(Re)forming river-child-blowie relations: Questions of noticing, caring, and imagined futures with the unloved and disregarded

Abstract

Derbarl Yerrigan is a significant river in Western Australia that has been part of a river-child-walking collective for approximately a year. Many multispecies encounters take place while walking-with Derbarl Yerrigan, but this story of (re)forming relations belongs to Blowie. Dead and dying Blowies, also known as the common blowfish and Torquigener pleurogramma, have been particularly important players in this project that is generating climate change pedagogies with young children. This creative essay works with questions of how young children are imagining, getting to know, and engaging with the often unloved and disregarded Blowie. It is an example of how hacking Anthropocentric sustainability narratives, or doing-it-together, with Blowies and young children is possible