Around 150 people attended Futrelands2 held in Kandos on Saturday and Sunday, November 12-13. The ambitious program brought together artists, farmers, Indigenous historians, custodians, entrepreneurs and scholars to explore our changing relationship to land.
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The crowd of young and old came from Kandos, Rylstone, Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Northern Tablelands, the Riverina and Northern Rivers, as well as Mackay in Queensland and Gippsland in Victoria.
Morning tea was lovingly prepared by volunteers from ‘Kids and Carers’ who received a donation for their charity, and delicious lunch salads were provided by Kylie from the Honeytree Cafe in Kandos with bread from the Rylstone Woodfired Bakery.
After a moving Welcome to Country from Wiradjuri elder Lyn Syme and her daughter Emma, Bruce Pascoe presented an enthralling keynote on the untold story of Indigenous agriculture across the continent. From methods of harvesting and preserving food to historic bread-making techniques and sophisticated dwellings, the audience learnt of the variety of agricultural skills and habitation practices that preceded colonisation.
Following a number of other fascinating speakers, participants headed to Stuart Andrew’s property Marloo on the Glen Alice Road where they heard about the Hemp initiative from Klara Marosszeky (from Australian Hemp Masonry), and KSCA members Gilbert Grace and Ian Milliss.
Following this talk, Stuart Andrews led a discussion on Natural Sequence farming by showing participants a hillside which had previously displayed deep gullies and furrows from erosion, and which now showed evidence of very recent earthworks to hold water in the land and build soil fertility. The visit to the farm was a powerful experience for many people.
On Saturday night the crowd returned to the Kandos Community Hall for a magnificent forager’s feast organized by Chef Joey Astorga and his team. Sunday branched out into local enterprises, festivals including a fantastic talk from Tracey Norman, Director of Dungog Festival.
The event wound down amid the splendid stone pagodas of Wollemi National Park at the Ganguddy/Dunns Swamp campground with talks by Kristen Bradley of Milkwood Permaculture, KSCA artist Lucas Ihlein and ecologist and conservationist Haydn Washington.
Futurelands2 was organised by the Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation within the annual public program of Cementa Contemporary Arts Festival. It was made possible with support from the Australia Council, the Material Ecologies Research network at the University of Wollongong, Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney and CWP Renewables.