We Lost This One
Map
Map
Story & Experience
This is the site of a sandstone quarry that was due to be rewilded and given back to the wild river valley that it had occupied over its license. A group of neighbours bravely resisted, funded lawyers, submitted statements, signed petitions, attended council meetings, spoke up for the endangered wildlife, the wombats, the swamp wallabies and spotted quoll, who are residents of the valley. We lost this one and the sandstone continues to be taken out at an accelerated pace. We wanted to honour the fight, and speak beauty to the earth in this disturbed place.
Just 2 of us gathered to be with our noticing of this quarry we fought and lost this round. Extraction has ramped up 3-fold now. We hear it drilling and booming, we share our driveway with the trucks taking it. We fell silent. We remembered our resistance and others we joined in this. We were sorrowful for all the extracted places, and continued extraction. For the threats and the power structures that dominated this resistance. For the extracted minerals we use in our lives. For the fight on many fronts across the world for change—for another way. We felt longing for the earth to be honoured as mother, as creator, as sacred. We honoured our longing and joining of the tipping point; of more of us who long for this sacredness. We gathered pods and flowers and sandstone that held silica glittering within. The spiral held our grief, our gaze and our intention for transmutation and movement.
To bring change in the world, through presence, witness and beauty. We made simple earthart spirals with rocks and seeds and flowers that were present. It was silent, and simple and marked that we noticed. That our witness and presence was important. That we cared. That we still wanted to sing up the ravaged places. And will continue to do so. A defiance with beauty. Not nothing.
HAIKU
1. Allow the sorrow
Hold the gaze though painful
What are we doing?
2. A covenant made
With the future, then broken
more sandstone taken
3. Now is not the time
To turn away. Beauty
Offered as presence
4. Honour the loss, the
Ravaged sacred rage
Transmute in beauty
This is the site of a sandstone quarry that was due to be rewilded and given back to the wild river valley that it had occupied over its license. A group of neighbours bravely resisted, funded lawyers, submitted statements, signed petitions, attended council meetings, spoke up for the endangered wildlife, the wombats, the swamp wallabies and spotted quoll, who are residents of the valley. We lost this one and the sandstone continues to be taken out at an accelerated pace. We wanted to honour the fight, and speak beauty to the earth in this disturbed place.
Just 2 of us gathered to be with our noticing of this quarry we fought and lost this round. Extraction has ramped up 3-fold now. We hear it drilling and booming, we share our driveway with the trucks taking it. We fell silent. We remembered our resistance and others we joined in this. We were sorrowful for all the extracted places, and continued extraction. For the threats and the power structures that dominated this resistance. For the extracted minerals we use in our lives. For the fight on many fronts across the world for change—for another way. We felt longing for the earth to be honoured as mother, as creator, as sacred. We honoured our longing and joining of the tipping point; of more of us who long for this sacredness. We gathered pods and flowers and sandstone that held silica glittering within. The spiral held our grief, our gaze and our intention for transmutation and movement.
To bring change in the world, through presence, witness and beauty. We made simple earthart spirals with rocks and seeds and flowers that were present. It was silent, and simple and marked that we noticed. That our witness and presence was important. That we cared. That we still wanted to sing up the ravaged places. And will continue to do so. A defiance with beauty. Not nothing.
HAIKU
1. Allow the sorrow
Hold the gaze though painful
What are we doing?
2. A covenant made
With the future, then broken
more sandstone taken
3. Now is not the time
To turn away. Beauty
Offered as presence
4. Honour the loss, the
Ravaged sacred rage
Transmute in beauty
Additional Photos
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