ENCHANTED SERIES
For fifteen years between 1994 and 2006 I made a lot lot lot of work, on a diverse and varied range of projects. The idea for a project began brewing deep in my consciousness, sparked by that illustrious team of artists who came to Phillip Island in 1994. This way of working exhilarated me. It incorporated a lot of skills I had developed running my own business, and my growing desire to be a full time artist, while giving me a satisfying way to look closely at the community Freyja was to grow up in. It also fed my desire to do whatever I could to halt environmental destruction by giving people accurate information and a sense of celebration about their local place. I was sure this information would lead to individual and community action to protect the environment, and help create a network of relationships to support such action.
A team of artists would spend six weeks working with the community making shadow plays, puppets, choirs, fire drawings, sculptural installations, performances, food & wine, storytelling, floating lanterns … the creative scope was very broad. All the individual art projects from the community workshop and schools would come together for one big celebration of the local environment. Usually at Winter Solstice! And always with live fire.
ENCHANTED ISLAND - Churchill Island, just off Phillip Island
In 1999 I was commissioned to make a large scale community celebration on Churchill Island, a tiny island that is part of the Phillip Island Penguin Reserves responsibility. By then I was known in the local community and had worked on several Fire Events at Woodford with Dr Neil Cameron and numerous outrageously talented artists. I called together a team of familiar artists, and welcomed others who wanted to volunteer. There was a healthy exchange of volunteering in this artistic community as we offered our services to each others projects.
So began a method of working that stayed in my practice for many years. The story for the project started in an Education Kit, developed by knowledgeable locals, that formed the basis for the work. Characters and plot lines grew out of it, and we aligned everything to the location. Preparatory work in schools and community groups started with an introduction session from me, advising how a school or group could get involved, and what sort of art they could make. Teachers with open minds could see the project offered multiple learning possibilities, and came on board enthusiastically.
Lanterns decorated with stories and symbols were always popular. Shadow plays and backpack puppets, more complicated, took longer to make. Fish hats and toxic avengers costumes and of course fire drawings … whatever we could encourage the community to dream up!
I made several events in the Enchanted Series in some very beautiful places; Wilsons Promontory, Mount Buffalo, Churchill Island, Phillip Island, Eden, Echuca and Albury Wodonga. Each tweaked to work for the location and the community. These were large scale theatrical outdoor community celebration events with environmental themes, giving direct expression of the community’s thoughts and feelings about their place. I would identify a local environmental issue, find an Environmental Scientist to design an Education Kit, find groups in the local community to support the project, source funding and artistic teams, manage community engagement and direct the events.
ENCHANTED OCEAN - Tidal River, Wilsons Promontory
Inclusion of the local Aboriginal people was a critical element for me, and I always had involvement from the appropriate people, often spending years to establish a meaningful connection. Many uncanny and extraordinary moments resulted. As show day dawned for Enchanted Ocean at Wilsons Promontory it was raining sideways, and it looked impossible. How could we wield these giant puppets in that wind? It would drown the multiple fire drawings we’d made. The audience wouldn’t come.
However, by mid afternoon the wind dropped, rain stopped and our spirits rose. Pauline and Dot Mullet, the two Kurnai women who were my local Indigenous contacts, were over an hour late, and to this day I am convinced they stopped on the way to have a chat with the weatherman.
Via a partnership with Parks Victoria, we worked out of the Education Centre at Tidal River, which is where Pauline and Dot taught their cultural knowledge of the area. They became involved in the performance on the beach, and brought two of their children who also participated. In the documentary that was made about Enchanted Ocean Pauline expressed appreciation for the work we were doing, saying enthusiastically that we understood the importance of honouring country. I felt deeply honoured.
Enchanted Ocean was my fourth big project within six months. I had been up in Cairns making a big lantern procession for their festival, then worked on The Return Of The Sacred Kingfisher Festival in Melbourne, then back to Queensland for the Woodford Fire Event, which finished on 2nd January and we started at Wilsons Prom on 4th January 2001. In the midst of all that I had packed our belongings ready to move to Albury immediately after Enchanted Ocean. All this to say that lots of amazing artists followed me from Woodford to Wilsons Prom and made many more amazements than the original budget allowed. It was an Australia Council funded project, so this was a very welcome outcome.
ENCHANTED RIVER - An Annual Celebration of the Murray River, Albury Wodonga
The biggest of these was Enchanted River, an annual celebration of the Murray River, that I established in 2001 when Freyja and I moved to Albury so she could attend the Flying Fruit Fly Circus School.
At the time there was a three month sports festival, but no arts festival. Neither council of the two cities of Albury Wodonga, that sit either side of the Murray River, had arts or cultural officers so I worked with the Regional Arts Development Officer at Murray Arts, who serviced seven shires, and was into policy. For a couple of years she and I had monthly meetings with the Community Services Manager from Albury council, and the Marketing Manager from Wodonga council. Then came a new RADO with a focus on projects. By then Enchanted River was ready to go.
The Murray River was clearly the biggest environmental concern in the area. It was continuously stressed from the impact of irrigation, and significant because it forms the state border between Victoria and New South Wales, and flows between Albury and Wodonga. In summer the community comes to the river in droves at the end of their day and swims the heat of the day off at Noreuil Park. For a few hours every day in summer its very social down there by the river. This was where I situated Enchanted River, on Winter Solstice, to bring the people together in their familiar place, but on a cold wintery evening.
My intention with this work was to raise awareness and appreciation for the unique and critical value of the local environment, thereby generating energy to protect it. The Enchanted projects grew very big, engaging up to 1,000 participants, including local government, the environment and education sectors, community groups and local artists. My brother Geoff Edney, an environmental scientist, developed the Education Kit, about local critters and plants, which became the impetus for the work. For example one school was intrigued by the fact that crayfish can grow a new leg if they lose one, so working with an Enchanted artist they wrote and made a shadow play called "The Ghost Of The Lost Claw".
I was a bit bored in Albury, so threw myself into developing partnerships within the community. Local government, the education sector and the environment sector all showed an acute interest in this work. Clearly people needed this type of community celebration that addressed their concerns, and they became involved very enthusiastically. Albury and Wodonga City Councils announced they would put money into it, Murray Arts came on board, helping with arts funding and administration. And happy serendipity played a hand . . . as she often does. The environmental sector got hold of my project description, and all of a sudden I began to get phone calls and emails from environmentalists up and down the Murray and all over the place.
Soon Enchanted River had supportive partners in the Murray Darling Association, Murray Darling Basin Commission, the North East Catchment Management Authority, Environment Victoria, NSW Murray Wetlands, Albury Water, Wonga Wetlands and Parklands Albury Wodonga. Both Albury and Wodonga TAFE's, Charles Sturt Uni, La Trobe Uni, ten local schools, including the Fruities. Funding came from the Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Victoria, Regional Arts Victoria, VicHealth, NSW Ministry for the Arts, Regional Arts NSW, Festivals Australia, AlburyCity, WodongaCity and Echuca Shire Council.
Once the partnerships and funding were secured, artistic teams appointed, working spaces and artists accommodation booked the work could begin. I scheduled the schools and community workshops and began introduction sessions with Geoff, who included live river critters in his presentation, while I talked about the artistic options for involvement. The project moved out of my study into the community workshop space, and the art making began. Six weeks out from the actual event the artistic team arrived and the most exciting part started.
For that six weeks I was given a wonderful log cabin on Gateway Island as the central Enchanted River workshop. Gateway Island is an arts precinct situated between Albury and Wodonga, right on the Murray River. Murray Arts was next door, Hothouse is there and two galleries, some artists studios and a very good cafe that had exquisite pannacotta and great coffee. Geoff set up a display that articulated the Education Kit, with tanks of live critters and printouts on the walls. We ran workshops for groups in there, and people could come when they had time and make something. One man, who we ended up calling Storm Boy because he made a wonderful pelican, said he just wanted to help, cut cane or something, so fine - handed him the secateurs and pointed him in the direction of the cane. Soon though, after watching a few workshops, he wanted to make a lantern, found he had a bit of a knack for it, and got sculptural, making a spoonbill and a pelican, each about as tall as himself. He changed from being a taciturn quite grumpy person to an effusive and very engaged participant.
Dr Neil Cameron mentored me for 18 months to develop Enchanted River with a committee of management internal structure, guidance about the working process and the performance. It was a great honour to have this mentorship with Neil. He came to Albury numerous times across this period, conducting workshops for the broader arts community and advising me on all aspects of the Enchanted River project. I have always had tremendous respect for Neil, and his presence gave the project considerable kudos.
Then the night of the event would come. The culmination of six weeks work in the community. School children and those who had been involved in workshops gathered, lanterns were lit, musicians and singers warmed up instruments and voices, stilt walkers hopped up on their stilts, giant puppets came out with their lights lit, dancers and circus performers stretched and people put on makeup.
The audience arrived and all joined a twilight procession along the path beside the Murray River, passing vignette performances and sculptural installations along the way, building the sense that something very special is happening in the audience’s own familiar environment.
With Community Cultural Development work they say "it’s the process not the product that’s important." When the process is working properly though, the product is amazing. The collective energy of hundreds of participants, fed by thousands of their families and friends as audience, makes for a memorable evening. And of course it’s all for one night. These shows were one-off, and the work very ephemeral, which creates a wonderful fresh dynamic. We were in the business of making memories.
By the time I was making Enchanted River, I had been doing this work for almost twenty years, my reputation had grown and I was being offered projects far and wide, that kept getting bigger. I was commissioned to make work that ranged from opening and closing events for festivals, casual teaching in arts education institutions, workshops in small regional towns, and some corporate events.
Eventually I burnt out and ran away, back to Melbourne. I had left Freyja living in a self contained flat at my brother Geoff house, which may seem like a radical thing for a mother to do, but let me tell you she thrived! She completed her VCE, winning the National Vocational Student of the year, while touring as an acrobat with the performance troupe of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, then on graduation, joined renowned contemporary circus company Circa in Brisbane. For fifteen years she toured internationally with Circa, worked for a couple of years with Circus Oz, then joined Les 7 Doigts De La Main in Montreal. Now she is married to Conor, also an acrobat, and they are raising their delightful son Otis in Tasmania.
So from 1993 until now, 2020 (the years of The Great Pause brought about by a Global Pandemic of Covid-19), I have been a freelance artist, devising work myself or being an artist-for-hire. Across that time I have observed many changes, and hope to see the cycle swing back to those halcyon days when I started as a CCD artist in Phillip Island. Community attitudes were different and there was always someone in the organisations I worked with to write the funding applications, or somehow secure the money. There was more arts funding available, certainly for CCD, at local, state and national levels.