Recreating the Country blog |
A wonderful woodland workout or fabulous forest fun It was a warm Sunday morning in July and we had just arrived at the Royal Melbourne Botanical Gardens to immerse ourselves in nature. You may be wondering where we would find nature in the middle of a big city. Intuitively we would all imagine somewhere wild where there is birdsong and where the drone of cars is a distant memory. Yet on this occasion we had booked a two hour session of Shinrinyoku or Forest Bathing. A regular event at the very civilized and cultivated Melbourne Botanical Gardens. We were to join other visitors on a guided walk and immersion in the beauty of the gardens, a process that involved stimulating all five senses. Our Forest Therapy guides explained that there are many recognised health benefits from spending time in nature. These health benefits had inspired researchers in Japan to develop a structured nature experience. An experience they hoped that would quell an epidemic of company executive suicides that was devastating Japanese families and businesses. Shinrinyoku was first introduced in Japan as a public health practice in 1983 and is now encouraged as a public health initiative in China, Japan, South Korea and parts of Europe The Japanese culture celebrates nature Forest bathing seems a natural evolution in a country that has long cherished nature. The Japanese annually celebrate natural events like the blooming of the cherry blossom and when the fireflies multiply. Their two major religions, Buddhism and Shintoism, also respect the values of nature and consider forests as places of mysticism. For Zen Buddhists, the scripture is written in the landscape and for the Shintoists, the spirits are in the trees, the breezes, the streams and the rocks. Two fascinating Japanese studies give support to this initiative; Dr Qing Li from Nippon Medical School in Tokyo showed in 2005 that trees and plants emit compounds known as phytoncides. When phytoncides are inhaled they provide therapeutic benefits similar to aromatherapy. Remarkably they also induce a change in blood composition which protects against cancer, boosts the immune system and lowers blood pressure. Dr Li’s personal interest in tree therapy began on a trip to the forest in 1988. At that time he was a stressed Tokyo medical student and he found that a week of camping restored his vitality. This started his search for the scientific reasons for this effect; “I have been investigating the science behind that feeling for many years. I want to know why we feel so much better when we are in nature. Some people study forests and some people study medicine. I study forest medicine to find out all the ways walking in the forest can improve our wellbeing”. In 2009 Professor Yoshifumi Miyazaki from Chiba University discovered that having a 40-minute walk in a cedar forest lowered levels of the stress hormone cortisol. It also lowered blood pressure and strengthened the immune system. Between 2004 & 2012 the Japanese government poured $4million into researching ‘forest bathing’, testing the effects on hundreds of subjects in different contexts and forests. The results of these studies were so conclusive that Japan now has 62 designated therapeutic woods which attract about 5 million visitors each year. Last Child in the Woods Across the Pacific, an American Psychologist sparked controversy when he published ‘Last Child in the Woods’ in 2008 and The Nature Principle in 2011> Richard Louv created the term “nature deficit disorder” (click here for a 4 minute interview with Richard Louv) to highlight the negative effects on children’s health from spending less time outdoors and more time indoors. He inspired a national movement to get children outside and into nature to reverse the trend of children spending up to seven hours a day in front of screens. He emphasises the importance of the mind/body/nature connection, which he calls vitamin N (for Nature). “We are far more fully alive when we experience nature. This is when all the senses are working together” Louv grew up near Kansas City on the edge of suburbia. In an interview he shares the importance of his childhood connection to nature; “The woods I explored near my home became my woods. These childhood memories I now carry in my heart and I visit these woods in my mind when I feel anxious and need an escape”. He asks “Will future generations have that natural place to go to in their hearts?" His concern is that in the last 30 years children are spending less time in nature and this separation has widened at a greater pace in the last 5 years; “Kids now prefer to play indoors because of the messages they get from modern culture. They are hearing that the future is with electronics and nature is dangerous” The David Suzuki Foundation has supported the vitamin N revolution by implementing innovative programs and resources for parents and schools. The David Suzuki 30x30 Nature Challenge encourages children and adults to spend 30 minutes a day outdoors for 30 days to kick-start new habits. Suzuki aims to reverse the modern trend and inspire Americans to get back to nature; “It’s essential that we reframe our traditional view of nature as a place for leisure and sport, towards one that emphasizes a full range of physical, mental, and social health benefits.” Maria Montessori Italian Physician and educator Maria Montessori was advocating the importance of outdoor experiences for children 100 years before Louv. She famously said; “When children come into contact with nature, they reveal their strength.” Her advice to parents and teachers was profound; “Let children be free, encourage them to run outside when it's raining and let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water. Let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade. Let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning as it wakes every living creature that divides its day between waking and sleeping”. Our memories are sharper after contact with trees In 2015 Gregory Bratman and his colleagues from Stanford University conducted a simple experiment on the university campus. They involved 60 students who they randomly divided into two groups: The first group took a 50-minute “nature” walk surrounded by trees and vegetation. The second group took an “urban” walk along a high-traffic roadway. The nature walkers showed cognitive benefits including an increase in working memory and a decreased anxiety. Bratman found that the participants who walked in the quieter, wooded portion of the campus had lower activity in the brooding portion of their brains than those who walked near the busy roadway. This meant they were more positive and didn’t hold on to negative thoughts as long. Just forty seconds of green raises alertness in the office We have a deep fundamental need for nature, so much so that even a short glimpse of green roof views for office workers boosted their ability to concentrate. In 2015 Kate E. Lee and Kathryn J.H. Williams headed up a team at Melbourne University that looked at the value of micro-breaks. They found that participants got a boost in their attention ability after viewing a green roof scene for just 40 seconds. This is the first study that shows the remarkable finding that even a short exposure to nature (not exactly forest immersion) benefits our mental alertness. Other studies have shown benefits to creativity from having office plants, a view through a window or even having natural wood or stone surfaces in the office environment. Other researchers have found that creative professionals strongly consider nature to positively influence their creative performance, boosting flexible thinking, inspiring many new ideas and raising energy levels. Victorian survey finds we love spending time in the bush. A large ongoing study by the Arthur Rylah Institute found that most Victorians value time spent in nature. The quote below summarises some of their findings. Their results are easy to read and well presented here. You could contribute your views to their current study by taking an easy and quick survey at this link. Analysis of the data showed that people who are more connected with nature are also more likely to be active in looking after the environment. It was also clear that Victorians feel more strongly connected to unmodified nature (e.g. National Parks and beaches), but also feel very strongly connected to their own gardens. Exposure to nature has many health benefits – the latest findings “We gathered evidence from over 140 studies involving more than 290 million people to see whether nature really does provide a health boost." Caoimhe Twohig-Bennett (2018). University of East Anglia, Norwich Medical School This titanic study revealed that exposure to greenspace reduces the risk of;
Study co-author Prof Andy Jones commented, "We often reach for medication when we're unwell but exposure to health-promoting environments is increasingly recognised as both preventing and helping to treat disease." .... Forest Bathing at the botanical gardens Our Forest Bathing began on the beautiful Oak Lawn, where we experienced the old oak trees by touching the bark and looking into their immense canopies. The natural sounds of the birds and the breezes in a bushy native area became our next focus. This led us to the herb garden, where our sense of smell was delighted by the garden's diverse collection of aromatic herbs. After sitting for a while and contemplating the garden’s ambience, we finished the day together on a picnic rug. Here we had a relaxed debriefing session accompanied by an Australian version of the Japanese tea ceremony. The key message was to become more ‘mindful' during our garden immersions by being more aware of what we're seeing, touching, smelling and feeling. Our worries and responsibilities are set aside. During our journey of sensory awareness through the manicured garden environment, I began to miss the wild natural beauty of the native bush. The forests and woodlands of Australia that provide me with a sense of deep connection as well as calmness, when I immerse myself in their ‘aromatic airs’. We are so fortunate in Australian as we often have in our own backyards, or at least within short driving distance, beautiful natural places to visit. One of the leaders commented to me that Australian plants are thought to emit many more phytoncides than European plants, but as yet there has been little or no research done on this. Research is important and enlightening but sometimes we just know when something is good for us and our families. Like a break from our busy lives and a walk amongst the trees.
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Guest blogger for July is Gib Wettenhall. Gib Wettenhall has for 25 years written, edited and published books and articles, which acknowledge that the 65,000 year-old Indigenous heritage we have inherited makes Australian landscapes as much cultural as natural. He is the author of The People of Budj Bim, written in collaboration with the Gunditjmara people of south-west Victoria, which in 2011 was Overall Winner of the Victorian Community History Awards. Also, author of The People of Gariwerd, the Grampians’ Aboriginal history, recently reprinted a 3rd time in association with Brambuk. He is currently writing and producing the 3rd in a series of booklets with the Yirralka Rangers, titled Keeping Country, on the bi-cultural approach adopted by this Indigenous land management group in north-east Arnhem Land. As the principal of em PRESS Publishing, his books include Stephen Murphy’s Recreating the Country and Tanya Loo’s nature journal set in the Wombat Forest, Daylesford Nature Diary, which reintroduces a six season Indigenous calendar for the foothill forests. In 2006, he wove the Indigenous heritage of the Gariwerd/Grampians ranges into a series of essays published in a high quality landscape format book with photographs by Alison Pouliot, Gariwerd: Reflecting on the Grampians. He researched and wrote the interpretive signage for the Brambuk National Park and Cultural Centre and is writing the content for interpretive signage for the Budj Bim landscape, expected to gain World Heritage listing in 2019. As publications manager of the Great Dividing Trail Association (GDTA), he produced their four map brochures and interpretive signage, which won a tourism award in 2003. In 2012, he wrote and produced an award winning guidebook, the Goldfields Track Walk or Ride Guide, about the 210km long Goldfields Track between Mt Buninyong and Bendigo. It was cited as “a model for future guides” and includes an essay on the Aboriginal cultural heritage of the goldfields region. A 2nd edition was published in 2017. As an editor, he writes and manages content for several websites. Between 2000 and 2014, he acted as the editor for the national quarterly magazine Australian Forest Grower. As a journalist, Gib was news editor of The Melbourne Times, environment writer for both Australian Society and 21C magazines, and has written articles for Parks Discovery magazine. Gib can be contacted on gib@vic.chariot.net.au Indigenous standing stones ...taken over by a bunch of Celts What do non-Indigenous Australians know about the mythological power of Aboriginal standing stone arrangements? Not much it would seem. So little that a group of Celts in NSW could in the late-1990s brazenly lay claim to, and be granted by the National Trust, Australian standing stone heritage status for their faux copy of recently erected Stonehenge-style ‘menhirs.’ No reference was made to their Indigenous antecedents. Yet artificially-wedged vertical shards of rock were once placed everywhere by the First Australians. They formed circles for ceremony, acted as signifiers for sacred places, stood attention in sculptural lines forming the shape of an ancestral being created in the Dreaming. Many were obliterated by settlement and the most powerful remaining are hidden or inaccessible. Last dry season, I was bushwalking with a group in remote gorge country on the Kimberley coast when we came across four sets of thin, sharp-edged standing stone shards, clearly artificially-placed. We had walked in the Kimberley before, as well as the Arnhem Land plateau, and none of us, including our experienced guide, had ever seen these wedged, vertical sandstone slabs, so startlingly at-odds with their surrounds. We had encountered rock art aplenty, but knew nothing about this class of Indigenous artefacts. Particularly impressive were two large enigmatic Aboriginal standing stone circles hidden back from the gorge edge on either side of a towering waterfall with commanding views. Two upright shards guarded the first large circle of stones, some 100 metres distant inland. On a high flat plateau, the standing stones ringed a stony knoll, perfect for viewing whatever ceremonies or dances were performed around its perimeter. It was clear to even the most hardened sceptic among us that the ring of jagged shards once held power and authority. We remembered that an Aboriginal-grafted ring tree had marked the entry to the deep, narrow gorge climaxed by the spectacular waterfall and its dark green pool. Did the standing stone circles have a totemic or ceremonial purpose? We could only speculate. Indigenous standing stone history is sadly overlooked. On returning to Melbourne, I went to the State Library and spied in the catalogue a book titled The History of Australian Standing Stones. Aha, I thought… but was soon disappointed on opening its pages. Ironically, The History of Australian Standing Stones focuses solely on a newly-minted Celtic stone circle of 38, five metre high menhirs established at Glenn Innes in New England in 1991. Incredibly, a mere seven years later, the NSW National Trust declared this faux imported Celtic copy as a National Monument, citing it as a significant place of Australian heritage. All that The History of Australian Standing Stones has to say about Glen Innes’ Indigenous Ngoorabul heritage is contained in one cursory sentence claiming that they were migratory, only visiting seasonally. It is as though they left no mark. As a final unintended insult, the Glenn Innes Celts asked the local Aboriginal land council if they could appropriate a bunyip as the mascot for their stone circle. The land council said no, so the Celts settled on the idea of a dinosaur as their mascot. What a joke, if it wasn’t so sad. An online search of archaeological field surveys in the Glen Innes region of New England did actually manage to turn up some Aboriginal standing stone arrangements found in the region in the 1970s. But there was no attempt at contextual analysis; they are simply listed without comment. The State Library also held one 2012 journal article from Australian Archaeology Vol. 75 on a survey of 32 standing stone sites in Jawoyn country, north-east of Katherine in the NT. This, however, could cast little light on their purpose other than they were “signifiers,” possibly of major rock art sites. Jawoyn elders were reported as commenting that they once had a “ceremonial purpose.” Standing stones were found throughout Australia In a recent Australian Archaeology 2018 journal article on standing stones in Far North Queensland, archaeologist Ian McNiven and other authors conclude: “Despite their ubiquity, stone arrangements are an understudied site type with their distribution and morphological variability remaining poorly documented and their functional variability poorly understood.” After I enquired, Professor McNiven sent me a few academic articles on standing stones. As you’d expect, they were reported as once being found throughout Australia either forming sacred sites representing creation stories from the Dreaming or as markers for sacred places. Little was known about their specific purpose, other than they “have high significance values to Indigenous Australians and are usually associated with… socio-religious beliefs and ceremonial/ritual activities.” (Australian Archaeology 2018 Vol. 84, No.2) Indigenous owners hold the key to the meaning of the standing stones In 2017, cultural anthropologist, Jim Birckhead, undertook desktop research for mining companies with archaeologist, Phil Czerwinski, on past studies into the significance and meaning of Indigenous standing stone arrangements in the Pilbara and the Kimberley. Upright standing stones are associated, in particular, with initiation sites, Dr Birckhead observed. Individual slabs sometimes represent creator beings from the Dreaming who have metamorphosed into stone. Sometimes they were “venerated by men who regard the rocks as patrilineal ancestors.” First-hand involvement with Indigenous elders is vital, says Dr Birckhead, as the stones “defy interpretation by inspection.” While the elders may be circumspect about sites of mythological significance, and sometimes have no knowledge of stone arrangements often millenia old, interpretation without their involvement becomes an exercise in guesswork, as well as appropriation. Consequently, Birckhead’s and Czerwinski’s report recommended undertaking field surveys with Traditional Owners in the Pilbara to cast light on the mythological stories related to each specific standing stone arrangement. The mining companies, unfortunately, did not proceed to fund beyond the desktop research stage. How can Australians appreciate the richness of Indigenous culture if we ignore its existence. This paucity of recognition of a significant aspect of Indigenous culture is indeed unfortunate. Without Indigenous interpretation, each site’s totemic affiliations and creation stories will remain opaque and enigmatic. Silence about the rich mythology and power that these sites of a 65,000 year old culture hold is another in the long list where we have averted our gaze from the rich and deep cultural heritage of our own continent in favour of the ‘homeland’ our European ancestors left behind. It is just one among many silences that allow the ongoing misappropriations and misunderstandings to continue. For many, the apparent absence of evidence signifies that the Aboriginal people were at contact nothing more than ‘savages’, as compared to the supposedly sophisticated civilising settlers – such as the proud Celts of Glenn Innes with their ‘unique’ standing stone heritage Trees and human health - how a walk in the woods makes us mentally and physically healthier. to be posted in August
The choice between,
Scarface Claw and Hush the invisible possum
Lynley Dodd is the author of children’s books about a mischievous cat called Scarface Claw. In his series of books Dodd captures what is both appealing and treacherous about cats. Scarface Claw is a fearless predator and at the same time he is brave and amiable. Here is an extract from one of his books.
Who is the roughest and toughest of cats? The boldest, the bravest, the fiercest of cats? Wicked of eye and fiendish of paw, is mighty, magnificent, Scarface Claw. Scaredy cats tremble and people all shout, whenever this tomcat is out and about. No matter what happens, whoever might call, there’s nothing that frightens him, nothing at all. Dodd could be describing any one of the millions of feral and pet cats that inhabit Australia. They are fierce and ferocious killers as well as valued cuddly and charismatic companions. Therein lies the huge dilemma that faces Australians today. We are confronted with the ongoing loss of our rare and unique wildlife at the ‘hands’ of millions of Scarface Claws. Mem Fox & Julie Vivas are famous for their children’s book ‘Possum Magic’. In their story, Hush the invisible possum travels across Australia with her grandma in search of magic foods to make Hush visible again. Sadly Australian wildlife desperately need a magic potion that makes them invisible to the crafty Scarface Claws.
The cat and the Boodie
Though there is sketchy evidence that cats may have arrived here from Asia up to a century before they arrived with the first fleet, we do know that that they arrived with the convicts and the military in 1788 as ships cats. From this first landing they quickly spread along the eastern seaboard and had established themselves in the wild by the 1820’s The story of the Boodie illustrates the danger that small mammals faced with the rise of the cat. The Boodie, Bettongia lesueur is a burrowing bettong that was once the most widespread of the continents ‘Lilliputian’ mammals. It was found throughout arid and semi-arid areas of all the states but was declared extinct on the mainland by the mid-20th century. It is now only found on four Western Australian islands. Read more about the Boodie here. Its demise was largely due to predation by cats and foxes. The loss of the Boodie and other small digging mammals that mixed organic matter into the soil has fundamentally changed the makeup of Australian soils, grassland vegetation and importantly its combustibility in the dry summer months. For more information about likely benefits provided by small digging mammals to our vegetation click here Click here to read about The Australian Wildlife Conservancies successful re-introductions of small mammals onto islands and protected reserves on the Australian mainland
The story of the Stephens Island Flightless Wren
In 1894 David Lyall became the first lighthouse keeper on Stephens Island. It’s a small Island just above the south island of New Zealand. Though Lyall was a keen naturalist he thoughtlessly brought his pregnant pet cat ‘Tibbles’ for company. He began to notice small dead birds left on his doorstep that he didn’t recognise and sent a sample away to be identified. Ornithologists were ecstatic because he had found a new species of wren unique to Stephens Island. Delight turned to disbelief when they discovered that the lighthouse keeper’s cats had wiped them all out.
Other Australian marsupials.
Many of our small mammals are being pushed to the edge of extinction by the rise and rise of the cat. Since the first fleet, 34 unique mammal species have disappeared, never to be seen again. Our report card on extinctions is uncomfortably humiliating with more than 100 mammal species listed as ‘near threatened’ and ‘critical’ by the international Union for Conservation of Nature Cats are considered to be the single biggest threat to Australian mammals. They hunt, kill and eat bilbies, numbats, quokkas, quolls, bandicoots, birds, lizards and frogs in every corner of the country. The official government source states that ‘there are millions of feral cats in Australia, killing many millions of native animals every day’. Cats kill how many? John Woinarski Professor of conservation biology at Charles Darwin University and one of Australia’s foremost wildlife researches has published a series of research papers looking at the effects of cats on wildlife. His findings are distressing. In addition to mammals, cats kill an estimated 377 million birds and 649 million reptiles every year in Australia. Click to read 'One cat, one year, 110 native animals: lock up your cat its a killing machine', a recent article in the Conversation by John Woinarski and associates. The long term survival of these small mammals is being threatened by cats;
What’s a bandicoot?
You and I know that a bandicoot is a small Australian mammal, but lots of Australians have no appreciation of this cute little Aussie and how it’s being pushed right to the edge of extinction. That’s the opinion of Katherine Moseby, an ecologist from Adelaide who works with small mammals. Her view is that “People are unaware because they don’t spend time with native animals. They really love and care about their cats, which is understandable. They don’t really go out and have a wildlife experience. But they look at their cat every day and think: Isn’t it gorgeous? Isn’t it beautiful? A lot of people don’t even know what native animals are. They could go extinct and people wouldn’t even know.”
What a dilemma!
In 2015 when the Australian Government announced their plan to cull 2 million feral cats by 2020, there was an outcry of distress. More than 160,000 signatures appeared on half a dozen online petitions begging Australia to spare the cats. Leading the charge was actress Brigette Bardot pleading with the environment minister to stop ‘animal genocide’ and spare the cats. Singer Morrisey, formerly of the Smiths, suggested that “idiots rule the earth” and compared the plan to killing two million miniature Cecil the lions. Read the extraordinary story about Cecil the lion here Fortunately the minister for the environment had the backbone to persevere and the plan to cull cats went ahead with an estimated 211,560 cats killed during the first 12 months. Read an excellent article in the New York Times about our extinction crisis here
Three professors make an impassioned plea.
Professor John Woinarski and colleages Professors Sarah Legge from ANU and Stephen Garnett from Charles Darwin Uni asked for ‘An end to endings’. They proposed 10 recommendations to stop more Australian species going extinct. Read their article in 'The Conversion' here.
In essence they are asking for culture change, respect for nature and long term commitment to repairing the damage that has been done.
Here is a summary of their 10 recommendations;
Extinction is not inevitable. It is a failure, potentially even a crime – a theft from the future that is entirely preventable. We can and should prevent extinctions and safeguard and celebrate the diversity of Australian wildlife.
What can we as individuals do to help?
As a nation we have to ask the hard question - do we care enough about our native fauna to control our cats? I hope the answer is a resounding vote to protect our native fauna. What an extraordinary difference it would make if every Australian family agreed to keep their pet cat inside at night? Even though the Australian Government is taking action, we all have to do our bit. Here is a check list for cat owners. Does your cat?
As lovers of cats it’s time we started taking responsibility for the peril we have released on our wildlife. The cats are blameless, they’re just being cats. The fault is ours for bringing them here and not controlling them when we knew the damage they were doing and are continuing to do. We can learn from the experience of the Stephens Island lighthouse keeper and the Boodie – cats are silent super predators and they are busy while we sleep. Keeping our pet cats in at night and tackling feral cats will make native habitat safe for our vulnerable species.
Creating high quality wildlife habitat on farms is a critical part of the solution but if cats continue to roam free on our landscape, we are wasting our time. Our extraordinary wildlife habitats will just become a smorgasbord for feral and pet cats
Scarface Claw might be our lovable companion but when he’s out and about he’s 'wicked of eye and fiendish of paw'. He’s a super killer of our precious natural heritage that sadly isn’t invisible like Hush the magic possum. Choosing our own animal totems will help protect and raise the profile of Australian fauna. Read more about it here in Totems for Australians - what is your totem? Also The re-wilding Australian culture |
Stephen Murphy is an author, an ecologist and a nurseryman. He has been a designer of natural landscapes for over 30 years. He loves the bush, supports Landcare and is a volunteer helping to conserve local reserves. |