Abstract
This plateau discusses my efforts to construct education experiences that are responsive to the state of the river. The Murray River, lying at the heart of Australia’s largest catchment, is used extensively in outdoor environmental education programs in south-eastern Australia. Since European settlement the river’s ecological health has declined considerably due to activities such as damming for irrigation and clearing of native vegetation. Colonialist notions of how the river ought to behave and be utilised have contributed to the river’s transformation physically, ecologically and culturally. In this critical reflection on practice and experiences I discuss two different outdoor environmental education approaches to encountering the Murray: the river as a venue for canoe journeys; and, the river as a place with a unique ecology, declining health and diverse human relationships and impacts. Contrasting these encounters I draw attention to the need for consideration of the epistemological and ontological dimensions of practice that may shape the educational consequences of experience.
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Notes
- 1.
The Murray River is home to many groups of Aboriginal people. The section of river to which I refer here, up and downstream of the township of Echuca, is home to the Yorta Yorta and Bangarang people.
- 2.
In describing and discussing different approaches to structuring experience I do not intend to be disrespectful to those who have shown me the wonders of canoeing the river and camping in the forest. My intention rather, is to explore the different realities and knowledge that may be generated by structuring experiences in different ways.
- 3.
Canoes are a frequently used craft in OEE of south-eastern Australia. They are not, however, canoes of the design used by Aboriginal people prior to European settlement; they are typically canoes with design roots in Canada. The Yorta-Yorta people of the Millewa cut large slabs of bark from River Red Gum trees, dried them over hot coals and fashioned them into large, often broad canoes (for more details see Curr, 1965; Edwards, 1972).
- 4.
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Stewart, A. (2020). Canoeing the Murray River as Outdoor Environmental Education: A Line of Flight. In: Developing Place-responsive Pedagogy in Outdoor Environmental Education. International Explorations in Outdoor and Environmental Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40320-1_5
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