Dear OSLISTERs At the end of the closing circle of OSonOSinOZ at Marysville, near Melbourne, Australia, in 2002, Peggy Holman crossed the circle, walking purposefully straight towards me and handed me the Talking Stick. I had been the fly-on-the-wall outsider, filming the whole OSonOSinOZ gathering, and was still filming when this occurred. I put the camera down - still recording - and grasped the stick, trying to organise my thoughts into a story I could share. Quite unexpectedly I became aware of the powerful energy of the room, focussed directly on me. I was overwhelmed, my hands shaking, my voice trembling and my eyes welling with tears. In that simple action, Peggy had ceremonially invited the fly-on-the-wall into the group and I was deeply touched.
As my contribution to the closing circle I spoke about an adventure camp on the Gippsland Lakes I had attended every summer for 22 years since its inception in 1960. A very special feature of each camp was the lakeside gathering on the final night. The whole camp walked with hurricane lamps to a fire lit on the sand. We all sat in a circle, seeing the stars above and hearing the crackle of the fire and the lapping of the water. We sang songs with guitars and an accordion, then the founder of the camp, Dr David Merritt, a master story teller, would tell a fireside yarn, often the Legend of Wowasa. I told a shortened version of that story at the closing circle and made the point that, in life as in the legend, bringing nothing but empty hands to the fire can actually mean everything. In 2010 I was able to film a documentary about a single camp, called simply Camp Cooinda: One Summer out of Fifty. As fate would have it, David Merritt told the Legend of Wowasa for the last time that night and I was able to film his beautiful telling of what, to me, is a simple but profound story. Just this year we agreed to put the whole documentary on YouTube. I also edited a complete version of the Legend of Wowasa which I present to you here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqPr7cWtfQs <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqPr7cWtfQs> I believe this adventure camp embodies many of the great aspects I have observed about Open Space: simplicity, self-organisation and the encouragement of confidence and achievement. If you're interested, the complete 45-minute documentary can be seen here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8_WwMnsMbI <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8_WwMnsMbI&fbclid=IwAR1JS_9uyq5uCSB2-ZmU5k sEhhR1_4W9NzV0Eebo0JAGV2qfFo2COuLpt1I> In our ever-troubled world, sometimes it pays to share positive stories and this one fairly bubbles with the enthusiasm of youth and the warmth and acceptance I felt right back in 2002. With love David Dr David Smith BSc(Hons) PhD FRSA Trading as imaginACTION 16 Narawi Avenue Clifton Springs Victoria 3222 AUSTRALIA m 0411 444 048 <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.imaginaction.net.au _&d=DwMFAg&c=8AeiiN1T4UEbtmj4a5r9gg&r=RgBRzwHXqv3k0VBt3C3o7wYdXeaLwfMHXNnXhk 2EfmY&m=dXOZIoqmSsKOfOudnCqqmVy6fJymapkESs5t3H7g1hE&s=baxFXUTHVEYJORfIGoKyxi _qZriM_fyAtaOJrOScbpQ&e=> www.imaginaction.net.au iA imaginACTION Winner 2016 Victorian Community History Award for Historical Interpretation Duldig Studio Documentaries DVD Outright Winner Best e-Learning Resource International e-Learning Association National Student Wellbeing Hub Winner, Best Animation & Video in Multimedia ATOM International Awards Waypoint 1 dual-CD set (Multimedia Victoria) Overall Winner, Australian Achiever Awards Victorian TV, Film, Audio and Video
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