AC: Hello, everyone

I’m speaking to you today from Minung Boodja in Albany and I bring you spiritual synergies from Noongar nation.

In offering this project our vision is to involve and unite communities from a broad background of disciplines to create an icon that promotes consciousness about ‘caring for country’.

We want people to have the experience of re-connecting to country with a deep time awareness of our role as custodians in bringing species and ecosystems back into balance.

This project can and has brought communities together. It tells about ecological knowledge and of how we as a multi-cultural people care for country. So, within these sculptures there are many stories, which will be retold that brings everybody into the spirituality of treading the footprints of our ancient people”.

The Genestreams Songlines Sculptures initiative is a nationwide multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural project. A big driver is not just environment and community, its our future too.

All of our planets natural environments are special. The environment that you are personally engaged in protecting is special. It has unique flora and fauna, its geology is sublime, the culture is deep.

We believe that more people should know about your region and what makes it special, what are the threats facing it now and how they can get involved in the conservation effort to help your place.

We can tell you that the Genestreams modelling which has the potential to extend into a Genestreams Songlines Sculpture is here to help you because by seeing a visualization of the health of a natural system people can see what actions need to be taken.

Our hope for this presentation is that by the end of this conference you will be one of the 100 people who have contacted us to express your interest in discussing the possibility of this project commencing in your region. This could lead to an Augmented Reality Genestreams Sculpture project getting started first which can be placed anywhere in the bush without the costs of physical construction. At a later stage a physical Genestreams Songlines Sculpture could be established in your local park.

To express your interest please email us at genestreams@gmail.com.

AC: In my time I’ve witnessed much of the land clearing of the South West. However, in recent times I’ve also witnessed what it takes to heal the land.

The ingredients to healing the land are conservation, science and harmonious multi-cultural identities working together and I envisaged a public art program that would speak to the combination of conservation, science and a multi-cultural approach.

Australia is a multi-cultural country. I am a multi-cultural person. When I was young I had to hide from people who were trying to take me away from my parents because I had a white father and an Aboriginal mother but that’s not the case today.

Today we value our multi-cultural identity because it gives us strength.

In 2017 I asked visiting artist Ben Beeton who had come to work with Gondwana Link if he could see a way that we could connect these contributing elements into the foundations for a public art program.

BB: Aunty Carols request in relation to developing the design foundations for a public art program that would share information on local conservation efforts, scientific research and culture was unique.

Since 2006 I’d undertaken over 35 artist residency projects on the ecology, geology and deep time history of Australia’s natural systems and shared what I learnt on my website sciart.com.au. In 2016 I commenced a project called following the Leeuwin Current. I intended to follow the current from the Kimberly to Tasmania creating one large journal drawing. I began the project at Windjana Gorge and over the following 2 years I followed the Leeuwin Current through a sequence of artist residency projects.

When I reached Albany with the intention of learning from Gondwana Link about their approach to conservation the drawing that I had started in the Kimberly had grown to over 30 meters in length. It was the experiences I had with the people that I met through Gondwana Link that transpired to change the direction of my life. In the Stirling Ranges I was introduced to Banksia Montana of which I was told there were less then 30 individuals remaining.

BB: When I travelled out to Wave Rock with Aunty Carol we past through the wheat belt where I was confronted by one of the worst examples of ecological destruction that I had ever experienced. You can see it for yourself in this satellite image. Everything in yellow is cleared land. If you want to learn how this happened watch the documentary A Million Acres a Year.

At Wave Rock I decided that there would be no more artist residency projects until I had partnered with a University to develop the Tree of Life teaching tools that I had designed over many years which I called Genestreams. I made this decision because I felt it was the most effective way that I could participate in furthering conservation.

BB: I’d been modeling data on the Tree of Life in the context of deep time and preferred futures since the mid 1990’s. How to visualize the connectivity of all life and then, utilize this visualization, for conservation purposes was the question that had inspired the creation of many of my artworks and designs.

I began the development of the Genestreams teaching tools at the Australian National University in 2019. As a proof of concept for a Genestreams website to broaden peoples awareness of conservation through interactive experiences within the Tree of Life my team developed 4 virtual reality Genestreams teaching modules which presented content supplied by ANU professors from a variety of schools. The project enjoyed considerable support at ANU until the impact of Covid landed which resulted in the closer of hundreds of innovative projects including my own.

Throughout this time I had been sending Aunty Carol and Gondwana Link ideas for Aunty Carols envisaged sculpture that could somehow share information on conservation, science and culture. But it wasn’t until I used, as the foundations for the sculpture, one of the interactive Genestreams models that I had designed to assist communities to comprehend and bring natural systems back into balance that everything fell into place.

Now when a person enters a Genestreams Songlines Sculpture they are entering a giant evolutionary tree where the individual represents the whole of humanity. In the foundational stages for developing a Genestreams model and potential sculpture we research the threatened species in the region. Through community consultation we then construct a circular phylogenetic tree that maps through deep time the shared ancestry of 16 regional species including the humans. Each ring represents a different period of geological time and the outer ring represents the present. This is our first step in making part of your regions unique deep time story visible. Like a thumbprint, each model is unique because the deep time journeys of the genestreams are unique.

AC: A Genestreams model of the shared ancestry of species becomes a Genestreams Sculpture when the field naturalist art of the region is added, and it becomes a Genestreams Songlines Sculpture when the Aboriginal art of the region is added.

This new educational approach visualizes and connects us to the natural world and to each other. Through public art we offer a two-way narrative experience.

Just as a pancake has two sides, so too does this sculpture. On the inside it features field naturalist art about the region. On the outside it features the work of Aboriginal artists of the region. The sculptures teach us about local conservation initiatives in the region, scientific knowledge of the region and culture in the region.

The Genestreams Songlines Sculptures are a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural initiative. Its not just an Augmented Reality or Physical sculpture that you visit, it’s a learning porthole, it’s a time machine, it’s a means of connecting and participating in caring for country.

In Western Australia in 2021 we launched our first Genestreams Songlines Sculpture at the Twin Creeks nature reserve and tested our first Augmented Reality Genestreams Songlines Sculpture at Mt Magnet in the local park. In Queensland in 2022 we launched our second Genestreams Songlines Sculpture in the Bunya Mountains as a contribution to the Bonye Bare Bush University. We are currently developing projects at 5 other locations.

AC: I think its clear to a growing number of us that the only viable long term solution to saving endangered species lies in saving the ecosystems that the species genestream evolved through. Our project seeks to participate in promoting this awareness.

It also seeks to recognize the old walk trails that Australia’s first conservationists trod since time immemorial which is why I chose to include the word Songline in the sculptures title.

The artworks you can see here were created by the local contributing Aboriginal artists from Twin Creeks, Mount Magnet and the Bunya Mountains. We pay artists to use digital images of their artworks in the sculpture and the artists keep their original artworks.

We hope that through the sculptures people with an interest in Aboriginal art will come to understand that our culture is all about deep held values to conservation.

BB: In the development of the artworks for the Genestreams models I invited renowned scientific illustrator Mali Moir to collaborate with me. I met Mali in 2010 when I was the artist for the Burke and Wills Environmental Expedition which travelled in the footsteps of Burke and Wills from Melbourne to the gulf. At this time Mali had commenced a 10-year project with her art students at Menindee Lakes drawing and re-collecting the plants that naturalist Dr. Hermann Beckler collected on that expedition 150 years earlier. In Mali’s words she has an interest in projects that encourage us to cherish the land, train ourselves to slow down, pay attention and develop a love for country. Mali’s intention is to create artworks of the Australian Red List species to be exhibited in association with the Genestreams Songlines Sculptures to help promote, raise awareness and raise funds for conservation organizations.

BB: Here you can see some of the field naturalist artworks for the sculptures that Mali and I have created.

A strong objective of this project is community participation at all levels. This includes people who have an interest in contributing their observations of nature into a Genestreams artwork about their region. We are also passionate about school participation in this project, as it teaches the values of observing nature which in turn develops compassion for other species and the natural environment that supports us all.

Our vision is that the Augmented Reality sculptures will become a historical museum of nature journaling created by the community which document life within your region that can be continually added to year after year, for generations to cherish. Therefore, we encourage people to grow an interest in documenting nature using the 3 key learning activities – this being pictures, words and numbers because it solidifies your experience into something valuable for sharing across different disciplines and communities.

The art of mindful observation and citizen science should never be underestimated. Nature journaling has no restrictions in age or skill level, as a creative record of your careful observations Nature Journals can become incredibly valuable to people in the future. Imagine having a 100 year old journal of your region and across Australia, that’s an objective for this project.

BB: During our project at Mount Magnet, scientific illustrator Mali Moir held a series of six workshops teaching local people the foundation skills of scientific illustration and plant collecting and pressing and I introduced the students to my way of seeing landscapes as natural systems. The outcome of the workshops resulted in the students attaining a higher skill level and being familiar with the methodology that we use to create the Genestreams Artworks for the Sculpture. We then offered our students the opportunity to have one of their artworks featured in the Genestreams artwork and be listed as a contributor.

Reflecting on the success of the workshops and being mindful that we cannot always be there in person we created an online resource bank for participants to guide them in the nature journaling of their region. Mali’s and my vision is to extend our resource bank into areas that are of immediate social benefit, for example, we plan to include sections on how to develop a seed bank for your region and how to trap and remove feral cats from your region. When we commence a project we now provide The Art of Nature resource bank to the whole community.

AC: Just prior to testing our first Augmented Reality model at Mount Magnet… we added all of the artworks from the sculpture together… into one digital mural… which was put on permanent display in the Mount Magnet visitors center.

This stimulated high levels of interest and discussion. We believe that a community artwork such as this… which displays in a public building the artworks of the sculpture… whilst informing people about the local Augmented Reality Genestreams Songlines Sculpture… is a productive model that would benefit many communities.

The advantage of using Augmented Reality is that it enables any community to commence a project with us without installing a physical sculpture.

Anyone, regardless of their ethnic background is welcome to contact us to start a project, we only ask that you are passionate about caring for your country.

AC: The present ecological and cultural situation in a word is fragmentation. Brought about through the monetization of ecological destruction. The proven solution is ecological restoration and multicultural enrichment by growing connectivity through conservation initiatives in communities that can help grow new industries.

The sculpture increases connectivity awareness that inspires action through tools that facilitate participation.

There are many worthwhile conservation initiatives that struggle through lack of access to funding, therefore we encourage the coupling of science with self guided eco-tourism that celebrates a multi-cultural approach to conservation through an experience of visual literacy tools that help us build our preferred future that we want to leave as a legacy for our children.

BB: I for one hope that our initiative, which has an inclusive approach to conservation will have a lasting impact. Once complete the genestreams website will share a range of tools whose goal will be to accelerate the publics comprehension of the Tree of Life and make visible actionable step by step solutions into a future of ecological restoration.

Across Australia, we aim to develop a combination of physical and Augmented Reality sculptures that will form tourism trails to increase awareness of conservation, science and culture. By bringing the genestreams of country back into balance we contribute to bringing the living end of the Tree of Life into balance.

When standing inside a sculpture the inward curves of the phylogenetic tree that surrounds you reference the curve of Wave Rock which is where I am speaking to you from today, and is where, 5 years ago on my first visit to Wave Rock with Aunty Carol we encountered someone skateboarding on it. Aunty Carol walked up to him and said “How would you like it if I skate boarded all over your church”. In a direct sense the continual land clearing of Australia which is happening now is a far more grievous version of the same approach.

By strengthening cultural connections to the land and community engagement with nature our project strengthens the ability for communities to argue against invasive land clearing projects. For example, recently the Friends of the Jelorup Corridor near Bunbury in Western Australia have asked to be involved in the Genestreams Songlines Sculptures initiative after their efforts failed to stop 71 hectares of forest being bulldozed, which is home to critically endangered Banksia woodlands, and provides habitat for the critically endangered western ringtail possum, and the endangered Carnaby’s black cockatoo and the Black Stripe Minnow. We plan to share this story through the establishment of a Genestreams Songlines Sculpture in the region. To learn more visit friendsofJelorup.com. We have recently reached out to the Conflict Island Conservation Initiative with the objective of helping to promote an awareness of the crisis facing them.

We invite you to initiate a Genestreams modeling project in your region which can help to promote and therefore protect your natural environment and potentially in time lead to the development of a Genestreams Songlines Sculpture project.

We’d love you to email us at genestreams@gmail.com to express your interest in learning more about starting a project in your region.

AC: Intelligence should not fragment natural systems, on the contrary, it should nurture them.

We need to do more than observe, we need to apply tools that enhance ecological restoration and multi-cultural awareness. We have, in effect, ‘ground proofed’ the Genestreams Songlines Sculptures approach, achieved very strong community response, with groups wanting to be part of a larger program, developed efficient community support systems, and are now ready to take the approach much wider.

This meshes with the broader ecological needs identified above, and re-affirmed by every national and international environmental condition report of the past 20-30 years.

From early childhood to legacy sharing, caring for country is all about caring for the Genestreams of the Country and this is how we can share the story. When we can see how we are part of nature we are more likely to protect it. We present the Genestreams of species as totems to be cared for by local people to nurture connectivity following in the wisdom of first nations peoples.

And this is where you come in, think about your region, what animals and plants do you want to protect? What are the important issues in your area that you are working to resolve and you would like people to learn about through Genestreams.

Imagine that by 2025 a combination of physical and augmented reality sculptures are plotting out conservation, science, cultural and natural systems trails all across Australia.

Through growing a national eco-tourism trail of our sculptures… and potentially a global web of sculptures… as a connection of knowledge… shared through the genestreams online learning and teaching tools… we are bringing people into an awareness of the threatened species in their region… and helping to raise funding for local reveg work. Just imagine… you could be part of this emerging global movement… wouldn’t that be amazing.