Tocal Field Days

WRVAP is pleased to be offered the opportunity to show work at Tocal Homestead during the Tocal Agricultural College annual Field Days event from April 30 - May 2, 2010. Tocal is 15 minutes from Maitland on Tocal Road, Paterson, and the Field Days have over 600 exhibitors and a number of events of interest to both the rural and wider community.

For the duration of these Field Day events, WRVAP artworks will be on show in the Tocal barn:

These will include an installation of shoes made by local artist Bridget Nicholson, who, as part of the Williams River project, is making individual shoes for people by wrapping their feet in clay. The collection will form an installation titled ‘touch this earth lightly’. Bridget will be available at Tocal Homestead during the 3 field days to do people’s feet. The process takes approximately 20 minutes per person and Bridget will also be talking to people and recording their views on their own relationship to their feet and to the environment. Examples of shoes made to date are shown below:

Opening on 24 October

WRVAP organiser, Juliet Fowler Smith (centre) with Sally Corbett of the No Tillegra Dam group (left) and local resident/campaigner, Patricia Middlebrook (right) at the opening of the Williams River Artists Project show at Muswellbrook Regional Gallery, October 24, 2009.

Project organiser, Juliet Fowler Smith reports: The opening of the WRVAP exhibition at the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre was packed thanks to being on with the Muswellbrook Art Prize- the Mayor opened it and I got to say a few words too. A group from Dungog came which was great and we were able to get some signatures on postcards about the EAR submission re the dam, which the Wilderness Society is co-ordinating. We also got front page coverage in the Muswellbrook Chronicle and were interviewed by ABC local radio plus other coverage in local media. The show contains Noelene’s video of the river flow, my couch with water filled cushions, Bridget’s feet/shoes, Marg's No Williams River Collection on a digital photo frame, David’s beautiful image River Mourn and Suzanne's bedhead/surfboards.

WRVAP artists (left to right), Juliet Fowler Smith, Noelene Lucas and Suzanne Bartos, on Juliet's Water Couch (with water-filled cushions) in front of Noelene's video The Last Healthy River in the Hunter, at the opening of the Williams River Artists Project show at Muswellbrook Regional Gallery, October 24, 2009.

From the Williams River Artists' Project show at Muswellbrook Regional Gallery: L to R: R.I.P.- no chance, bed-head surfboards by Suzanne Bartos, Take Us Instead (and leave the water in the river) slide-show in wall photoframe by Margaret Roberts, Water Couch by Juliet Fowler Smith, River Mourn, photographic print by David Watson, and Touch this earth lightly, feet-work by Bridget Nicholson.

WRVAP at the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre

Up near Barrington Tops (200km north of Sydney) lies the glorious Williams River valley – 22 kilometres of pristine winding river flanked by rich dairy pasture, primeval forest and national park. However, the precious ecosystems of this last healthy river in the Hunter will be destroyed if Hunter Water's proposed $480 million Tillegra Dam proceeds. A dam the size of Sydney Harbour would flood the valley; Hunter residents would pay for it in their water bills; all of us would lose another sacred site. Initiated by artist Juliet Fowler Smith – whose family has farmed the valley for generations – the Williams River Valley Artists’ Project brings together a group of environmentally-dismayed Australian contemporary artists. Their by turns elegiac, contemplative and strident responses are being fuelled by local residencies, research and exhibitions starting in 2009. The first opens at the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre on 24 October, followed by cry me a river at the Tin Sheds Gallery in Sydney in September 2010 and another at Maitland Regional Art Gallery after that.

The Last Healthy River in the Hunter

A clip from "The last healthy river in the Hunter" 2009

by Noelene Lucas.

Emergent Glimpses DW

River Mourn (David Watson 2009)

Williams River artists' camp February 2009 (Image David Watson)

"The last healthy river in the Hunter"

A clip from "The last healthy river in the Hunter" 2009

by Noelene Lucas.

The June residency

MANNS HILL

Standing on Egg-top Hill—and watched by Bridget Nicholson and Hanna—Juliet Fowler Smith and Suzanne Bartos point to the seedlings recently planted on top of Manns Hill, the one part of the Munni area that will remain above water level if the valley is flooded to make the Tillegra Dam. The seedlings have been planted as part of a memorial reforestation of Manns Hill.

MEETING WITH MUNNI PEOPLE

14th June 2009: Photos from a meeting with locals Simone Turner and Patricia Middlebrook, to talk about how the dam would impact on them and their community:

A walk down to the river.

Simone takes Bridget to show her an old swimming spot in the river.

Simone remembers coming across a group of nude bathers there as a child!

MUNNI ARTIST

Local artist, photographer and historian Simone E. Turner has been photographing the landscape around Munni and Tillegra for many years. As much of her work is about memory, her photographs of the William's River valley have taken on a renewed significance with the awareness that, with the dam, these places will no longer be visible.

THE CEMETERY

Entry by Suzanne Bartos: This poem was composed from text found in the minutes of the Quart Pot Cemetery Subcommittee meeting 1st August 2007. This committee's role is to oversee the moving of the local cemetery, which is in the area to be flooded if the Tillegra Dam is built. The committee sought legal advice as to what family member they legally had to get permission from in order to move those buried in the cemetery.

The minutes read: "Legal Advise - Hierarchy Next of Kin" Glen advised, the advise from the lawyer was expected to include advise on the legal status regarding the hierarchy for next of kin. The intention is to use the legal advise to guide the development of the cemetery relocation process and discussions with affected families."

Sorting out the affected families' distress over this issue by using legal means is a heavy handed and divisive 'process' and a very one sided 'discussion'. Read: It is enough for us to get permission from any family member and then we can do what we want.

Definition of Next of Kin

The deceased person’s spouse.

Or, if the deceased person did not have a spouse-

any of the deceased person’s sons or daughters.

Or, if the deceased person did not have a spouse, son or daughter Or a spouse, son or daughter are not available –

Either of the deceased person’s parents

Or, If the deceased person did not have a spouse, son, daughter, or living parent or a spouse, son, daughter or parent is not available –

any of the brothers or sisters

Or, if the deceased person did not have a spouse, son, daughter, living parent, brother or sister,

or a spouse, son, daughter, parent, brother or sister is not available

Then…..

don’t go around thinking that you’re not loved.