WHAT IS Mountain to Mouth?

Geelong's 80km Extreme Arts Walk - 4-5 May 2018. 

Mountain to Mouth (M~M) is a multi-award winning biennial extreme arts walk, an 80 km journey of discovery, held Friday 4 and Saturday 5 May 2018. In the tradition of the Wadawurrung, M~M creates a contemporary songline across the Geelong and Queenscliffe regions.

Gathering of the Elders Ceremony, M~M2014
Photo by Anne Buckley

Be part of an 80km extreme arts journey of discovery over two days and 11 stages. M~M begins at the You Yangs mountain range, crosses Geelong’s industrial heartland at nightfall and arrives in the city centre to collide with Geelong After Dark, a night of extreme and unexpected arts.

...an epic, life-changing journey...

Gathering of the City Ceremony, M~M2014
Photo by Brien Cohn

At dawn the next day, follow the Barwon River through rolling Bellarine farmland, along ocean beach to reach river mouth at sunset.

The route is punctuated with edgy artworks commissioned for M~M, bringing people together through shared experiences of extreme arts that celebrate our land. In the tradition of Wadawurrung, M~M creates a contemporary songline across the Geelong and Queenscliffe regions.

80km. 12km. 3km. You choose the distance. You choose the challenge.

M~M CONTEMPORARY SONGLINE

Uncle Bryon Powell
Wadawurrung Elder

In 2007, M~M was envisaged as a contemporary songline in consultation with traditional owners and advisors. M~M acknowledges with gratitude the ongoing goodwill and contribution of the elders and ancestors. In particular, the guidance of Uncle Bryon Powell and Uncle David Tournier.

We encourage all walkers to pay their respects as they follow in the footsteps of those who first walked this land.

Uncle David Tournier
Wathaurong Cultural Heritage Officer

Songlines have been used by indigenous cultures across Australia for thousands of years to navigate country. The paths of the songlines are recorded in traditional songs, stories, dance, and paintings.

A songline can span the lands of several different language groups and nations. The melodic contour of the song describes the nature of the land over which the song passes. Listening to the song of the land is said to be the same as walking the songline and observing the land.

FUNDRAISING

50% of all tickets sold fund a planting program of indigenous species along the 80 kilometre walk, in partnership with GenU (Karingal-StLaurence).  By registering for M~M2018, you help raise much needed funds for inclusive environmental projects along the M~M pathway and to establish a fully inclusive Community Garden in Eastern Geelong.

GREENING THE SONGLINE

Mountain to Mountain is bringing ecology into Geelong’s Extreme Arts Walk, through the creation of a long term vision to revegetate the local habitat with plantings of Indigenous species of grasses, trees and shrubs.  Our “Green Corridor” strategy is connecting local communities and revegetation organisations together to care for the eleven songline corridors across the 80km walk, so that the region can retain its natural beauty. In the future, the installation of Mountain to Mouth walking maps and signage at a number of sites will encourage all year walking of this contemporary songline.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

The Connecting Memory app taps into a rich collection of digital stories about the iconic places and fascinating people of the region. Walkers on the M~M route will unearth stories (video, audio, images, text) as they pass through grasslands, industrial nightscapes, city centre, rural landscapes and beaches across the twelve wards of our municipality. Download now.

Nest sculpture by Michelle Fifer Spooner, M~M2009
Photo by Bindi Cole

AWARDS

M~M is the proud recipient of multiple state and national awards – with the inaugural M~M event (M~M2014) winning a Community Development Award at the Australian Regional Development Conference Innovation Awards 2015; a National award for “Best Community Event”, a State (VIC) award for “Best Cultural, Arts or Music Event” at the Australian Event Awards 2014, and being nominated as one of five Finalists in the “Australian Event of the Year” category. M~M also received an Award for Building Health through the Arts at VicHealth’s 2014 Health Promotion Foundation Awards.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

M~M acknowledges Wadawurrung Traditional Owners of this land and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People who are part of the Greater Geelong community today.  M~M is part of the Connecting Identities project of the Arts and Culture Department of the City of Greater Geelong.