LET’S BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING…
by Michelle Wilkinson | Mar 2, 2020 | Handshake6, Michelle Wilkinson
In the last few days I have felt an almost overwhelming desire to stand in the ocean. Not to swim, or float or splash, just to stand. Waist deep, not moving, focused on the horizon. It’s been a busy few weeks at work and I now have a physical need to feel a part of the natural world again.
I always assumed that my love of the environment came from doing a science degree and working in biology. But I think it started a long time before that. I remember being young, holding my grandfather’s hand as we went wandering in the empty fields across the road from his house. His hand was big and warm and covered with purple coal-mining scars which always fascinated me. It held me up when I tripped and steered me away from things that could cut or sting me. We would explore what seemed like a wilderness at the time but looking back with adult eyes I realise it was little more than a scruffy piece of abandoned land full of rusting car hulks and feral cats. To me though, a little slip of a thing at aged 3, it was a wonderland. Birds swooping, insects chirping and overgrown grass rippling in the wind. And of course, that big warm hand wrapped around my small one.
That fascination with the land and all that grows and lives within it has never diminished. Now, when I get overwhelmed with city life, I still seek a spot of urban forest or a beach to recharge and recentre myself. To quiet my thoughts and breathe deeply.
I enjoy sharing my love of this land with my daughters. Since they could walk, they have gone on bush walks with me, rain or shine, sometimes by choice, sometimes begrudgingly. We’d take time to stand, sit or lie in the natural environment, take slow deep breaths, watch the clouds race across the sky and the leaves twitch and dance in the forest zephyrs, the waves to softly groom the sand. To notice the little things, the bubbles caught in stream flows and the tiny insects crawling over moss. And to listen to the birds sing, screech, call and warble, swoop, cavort and dive through the trees.
This strong love and affiliation with the land often feels overwhelming for this first generation New Zealander, and I don’t think my parents ever understood why I always wanted to be outside. As a pakeha am I allowed to feel this way? I think I am. I have no sense of ownership of this land, for me it’s about connection and I feel very privileged to be able to experience it.
This, I think, is where my jewellery comes from. I want others to appreciate our place, like I do. And I really want subsequent generations to have the opportunity to experience it too. My work is about raising awareness, awareness of what we have, what we have already lost and what needs protecting.
As I prepare to throw a couple of towels in the car, and, along with my dogs, head out to a beach to “lose my mind and find my soul”, I hope that this Handshake6 journey will allow me to continue to meander down this path, combining my love for the natural environment, my passion for natural history research and my need to make. Handshake is now the big warm hand that wraps around mine, keeping me safe but letting me experience and test my limits, giving me room to stretch out, and most importantly, asking nothing more from me than to immerse myself in the world.
Thank you so much for letting me be a part of this.