Hindu Tree Veneration as a Mode of Environmental Encounter
By Louise Fowler-Smith
Tree Planting with Birdlife Australia
May 2021 – Adrienne Hunt reports on tree planting for Birdlife Australia
Birdlife Australia provides opportunities for the public to participate in birdlife conservation projects, such as planting trees for specific bird species: https://www.birdlife.org.au/
I joined in with tree planting for the endangered Regent Honeyeater (April 30th – May 2nd 2021), on a pleasant autumn day in the magnificent Capertee Valley (the world’s second-widest Canyon- between Lithgow and Mudgee), on a private pastoral property. There was an enthusiastic collective of more than 140 people of all ages, including 28 young people, under the auspices of the Taronga Zoo – Youth at the Zoo (YATZ) program. We set-to with digging implements, and made light work of the planting of tubestock into prepared shallow trenches, which was completed by the early afternoon of the 1st May, including the watering in.
We planted more than 2500 baby trees of 30 different species that had been selected as the ideal habitat trees for the Regent Honeyeater, with the expert guidance of Dick Turner – Consultant Forester and bird life enthusiast.
What at first glance had presented as a daunting and potentially back-breaking task, proved to be an enjoyable and rejuvenating minor workout in an outdoor setting. A positive, cooperative, contributing experience as a counterpoint to the extractive, negative and destructive thrusts of our governmental decision makers.
Congratulations to Birdlife Australia and all who facilitated this endeavour.
Tree of Life: a testament to endurance
TVS Founder and President, Louise Fowler-Smith was selected to include work in Gavin Wilsons Curated Exhibition, TREE OF LIFE: a testament to endurance at the S.H.Ervin Gallery in Sydney.
As stated by the Curator,
As we cautiously emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, humanity is faced with a stark reckoning. The concept for TREE of LIFE is the central motif that signifies the challenges we face. What remains of the natural world is the one beacon in a perilous age of drought, fire, floods and plague, exacerbated by the constant reality of climate change. The recent horrific fire season experienced across the country will go down as the greatest extinction event for Australian wildlife and habitats since Colonisation.
To temper an already dangerous overreaction to the vexed issues of hazard reduction, tree thinning and further rampant land clearing, this major exhibition led by First Nations artists will generate a fresh, positive energy towards the reclamation of diminishing natural resources. Threads woven through TREE of LIFE will recognise the deep spiritual and physical associations that connect all forms of life: Life that must be nurtured as we chart a course of action through this perilous age of climate change, pandemics and wildfires.
Louise included two works from her ‘Tenacious Trees of the Australian Desert’ series. These artworks focus on trees found predominantly in the arid zone of far western NSW, particularly trees and bushes such as the Mulga, with its umbrella like form and isolated existence. Known to require very little water to survive, the Mulga is a testament to endurance.