Local creatures great and small featured on ABC doco Nambucca Valley Nambucca Valley News by News Of The Area - Modern Media - February 10, 2023 Uncle Micklo Jarrett in the opening scenes of Australia’s Wild Odyssey on Valla Beach at sunrise, known in Gumbaynggirr language as Janingbirriny, meaning “golden wattle sap, bridge”. THE opening scenes of episode two of Australia’s Wild Odyssey ABC documentary on ABC TV shows Uncle Micklo Jarrett on Valla Beach. The well-known local elder tells the viewer that Valla Beach is known in Gumbaynggirr language as Janingbirriny, meaning “golden wattle sap, bridge”. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au This is an extraordinary historical documentary uncovering the incredible connectivity within all of nature, exploring the roles each and every thing has within an ecosystem. Wild Media’s three-part series, ‘Australia’s Wild Odyssey’, has been aired on TV and is now available ABC iView. The connection that water has to the earth’s ecosystems is the thread through all three almost-one-hour long episodes. The episodes play out over thousands of kilometres, starting at the water’s source, then following it as it transforms the lives of animals and connects ecosystems, stopping along the way to meet incredible creatures and find their role in the great web of life. Director Nick Robinson was recommended to seek out Mark Graham, one of the Coffs Coast’s most passionate ecologists, and similarly to work with Uncle Micklo Jarrett. “The message of the series is that the more that science and ecology has advanced, we’ve learned about the connectivity and interconnectedness of everything living on earth, from the bacteria in the soil to eagles in the sky and even the atmosphere,” Nick told News Of The Area. “That connectivity is mirrored very well in many traditional cultures and there’s a clear reason for that. “They depended on nature to survive, and we do too, and it turns out that science points towards respecting nature and looking after it,” said Nick. The project meaning for Uncle Micklo is also to show the critical importance of living in connection with the land, the way the Gumbaynggirr people lived in this homeland of theirs, the Gumbaynggirr Nation. “Having my sons and grandchildren in the episode was a highlight for me, showing them the importance of their homeland and their culture,” Uncle Micklo told NOTA. “We’ve got the ocean, rivers, rainforests, the mountains and we’ve got all these beautiful creatures and plants.” Choosing where to show the filmmakers, Uncle Micklo knew they wanted to take the documentary to a global audience, so he directed them to places he knew well for their astonishing beauty. “Knowing my homeland, I suggested places where the lushness and beautiful energy of the land is best held – in Bellingen, Valla Beach and Ebor.” Filmed on Valla Beach at sunrise paying his respects to the land, Micklo welcomes viewers to the episode. Here Micklo is seen teaching his grandchildren to learn from the land. “Everything in existence has a story and comes from a long, long way back, and those stories have been passed from generation to generation surviving and knowing the land,” Uncle Micklo said. Filming in the Gondwana rainforests between the Coffs Coast and the Great Dividing Range, Micklo talks with awe about the ecosystems in this moist, lush setting. An advocate for the sacredness of connectivity in ecosystems, Mark Graham told NOTA, “I feel immensely honoured to have the opportunity to speak about the processes of life and the global significance of our local forests in Australia’s Wild Odyssey. “I feel truly humbled to be able to give a voice to the voiceless, to speak for the trees. “I want nothing more than our society to understand and to act upon the critical and urgent need to protect our life support systems, to restore them where broken and to expand them so as to ensure a safer future and the wellbeing of all future generations.” Mark extends his deepest gratitude to the entire Wild Pacific Media team “for their incredibly powerful and moving work” and to Uncle Micklo Jarrett for “the ongoing chance to work together for the wellbeing of country”. View Australia’s Wild Odyssey at https://iview.abc.net.au/show/australia-s-wild-odyssey. By Andrea FERRARI On Gondwana land, Micklo Jarrett shows how the ecosystem lives out in connectivity to flourish over millennia. Ecologist Mark Graham, who has spent thousands of hours in the Gondwana rainforests, shares his lived experience of how much connectivity between flora and fauna matters to the healthy existence of earth. Gondwana as seen on Australia’s Wild Odyssey on ABC TV.
