In Relation – Resistance / Resilience

‘Resistance/Resilience’ is the first episode of In Relation, a five part podcast by Powerhouse inspired by eucalypts and the Powerhouse exhibition, Eucalyptusdom.

What does traditional land management in our changing climate teach us about the vulnerability of eucalypts, and the significance of their survival?

Agatha Gothe-Snape The Powerhouse honours the Traditional Custodians of the land on which our museums are situated. We respect their Elders past and present and recognise their continuous connection to Country.

We respectfully advise First Nations audiences that Eucalyptusdom and this podcast, In Relation, address the museum's colonial collection practices and include objects and materials of, and from Country.

I'm Agatha Gothe-Snape, and I'm an artistic associate at the Powerhouse in Sydney, Australia. I co-curated the exhibition, Eucalyptusdom, alongside Nina Earl, Emily McDaniel, and Sarah Rees. This exhibition reckons with our cultural history and ever-changing relationship with the gum tree. It contains over 400 objects from the Powerhouse collection alongside 17 newly commissioned works.

This podcast is a series of dialogues around a selection of key themes, connected to Eucalyptusdom. Featuring practitioners, curators, researchers, and writers it explores the way we learn with and from trees.
In this episode of In Relation, ‘Resistance/Resilience’, we hear from arborist and ecologist, Dean Nicolle and Bundjalung man, Oliver Costello, experienced in cultural land management.

Both Oliver and Dean have encountered the strength and at times the vulnerability of eucalypts through their respective lines of work. Here, they offer unique insights into both the fragility and the resilience of the eucalypt in a changing climate. , hello. My name's Oliver Costello. I'm a Bundjalung man from the Northern Rivers in New South Wales. So, I just wanna acknowledge the Country where I am here today on the lands of the Widjabul Wia-bal people and pay respects to the Elders past, present, future. I've got a background in cultural land management on the ground sort of research and policy and advocacy.There's such a powerful ancestry across these landscapes. Thinking back to those memories, I guess, of being out on the Lachlan River, seeing these beautiful riverbanks cluttered in gum trees, and first learning about how the old people used to cut the bark off the trees and make canoes and have these old photos of sitting on the roots that hang off the banks, and jumping off them and swimming and such a fond kind of like childhood memory of gum tree out there.