Artwork by Lachie, 7, grade 2, Newhaven College By Laura Brearley
XANTHORRHOEA is the botanical name for Grass Tree. The name comes from the Greek word Xanthos, meaning ‘to flow’. The name was inspired by the sap that flows from the stem of the Grass Tree.
It’s been a week full of flow. Tears of loss and outrage have flowed in the community for the lack of care shown to hundreds of Grass Trees in Grantville, removed to make way for the expansion of a sandmine. Community members who saw them last weekend, said that many of the uprooted Grass Trees were dead or dying from the recent hot weather we have had.
Some of the Grass Trees were over 200 years old and pre-dated colonisation. They were beautiful and a significant part of a living and ancient eco-system. We are all diminished by their removal and subsequent loss.
XANTHORRHOEA is the botanical name for Grass Tree. The name comes from the Greek word Xanthos, meaning ‘to flow’. The name was inspired by the sap that flows from the stem of the Grass Tree.
It’s been a week full of flow. Tears of loss and outrage have flowed in the community for the lack of care shown to hundreds of Grass Trees in Grantville, removed to make way for the expansion of a sandmine. Community members who saw them last weekend, said that many of the uprooted Grass Trees were dead or dying from the recent hot weather we have had.
Some of the Grass Trees were over 200 years old and pre-dated colonisation. They were beautiful and a significant part of a living and ancient eco-system. We are all diminished by their removal and subsequent loss.
Along with the outpouring of shock and anger, what also flowed this week was a strong sense of community connection. Word of the devastation spread quickly and the community galvanised into action, ready to stand tall on behalf of the fallen trees. What flowed freely was a shared love for the natural world, made visible in action. It was not an abstract or sentimental kind of love. It was fierce and protective, fuelled by grief.
In learning of the destruction of the Grass Trees, Boon Wurrung Elder Aunty Fay Stewart-Muir wrote to me:
“Oh Laura
How utterly devastating is this.
Our Mother's spirit is weeping deeply upon the loss of her precious children.
Irreplaceable and years of nurturing of nature, gone to a painful death.
I can't tell you how saddened I feel about this destruction!
Thanks for letting me know.
Love Fay”
Aunty Fay has given permission for me to share her response. In fact, she wants people to know the impact it is having. As with all Indigenous Peoples around the world, her sense of connection with Country is primal and visceral. It comes with a profound sense of responsibility, underpinned by respect.
In learning of the destruction of the Grass Trees, Boon Wurrung Elder Aunty Fay Stewart-Muir wrote to me:
“Oh Laura
How utterly devastating is this.
Our Mother's spirit is weeping deeply upon the loss of her precious children.
Irreplaceable and years of nurturing of nature, gone to a painful death.
I can't tell you how saddened I feel about this destruction!
Thanks for letting me know.
Love Fay”
Aunty Fay has given permission for me to share her response. In fact, she wants people to know the impact it is having. As with all Indigenous Peoples around the world, her sense of connection with Country is primal and visceral. It comes with a profound sense of responsibility, underpinned by respect.
 Artwork by Alice, aged 8  Artwork by Heidi, aged 7  Artwork by Frankie, aged 8 | Over the years that we have worked together, Aunty Fay has taught me that Country is her Mother. There is no separation between people and the natural world. The Grass Trees are her family and caring for them is a responsibility she feels deeply. Last week, as part of the Coastal Connections project, Aunty Fay and I ran a caring for Country session with Grade Two students at Newhaven College. We sang songs and Aunty Fay read them her book called ‘Respect’, that she’s co-authored with Sue Lawson and that includes illustrations by Lisa Kennedy. Here are some words from her book: ‘Our way is respect We listen. Learn. Share. We respect Country.’ As a follow-up to our session, the children drew images and wrote about their special places in the natural world. Their artwork and their words reveal a sense of connection and deep love of place. Their special places include beaches, lakes, trees, bush and forest. There is much to learn from the clarity and flow of children’s creative expression. Similar qualities of openness and wisdom came from the messages written on gumleaves in a Memorial Service held last year for the fifteen trees removed in Cowes to make way for a car park. One of the trees was 150 years old. |
Here are some of the messages that were written by the community that day …
The tree messages “Trees are life
Trees are art
Trees are beautiful
Trees are our kin
Trees are the lungs of the earth
Trees should be respected
When we kill a tree
We kill one of our family
And a part of ourselves
Thank you to our beautiful trees
For all you provided for us
We respect the time it takes to grow
We love trees
We miss you
We need green”
And from the perspective of the trees …
“Don’t forget about us
Remember us”
The Memorial Service, curated by local artist Camille Monet, brought the community together to acknowledge the loss and to see what could be learned from it. The Memorial was hosted by the Uniting Church Minister from Cowes, Rev Ian Turnnidge.
During the service, Ian read a poem by Mary Oliver called ‘Lead’. Here it is.
Trees are art
Trees are beautiful
Trees are our kin
Trees are the lungs of the earth
Trees should be respected
When we kill a tree
We kill one of our family
And a part of ourselves
Thank you to our beautiful trees
For all you provided for us
We respect the time it takes to grow
We love trees
We miss you
We need green”
And from the perspective of the trees …
“Don’t forget about us
Remember us”
The Memorial Service, curated by local artist Camille Monet, brought the community together to acknowledge the loss and to see what could be learned from it. The Memorial was hosted by the Uniting Church Minister from Cowes, Rev Ian Turnnidge.
During the service, Ian read a poem by Mary Oliver called ‘Lead’. Here it is.
Lead
by Mary Oliver
Here is a story
to break your heart.
Are you willing?
This winter
the loons came to our harbor
and died, one by one,
of nothing we could see.
A friend told me
of one on the shore
that lifted its head and opened
the elegant beak and cried out
in the long, sweet savoring of its life
which, if you have heard it,
you know is a sacred thing.,
and for which, if you have not heard it,
you had better hurry to where
they still sing.
And, believe me, tell no one
just where that is.
The next morning
this loon, speckled
and iridescent and with a plan
to fly home
to some hidden lake,
was dead on the shore.
I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.”
by Mary Oliver
Here is a story
to break your heart.
Are you willing?
This winter
the loons came to our harbor
and died, one by one,
of nothing we could see.
A friend told me
of one on the shore
that lifted its head and opened
the elegant beak and cried out
in the long, sweet savoring of its life
which, if you have heard it,
you know is a sacred thing.,
and for which, if you have not heard it,
you had better hurry to where
they still sing.
And, believe me, tell no one
just where that is.
The next morning
this loon, speckled
and iridescent and with a plan
to fly home
to some hidden lake,
was dead on the shore.
I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.”
Nothing could bring back the trees in Cowes that had been lost, but it did change the approach of the Bass Coast Shire Council going forward. The design of the new Cowes Cultural Centre accommodates a group of trees that were left standing. Many believe this approach to the design would not have happened had the community not come together publicly to express their love of the trees and their deep sense of loss.
Here’s a link to a short film of the Memorial for the Trees. https://vimeo.com/328141866
And here we are again. More trees irreparably lost and many more at risk.
I included Mary Oliver’s poem and the story of the Memorial Service in a letter I wrote this week to the owner of the sandmine responsible for the destruction of the Grantville Grass Trees. Other community members are writing to him too and pursuing many other avenues on behalf of the surviving Grass Trees still at risk. The Bass Coast Shire Council showed leadership on Wednesday in their unanimous support of a motion involving the Grass Trees.
We do what we can. Two nights ago, I felt the stirrings of a creative flow and before I went to sleep, I started writing a song for the Grass Trees. When I woke up, the song had arrived. It’s a simple song and designed to be easy to learn. It’s a lament, a call to action and an invitation to listen to what the loss of the Grass Trees might be teaching us.
Here’s a link to a short film of the Memorial for the Trees. https://vimeo.com/328141866
And here we are again. More trees irreparably lost and many more at risk.
I included Mary Oliver’s poem and the story of the Memorial Service in a letter I wrote this week to the owner of the sandmine responsible for the destruction of the Grantville Grass Trees. Other community members are writing to him too and pursuing many other avenues on behalf of the surviving Grass Trees still at risk. The Bass Coast Shire Council showed leadership on Wednesday in their unanimous support of a motion involving the Grass Trees.
We do what we can. Two nights ago, I felt the stirrings of a creative flow and before I went to sleep, I started writing a song for the Grass Trees. When I woke up, the song had arrived. It’s a simple song and designed to be easy to learn. It’s a lament, a call to action and an invitation to listen to what the loss of the Grass Trees might be teaching us.
| Yesterday afternoon, just as Terry and I were watching the Council on Zoom discussing the motion about the protection of the Grass Trees, Ben Cavender visited us. Ben is the sound artist for the Coastal Connections project and he came to drop off a large collection of sound recordings that he’s been making of local green and blue spaces. He played Terry and I recent recordings he’d made of Grass Trees in the Grantville Conservation Reserve and the beautiful song of a Grey Shrike-thrush. After Ben left, Terry and I recorded the new Grass Trees song and half an hour later, we had another visitor, Ian Turnnidge, the Minister from St John’s Uniting Church in Cowes. Ian brought with him his big double bass and his even bigger heart. He added his voice and double bass to the recording of the Grass Trees song. This morning, Terry mixed Ben Cavender’s sounds of the Grantville Grass Trees and the song of the Grey Shrike-thrush into the recording. Here is the Grass Trees song. https://soundcloud.com/laura-brearley/grass-trees_combined-harmonies In it, you can hear the sound of sorrow. You can hear the sound of community coming together. And if you listen deeply, you can hear the sound of the flow of the natural world. |  The Grass Tree Song Photo: Hartley Tobin  |