Page 115 - Tributaries Catalogue

From Andrea’s Reflections

“An idea like this [The Tributaries Project] arises out of a

whole lot of micro events, micro forces … A couple of

years ago, I walked the Camino de Santiago, and I do think
of myself as a fairly pragmatic person, a realist, a sceptic

(the esoteric stuff is not really my thing and religious
ideology just gets on my nerves), so I approached the
Camino as an interesting hike. But for some reason, and I

can’t fully explain this, that journey was life-changing for
me … there was something about the process, I think,

something about walking, being out of time … Then I
participated in a kind of ‘respect for water event’ another

engagement project of the university. It seemed like a
really lovely idea, but … I felt disengaged. It didn’t grab

me, and I had to reflect on that quite carefully … I thought
… ‘it’s looking at past ceremonies, and I am a present,
contemporary, urbanized academic … what would

potentially grab me from my location right here and now?’
Wouldn’t a walk from sea to source (and at that stage I

was imagining … a three week walk from Sardinia Bay, up
the Swartkops River to Groendal) … grab a more

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