Rediscovering the Country
– connecting people to their land
Bring back the original forest structure to repair the land.
Rediscovering the Country aims to strengthen community support for the improved management of rural lands by increasing awareness within rural and urban communities of how revegetation and integration of biologically rich and commercially valuable plantings into farming operations can help tackle land management problems and contribute to rural communities.
The 33 minute film journeys from southern Australia to Sri Lanka. In southern Australia, the film looks at several major community-led revegetation projects. In Sri Lanka, it shows how community activism has on a large scale modified traditional village gardens to mimic the original native forest structure, in the process restoring biodiversity and wildlife habitat, as well as producing food, natural resources and an economic income for local people.
In all these projects, connecting people across landscapes and restoring the original forest structure act as the cornerstones for achieving landscape restoration success. This is why the film is titled Rediscovering the Country. Ballarat Region Treegrowers has long sought to encourage a culture of custodianship and repair towards Australia’s land. We believe bringing back the original forest structure can achieve a wide range of benefits from repairing the land and creating wildlife habitat to providing an income for landowners, such as through wood or agricultural production.
The film’s target audience is people interested in landscape rehabilitation, and in learning how revegetation projects can successfully deliver the desired environmental, economic and social benefits. All of us ultimately, from farmers to city dwellers, have a stake in in landscape rehabilitation, as we are all in the
end dependent on the health of our landscapes whether for food or for pleasure.
The film was launched to a crowd of over 150 on Friday 20 June, 2014, at the Melbourne Museum and then regionally in Ballarat on Friday 4 July.
 Panel at film's Ballarat launch in July 2014.
The Rediscovering the Country film has its own Facebook page – click here
Rave reviews "What a great film! ‘Rediscovering the Country’ shows what community-based environmental film-making is all about. It is inspiring to see how ordinary citizens in different parts of the globe share a common vision for repairing damaged land, and are organising themselves to create more sustainable and environmentally-valuable landscapes from which they can also make a living. There are lessons here for governments and agribusiness right around the world." Maude Barlow: Chair, Food and Water Watch; National Chairperson, Council of Canadians; Councilor, World Future Council; Author, ‘Blue Future – Protecting Water for People and the Planet Forever’ “It’s a fantastic video on restoring diverse and productive landscapes across Australia’s agricultural regions. ….. The video features more inspirational advocates for rural conservation and restoration than you’ll see in a single show for a long time to come. The production values by SheOak Films are top-notch, so sit back, relax, and be transfixed... I guarantee this wonderful video will super-charge your batteries with enthusiasm and inspiration more than anything else you’ll find on the internet today.” Assoc. Prof. Ian Lunt, School of Environmental Studies, Charles Sturt University, Albury, N.S.W., Australia "I enjoyed the video which highlights important integrated land-use principles, policy& planning issues and practices. In the last week of June, FAO, with the support of the Republic of Korea launched the Global Forest & Landscape Restoration Mechanism which is hosted within FOM, Forestry Department, FAO, Rome, Italy... I am alerting them to the video "Rediscovering the Country" as a potential resource to add to the repository of case studies and lessons learned for the proposed GFLRM network through their new website.” Jim Carle, J B Carle and Associates; formerly Chief, Forest Resources Development Service, Forestry Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations “Overrun by vine and tree in tangled, useless profusion…” says the voiceover, as a huge wrecking ball and chain drags through virgin bush, obliterating everything in its path. It’s a shocking opening for the new film ‘Rediscovering the Country‘, but the following 30 minutes shows how forest destruction can be turned around in any country... and it’s time well-worth investing to understand what’s going on.” Catherine Stewart, 'Garden Drum' |
The BRT film crew for Rediscovering the Country consisted of filmmaker Stephen Oakes from She Oaks Films and producer Ian Penna, the former Secretary of Ballarat Region Treegrowers. They were assisted in Sri Lanka by the Neosynthesis Research Centre, which helps communities establish what they describe as regenerative agriculture.
She Oaks films also made a video about the ImLal biorich plantation titled Recreating the Country – the link to view this is in For Further Information on the home page.
She Oaks films also made a video about the ImLal biorich plantation titled Recreating the Country – the link to view this is in For Further Information on the home page.