“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.”
The end of 2019, 2020, bushfires, being accepted as an Artist in Park, COVID 19, working from home, isolation and reduced hours of paid work allowed me the opportunity to reflect on and rethink my ideas about the future and the balance between economy, society and environment.
I printed off the NT Government ‘Threatened animals” list and searched them out at both the Wildlife Park at Berry Springs and the Desert park on the outskirts of Alice Springs. Thanks to various keepers I could photograph various amphibians, birds, invertebrates, mammals and reptiles of the Northern Australia on this list. But thankfully not all our endemic flora and fauna is on the list. Because much of our fauna is nocturnal, there were many species I was seeing for the first time and so I broadened my range of subjects.
Working in Northern Australia, “Caring for Country” is a term and concept I am familiar with and have a superficial understanding of. Aside from the cultural and spiritual significance, it is the practical idea of if you look after the country you live in, it will look after you. A reciprocal relationship between humans and the local environment. Valuing and maintaining a healthy eco system by not overfishing, not over hunting and burning off where necessary. Using “resources” in a more sustainable way, with something left for the next generation. Easier said than done but before 2020, who of us would have thought a microscopic virus would of so dramatically forever change the behaviour of humans all over the world.
Can I be so bold as to challenge the ratio of value we put on the economy at the expense of the rich, lush, thriving country that we are so privileged to be allowed to live on? Please can we as a nation give more respect to the elders and custodians of this country and value the care previously given, so that we could live in such a well-resourced country? Can we move away from placing value on our local environment by the measure of “resources” we can get from it, often in an unsustainable way, and can we learn about, care and value the flora and fauna that make up this beautiful ecosystem we live in. Can we use innovation to balance progress with protecting and maintaining a healthy environment that supports us as much as we support it? Here are some of the unique, resilient, important amphibians, birds, invertebrates, mammals and reptiles whose survival is linked to our behaviour, and our quality of life, even survival depends on a healthy environment (which includes all the flora and fauna) to live in.
Turritopsis dohrnii, a jellyfish found in tropical waters dies, sinks to the floor, begins to decay and then some of its cells regenerate into polyps that a new jellyfish emerges from. This was discovered by Lisa-Ann – Gershwin, a Marine Biologist based in Tasmania and it is now known as the immortality jelly fish. As Lisa has said about the discovery, since the beginning of time humans have been seeking the secret of immortality through religion, science and searching the heavens for new planets. Meanwhile the secret for immortality may have been floating in the ocean in the form of a jellyfish.
