Suspended Breath, A Hartz Journey

Paintings by Kat Scarlet

Music composed by Gareth Dawson

Story written and performed by Jane Rawson

Like Kat, Gareth and Jane also live in Lutruwita/Tasmania's Huon Valley.

What brought us here? What keeps us tied to this place? How does it change us and how do we change it? Our understanding of this place is deeply embedded in its nature and the Hartz Mountains are emblematic of that natural world. The national park is a landscape so dramatically different to the valley floor – its strange and ancient plants, its rock screes, its vast vistas or rapidly smothering clouds – but so near that we can visit it on a whim. What does it mean to have such majesty, to have a place so wildly inhuman, so close to home? The fires of the past decade and the island’s drying, warming climate have rewritten – subtly or permanently – the ecosystems of Lutruwita/Tasmania's alpine areas. In future decades they will change even more. What does a change in the landscape and the living creatures of the Hartz Mountains mean for our understanding of and relationship with this place?

This project aimed to grapple with these questions.