Loss of Nature words

This was brought to my attention in a twitter from Orion Magazine. The latest edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary is getting rid of the following words, many of which pertain to Nature and replacing them with words also listed below. The replacement vocabulary does not look very inspiring even if it is more reflective of a the contemporary experience of growing up in an urban environment. The thinking seems to be the as children are more often growing up in environments that are not connected to Nature that the words that used to be useful are no longer required. Sad I think. And also dangerous as you would think in this period of climate change that children more than ever need to be connected to the natural world and understand the importance of that relationship to them. The loss of words signifies that deeper loss of connection.

Words taken out:
Coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade, carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe, dwarf, elf, goblin, abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar.

Adder, ass, beaver, boar, budgerigar, bullock, cheetah, colt, corgi, cygnet, doe, drake, ferret, gerbil, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, heron, herring, kingfisher, lark, leopard, lobster, magpie, minnow, mussel, newt, otter, ox, oyster, panther, pelican, piglet, plaice, poodle, porcupine, porpoise, raven, spaniel, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren.

Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker, county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse, hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek, liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats, pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish, rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow

Words put in:
Blog, broadband, MP3 player, voicemail, attachment, database, export, chatroom, bullet point, cut and paste, analogue.

Celebrity, tolerant, vandalism, negotiate, interdependent, creep, citizenship, childhood, conflict, common sense, debate, EU, drought, brainy, boisterous, cautionary tale, bilingual, bungee jumping, committee, compulsory, cope, democratic, allergic, biodegradable, emotion, dyslexic, donate, endangered, Euro.

Apparatus, food chain, incisor, square number, trapezium, alliteration, colloquial, idiom, curriculum, classify, chronological, block graph.

Kid turns seven

Just the other week my little girl turned seven!! My daughter who started out as a very tiny scrap, arriving prematurely two months early. Easter Sunday, full moon baby.

Seven years seems to mark a very definite slice of life. She is now nearly the tallest in her grade, filled with wit, energy and fun.
I could not imagine my life without her and felt that way from the moment she was born.

If ever I am questioning the magic inherent in being alive I transport myself back to the moment before she was born. I had a normal birth, except it was too early. Only in the last stages of labour did the doc notice that her heartbeat was getting a bit weaker so he asked me to try to get her out in one push. I closed my eyes and let out a kind of haka yell and as soon as I did that I was transported into flying galaxies and shooting comets. I couldn't believe this sense that I was really out in the far reaches of space and light. The doc asked for me to be quiet as the little one had arrived and I opened my eyes to see Aurora.

I didn't have any drugs so it was just either a moment of hallucination brought on by all the birthing hormones or ... that's where we come from! Who knows but it was a rather fantastic feeling!!

Two Bays 2009

Invitation to Launch of 2009 Two Bays project.

Two Bays 2009 has come and gone. It was a difficult project to get up due to the fact that we got our funding only a few weeks before the project was to commence. This meant that the program suddenly grew from one week to two and a half and jumped in complexity overnight.


Common Sting Ray- photo Freddy Leeong

But even with the short lead time, I think nearly all participants were happy with the resulting overall project. The picture above is from the first day when we did some work at the Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary. The Marine Park system in Victoria is now six years old. We had many scientists and people who are involved in the sanctuary come on board to help document the health of the sanctuary and take note of the animals living there. In less than two hours over 25 species of fish were seen and recorded. People who know the area are very exited about the health and biodiversity that this small protected space now reveals.


Divers entering the water from Pelican - photo Freddy Leeong

This year we again had a focus on the Boonwurrung knowledge of the area and directly involved Elders and young Koories in the program. Pelican Expeditions also received a grant from the Federal government to create curriculum out of the synergies between the Traditional Knowledge of the Bays and the science that we are doing during the project. We are also working with young Koories (Victorian Aboriginal) to make some digital stories about Sea Country. These stories will eventually become part of the curriculum and will also eventually go up on the Parks Victoria websites.

sleeping in blog land

And when one falls asleep it seems it is like a dream of sleeping beauty but there are no blog princes or princesses that wake you up!
One just slumbers on...
Well, we shall see if one eye opens..

Making Links

presenting at Making Links



At Hope Vale primary school, Cape York.


Well I reckon the only reason I have not been blogging is because I have been talking too much. I have one occasion above where I co-presented about the Digital Story Telling (DST) project in Hope Vale with Samia Goudie. This was at the Making Links conference in
Melbourne (Link above). Before that I did my first ever international keynote at a Marine Educators conference (IPMEN).
And also presenting at Hope Vale school the DST project that the kids made, again with Samia.

And all this talking and sharing leads to more sharing and talking. And you always end up learning more and becoming more inspired to carry on.

Because sometimes it seems overwhelming the amount to do and learn, the current threats to the wellbeing of this groaning over- populated planet. All the personal issues of being in the middle of your life or maybe more and seeing a huge momentum developing and realising how finite our individual terms are.

So maybe I'll go back to having a bit of meandering time on my blog. Hope so.

Oh and good news. Just won a grant to help us develop curriculum from the Two Bays project that links the Old ways with the New. Linking traditional knowledge, understanding Sea Country with Science practices in a model of Ocean Literacy principles to create innovative curriculum for kids. Yay.

Tidal Ancestor

Tidal Ancestor

If the tides had an answer
to the unfathomable question
and the tides, toing and froing
conjured up the perfect shell;
would the heart be open to it?

Tidal pull, tugging at the heart's complexity
dark, somewhere trying to hear itself,
within sounds continuous, insistent motion.

Silence, is a streamlined space
garnished with shaker insects
and water flow.

Saltwater, transparently clear to crocodile murky in a couple of hours;
light today so clear you could see every tree on Cape Flattery.

So, we all emerged from the tides,
pulled shorewards by the desire to walk
on this land.

Connectivity and separation,
sunlight fusion,
the stranded starfish, found by the
children at low tide and left out
to die slowly in the sun.

Land and sea, land and sea, land and sea,
land and sea

Connies Beach,
Cape Flattery,
Cape York,
October, 2008

Packed and ready to go..

I have been in Queensland for a week now and hope to make our way to Cape Flattery tomorrow for a month long project with the Hope Vale Aboriginal Community
We have been getting ready in Cairns and I had planned to have a bit of down time beforehand. This was not to be, as my daughter Aurora was very ill with fevers, so we were in and out of emergency and doctors surgerys and had many nights of no sleep. But she is now much better and we are now in Cooktown. Ready for the big sand dune drive and our time in Guugu Yimithirr Country.

This year the program is very full and we have extended it by a couple of weeks. I am very involved in the digital story telling project and am working as one of the trainers as well as helping run overall program. The link in the title is worth following if you are interested in finding out in more depth the aims and also methodolgy of the DST component. There will be lots more about what is happening on our Pelican website.

I am looking forward to setting up my tent and getting my feet on country and being part of our once a year camp community on the beautiful coastline of Cape York.