River Thames

• Bruce Pascoe is best known for his natural history, Dark Emu, which argues that systems of pre-colonial food production and land management in Australia have been dramatically understated.
• At last count, the book had sold at least 360,000 copies of the original edition – and many more in the form of adaptations, translations, children’s and overseas editions.
• Since the publication of Dark Emu in 2014, Pascoe has had to endure extraordinary public scrutiny, as well as vehement attacks on his personal and professional reputation.

• In light of the last ten years, Black Duck: A Year at Yumburra is a healing and necessary book.
• The farm is a deliberate project designed to test, extend and materialise some of the ideas put forward in Dark Emu.
• The meaning of Yumburra, Pascoe tells us, is Black Duck, the “supreme spiritual being of Yuin country”.

Six seasons on the farm

• Through more than 60 subtitled journal entries, accompanied by numerous photographs and sketches, Pascoe charts the activities of his days.
• These include labouring chores on the farm, visits paid and received (both there and interstate), thoughts, visions and experiments with food and agriculture, and memories and reflections on relationships reaching far back into childhood.
• Pascoe describes life on the farm as solitary at times, but also active.
• Daily farm work includes clearing watercourses or fixing tools and machinery, and at these times his friendships with the nonhuman are forged in both subtle and overt ways.

• Despite their vigilance, the Spur-winged Plover loses a lot of chicks to eagles and foxes […] Their calls are ever-present on the farm.
• If the horses gallop, an eagle passes, a dingo wakes or a car arrives, you hear about it instantly.
• You can’t make friend with Birran Durran Durran because everything is a threat in its opinion.
• Despite their vigilance, the Spur-winged Plover loses a lot of chicks to eagles and foxes […] Their calls are ever-present on the farm.

• There is a sense of time moving on through the seasons.
• Yumburra, too, was affected by that event, leading one of the farm workers to rename a whole section of the farm “Apocalypse Valley” in the aftermath.
• “The unbridled pleasure I used to take in the forest, waters and shores is now tinged with sadness and dread.”

A true storyteller

• The author is respectfully light on detail on these matters, but the reader is left in no doubt about their deep importance to him.
• Pascoe’s authorial style sometimes comes across as a touch too lackadaisical and larrikin-esque, drifting as if unmoored.
• And yet, he’s a true storyteller – and no sooner have you hesitated, than he reels you in again, and has you marvelling with him at the grandchildren’s handstands and cartwheels on the paddle board on the river, or at the cunning of the dingo pair who’ve taken out a young Buru (kangaroo) by gripping him by the ears and drowning him.
• I assume it was the same animal because she made a great point of making sure I was watching her expertise.
• It might be a romantic thought or a wish for longevity of a friend but, whatever the case, I enjoy the personality.“

• Sometimes Pascoe quotes from her journal entries, discrete and beautifully rendered observations of wildlife on her own nearby property.
• But as I was reading, I found myself wondering how else Lyn contributed to the book, and on what terms.

Connection to culture and Country

• For anyone with lingering doubts about Pascoe’s commitment and connection to Country, this book will set them straight.
• It is a quiet, funny, warm and insistent call to return to and care for Country.

Julienne van Loon has been a recipient of funding from Creative Australia, Creative Victoria and ArtsWA.

• Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city, has a high level of encroachment and this has led to the pollution of water bodies.
• As scholars of urban planning and chemistry, we conducted a study in the greater Kumasi metropolis to understand the extent of encroachment and pollution of two rivers, Subin and Wiwi.
• We also wanted to know more about the extent of water pollution, land-use dynamics and water resources regulations, and how they influence the quality of water resources.
• We recommend that the city authorities monitor what is happening better and do more to prevent degradation of Kumasi’s water bodies.

Effects of land use on the quality of water bodies

• Also, the intense pressure of urbanisation on the available land has resulted in a high level of encroachment in wetlands.
• As a result of limited investment in sewage plants, most of the city’s untreated waste water is discharged into the surface water bodies.
• This has implications for the quality and sustainability of these water bodies.
• During heavy rains, the refuse runs off into the water, affecting water quality and flow.
• The industrial activities along the water bodies include washing bays, auto-mechanical activities, welding and wood processing.

Time for Kumasi to wake up

• Urban growth can coexist with natural resources if human activities located near water bodies don’t threaten their quality and continued existence.
• Our study shows that Kumasi has developed with little regard for its natural assets.
• City authorities ought to put in place measures to clean the water bodies and convert buffer areas into parks and green spaces.
• Ecologically sensitive areas that are 100 feet away from wetlands should be compulsorily acquired as natural assets for the public interest.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• The exhibition brings together artists from the communities whose children attended this institution, and it runs until June 24, 2024.
• It emerged from the Munsee Delaware Language and History Group, a community-based language and history learning project.

Manual labour demands

• Their labour was invisible within the school budget.
• However, the Indian department was aware that Mount Elgin students were not given progressive training in skilled trades and that manual labour demands on students kept them out of the classroom and therefore compromised their education.

Farm labour, domestic service

• Manual labour prepared students for limited work opportunities: farm labour for boys and men, and domestic service for girls and women.
• Significantly, forced labour was a key issue in student resistance at Mount Elgin including running away, setting fires and attempting to ruin farm equipment.

Labour as central theme

• Nii Ndahloke / I Work, addresses histories of student labour at Mount Elgin but also its larger impact on reserve and settler economies of southwestern Ontario in the era.
• The show also addresses histories of gendered experiences of Indian education, racism, student illness, intergenerational collaboration and the preservation of different forms of labour and the stories and metaphors that accompany them.

Artists’ own histories

• The artists’ resulting works range widely and meaningfully address the artist’s own histories.
• As part of the exhibition design, a red line along the wall follows visitors around the exhibit.

Community-based approach

• The exhibition reflects a different approach to both history and curation.
• We hope people will leave with is a better understanding of the residential school system in Canada as a shared history.

• Mary Jane Logan McCallum receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and The Social Science Research Council of Canada, Heritage Canada, Ontario Arts Council.
• Julie Rae Tucker receives funding from the Social Science Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Arts Council.

• This ban was in place to stop people immersing themselves in river waters polluted by stormwater, sewage and chemicals.
• The clean waters of the swimmable Seine are being promoted as a positive legacy of these games.
• But it’s not the first time Olympic swimming events have been held in the famous river.

A brief history of river swimming

• She is typically represented standing on a boat: clambering over and swimming under the river’s vessels was clearly for mere mortals.
• Swimming in rivers has a very long history related to pleasure and politics.
• Competitive river swimming remained common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Even Chinese leader Mao Zedong used river swimming to promote his health and political image.
• However, like the 1900 obstacle race, organised and informal river swimming in cities became uncommon.

The quest for swimmable cities

• The Seine will reopen for swimming thanks to a €1.4 billion (A$2.3 billion) regeneration project to “reinvent the Seine”.
• It began in 2017 and includes floating hotels, walkways and other social spaces as well as swimming and diving areas.
• The revival of swimming in the Seine is just one example of how outdoor and “wild” swimming is contributing to better caring for rivers.
• While we know this is good for people, public interest in clean, swimmable waterways for our own health, wellbeing and pleasure can also have great benefits for these environments.