24th November 2023 |
How do you connect with nature? A national initiative to collect stories about how each of us connects with nature has been launched in Tasmania.
Last week, Landcare Tasmania's Jess Fitzgibbon and Jenn Gason had the opportunity to attend The Nature Connection Project Website Launch and Storytelling Workshop held at the Pod, Botanical Gardens.
The event launched the Nature Connection Storytelling website. Check out the website, read some of the stories so far, and you might even feel compelled to follow the steps to share your own nature connection story.
Researchers are seeking to understand how we can encourage more positive relationships with the environment around the country.
The project is co-led by two researchers from the national Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub based at the University of Tasmania: Dr Pauline Marsh (Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre) and Emily Flies (Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences).
Image: The Storytelling Pod with Dr Pauline Marsh (left: Co Lead Researcher ) and Jen Sharman (Project Coordinator)
The project will be piloted initially in Tasmania, and will gather written, oral and visual stories from many people across diverse communities.
“We know that storytelling is a powerful tool for understanding how people make meaning of the world around them, and it allows us to hear diverse voices and share them in a meaningful way” said Dr Marsh.
Dr Flies explains: “Through this work we will be able to understand the positive impacts nature has on the health and wellbeing, social connections and pro-environmental behaviours of people right around the country, and create improved strategies and policies to better enable nature’s benefit into the future.”
The team aims to also find out what kinds of barriers get in the way of the potential benefits of connecting with nature, and how relationships between humans and nature vary across locations and communities.
The stories will be collected through a new interactive website, and in-person through a mobile storytelling pod. The pod will travel across the state, attending community events and festivals. Collected stories will be shared on the website which will also host resources about storytelling and nature connection. The project would love to gather your story, photo, poem, painting etc about how you connect with nature. Just follow the prompts at www.thenatureconnectionproject.com.au
For more information and to connect with the project, please contact the Project Coordinator, Jen Sharman: [email protected], 0409 592 424
This project is co-funded by the National Environmental Science Program through the Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub and the University of Tasmania.
