PRAXZINE #1 IS NOW AVAILABLE
In May, we launched our first publication during the event Regenerating a body of water: a walk with Birrarung-ga. Now, the wait is over – PRAXZINE #1 is here for everyone! Just drop your details in the form below to get your hands on it.
#1 Side A explores "Water & Care", based on an encounter we hosted at Mpavilion in 2023. It's all about delving into our relationship with water as we compile the learning, reflections, and inspirations in the ongoing development of our group praxis.
#1 Side B includes a guided group walk along the Birrarung, where participants are invited to reimagine their own relationships with water through play – developed in collaboration with N'arweet Carolyn Briggs and Troy Innocent (for additional instructions, please get in touch with us!).
Its format reflects the fluidity of our thinking and every page is a new beginning, where continuity and integration of knowledge are essential. While we take some space to tell stories of our practice, we also invite you to be more than a reader, a participant in this collective creation. Play with Praxzine, disseminate and adapt the ideas in it, and be part of our community. If you end up interacting with PRAXZINE #1, come back here and let us know your thoughts!
In case you can't see the form, please click on this link!
Instructions for a self-guided walk
If you’re joining this activity without facilitators, follow the instructions below so you can best prepare yourself for it. Use the prompts provided to further the experience provoked by the content on the zine.
Preparation
Before you immerse yourself in this journey to unveil the history and future imaginaries of the Birrarung, you’d need to prepare a few items that will take part in the activities the zine invites you to. If you can, bring with you:
A small container or jar with a large top opening (like a peanut butter or jam jar) should be cleaned and emptied.
A pen or marker to write on your zine.
A small envelope or bag containing 1 tbsp of a mix of powders of natural origin (e.g., turmeric, beetroot powder, used coffee grounds, or ashes of burnt wood).
A dry and flattened leaf about a hand size.
A soft carbon pencil or drawing charcoal stick.
The walk is best experienced with others, so invite friends to join you in this activity if possible.
Arriving
Starting point: Enterprise Park.
Make your way to Enterprise Park, easily accessed via Flinder Street. The walk begins at the river esplanade, just by the steps of a stair that can take you directly into the river. This stop is just between Melbourne Aquarium and Enterprise Park.
At this spot, take a moment to situate yourself with your body and mind in this place and all that surrounds you. More importantly, try to attune your consciousness to the water that makes and supports your being. We invite you to follow the meditation on the back of this zine for a few minutes. You can use the audio below if you need sound background (there a a lot of helicopters around!)
Now that you are present with the Birrarung River, you can also read the acknowledgement of Country on the back of the zine. Take some time to reflect on your relationship to this land’s Indigenous and settler-colonial history and what responsibilities you might hold to protect Boonwurrung Country and respect its traditional custodians.
Now, let’s begin the walk.
1st stop: Being out of water
To perform this walk, you require a companion for your journey. A sidekick for this adventure!
Carefully approach the river using the steps of the stairs, and fill up the container or jar you brought with the water from the river.
This will be your watery companion along the way, and together, you will learn more about Birrarung-Ga, the River Country. Throughout this journey, your companion will help you interact with this game; you might lose its life or save it multiple times. Help your companion arrive all the way to the end!
Take some time to get to know your companion, using the prompts on the zine to ‘create their identity’. What is its name and pronouns? What words describe its personality? Draw your companion. Observe it closely; what does it look like? Does it have a shape or form? What can it tell you about the river and the world that was created from it?
The zine is your canvas. Track elements you see, smell, touch, hear, and feel throughout today’s journey. You can draw them or make annotations anywhere on the map or images. You can also make suggestions about how things you are tracking have also reminded you of certain aspects of your life.
As you continue to observe and study this world that emerged along the river, make your way to the 2nd stop of this walk.
2nd stop: Disrupt - Regenerate
As you arrive on this wooden deck, you have just travelled back in time to 1889, a critical moment in Birrarrung-Ga’s history. We are in the bustling new city of Melbourne, just after this bridge, Queens Bridge was erected.
Just a few years ago, less than a decade ago, the Yarra would fall in a metre-drop waterfall that separated the Yarra in two: the upper Yarra was a flowing freshwater stream that would meet saltwater after its drop in the falls.
You stand here at a significant place for the Boon Wurrung, Woiwurrung and Wada Wurrung Indigenous clans of Nairm. They used to cross the falls to continue ceremonial exchanges that enabled their well-being and livelihood.
Colonial settlers decided to destroy these falls to make room for vessels interrupting the lifeblood of the great Birrarung.
At this point, if you have friends doing this activity with you, you can all play the role of disruptors and attack the watery companions of others by dropping out of their water.
Keep your companion alive! As colonisation and modern infrastructure continue in Melbourne, the life of water is at risk of pollution, extraction and diversion. Should your companion be affected, you must convince your friends to help you revitalise it by sharing their companions with you.
But remember, urban infrastructure is menacing with expansion, and swamps, lakes, and creeks will be drained, filled and diverged underground in the next few centuries. Erasing their lives from our urban landscape.
You and your friends can attack and revive each other’s companions throughout the walk. See who lasts till the end!
Now, let’s cross the Queens Bridge until the next stop of this walk.
3rd stop: Contaminate - Transmute
You continued to move across time, now arriving in 2100. Welcome to a very grim future!
Exploring a speculative scenario in which human society did little to curb the effects of climate change and the collapse of planetary systems, we imagined a future Nairm where temperatures have risen by 5.7 degrees Celsius, making heatwaves, cyclones, hurricanes, and droughts the new normal.
With the sea level rising by almost two metres, the ground in which we stand along the river would likely be submerged, as many cities and coastlines worldwide would also be underwater. Due to these further changes, the Birrarung and its companions experienced contact pollution from all the mixing waters and our collective inability to create cleaner livelihoods.
Open your envelopes or bags and drop their contents in your companion. They will reflect the state of your companion by 2100.
As you see many sickened companions who will most likely not arrive at their destination, take the leaf you brought and write a wish for all companions, thinking of what you would want to happen if we could only act on time.
Make your way to the next stop, crossing the Queens Bridge St.
4th stop: A body of water
Before you arrive at the 4th stop, take a moment to look down to the river from the bridge (at the point marked by the white dot on the map). If the water level allows, you will see some of the remaining boulders of what used to be the Birrarung Falls.
What is your role in critically acknowledging our shared responsibilities to address ongoing and emerging violence inflicted on Birrarrung-ga and its peoples by colonisation, climate change, and modern urbanisation?
Continue to our final stop on one of the floating wooden decks along the river.
We have reached our destination, 2034, and we have enough time to stop the madness of 2100. Our wishes have time travelled and sit in a body of water that we must create to finish this game.
Position your companion along with its friends, making a body of water. Let your wish float in its vessel and read everyone’s wishes. How might this journey have offered you opportunities to reimagine our relationships with water so that alternative and regenerative futures can be imagined, enacted, and lived?
Boonwurrung Senior Elder Professor N'arwee't Carolyn Briggs AM reminded us that these are not only opportunities but commitments of existence:
“[Water] is the essence of what makes us who we are. We're all a product of water. That is what uniquely holds us together as human beings. We may come in different shapes, forms, and colours, but we're connected because we're made up of the most beautiful substance that Mother and Nature have provided us. You're in one with self; you’re in one with water. So think about that commitment because you're honouring yourself, and you're honouring the vessel, this containment of water [that you are]. This is about the partnership you build with each other. And how do you want to generate that partnership of honouring yourself and the water you're a part of?”
“Water is about renewing and reconnecting. This is about unifying our community and the diversity of that community. We're all different, but something brings us together. It's about unifying the collection of the water we see in front of us. The most valuable asset that is within all of us is our water.”
Carefully return your companions’ water to the Birrarung, and let it take your leaves with wishes.
We are a body of water.
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