and practised as an Art Therapist in Edinburgh and Fife, working at The Centre for the Vulnerable Child and with Place2Be. See http://www.firstlightfloweressences.co.nz/practitioners#practitioner48 

I studied Creative Writing at the University of the Sunshine Coast in 2017 but my main focus is now on video storytelling as an innovative way of enabling children to reimagine and co-create their new worlds. Working with native plants has deepened my relationship with nature and that respect and awe for the environment are reflected in my artwork and design.


Current image from Centennial Park, Sydney.

I was accepted into Heriot-Watt University for PhD research into this project in 2018 but did not receive the funding I applied for. I think that this creative project would be very valuable work to undertake at a time when many children across the world are displaced from their homelands. I have seen the power of visual imagery and storytelling to assist children in recreating their own lives. Working with video storytelling, inspired by research undertaken in Scotland, would enable benefits to be shared worldwide.


Why the journey from kunanyi to Arthur's Seat?

Both Hobart and Edinburgh are fortunate to be in the presence of mountains that dwarf the cityscapes. First Nations Peoples have long known the value of mountains and respected what they bring to the environment. People are transitory in comparison - whether by choice or forced migration - mountains carry abiding memory. By being in transition myself and making Arthur's Seat the core of my practice and response to the landscape, I can learn how to reconnect and co-create a sense of belonging with the landscape. This is the body of research that will form a key part of the video storytelling to assist children in discovering their own mythologies of the land. 

'Mountains seem to answer an increasing imaginative need in the West. More and more people are discovering a desire for them, and a powerful solace in them. .. By speaking of greater forces than we can possibly invoke, and by confronting us with greater spans of time than we can possibly envisage, mountains refute our excessive trust in the man-made. They pose profound questions about our durability and the importance of our schemes. They induce, I suppose, a modesty in us.' 

Robert MacFarlane, Mountains of the Mind: Adventures in Reaching the Summit


Image: David Monniaux

I have lived in Edinburgh for 9 years previously and it is through the research for my PhD application that I discovered what incredible resources there are in Scotland for eco-literature, eco-poetry and vivid and unbroken traditions of storytelling, https://tracscotland.org/ 

Being in Scotland would also enable me to share the benefits of the unique First Light Flower Essences of New Zealand in environmental areas, for example, No 118  Silver Pine - Language of the Stones, see http://www.firstlightfloweressences.co.nz/essences/shamanic-essences-97-120/no-118-silver-pine.html 

FLFENZ have already won New Zealand  Health Industry Awards for their dedicated and  innovative research, see http://www.firstlightfloweressences.co.nz/about 

Arthur's Seat also has connection with the Arthurian Legends and sits astride the Rose Line which is further connected to Kinghorn in Fife, to the north and Rosslyn Chapel. Some interesting insights in Land of the Fae: http://landofthefae.blogspot.com/2016/08/roslin-glen-and-rose-line.html 




I have already been sponsored to travel to Sydney and have $250 in funding - thank you to Paul, Hamish, Chreh and Sonya.  I am also applying for work in Edinburgh. Without further funding, I will not be able to undertake this project and I would be very grateful to anyone able to assist - I will be offering photographs with poetry, friendship videos, and credits in the final video in return - as well as regular updates. 

For a full list of Gratitude Boons please scroll past Hamish.

An example of a previous Random Acts of Friendship video, available to be customised:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nZ06UY9z5k&t=10s

Current videos using images from the voyage will be available soon. 

Here is another example of a video advocating for elephant welfare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSINVkwDYjY 


Thank you so much to my first sponsor! Beginnings are always pivotal and I can feel the momentum building!
Below, one of the roses from the Kitty Henry Gardens in Hobart, the image can be customised to include your name and a poem.


Rose Video Cards are also available for koha/donations above $20, see below.



All sponsors with donations over $50 are eligible to receive a Random Act of Friendship video which can be sent to a friend - I have had some wonderful feedback from sponsors receiving these.


Gratitude Swells my Sea-Green Boat - an example of a video which can be customised to give to a friend, arriving as a link - for all sponsorship over $50.


I look forward to hearing from you and sharing the adventure. 

'Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From then on, you are inflamed with a special longing that will never again let you linger in the lowlands of complacency and partial fulfillment. The eternal makes you urgent. You are loath to let compromise or the threat of danger hold you back from striving toward the summit of fulfillment.' 

John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

My current sponsor and creative mews/muse - Hamish. Due to his chest condition and wanting him to take sun baths, most of the campaign is now being handwritten outside amidst and kale and pumpkin patch.



Fortunately, we're also under the Sydney flightpath, so he's keeping me on track!

Sunshine on the heart.

'Turn your face toward the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.'

'Te tiro atu to kanohi ki tairawhiti ana tera whiti te ra kite ataata ka hinga ki muri kia koe.'

Maori Proverb




GRATITUDE BOONS! 



For sponsorship over $50, G.B.'s  include:

*  name mention on the  Video Voyaging clip.
*  a personal message/poetry with a rose or nature image from the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens in Hobart
* a customised Random Acts of Friendship Video, sent as a link to you or your chosen friend or a FLFENZ mini consultation to look at your Constitutional Essences or current Te Wheke native plant allies, see

http://www.firstlightfloweressences.co.nz/first-light-dispensary/constitutional-essence-blend.html 


For sponsorship over $100, G.B.'s  include:

* name and/or photographic mention on the  Video Voyaging clip.
* a personal message/poetry with a rose or nature image from the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens in Hobart

and

*  two customised Random Acts of Friendship Videos sent as a link to you or your chosen friend or

* a FLFENZ full consultation to recommend your Constitutional Essences or current Te Wheke native plant allies,      see http://www.firstlightfloweressences.co.nz/first-light-dispensary/constitutional-essence-blend.html  

* or a Chiron's Arrow Reading with the Celestial Compendium, see https://www.eighthraymagic.com/#cc-cards

Be included in the Video Voyaging!



A new video is being designed - Hamish and the Hero's Adventure.

Interactive video storytelling -  for a $30 koha/donation towards the campaign, you will be able to direct Hamish on his journey. Watch this space! 


Second take: