A paper presented at the Ideas Festival, Brisbane March 2009 by Dr Tamsin Kerr.

Creative conservation: listening

Listen like a river

In the midst of the city, we listen to human-manufactured noises – the hum of cars, passing sirens, air conditioners. Within our houses, we hear the insistent beeping of microwaves, the many sounds of messaging, the mediated noise of our media. When we listen deeply, it’s to understand a difficult idea or to comprehend another point of view. But we do also notice the overt sounds of nature, particularly at edge places. In swamp remnants where night meets day, we hear the choruses of frogs and birds. The late night guttural calls of possums, even the neighbourly barking of dogs, remind us that we live in a more-than-human world.