Rural Utopias Residency: Tina Stefanou in Carnamah #1

Sep 20

Tina Stefanou is currently working with the community of Carnamah. This residency forms part of one of Spaced’s current programs, Rural Utopias.

Tina Stefanou is an Australian-Greek artist based on Wurundjeri country in Wattle Glen, Victoria. With a background as a vocalist, she works undisciplined, with and across a diverse range of mediums, practices, approaches and labours: an embodied practice that she calls voice in the expanded field. Informed by diasporic experiences, Stefanou engages in sound as social practice and explores with and beyond the all-too-human and more-than-human voice.

Here, Tina shares an update from Carnamah.

Field noting with Lou Cole and Tina Stefanou. August-Sept, 2022:

Driving on red gravel roads in the Wild Flower West, Lou an emerging community-arts producer and Tina an emerging artist connect over living in fibro homes, family stories of factory work, and the murky waters of large-scale farming. They are also soaking up the temporary power of wildflowers, only grown in this region; these rare minor blooms provide relief from agribusiness landscapes. The following is a loose bundle of reflections and stories.

*the car radio is quietly playing commentary from New Zealand

Lou: Look look! Over there! A small splash of colour amongst the small native bush. It’s a Donkey Orchid! It’s only taken me ten years to finally see a wildflower!

Arriving in the North Midlands, the majority of my work has been seasonal, and heavily linked to farming (shearing sheds in particular) and agriculture.

Rise before the sun

Prepare a decent lunch, and carry water

Long days of fresh air and seductive rays

The never-ending waving of arms

“Shoofly!”

Return at dark again

I always make sure I know how far I am from the nearest shop just in case I get a chance to pick up and refresh the stocks.

As long as I keep a decent supply of:

Noodles

Canned tuna

Tea bags

Long-life milk

When you are so far away from so-called “civilization” most other things are a luxury.

When I first encountered the wildflowers, I thought I was looking at snow. White Everlastings carpeted the ground for kilometres and kilometres. There for a moment, gone again, just as the snow evaporates.

Today, we may have taken a couple of wrong turns, but we finally found the infamous Wreath Flower. Fully formed and blooming. A small triumph.

*Tina starts clapping

Tina: How do I approach the truck divers? A local shared with me that even the small arts community space in town can feel exclusive.

*A voice appears on the two-way radio, its channel 40. “Sue, can you tell Martin to close the gate.”

Tina: Canola! Liquid gold. My eyes hurt.

Lou: The rolling burn of yellow. Money sure does grow in paddocks around here.

You should look at the statistics on how many millionaires live in this area.

How poor is poor? How rich is rich?

*Lou begins to reflect on her question as she checks the rearview mirror

Are you going without the things you normally have?

Like your phone? Food? Electricity? Internet?

Is your struggle one where you’ve got car problems?

Or not having a car? More likely, not having a license?

Is poverty affecting the way you think about money?

Have you had to make life changes to adapt to poverty?

Maybe you don’t have money, to begin with?

Each one of us takes away a different Taonga (treasure) from what we experience.

I think it is important that we take time to understand other people’s situations, and the enormity of their problems, we need to see it from their shoes or hands or eyes or ears or hooves.

*Tina nods three times

Hardships were never ending in my family, no housing, no car, no electricity, and little to no food. These were regularly occurring events growing up.

Coming to Australia is a huge cycle breaker for those of us that make the sacrifice of leaving behind all we know, and the things we love the most.

Struggling was the way we survived. It’s not easy when the average, yearly household income in your suburb is $18,000. When statistics are stacked against you, the narrative that applies to you is you’ll always be stuck in this cycle of crime, poverty, and abuse.

You put more effort into striving for excellence, always finding a solution, and you step into a state of fearlessness. You realise you have nothing to lose. The only way is forward or….

Poverty was a big part of my family story, and because of that, I learned hard work, determination, empathy, sharing,giving, appreciation, and the ability to be grateful to something or someone other than yourself. Also, I had to educate myself about finances.

How can you be taught about money when your family has none? This was new to me.

My hardest times have come and gone. However, what hardships are yet to come?

Tina: This question of how poor is poor, is important. I often hear people throw that word around without really thinking about what it means in terms of material-social-cultural access. Clean water, sewage systems, housing, food, education, modes of transport, support networks, and health care are things that get taken for granted. In other parts of the world, the idea that you can receive money from the government for choosing to study at University is amazing. The middle-middle class+ think poor is just a reduction/interruption in their stable income for a temporary period whilst all their safety nets are still intact. It’s as if people will voice against these inequalities only until they become part of an affluent income and social bracket. Even in so-called progressive politics, the poor are relegated to the shadows, like post-industrial regional towns. Ideas and actions of environmentalism in affluent societies are more likely to protect nature even though global poverty is one of the driving forces of environmental degradation.

* A red kelpie cross leans in from the back and starts kissing Tina’s cheek

Lou: Sasha is my number one.

Her mother was a Red Cloud Kelpie, and her father was a black Labrador.

We spent four years travelling around WA, mainly working in shearing sheds, and filling the rest of the year in with odd farm jobs. We popped in to visit people all over the country and enjoyed beautiful off-season breaks. Most new adventures started with, “Where do we want to go next Sash?!”

We hardly spent longer than six weeks with any one crew. A couple of days here and a week or two there. Our time on the road grew us both. It's been amazing learning about her personality and having her support always. She was a rescue, but travel, and becoming a working dog in the shearing sheds gave her confidence (and attitude in more recent years!!)

Sasha is a very well-known pooch amongst numerous teams and contractors, and many towns and farms. Melting hearts all over the state. When bumping into old work colleagues or returning to towns where we have spent time, Sasha is often greeted before me, or my greeting is, “Where’s Sasha!”

Lou: Here are two crayfish.

Tina: I wonder if that tree has psychedelic properties?

Lou: Yes! The Acacia tree bark.

Tina: Do you think we can dress up a harvester?

Lou: Yes, how?? Let’s see if we can get our hands on any wool!!

Tina: I can feel a sea breeze.

Lou: Wanna stop and take photos?

Tina: Tell me about that Farmer Wants a Wife story again?

Lou: She saw him on the telly and then came all the way to Three Springs to find him.

Tina: Omg, brave.

Lou: She went straight to the pub and asked for him, they met, they married and had two kids.

Tina: And now…

Lou: They're divorced.

*Lou starts singing an Abba song…

Tina: Maybe we should host a ball?

Lou: Would you like to have tea with Ladies in Coorow?

Tina: When was the first time you entered a gallery space?

Lou: I have never stepped into one. Accept the one at the old bank and now an art space in town.

Tina: I loved when we went to Red Mac the other day, how the mechanics were singing along with Cardi B.

Lou: SaltNPepa is also a favourite in this workshop!

Tina: I love the shape of that bush, such a person.

Lou: The bush out here is wonderful, you can be driving along and in the corner of your eye you can see a silhouette of a kangaroo crouching down beside the road, as if ready to start jumping across. You brace yourself as you may have to brake real quick, only to realise it's just scrub that has the shape and impression of a kangaroo. Those trees, Grass trees, in the right setting, you would think a person was standing in the bush, holding a tall, long stick! Many times in my travels I have expected the bush or the tree to move, only to realise, that it is an ancient trait of this land and how accurately it disguises itself.

That's the CBH train line, no public transport, just mining and grain drops to Geraldton.

The red dirt trains

Iron ore

*fluttering noises from a car window a little open

Tina: It would be great to have live music in a shearing shed.

Lou: A good shearer would be shearing between 230 and 250 sheep a day.

Tina: I was told we only have 60 seasons left of farming like this in Australia.

Lou: It’s crazy to think what the farmers will do once that 60 seasons are done. 60 seasons, 60 years. That’s within our lifetimes!

Tina: How will the global/local markets shift to meet the new needs of the farmers and communities? Of the soil. I know there are lots of movements around the world, particularly in the global South that are leading the way in regenerative practice – partially from peasant and indigenous cultures. The regenerative movement hopefully will give back to the cultures it’s gaining its knowledge from.

* Whistles from unknown source

Lou: Paulina came in today and told me how the truck carrying their new compost fell through the ground, they didn’t know that there was an underground river on their property.

Tina: Do you think the church would let me put on a performance for the community?

*At a salt lake ducks murmur in the distance

Tina: Why are all the wheat and canola products in the local stores coming from overseas?

Lou: I thought bourgeois was something to do with a fancy bush! Let’s go out to the bushhhhwaaaah…

Tina: Wow, that was intense! The feeling of encountering a snake is so deep, that it's exhilarating. What a wake-up.

I love how you describe Pepeha….

Lou:

Ko Horouta tōku waka

Ko Uawa tōku awa

Ko Tītīrangi tōku maunga

Ko Hinemaurea tōku marae

Ko Ngāti Porou tōku iwi Ngāti Porou is my tribe