GLORIOUSLY WILD
A Q&A over Zoom with Brita Frost for The Lost Island.
Gloriously Wild: How artists Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison opened a tiny wildlife shelter in their backyard
Friday 20th of September, 2024
Shared also on Marginalia.
And sometimes, if we let it
Monday 30th of September, 2024
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Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison are Melbourne-based artists. They collaborate to create exquisite artists’ books, zines, installations, collages and prints that address biodiversity loss and conservation. In 2023, their installation The remaking of things was a part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. That year they also established Tiny but Wild, a wildlife shelter at their home in North Fitzory in inner city Melbourne. The shelter allows them to care for injured Grey-headed flying foxes, Ringtail possums, Bush rats and Dusky antechinus until they are fully rehabilitated and can be slowly released back into the wild.
Sometimes nature changes us a little bit – we go for a walk and we feel better, we decide to stop using plastic straws – and sometimes, if we let it, nature can turn our entire life upside down and give it a good shake. Gracia and Louise have allowed nature to restructure their lives and their home, and in turn the animals they care for have taught them about wild lives, the perilous existence of the wild creatures in our cities and about taking action.
I was so inspired by this conversation, I hope you are too.
Brita Frost, The Lost Island
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30th of September, 2024
Brita: How are humans impacting the lives of wild animals and what we can do about it?
Louise: There are so many solutions. It's figuring out what you can do, what your skills are and then making nature a part of your life. Because it already is. It’s just realising that I guess. You can change your super (retirement fund) and your banking so that it's ethical. That's a massive change. You can get solar and do as many things as you can to tread lightly on the planet. Join local planting groups and weeding days, also cleanup days. They’re hugely important because they have an immediate impact on ecosystems and they'll also have an immediate impact on your joy in life.
The hard bit is not doing anything. If you don't participate in the solutions, it’s just all too sad. You have this feeling that you don't make a difference. And we all do, we all make a difference. Some of the biggest changes have been groups of normal people banging at that wall until it tips over. There will be a tipping point when these solutions start to become mainstream. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? We could have healthy soil, we could have fresh air, we could have fresh water. We could have joy in life. We could be reciprocal with nature and be enriched as individuals and as a society.
