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​Gotta Love Librarians

11/2/2021

2 Comments

 
PictureThe rockpools by Daisy Miles
By Laura Brearley
 
TWO months ago, we installed the Coastal Connections Exhibition at the Wonthaggi Library. It features creative writing, images and messages from community members about the importance of our special blue and green places.

​Last week, the Exhibition was split into three parts, which are now on display at the West Gippsland Library Branches of Inverloch, Phillip Island and Wonthaggi.

 
Visitors to the Coastal Connections Exhibition are being invited to participate and share their own special places in the natural world. Their creative contributions are revealing the joy that we experience when we spend time in the natural world.  Here are some special places described by library visitors.
 
Daisy loves swimming in rockpools and Ipshita loves having adventures at Kilcunda Beach. ​

​Ruby’s special place is the Wetlands. ‘There is nature and life there’, she writes.
Isabella loves the Big Tree at Townsends Bluff. 

​Who doesn’t? It’s a wonderful tree. We were up there over the Summer with our Mallacoota grandchildren. They were helping Terry with the Coastal Connections film about Inverloch, which includes local artist Jackie Moss talking about her special place. Like Isabella, she loves The Big Tree. The Inverloch film also features two other community members, Karen Bateman, whose special place is Screw Creek in Winter, and Dan Rosen, who loves the Inverloch Inlet.
​Karen and Dan are both librarians at the Wonthaggi Library. I have been spending a bit of time at our local libraries over the last two months, installing the Exhibition and then visiting regularly to check on the community’s creative contributions. I have seen the librarians in action. I have heard them welcoming visitors to the library by name, asking them about their families. I’ve watched as library visitors linger at the checkout desk, keen to share their stories and being listened to with warmth and respect. Sometimes the talk is of books and sometimes the conversation encompasses the whole of life. The level of care I have witnessed has been generous and genuine. I’ve come to see how vital these human interactions are for our community, particularly in COVID times.
 
The Coastal Connections Exhibition is almost finished now. It will come down in a couple of weeks, after the Coastal Connections Concert is over. And while I’m on that, I’ve got to tell you, there’s a lot of interest in the Concert and there are only a few tickets left. If you do want to come and be part of it, it would be good to book soon, so you don’t miss out.
 
What’s more, I know there will be some librarians there.
 
The Coastal Connections Concert is happening at 2pm on Saturday February 20 at the Wonthaggi Arts Centre. You can read more about it at
The Bass Coast Sound
and book tickets at Trybooking. 

Picture
Phillip Island Library branch manager
Jessica Berry
Picture
Inverloch Library branch manager Jo Bowles
Picture
Setting up at Wonthaggi Library, from left, branch manager Jon Dixon, Geoff Ellis,
Laura Brearley and Terry Malvin
2 Comments
Laura Brearley
12/2/2021 10:00:47 pm

We’re ready for the Coastal Connections Concert
The films are done and the music is made
The sense of community is strong

Margaret at the Wonthaggi Arts Centre tell us the Concert is still on
But before we come together again, we have this pause
This time to be still and to connect once more with where we are

Time to listen to the slower rhythms of the world
Within and around us
This new lockdown is inviting us back to essence again

No more … the gathering pace of the year
No more … the visiting and being visited
No more … the non-essential

I hope to see you on the 20th February.
But if we find when the five days are done, that it’s not possible
We’ll wait till it’s safe to be together again.

In the meantime, here are some words from poet David Wagoner …

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. you must let it find you.

Wishing you all well
Laura Brearley

Reply
Laura Brearley
17/2/2021 06:46:49 pm

And it's on!
The Coastal Connections Concert is happening!
It's a sold-out event and with the help of the staff from the Wonthaggi Arts Centre, we can still meet the new COVID requirements which require only 50% capacity in the auditorium. Thanks to the flexibility of the musicians and creative artists from the project who will be watching the event live-streamed backstage, we can proceed and keep everyone safe and comfortable.
Love and thanks to you all.

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