The spaces in between.
And the power of noticing.
Sitting in artist Katherine White’s Broulee back garden we’re sheltered from the snarl of the cool southerly, stealthing its way up the coast. It’s an odd contrast to the nightmare reality of the firestorms and steely winds that threatened this beachside suburb during Black Summer.
In Summer 2019-20 Eurobodalla locals lived through the consequences of rising global temperatures and Australia’s hottest year on record, battling mega-fires that blazed for over 100 days.
Broulee Surf Club lifeguards swapped out surf dinghies for loud hailers, driving through the streets urging residents to evacuate their homes.
But today we’re on a slow walk past winter vegetables tucked amongst Katherine’s backyard of lush plantings. Mosaics weave a pathway around fruit trees and native orchids. And we’re transported from one garden cornucopia to another source of nurture, her artist’s studio.
Over a cup of tea we pore over the haiku–inspired writings that Katherine, a visual artist has been diarising from her beachside backyard for the last couple of years.
As I leaf through a series of pencil drawings titled ‘Surburban Dreams‘ – created after the fires and during Covid lockdown – these daily observations from ‘shared’ zones of human habitation and local habitat, are now especially poignant.
The significance of our forest margins, trees, and habitats are certainly front of many locals’ minds across Eurobodalla; from Broulee and Mossy Point to Tuross, Coila Lake, Dalmeny Congo and beyond.
As regional relocation booms, and a number of contentious Zombie Developments further threaten native bushland and the shire’s remaining old growth trees, local communities have mobilised strongly since the fires. Everyone knows that over 80% of the Nature Coast was burnt during Black Summer.
Meanwhile, the spectre of NSW’s record levels of deforestation is sobering :
NSW is losing “Sydney CBD-sized chunk of tree cover every two days” as a result of land clearing.
Here in Broulee and Mossy Point, residents and wider community have galvanised to protect threatened yellow belly gliders (Petaurus australis) and remnant Bangalay forest from contentious developments . In July 2021, the clearing of community land opposite the Broulee Fire Shed (at Clarke street and Broulee Rd) in spite of having its community land status recognised – further underlined the threats that village residents, and flora and wildlife are facing.
‘Surburban Dreams’ explores the overlapping of spaces – of housing, coastal forest and ocean. And time spent contemplatively in a beachside garden and a rapidly changing environment.
Some readers will have encountered Katherine’s work in artworks through Tree Conversations shown at the BAS in 2021, or during River of Art Open Studios. Or in interstate and regional exhibitions further afield.
Here, in these latest reflections, familiar motifs from the beachside suburb sit side-by-side with personal vignettes – wrought in soft pencil and haiku – at times back-lit by the broader themes of climate change and a warming world.
I ask Katherine about the act of sifting, and catching hold of life’s little evanescent moments right on her own doorstep through the daily practise of mindfulness and creative process.
Is it therapeutic, and even more so now, as we see the quickening impacts of global warming and deforestation so clearly?
“Yes. The Haiku and drawings are therapeutic to create,” she says.
” They enable me to focus on the beauty of my garden and the natural environment in a way that sustains and provides refuge for me.”
“I developed a passion for writing haiku a few years ago as a means of self expression and a spiritual practice. It’s an art form where both beauty and awe are celebrated.”
“My garden – and growing plants heal me and connect me to the wider environment – even as I look out to the remnant forest at the end of my street, which is no longer benign. I have a sense of ‘growing myself’ through growing food and beautiful plants. “
“The process of creating art allows you to connect with the world of imagination – a world of many possibilities.”
‘ Haiku focuses the mind on the present moment, with the subject being the natural world.Beauty and awe are celebrated.
The process of intense awareness and observation of the environment brings about an optimistic attitude and sense of mental wellbeing. ‘
Broulee artist, Katherine White
” Just up the street’s end, there is the uncomfortable zone where the suburb meets the bush – a contested site, where political battles have been fought and lost. Fights with developers have been exchanged for grief over the loss of loved local forest and fauna. It doesn’t feel like a safe place to live any more. However my garden still feels like a small sanctuary for me.”
Katherine pauses, as we duck under an avocado tree that’s buckling with fruit. Then speaks. “Climate haiku are an expression of my belief that we humans are part of the natural world and not separate from it. When the earth is harmed I feel pain. ”
I ask how the threat and devastation of Black Summer has affected Katherine’s creative life, and her relationship with her garden.
” The bushfires, where I experienced a life and death situation of great fear and trauma, have definitely changed my view of my art practice. Creativity feels like an anchor into my self and is a lifeline,” she says.
“Even in the worst days of the fires my garden still provided me with delicious vegetables which gave great comfort. This is still the case and I gain much enjoyment from picking my dinner from the backyard every night. Designing and building new garden beds brings the greatest joy.”
We step back outside and back into the wind, now squalling all the way from Antartica.
With a bundle of bok choy and dill, and some ripening avocados in my hands, the inspiration for penning some haiku now incubates under my pulled-down beanie as I walk out onto the street.
The beauty of beach heaths, the mysteries of disappearing shear waters, the winter light peeling through Bangalay forest just beyond houses, and an enlivened sense of noticing are pulling me their way. The idea of spontaneous acts of haiku, are helping to guide me home. Even as the seasons and our lives change in ways we have never seen before… And as we face our ultimate connectedness.
Katherine White was interviewed by Magella Blinksell
Winter 2021
See more of Katherine’s art practise – printmaking, sculpture, textile art here:
https://networksaustralia.blogspot.com/p/katherine-white-artist.html
http://networksaustralia.blogspot.com/2017/11/installation-of-trees-as-above-so-below.html
http://networksaustralia.blogspot.com/2011/05/katherine-white.html
Postcript
You can connect with a range of Eurobodalla residents ‘ action groups at:
https://www.facebook.com/brouleemossypoint/
Dalmeny Matters (14) Dalmeny Matters | Facebook
Friends of the @ManyanaMatters movement – ‘Protecting small coastal communities from mass development and native clearing’
Protect Coila Lake’s fragile ecosystem https://www.facebook.com/ProtectColiaLake
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