World wetlands day!

"Every year this day helps us to raise global awareness about the vital role of wetlands for people and our planet." (Birdlife Australia). It is impossible to ignore the vital importance of wetlands as distinctive ecologies, supporting an abundance of life in a truely inclusive zone. Inclusive? Inhabiting the trees and tidal shores are both resident and visiting birds, with stories to tell about unimaginable migrations. There are marsupials, like the watermouse, scurrying between grasses and marshy ground, and tiny crustaceans and fish, not to mention mosquitoes and midges. Wetlands are feeding, breeding grounds where difference is the sustaining principle. Turning our special attention to the wetlands, we find every good reason to celebrate difference, cohabitation, mutual sustenance.

So many of our excursions on the island have taken us back to the wetland areas. Going back, we are eager to visit our favourite places, but we always know we will be surprised and made curious by new revelations, changes, difference. I've gathered together some images from past visits to the island's wetlands, mostly Turtle Swamp and Melomy's. We are privileged to have spent these hours and days bending sticks, digging in the peat and mud, finding a language that will somehow connect us to the spirit and matter of these beautiful and sanctified places.