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Our Waste, Our Place, Our Actions: An intergenerational place-making project

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posted on 2019-12-24, 02:19 authored by Geraldine BurkeGeraldine Burke
OUR WASTE, OUR PLACE, OUR ACTIONS
DOI: 10.26180/5e0162cf17429

POSTER 1: Our Waste, Our Place, Our Actions: Starting the conversation and making the pledge: This poster shares information about the 'Our Waste, Our Place, Our Actions' project where Monash University pre-service teachers, Mornington U3A (seniors), and Mornington Park Primary School (children) came together to explore our waste, our place and our actions through art.
Our place-making project bought together seniors, primary school children and pre-service teachers to share intergenerational wisdom about waste while creating individual and shared artworks. As participants, we worked across age groups to explore how the impact of waste on wildlife is an environmental concern and how creative action can build positive awareness about waste through art.
Making the pledge: Together, children, seniors and pre-service teachers drew local wildlife and designed templates from up-cycled wood. Through the lens of a chosen
animal, we depicted healthy habitats or waste-destroyed habitats. As we drew and discussed the impact of waste on the wildlife we made pledges that were prompted by our art activities.
Starting the conversation: Together, across our generations, we asked what waste behaviours could make a difference to our wildlife? To our place? To our region? To our world? As a group, we respected each other’s ideas, no matter if we were 9 years old or 87 years young. We enjoyed exploring our world together.

With special thanks to the Mornington Peninsula Shire for a Placemaking grant.

Text: Geraldine Burke
Poster design: Kieran Medici
Photographs: Melanie Attard
Artwork: Intergenerational participants (with permission)
Funding: Mornington Peninsula Shire, Place-making grant
Partners: Mornington U3A (with special thanks to Libby Wilson) and Monash University, Faculty of Education; in collaboration with Mornington Park Primary School (with special thanks to Kathleen Lord)

POSTER 2: Our Waste, Our Place, Our Actions: Loving our wildlife and taking action: This poster shares information about the 'Our Waste, Our Place, Our Actions' project where Monash University pre-service teachers, Mornington U3A (seniors), and Mornington Park Primary School (children) came together to explore our waste, our place and our actions through art.
What waste wisdoms will you explore? We explored our…waste behaviours…waste creativities…waste possibilities…waste questions…waste actions
Loving our wildlife: Through art, we explored wildlife in our local environment. In our bay, there are Australian fur seals, Burrunan dolphins and sharks. Humpback and southern right whales have been seen further out. We love the leafy sea dragons in our region, the starfish and the squid. Together we shared stories about the ringtail possums, the pobblebonk frogs and the lizards we have come across. Silver gulls and cormorants, cockatoos, and eastern rosellas are part of our lives and fairy penguins have been spotted as well.
Waste-free wishes: Without hesitation, our intergenerational group of participants agree - local wildlife deserves a waste-free life and yet, our everyday waste can
destroy the good life we wish for local animals and the healthy habitats they need.
Good life amulets: Together we created amulets that prompted us to think about our daily waste behaviour in relation to the animals we love. We hung our weekly waste alongside upcycled wooden templates of favourite local animals. The animals were decorated with healthy or waste-filled habitats. Sometimes we added a pledge for waste-wise action.
Taking action: Our amulets are now hung in the kitchen, in
the classroom or displayed anywhere that might prompt us
to think about our waste actions in relation to the wildlife we
love. Each time we look at our amulets we are prompted to
re-consider our waste behaviours as an ongoing act.

With special thanks to the Mornington Peninsula Shire for a Placemaking grant.

Text: Geraldine Burke
Poster design: Kieran Medici
Photographs: Melanie Attard
Artwork: Intergenerational participants (with permission)
Funding: Mornington Peninsula Shire, Place-making grant
Partners: Mornington U3A (with special thanks to Libby Wilson) and Monash University, Faculty of Education; in collaboration with Mornington Park Primary School (with special thanks to Kathleen Lord)

POSTER 3: Our Waste, Our Place, Our Actions: What waste wisdoms will you explore? Mornington U3A, Monash University and Mornington Park Primary School came together to explore our waste, our place and our actions through art.
We tried creative upcycling. What waste wisdoms will you explore?
- Refusing
- Reducing
- Reusing
- Remaking
- Repairing
- Repurposing
- Life-Cycle Thinking
- Restoring
- Recycling
- Redesigning
- Respecting
- Remembering
- Upcycling
Intergenerational ‘know-how’ through upcycling: Waste is a problem that we all share. Our waste became a catalyst for an intergenerational place-making project when seniors, children and pre-service teachers came together to participate in a day of upcycling where our waste was reconsidered for its material possibilities.
What upcycled magic can we make together? This was the question that pre-service teachers, seniors and children asked as they explored the potential of waste through art. After lots of material play, friendly chatter and some great sharing our intergenerational know-how was put to work!
- Single-use plastic bottles became self-watering pots.
- Old cardboard boxes and CDs transformed into dream catchers,
- Throw-away plastic cutlery was recovered to make God’s Eye weavings,
- Unwanted coat-hangers were given new life through sculptural form
- Waste cardboard was reconsidered for printmaking
- Old t-shirts became wearable jewellery and
- Wooden offcuts were assembled into animal sculptures
- And our art and craft practices were re-thought through waste.
Sharing our waste wisdom: As we made art together, we shared our upcycling actions across our everyday lives, our different generations, institutions and communities. We considered what other waste products could be revalued through creative upcycling (or not) and how we could reduce waste in the first place. Through our making and intergenerational wisdom, we got to think about waste from lots of perspectives. We shared ideas about the merits of upcycling versus recycling and shared ideas about refusing, reducing, reusing, remaking, repairing, repurposing, restoring, recycling, redesigning, respecting, remembering, upcycling, and life-cycle thinking.

With special thanks to the Mornington Peninsula Shire for a Placemaking grant.

Text: Geraldine Burke
Poster design: Kieran Medici
Photographs: Melanie Attard
Artwork: Intergenerational participants (with permission)
Funding: Mornington Peninsula Shire, Place-making grant
Partners: Mornington U3A (with special thanks to Libby Wilson) and Monash University, Faculty of Education; in collaboration with Mornington Park Primary School (with special thanks to Kathleen Lord)

Funding

Mornington Peninsula Shire, Place-making grant

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