Found objects including rubbish (thoroughly cleaned), floral and faunal debris collected whilst walking along the Birrarung and Diamond Creek in Eltham were scattered over light sensitive colour paper to create this photogram. The toxic haze hanging over 'Praiseworthy' in Alexis Wright’s award winning epic novel, informs this work and is used as the beginning point for composition: establishing a sensation of human suspension amongst virulent natural cycles that grow under, over and through human generated toxic effluvium. In both Wright’s and this work, untold colonial damage to place and culture are expressed as the result of racist and exploitive systems of domination. The work stems from years of research in the expansive Escarpment project in which I have been working alongside InPlace director Eugene Howard at Garambi Baanj to investigate the possibility of artists working as active caretakers of place and navigating ways creative practice can nurture natural spaces to derive art materials. I engage with the Diamond Creek and Garambi Baanj ecosystems by looking and actively removing rubbish that are transformed into artwork through creative endeavour and processes. Where previously I have framed landscapes from a distance using European compositional devices. In this work I am in with ‘touch’ place, that are also my materials, and look out from amongst it." Of Anglo descent Siri Hayes was born on Boonwurrung Country and has mostly practiced on Wurundjeri Woi wurrung Country in Eltham, where she lives with her artist husband and two children. Hayes works across photography, video and textiles as materials to investigate the photographic paradox in which illusion and the indexical or physical connections to the real, coexist. She is particularly interested with creatively interrogating the slippages between these but is also intrigued with how materials can embody engagement with place. Hayes has exhibited for over 20 years in solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia as well as in Japan, Canada, Finland, France and Poland. These include 'Photography: Real and Imagined,' 'Negotiating this World: Contemporary Australian Art,' 'Melbourne Now' and 'Stormy Weather: Contemporary Landscape Photography' all at the National Gallery of Victoria, 'Future Primitive' at Heide Museum of Modern Art, 'Boundary Line' at TarraWarra Museum of Art, and 'Contemporary Australian Portraiture' at the National Portrait Gallery. Hayes’s work also features in over 20 public Australian collections including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Heide Museum of Modern Art and many reputable collections. She has received several photographic prizes including the National Photographic Purchase Award, an Australia-Korea Foundation travel grant and the Olive Cotton Award for Excellence in Photographic Portraiture. In 2008 she was a finalist in the inaugural Prix Pictet exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France an award for international photography that engages with environmental themes. In 2010 Hayes was artist-in-residence at the. Australia Council studio in Barcelona, Spain. Hayes completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (photography), a Graduate Diploma of Visual Arts and a Master of Fine Art all at the Victorian College of the Arts. She also works in higher education as a lecturer in photography and visual art at the Victorian College of the Arts and has guest lectured at many other universities and institutions since the early 2000’s. Hayes is a member of the Paradoxa Collective who are four contemporary artists including Penelope Aitken, Anna Farago, Susan Wirth and Hayes that share an interest in peri-urban landscapes, connecting to the land through practical restoration and regeneration activities combined with site-informed art making who often use natural and found materials to create works that reflect on connections between places and people. She is also working onsite at Garambi Baanj alongside InPlace director Eugene Howard on the Escarpment - a multi-year project that investigates how artists might work as active caretakers of place and navigate innovative ways creative practice can nurture natural spaces to derive art materials. Unique state chromogenic photograph (photogram)praiseworthy, alexis wright, photogram, debris, photography, laughing waters, garambi baanj, ecosytem, environment, birrarung, diamond creek, eltham, caretaker, nurture, index

This book was conceived by the Nillumbik Women's Network as a way of writing women into local history. When seeking nominations for the 2010 editon, the press release stated: Nillumbik Shire’s official histories don’t reflect the important but often unacknowledged contribution of local women to the development of the area. To redress this, the Nillumbik Women’s Network (NWN) initiated a small project, Celebrating Nillumbik women in late 2007.( For details of the Nillumbik Women’s Network refer to attachment) The NWN sought nominations of local women who had made, or continue to make, a significant contribution to the social and cultural life of our community. The brief profiles of the nominees were published in a booklet, which was launched at an International Women’s Day celebration in March 2008, and a second publication was produced in 2009. We continue to be inspired by the quality and activism of our local women. Many of the biographies tell of women’s contribution to the building of the ‘social’ infrastructure of the Shire. These stories complement the official historical accounts which primarily document men’s role in building the physical infrastructure of the Shire. One begins to develop a clearer picture of how women went about developing the services which we take for granted today, from the small kindergartens operating out of church halls to the wide ranging network of occasional and long day childcare care to the development of home based services for older frail and disabled residents of the area. They also tell of the bravery and resilience of women in their response to the devastating impact of the Black Saturday bushfires. This volume includes profiles of 23 women, 2013 Nominees in addition to those included since the project was launched in 2008. The 2008 nominations are: Wendy Alexander, Jane Ashton, Sharon Banner, Janet Boddy, Catherine Cervasio, Belinda Clarkson, Helen Coleman, Cathy Dean, Judy Duffy, Gwen Ford, Jenny Graves, Cath Giles, Meera Govil, Ona Henderson, Jill Jameson, Vicki Kaye, Mrs Kimber, Nerida Kirov, Jane Lauber, Pam Lawson, Anne Manne, Chris Marks, Elizabeth Marshall, Dawn McDonnell, Jenny Millar, Grace Mitchell, Jenni Mitchell, Michelle Molinaro, Joy Murphy, Rosie Murphy, Barbara Murray, Tracey Naughton, Josephine Norman, Pamela Pederson, Mary Robertson, Vicki Ruhr, Geraldine Sanderson, Dawn Shaw, Fiona Sievers, Myra Skipper, Selina Sutherland, Barbara Talbot, Marjorie Taylor, Julie Tipene-O’Toole, Susie Walker, Donna Zander. 2009: Jan Aitken, Rosemary Aitken – OAM, Edith Apted, Betty Anderson, Thelma Barkway, Diana Bassett-Smith, Jenneke Bateman-Korteweg, Amy Bryans, Sabi Buehler, Jenni Bundy, Audrey Cahn, Linda Cornelissen, Janice Crosswhite, Elean Dansey, Christine Durham Claire Fitzpatrick, Ailsa Fitzmaurice, Lucinda Flynn, Sheryl Garbutt MP, Fran Gronow, Ev Hales, Irene “Rennie” Harrison, Ena Jarvis, Heather Kaufmann. 1948-2007: Helen Kenney, Margot Knox – Pederson, Lois Loftus-Hills, Nina Mikhailovna Christesen AM (nee Maximov), Penny Mullinar, Gwayne Naug, Nanette Oates, Lisal O’Brien, Stella Reid, Laura Rohricht, Meg Russell, Sonia Skipper, Bronwyn South, Pauline Toner MP, Lisa Walton, Diana Warrell, Rachel Watt. The 2013 nominations are: Roslyn Addison, Sue Aldred, Lucy Anderson, Sue Arnold, Mary Avola, Anna Foletta, Morag Fraser, Danielle Green MP, Colleen Hackett, Pam Hayes, Barbara Joyce, Carol Leeson, Sandra and Bruce Poloni, Many Press, Carolyn Royse, Hannah Sky, Lorna Smith, Lynlee Tozer, Kilanthi Vassiliadis, Kerry Wailes, Gale Weiss, Irma Winton and Alexis Wright.This book is a significant in the recording of the contribution of local women to the development of the Shire of Nillumbik, especially for the time frame 2008 -- 2013. Historically women's stories generally have not been told at all, let alone their contributions acknowledged. This book profiles and documents women's stories that otherwise may not have been told.women, nillumbik women's network