I’m excited to be a part of this year’s Ten Days on the Island. I’ll be chatting with author Ailsa Piper, in the Hobart Town Hall on March 22. Last year, Ailsa released a book called For Life, which explores grief and our connection with the world around us. I’m really looking forward to an unhurried hour of conversation! Among other things, Ailsa is an inveterate bushwalker and traveller, and a keen observer of the wonder of the world around us, so we’ll have plenty of common ground for a discussion.

Earlier that day, Ailsa will also be hosting a spirit-enriching saunter through the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. Ailsa will share some poetry with her fellow walkers and share her reflections on how language helps her reflect on place. We will also have the chance to do some scribbling of our own, so bring a notebook and pen and put the rhythm of a walk into some poetic lines.
So, Hobart’s where I’ll be beginning my journey through the festival. However, as a lifelong northerner (northern Tassie, that is, not that other island further north) I’ll mostly be checking out shows and exhibitions at that end of the state. It’s nice to have a reason to make a cameo in Hobart, but I’ve always been grateful to Ten Days on the Island for making different work available around the island.

For instance, the tale of a Roman poet will resurface at the Rowella Hall on March 26. Exiled for his work, Ovid was sent to what he believed was the outer limit of the habitable world. The novelist David Malouf puts an admirable spin on this story in An Imaginary Life, which has in turn been adapted for production stage by Humphrey Bower with live music from Pavan Kumar Hari.

My early years were lived just down in the road in Beaconsfield, and I reckon that a poet sent there when I was a boy might, like Ovid, have thought he’d been abandoned to the barbarians. Likewise, ancestors of mine – many of whom arrived as migrants throughout the 1800s – might have been pretty unenthusiastic about the country that formed the setting for the rest of their life, at least at first glance. In An Imaginary Life, the outcast poet who looks around the landscape to which he’s been sent sees it as unpromising, bleak and hostile. But it is rich country to those who know it well.

There are lot of lessons in that story, plenty to mull on. You might reflect as you walk through the remnant rainforest of Notley Fern Gorge, halfway between Rowella and Launceston. Here, the ferns form beautiful parasols and large, hollowed-out gum trees loom. Go slowly through these woods and breathe in the faint must of moss, rotting timber and dark soil. You’ll even catch sight of a few stray fungi sprouting in the shadowy corners. Give yourself an hour to savour this beautiful place.

There’s also an earthy theme to some of the work that’ll be staged in Launceston’s big weekend, from March 27-30.

I’m drawn to the concept of a new show by circus duo Freyja and Conor Wild, who will perform their show Wilds with a third collaborator: a large pile of enriched soil. It’s a playful way of looking at the relationship between humanity and the Earth – a relationship that has might require some work from us to mend.

Speaking of soil, permaculture superhero Hannah Moloney will perform a show called Time Rebel (also on in Nipaluna/Hobart and Pataway/Burnie). She describes it as “climate justice cabaret”: a sing-along, complete with playful props, centred around the ecological challenges we face and how we might, as a community, create a better future.

Linking up nicely with this is Tasdance’s free show in Civic Square, Beacon. A cast of sixty dancers who are working together to explore the challenges facing us and find possible, hopeful answers through movement. There’s significant reference to the crises centred around our changing climate and the show has a powerful message about coming together.

I particularly love the age range of the performers – it covers about three-quarters of a century! The mix of experiences and energy levels will make for a beautiful show. Beacon folds in nicely with another free event happening in Civic Square – the super-accessible, giant yellow SWING that will be set up for young and old alike, from March 27-30.

If you’re after a Sunday walk – and a chance to get in contact with the ecosystems of the estuary – head to Tamar Island, just north of Launnie. A four-kilometre-long boardwalk takes you through wetlands over to the island – it’s a small and surprising pocket of life, with lots of birds and other critters to say g’day to.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a different finale to your festive weekend, you could do worse than go for a drink of local wine at Bar Two or Havilah. After all, this too is a gift from the earth!