{"id":168,"date":"2019-08-29T14:28:34","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T14:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waterways.climateactionchildhood.net\/?p=168"},"modified":"2019-09-24T03:03:49","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T03:03:49","slug":"26-august-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waterways.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/2019\/08\/29\/26-august-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"003 Cultivating Good Relations with Derbarl Yerrigan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

26 August 2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We would like to acknowledge that this walk takes place on and with Noongar Country, in what is also now known as Perth, Western Australia, and with Derbarl Yerrigan, in what is also now known as the Swan River. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noticing seems to come easy when Derbarl Yerrigan is out of reach, or in the distance. It might be that the familiarity of this place and ritual of being asked to notice makes it seem \u2018easy\u2019? On our walks, we tend to notice with our eyes and sometimes with imagination. Today, water gently slurped up towards our feet which hung over the wall and drew our attention downwards to notice crab shells, feathers, jellyfish, and rubbish. We speculated aboutt whose feathers might be bobbing up and down in the water (Silver Gull has white and grey feathers) and how the rubbish arrived (\u201cbad guys\u201d and the wind).  What are all of the other ways that we might pay attention to Derbarl Yerrigan? What if we were to close our eyes? What might we sense? The \u201cAaark\u201d of Crow? , The gentle Easterly breeze? The salty-sea scent? How might sensing Derbarl Yerrigan help us think-with and be with river? Using our senses helps us to pay attention to how Derbarl Yerrigan is always with us and a part of us, rather than off in the distance for us to \u2018know\u2019. What about the far away and distant way of knowing is often unseeable? Speculation and imagination are good partners of noticing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where the wall ends and the path veers away from the water, Derbarl Yerrigan meets the narrow shore and nature reserve. Soon we were walking-with sand, shells, and wading through water. Seagrass started to tangle around gumboots, making it wobbly to walk and helping us to notice her. One of the girls bent over repeatedly grabbing Seagrass and pulling her up out of the river floor, while saying, \u201cI\u2019m gonna take this home\u201d. I asked, \u201cWhat do you think Seagrass and Derbarl Yerrigan would want?\u201d.  Unsure, she shrugged her shoulders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n