NiTRO + Creative Matters

Perspectives on creative arts in higher education

WALKING WOLLONGONG

  • JULIE SMYTHE
As a creative researcher-in-the-making, I am exploring how to practice accountability in the unresolved cultural context of the environmental crisis and ongoing intersectional colonising injustice. To address this, I have developed a sidewise ethics of practice that begins with my own unresolved settler cultural understanding of the foreshores of the city of Wollongong on the New South Wales South Coast.

I draw upon the discipline of psychogeography through embodied experimental sensory practices, while continuing to challenge colonialism by fostering respect for First Nations wisdom and forging meaningful relationships with the more-than-human world. To encourage a positive cultural and ecological change though my sidewise ethics of practice, I recognise the importance of entwined practices and modalities that sit gently side-by-side. By experimenting critically and creatively, I seek to find less aggressive but more relational bonds through creative writing that enables greater collaborative accountability as humanity navigates the climate crisis.

Keywords Wollongong, climate, colonisation, psychogeography, sidewise, creative practice research 

DOI 10.65289/creativematters.2025.10.7

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Julie Smythe lives on Dharawal land in Sydney. After retiring from high school English teaching, Julie is completing a PhD in Creative Writing. She has had work published in the Deakin Postgraduate Prize for Writing Anthology. Her literary interests include eco-lit, walking practice and the quirky rich culture of Wollongong. 

Main image: Smythe, J 2025, ‘Brighton Lawn’, HB/2B lead pencil sketch on paper, A4.

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