Does the public include more-than-human kin and places?

Shared by JEANNE MARIE IORIO AND CATHERINE HAMM

Does the public include more-than-human kin and places? We have been thinking with the idea of ‘What does it mean to make Out & About public?’ We wonder, what exactly is the public? Does public include more-than-human kin and places? How does this re-situated public gather around a purpose? How does this public construct a movement? Last September, on Wadawurrung Country (now known as Torquay, Victoria, Australia), we responded to these questions with a Public Out and About Day at Fishermans Beach. Movements with created a public as a collective of the place, more-than-human kin, educators, researchers, and local community organisations to engage with experimental common worlds pedagogies and practices — all towards a common future. As sun gives away to rain, weathering moves the public from the beach to the cliffs and under a possum skin cloak, respectfully “coming alongside” (Martin, 2016) Wadawurrung Worldviews. We are left pondering more — How do relational perspectives continue to re-situate the public towards common futures?

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