Sunruse and Sunset on the Birrarung

Yarra Bend Park Paddle

Contribute to the your well-being, the Yarra and the Melbourne community.
Paddling with Artist Kathy Holowko  at Yarra Bend Park
Join Derek Cook and artist Kathy Holowko For a sunrise or sunset paddle.   This event is offered as an extension to Booked out events for Reimaginging Birrarung:  Design Concepts for 2070.
Kathy Holowko is a visual artist that creates sculptural works, installations, public art and playful projects in a variety of media. She is interested in the effects that urban life has upon our understanding of ecology and in busy, human centric environments, she search for narratives and connections that can help us reconsider our world as a cyclical, and shared habitat. She does this on her own, and in collaboration with artists, museums, ecologists, rangers, wild life carers, scientists, industry and other humans of all scales. Kathy believes in the power of art to help learn, to think, to meditate … and it is her way to mirror cultural environmental ideologies in the hope of building positive future visions.
Kathy has honoured the worm on a plinth in the Edinburgh Gardens, invited a hundreds of fruit bat sculptures into the atrium of Fed Sq, illuminated the Herbarium with botanical lanterns, and creates Wild Cities with children where they consider wild animals as citizens in urban spaces…amongst other things.

 

The canoe tour will be led by Derek Cook of social enterprise Up the Creek. This unique event offers a firsthand exploration of the Birrarung over a 4km stretch between Studley Park Boat House and Fairfield Boat House at dusk and dawn.

As you paddle along the river, taking in the fresh air and green surrounds, your guides will provide insights into the environmental, cultural, and social significance of the river, highlighting its historical importance to Indigenous communities and its evolving role in the urban landscape.

The tour will connect past, present, and future, offering a comprehensive understanding of the river’s journey and the imagined outcomes as seen in the exhibition..

Fitness level: Easy-moderate

The program will be split into two sessions:

Session 1
Time: 10:00am — 12:30pm
Meeting point: Studley Park Boat House
Paddling to: Fairfield Boat House
After your session, you will be bussed back to Studley Park Boat House

Session 2
Time: 1:30pm — 4:00pm
Meeting point: Fairfield Boat House
Paddling to: Studley Park Boat House
After your session, you will be bussed back to Fairfield Boat House

A healthy lunch will be provided by the team at STREAT. Tickets for this program are limited.

This program is co-presented by Bupa and the NGV in association with the exhibition Reimagining Birrarung: Design Concepts for 2070.

Walking Up The Creek with Uncle Ian Hunter at Sparks Reserve

Join Derek, your guide from Up The Creek alongside Wurundjeri Elder Uncle Ian Hunter to take a walk along Birrarung during Bupa’s Healthy Cities challenge. Learn about the state and the history of the river, through the eyes of its custodians and advocates.

The walk will see the group meeting at Sparks Reserve, near the corner of the Boulevard and Hedelberg rd.  We will wander the darabin trail past golf courses and over the Birrarung to Willsmere in Kew.

Please be sure to bring a sturdy pair of shoes and a bottle of water. Tickets to this event are strictly limited.

 

On The Day,

Meeting at Turnpike Road, bring walking gear, jacket, sun protection and a water bottle.

The whole of life is coming to terms with yourself and the natural world. Why are you here? How do you fit in? What is it all about?

David Attenborough

Up the Creek journeys can lead to:

  • Engaging with nature as a collaborator
  • Thriving and finding joy working with forces beyond our direct control
  • Reduced risk in the present - inoculate against risky behaviour in the future
  • Transformed capacity to learn for improved productivity
  • Creating lifelong connections to self, nature and others
  • Overcoming blockages to learning
  • Building authentic self-directed learning

Join us, For River fest and Melbourne design week. come collaborate with nature!