by helen | Oct 26, 2023 | Green Skills Inc. - Sustainability Non-Profit
Eco- Art Outings in the Great Southern with Caroline Narkle – In the Footsteps of Bella Kelly: celebrated Noongar Artist.
Green Skills in collaboration with Oyster Harbour Catchment Group and Gondwana Link are working with Mt Barker Noongar Elders, Caroline Narkle, Frank Krakouer and their family and local artists. Supported by local farmers, three Eco-Art Day outings are scheduled between October 2023 and January 2024. Public exhibitions of art will be showcased afterwards.
The outings will provide an opportunity for the broader community to join visits to locations around Mt Barker to and participate in outdoor landscape painting with Caroline and members of her family.
Caroline Narkle is a daughter of celebrated Noongar artist, Bella Kelly (1915 – 1994). Bella Kelly was closely associated with the famous Carrolup movement of Noongar Landscape art.
Caroline is an accomplished artist in her own right and paints in the Carrolup style of landscape art.
It is a privilege to have Caroline agree to come out on Boodja and paint. The outings will also benefit from the participation of printmaker and art educator, Nikki Green (Great Southern TAFE Art lecturer and member of the Denmark Butterfactory Art Gallery as well as south coast eco-fabric artist, Jenny Wilson.
Locations for the art outings include the family farm of Heather and Mark Adams, on Woogenellup North Road, the Goodies Family farm near Kendenup, and the Tootanellup rural property near Frankland.
The outings provide an opportunity for a relaxed, educational setting for yarning, sharing and creativity.
The Mt Barker Visitor Centre will host a two-month exhibition of works from these outings from February through to April 2024 and include a prominent opening event.
It is planned to take this exhibit to other towns in the Great Southern in late 2024.
COST per participant: $35 per session
BRING along own art materials and packed lunch
Please note that transport is not provided. Carpooling is encouraged. To register, please click here.
by helen | Oct 26, 2023 | Green Skills Inc. - Sustainability Non-Profit
On Saturday 7th October, over 20 garden enthusiasts attended Green Skills’ permaculture outing with Lindsey Sesin (Denmark Soup Kitchen) and Megan Hall (permaculture lecturer).
The event was held at Denmark Kwoorabup Community garden gazebo, to the rear of Denmark CRC.
The event included an intro to permaculture and what it can offer gardens. The group then carpooled to Lindsey Sesin’s home garden in Denmark. Lindsey introduced attendees to her garden and her organics business through a permaculture perspective. The next stop was Basil and Ananda’s garden, which included a bush fire protection garden sprinkler system demo.
Thanks to Green Skills, Denmark CRC, Denmark Shire Council, Denmark Community Foundation, the McHenry Family of Mt Lindesay farm and Andrew Jenkins and the Jenkins Dairy farm for their support for the Community Garden and its workshops.
by helen | Nov 4, 2021 | Green Skills Inc. - Sustainability Non-Profit
On Saturday 30 October 2021 a group of 28 people with the Denmark Community Garden group visited Rod and Marion MacDougall’s farm situated out of Denmark. The focus was on the farm orchard which has an wonderful variety of fruit trees including 120 varieties of apples (both heritage and commercial), 14 citrus varieties, 20+ stone fruit, 8 Cassy fruit, 10 Feijoa, Persimmons, Mulberries, Jujubes, Walnut, Pecan, Macadamia, edible Pine, and more ! Rod, Marion and their children have an amazing font of knowledge about horticulture. Appreciations to the whole family for the opportunity to experience such a diverse and bountiful farm, a show case for regenerative and biodiverse agriculture.
Back in the Denmark Community Garden behind the Denmark CRC, Don Hunt and other keen community garden volunteers have been busy in the Garden’s propagating facilities
The Denmark Kwoorabup Community Garden workshop program is supported by Green Skills, Denmark Community Resource Centre and the Shire of Denmark.
by helen | May 19, 2021 | Community, Green Skills Inc. - Sustainability Non-Profit, Home, News, Tip Shop
In April 2021, the Green Skills Denmark Office hosted a Sustainable Development and International Aid and Development student from Murdoch University, Jade Roycroft, for her Sustainable Development Internship Project. The unit requires 100 – 120 hours of volunteer internship work experience and creates an opportunity for eager students, such as Jade, to integrate theory with practical work experience. Jade chose to approach Green Skills to host her following a short fieldtrip experience that she had on a Murdoch University field course based in Denmark last December, under the supervision of Nicole Hodgson and the Green Skills senior project manager, Dr Louise Duxbury.
Jade was keen to do her internship work experience opportunity with Green Skills, to deepen her understanding and experience the transformative power of grass-roots community driven approaches. Jade’s hope is to bring the knowledge that she gained whilst working with Green Skills back to Perth, to empower her work there with urban communities and encourage creative responses to sustainability issues.
Jade shared her internship time between research and practical hands on work – and helped out volunteering at the Denmark Tip Shop, the Albany Container Deposit Scheme depot, at the Denmark Visitor Centre and minor maintenance works at the Denmark Sanctuary. Jade provided positive feedback after her work experience, commenting that:
“Green Skills is an inspiring organisation which is creating a more sustainable future by facilitating an extraordinary range of projects. The diversity of these projects reflects the organisation’s capacity to incorporate different methods and perspectives to achieve a holistic approach toward sustainability.
It is a nurturing organisation that considers the individual and unique needs of its volunteers. Green Skills sees the potential in people with all kinds of backgrounds, disadvantages and disabilities, and enables them to volunteer in their strengths. It also offers a diversity of areas for people to volunteer in to cater for their preferences and passions.”
by helen | Jun 2, 2020 | Community, Green Skills Inc. - Sustainability Non-Profit, Home, News, Tip Shop
Green Skills is very happy to open up our Denmark Tip Shop to customers again after 9 weeks of closure due to the Covid19 crisis. The Tip Shop is back to its normal 7 days per week operating hours of 12 – 4 pm Monday to Saturday, and 9am – 1pm on Sunday.
Lots of work by our Tip Shop staff and volunteers has been done during this time of closure to revamp and tidy the shed spaces and install new flooring in sheds. Big Thanks to all who have done such a great contribution to making this happen. The Tip Shop is looking fantastic and is ready and welcoming for you to come and donate goods and re-usable household/garden/building items, or browse for that special something at an excellent bargain.
Please remember that we do have to continue to respect physical distancing and stay at home if you are sick messages to stop the spread of contagious illness and please be considerate and understanding of staff who will need to ensure that relevant maximum customer number regulations are adhered to.
The Denmark Tip Shop, which began in 2001 as a single shed, has grown into a thriving community centre with 8 sheds, and continues to provide one of the best in West Australia for community waste reduction, recycling and sustainable re-use of goods. The Tip Shop is a flag-ship enterprise of Green Skills Inc. Green Skills is proud to announce that we were recently selected as the winner of the 2020 WA AIM RAC Pinnacle Award for Green Business Excellence.
We look forward to seeing you having a browse for that “special” item, turning trash into treasure at the Tip Shop.
