A necessary remembrance

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p2618 Trees of Our Body Fiona Walsh
 
The loss of hundreds upon hundreds of trees in Tjoritja National Park (West MacDonnell Ranges) should not go without a significant act of remembering.
 
Local ethno-ecologist / photographer/ filmmaker Fiona Walsh has compiled an album of loved and much visited areas, devastated in the January wildfires.
 
Focussing up close on trees, the survivors of many decades if not hundreds of years, she shows  them as they were, before the fire, and as they are now.
 
She has titled her photo-essay Trees of Our Body, taking her inspiration from the word ‘Tjoritja’, the name its Western Arrernte custodians have bestowed on the park. It translates as ‘a person’s body, people and related concepts’.
 
The title invites us to think about how intimately we, here in The Centre, are tied to the life of these trees and the country which is their only home. If we need them, value them, they need us too.
 
Fiona invites people to take part in this remembrance, to “honour the fallen”, by visiting them and also by contributing to the album, with your before and after photos.
 
See Trees of Our Body here.
 

– Kieran Finnane

 
 
Note: I am honoured to have some of my before and after photos included in this moving tribute.
 
 
RELATED READING:
 
Government fails to protect major tourism asset
 
West Macs fire mitigation critically inadequate: Scientist
 
Park fire protection: new management plan doesn’t spell it out
 
 
 

2 COMMENTS

  1. I agree it is very sad to have lost so many old trees that have been part of this special place, and have been a home and shelter for birds and animals. Their presence was beautiful, and a joy to behold, a pleasure to anyone who could feel it. Their loss feels like a hole in the heart.
    Henry Smith

  2. Trees are like family to me, especially the old ones.
    I grieve for them and the creatures who also suffer when I see distant smoke filling the air. Thankyou for sending this reminder for people to recognise our silent sentinels.

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