Toolangi
NOV 2016 https://www.toolangisculpture.com/totems-in-the-forest
The beautiful Toolangi Forest holds the source of the Yarra river which provides water for Melbourne. The Trail is an easy walk close to Healesville and a great day out. I revisited the site in March 2020 to see all sculptures ageing beautifully and still standing strong! I hope many revisit their creations and have a great sense of pride at their achievements.
I was fortunate to be invited as part of the committee for this two week memorable event and Lead Artist to design the Community Sculptures. I believe collaborative art projects promote 'connectedness', and through creative projects like this we can connect children to nature in their immediate environment, which increases their sense of belonging and their desire to protect it.
The project involved running workshops over the two weeks with my son Kim as volunteer assistant for over 255 participants. Mostly young people from the local area who were impacted by the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, but also visitors of all ages from the surrounding area and Melbourne.
They created 10 large totems as Insect Observatories using items from the forest, gathered by my very generous team of volunteers.
Prior to the event I ran workshops at Healesville Primary School where all years created ceramic spacers decorated with textures from the forest and made the critically endangered Leadbeater Possums as the animal totem.
