Tea and Seed Stories - reflections on WED 2010 in the Japanese Gardens at Mt Coot-tha

World Environment Day event - Mt Coot-tha

This table of seeds, plants and other items was set up by Bettina Palmer, one of the long term Volunteer guides at Brisbane Botanic Gardens to demonstrate the seeds to be found on site at the gardens. Helping also on the day was another wonderful volunteer Judy Grimshaw shown above with a group of visitors.

This was the setting for 'Tea and Seed Stories' at the Japanese Garden

Bettina was my excellent guide earlier this year when I was getting familiar with the Gardens - click on this earlier post to read about the tour she took me on one rainy day in March!

 

This is a close up (click to enlarge for viewing) of the jewellery that Bettina is wearing which is one of her designs. She has specially featured as many seeds or natural items as possible. The large red ones come from Brazil - I will need to ask her for the name of it. 

Below: are a series of items that were on the table primarily to engage children in the task of connecting seeds to the related food items. However being a Sunday many passers by stopped at this table and all eyes were on the pomegranate, cacao beans and chocolate, coffee beans and lotus pods in particular. I did a post on the cacao bean (seed actually) here in March as well. You can see it growing in the Geodesic Dome for Tropical plants.

  

In the centre of the table you may see the chocolate next to the cacao beans which are encase in a  white, furry substance.

banksia seedpods and blackbean seeds - I spy other seeds but can identify them from here.

bunya nuts and coffee beans

macadamias with biscuits made from them.

Bettina also kept many children very busy with paper and textas drawing the seeds on display whilst some parents joined me in the Japanese Tea House for the story circle dialogue. She had a seriously busy day along with Judy and I am very grateful for their time on Sunday. These two gorgeous sisters didn't mind sharing their work with us.

Below are a series of shots from the tea house in the break between sessions. We had a well attended early session and also later session - so numbers were ripe for good conversation and the telling of stories. A number of people have commented since on the fact we had an extraordinarily diverse crowd - diverse in backgrounds - cultural, professional and community-wise. This lead to very interesting cross-connections on the day and the enthusiasm by many to do something like this again!

We had a magnificent day all round - with lovely mild temperatures, sunshine and an outlook that was blissful. We could see some passers by looking quite longingly at our gathering in this tea house.

And quite a few impromptu visitors joined us which was lovely as we had put our posters around so it would be known new-comers were welcome to participate.

The story circle was an ideal way to meet new people and be briefly introduced to each others stories, the thinking behind them, and where we have come from. Each person was given this introduction below and the reference to the UN fact sheet on Biodiversity. Read this May blog post to see more.

a guided tour through some highlights of the Botanic Gardens

A couple of weeks ago I was delighted to be taken on a guided walk with Ray Steward who has a long connection to the Gardens at Mt Coot-tha. I will be posting on that very soon - once images come together! Ray has a most interesting story from considerable lifetime experience it must be said!

Armed with umbrella and camera last friday I met up with Bettina Palmer who's been involved at Mt Coot-Tha for over 10 years in various volunteer capacities, including conducting guided tours on this site. 

Attending a meeting of volunteer guides earlier this month it was impressive to see how many people  give time on a regular basis - highlighting the important role played by volunteers to carry out and maintain many enriching activities.

Bettina has also worked at the Seed Lab at Mt Coot-tha for the Millennium Seedbank Project which I shall soon be posting on. She has been exploring the use of seeds for jewellery. Her other designs are excellent so I hope to have something to show here using seeds in the coming months.

Last Friday was an excellent opportunity as Bettina took me into areas of the Gardens I was curious to know more about or  had not as yet explored. Several images below are from the Aboriginal Plant Trail which brought to life some of what I been have reading about of late.

The children's trail features a series of commissioned sculptures, some placed intriguingly amidst the plants requiring a search following numbers and hints on a brochure. My eye was drawn to the image of seeds  dispersing carved on the side of this sandstone sculpture below. The close-up brings this to light.

This extraordinary fungi was quite a sight - orange and brown -so striking and the oddness of them appearing (as if) out of nowhere. Constant recent rain no doubt brought on the many fungi species popping up all over the place - some so subtle - almost invisible to the eye -  unlike this one.

This image of the bromeliad above does not do it justice - at all. It was a shock or yellow and red amidst all the green and rainy grey sky.

This flower above is from a rather remarkable tree native to Asia bearing the fruit below known as an elephant's apple apparently as it is enjoyed by elephants in native India and elsewhere. Read about the Dillenia Indica tree here.

below: seeds from the soursop (Annona muricata) from the Magnoliaceae family. I was astonished to see the way the decomposing fruit finally revealed these bright yellow ochre seeds. 

Clearly I am going to have to take along a notebook with camera on the next guided tour - minus the umbrella! Pouring over the photos now it's a challenge to recall all that was passed on to me at the time. NOTE TO SELF: A challenge to be accurate if notes are not taken down at the time! Layers of information, context, history, stories were shared by Bettina - a most excellent guide. This tour of the Gardens ignited enthusiasm for the past week in the studio where downloaded images, collected seeds and pods (by special arrangement) and books were plundered for inspiration.

above:  seeds and pods collected on different dates from various locations. 

below: Image from a journal I am keeping this year - its proving very useful to go between visits to Mt Coot-tha, various books and internet resources to build knowledge slowly and methodically. In little over a month there is a sense of not being quite as 'lost at sea' as I was! Instead, awareness of where to seek further information and the importance of dialogue is critical at times -  so it's wonderful to have the opportunity for contact with staff and volunteers alike.

Thank you Bettina for your generous time and wonderful engagement with endless queries and diversions, all with humour and grace!

Artist-in-Residence at Mt Coot-Tha 2010

Top image from ourbrisbane.com - other images Sophie Munns

THis year I have been selected to carry out my proposed work "Homage to the Seed" in a year long artist-in-residence program at the Botanic Gardens in the city where I live. Through my art practice an increasing concern for the future of seeds and their critical role in the bio-diversity of the planet prompted me to connect with the broader community in the hope of more effectively championing something I felt, along with many others, was being forgotten, and even profoundly overlooked in the scheme of things.
A fortunate series of meetings with a number of wonderful people led me to the Seed lab at the Mt Coo-tha gardens site mid last year to take part in a most interesting project being carried out there with Jason Halford in the Lab working as part of a team in conjunction with the global Millennium Seedbank Project based at Kew Gardens in the UK. During dusty* volunteering sessions in the lab I learned a great deal from Jason's excellent stores of experience - in the field as well as Lab. Volunteers I talked to, such as Bettina Palmer, have contributed for years with considerable knowledge of the project to share as a result.
This more intimate and fascinating connection with the garden fostered the enthusiasm to later apply for the 2010 residency. To view work that came out of the association with the Seed Lab and read about Botanique refer to posts from Studio Archives documented last October, and earlier here.
Margot Mac Manus - in her role as Visitor Services Coordinator at the Gardens - has been keen to promote a productive cross-pollination between all who spend time on these grounds - visitors and staff alike. During the year the opportunity to get to know staff and volunteers who contribute so much to this excellent embodiment of plant biodiversity will be sought out as will informal exchanges with visitors and participation in workshops and events planned for the year.
You are welcome to email or leave a message if you wish to know about any of the proposed activities this year during this residency... especially if you would like to be notified in advance by joining a contact list.
dusty* - the seed lab is where seeds are processed when brought in from the field after collection by Jason Halford and Co. Since they may be coming from remote parts of Qld undergoing drought the pods and capsules are often quite dried out or simply very dusty...so that when prying seeds from these sometimes very tough pods one may find the work considerably harder than first imagined. This leads to contemplation of the landscapes where the seeds come from so often far away from city and lab...provoking interesting thoughts, connections and dialogue around this important conservation work. More on this project soon!