Rural Utopias Residency: Sarah Rodigari in Ravensthorpe #1, Beginnings - East Meets West

Sarah Rodigari is currently working with the community of Ravensthorpe. This work forms part of one of Spaced’s current programs, Rural Utopias.

Sarah Rodigari is an artist whose practice addresses the social and political potential of art. Her work is site responsive, employing durational live action, improvisation, and dialogical methodologies to produce text-based performance and installations.

Here, Sarah shares an update from Ravensthorpe.

I left Perth on a TransWA bus (I hoped gender queer). I was travelling six hours south to the town of Ravensthorpe. The woman across from me wore summer colours and hugged a pillow. I too wished I had something soft to hug. She was going to Esperance. She’d lived there her whole life. We talked about the beauty of the beaches, the recent news of an abalone diver being taken by a shark, and how because of the frequency of shark sightings, I had no intention of swimming (this was a huge assumption considering I was yet to see the beauty of these beaches). I had made myself rocket sandwiches for the journey. The bus started and then in stopped. Two bus drivers, Paul and Rodger are talking:

Paul: “That’s progress for your Rodger.”

Paul tells Rodger a story about driving a bus for an hour in the wrong direction down a dirt road at night.

Rodger: “Might have to swap coaches.”

Paul: “Hope it doesn’t play up on the way.”

Rodger: “One step at a time, don’t rush anything, baby steps.”

The engine starts.

Paul: “Moment of truth.”

Paul: “Ok folks it looks like a shut down of the system has fixed everything, so we’ll be on our way, that’s enough excitement for one day.”

Outside sky is blue and like the fields, endless.

I don’t think I’ve seen blue sky since October when the bush fires first started. In Sydney, in NSW, (along with Victoria and SA) the land has been burning for months. In addition to the lives lost, homes lost and the devastating destruction of flora and fauna, the air in quality is bad. We’ve been advised to wear face masks. I saw Doctor Karen Phelps wearing one when walking her dog. A healthcare celebrity wearing a smoke screen was a strange apocalyptic vision of truth. Where to from here.

In his book Life after Capitalism, Peter Fraser suggest that the 21st century is confronted by two things: class inequality (the 99% versus the 1%) and natural resource scarcity (climate change). To think of utopia, suggests the possibility of change, that humans can change and affect the future.

In regional WA, on the friendly bus, with the endless blue sky it was hard to believe that I am still in the same country. When Ainsley picks me up, she reminds be that WA also has fires, and the since the floods in 2017, there hasn’t been much rain, Ravensthorpe’s water is shipped up from Hopetoun.

Ravensthorpe is a farming and mining town (nickel and copper) town 40km inland from Hopetoun, with a population of about 438. Hopetoun is a seaside town south east of Perth. It was once a fishing and mining port. Around 900 people live here. The population in both towns have fluctuated over the years due to mining. When the BHP mine closed in 2009, 2500 jobs were lost. The ebb and flow of the mining industry has impacted on how Hopetoun and Ravensthorpe manage as a community.

This part of the world is new to me. I’ve never been to a mining town, seen a mine or met people whose work and lively hood are directly affected by mining. In a region where resources are mined, farmed and sent elsewhere for profit, I am interested to hear about local utopian visions. 

-Sarah Rodigari