‘Bi-Coastal Resonance’
Songlines and Stories of the Seas.
A collaborative weaving of music, story and art presented as an installation, live performance and documentary at the Fremantle Biennale 2025, and Makassar Writers Festival, with the support of NorthSite Gallery, Gimuy Cairns.
Sea Change
We are excited to bring together dialogue among elders, artists, and communities, to engage in the process of discovering by asking: how our Ocean sings and what it speaks, how the songs and stories of old connect and what they teach us, and how these connect with current research, how the resonance of the landscape confirms or questions any of these, and what overall outcomes present themselves as a way of better understanding the language of the Earth, the waters, its plants and animals, and ourselves in this grand cosmic ecosystem.
Meet the Team
The Ocean
by Natalia Mann
Peace to the child who listens to the ocean
Her waves singing underneath the surface
Of the minds eye
Peace to the child who listens to the ocean surface,
Her waves undulating underneath the night sky
Peace to the child who listens to the ocean
Her needs and sighs are never without
Heed the wisdom of your ancestors
For they too are awake and listening here
Same song, same breath
Same ways, same next of days,
Same needs, same next of kin
Same weeds, same cheek to chin.
Listen to the children’s calls, the birds’ sirens, the ways of the very now
Listen to the needs within you, the ways forward, the blessings of the very how.
Listen to me as I guide you beneath the ocean surface, beneath the waves
Of the restless mind
To the deep underworld
Of loves past and future
Of loves need awakened
Of loves earth retold
The untold stories of old
Now new, now known, now here and awakened for you to tell
This tale that wishes to be told.
Mud. Flat.
by Natalia Mann
Mud. Flat. Mud.
Earth. Likened. To a pockmarked face. A wise man but questionable diet.
Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
Let your spirit free. Let your soul be free. Let your feet sink into my sands.
Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
Let there be a knowing within you that there is more to life than Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
There are so many roads to travel other than Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
However and whatever the case, you always know that Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
Is here for you on your return to the Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
The place where you are at ease, at rest.
The place where you can let your guard down and be relaxed.
Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
You are a creature of the earth, as am I. Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
You are a changeling and so am I. Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
When we dine together the shellfish are ripe and juicy. Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
I love the way your eyes glisten at the ocean and the small fishy creatures. Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
Little Humans come and stand on my Muddy. Flat. Mud. Flat.
Little Humans come and stand by my Mud. Flat. Mud Flat.
You and I know that there is more to life than Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
But there’s nothing so good as a good delicious bbq on a Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
The salt air makes the food so good on Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
That why I make lots of nice food for you in a Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
No one makes the food I do in Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
And don't you know that love I do in the Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
I take care of all the animals in the Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
The birds and cranes, the fish and the crocodiles in the Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
When you’re ready for a snack I’ll give you the best crab crack in the Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
I know what you want and you know I got it in the Mud. Flat. Mud. Flat.
he he he.
Mud. Flat.
Mangrove
by Natalia Mann
We are the mangrove.
We grow in the water.
We grow in the sand.
We grow where others will not grow.
We are made from the sea.
We filter the sea into the pure air.
We are the oceans trim.
The waves are our constant companions.
We are our own type of plant.
We are not like the other plants.
Our leaves are blessed with the power to heal many wounds and temperaments.
Our roots are blessed with the power to withstand many storms.
Our flowers are blessed with the power of life and fragrance.
Our plants are available for the medicines of the ocean.
We are the medicine plants of the ocean.
We are the mangroves.
Be guided by our scents and our diffuse roots
To find that which you may need
For your own body healing
And mind healing.
We are the Mangroves.
We greet you.