Solastalgia: Grieving for Country
8 December 2021 at 3:00:00 am
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Session Convenors
Dr Katie Lee, Deakin University
Dr Sean Loughrey, Deakin University
Session Moderators
Professor LIz Cameron, Deakin University
Session Speakers
Dr Katie Lee, Deakin University
Dr Sean Loughrey, Deakin University
Professor LIz Cameron, Deakin University
Professor Gillian Gould, Southern Cross University
How can the arts be a tool to showcase and examine the notion of “solastalgia” – the experience of loss and grief over environmental change and destruction? This panel will examine the impact on our environment since colonisation and the resulting consequences of separateness in our relationship with Nature. Over recent years we have experienced both natural and human destruction that have caused untold loss - wildfires, floods, diseases, and Indigenous rock art destruction that impacts on our emotional wellbeing. Yet we fail to recognise or take action to rectify our unstable world. From an Indigenous standpoint, Professor LIz Cameron will discuss the concept of “Healthy Country, Healthy People” by applying an art-based sensory inquiry to outline the importance of human - nature relationships. Associate Professor Dr Gillain Gould will discuss the impact of solastalgia from a health perspective. Through looking at the practices of other artists, Dr Sean and Loughrey will examine how solastalgia is a potentially shared compassion acknowledging the destruction of land and Country. The panel will discuss how these practices operate as a method for coming to terms with, grieving for and processing the impact of environmental loss as well as proactively responding.
THIS SESSION IS A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Biographies
Dr Katie Lee, Deakin University
Katie Lee is a cross-disciplinary artist whose creative practice includes sculpture, installation, performance, video, sound and drawing. Common to her work is a preoccupation with how our perception of the world around us can shift and flip: from stable to contingent. Her work attempts to reveal and dissect these un/stable relations, along with the various ways in which these perceptions are held in architecture, bodies and form. Katie Lee is based in Naarm (Melbourne) Australia. She has been exhibiting nationally and internationally since 2005, and is a lecturer in Creative Arts and Expanded Performance at Deakin University.
Dr Sean Loughrey, Deakin University
Sean Loughrey is an artist who works between various media and mediums. Born in Melbourne in 1964 he completed his PhD at the Victorian College of the Arts and Music, University of Melbourne in 2016. He is currently a Lecturer in Art and Performance at Deakin University. Sean Loughrey’s multi-disciplinary art practice includes photography, video, painting, drawing and sound based projects. His installations and photographic work examine the notion of imagined worlds that acknowledge political histories. Within this context varied forms of representation are exploited.
Professor LIz Cameron, Deakin University
Professor Liz Cameron is affiliated with the Dharug Nation of north western Sydney in NSW. Liz received her PhD in Aboriginal Knowledges at Newcastle University and researches the relationship of artmaking and psychology through relationships with Country (land, waterways, and skies). Her motivation is driven through the connection of human embodiment within place belonging. As a practising artist, Liz explores cultural knowledge within an Indigenous social/emotional context based on sensory guidance. Her current role as Professor of Indigenous Knowledges (Research) at Deakin University, engages a collaborative approach in building human-nature connectedness to address current ecological destruction.
Professor Gillian Gould, Southern Cross University
Professor Gillian Gould is a GP and a Tobacco Treatment Specialist, who is helping tackle smoking with Aboriginal communities. Gould is Professor in Health Equity at Southern Cross University and NHMRC/CINSW Research Fellow. 2015-2021 Gould worked at the University of Newcastle. She leads several multisite smoking cessation trials including the SISTAQUIT RCT and its implementation iSISTAQUIT, and the multi-behavioural MAMA-EMPOWER app. Prof Gould is a Master of Arts in Experiential and Creative Arts Therapy and a practicing artist. She has a passion for the use of arts and storytelling to better understand health and wellbeing.