This year in the Art and Discovery studio at Nightingale, students have been exploring the idea of friendship in relation to the trees that make their home in the precincts of Nightingale school. We wanted to better understand Indigenous perspectives of the unceded Land right where we learn and play; as a sentient interconnected ecology of living beings of which we are apart.  How could we shift our relationship from a factual knowledge ‘about’ the trees and their relations to an experiential knowing ‘with’ - more like a friendship.  We asked?

What might friendship with the Land and trees at Nightingale look like?

What are the forms of reciprocity that this relationship might offer?

What might we learn about friendship and ourselves?

Over the course of the year, we have been slowing down and spending time with the school ground trees and their relations through a variety of material, embodied and somatic art practices corresponding with the gifts and changes of the seasons. The land has been our ink, canvas, muse and teacher, as we have explored the possibilities of co-creating together.  These practices helped to create space for closing the separation between land and body through listening, reflection and metaphoric connection and towards a felt understanding of our interconnectedness.