Message Making in National Parks
Anne Scherer
|
Senior Interpretation Officer, Parks and Wildlife Commission, Alice Springs, Northern Territory |
Anne has lived and worked in central Australia since the early 1970s — it’s her home and she can’t imagine living anywhere else. Anne has been in her current position for just 6 weeks but she feels like she has been ‘in training’ for it for quite a few years.
I’ve worked with Parks and Wildlife interpretation officers off and on for years developing environmental education programmes for schools here in the Northern Territory. I moved to the Alice Springs Desert Park when it opened, and I was still working with schools but got involved in exhibit design and interpretation as well. It was actually quite a logical step to transfer the skills and knowledge I have about teaching and learning to message making in National Parks, so when this job came up I decided it was probably time I had a go at it full time!
I’m currently gradually working my way round all the National Parks here, meeting the people and looking at the message making that is happening already as well as talking about what direction it might take in the future….a big learning curve but also a fantastic opportunity.
I don’t seem to organise my life exactly into work and non-work. It’s more like I’ve been lucky enough to have jobs that complement my personal passion for an existence that includes a balance of active outdoor living and what you might call ‘cultural’ pursuits such as music, reading, art etc. What I can say is that I try to keep variety in the things I do both in work and outside, so that I make substantial shifts from one thing to another along the way and don’t get much time for ‘stress’.
This week has been a typical week in my life – the weekend spent at Deep Well on our farm (which is an hour from town, set in glorious red sand and desert oak country), then back to town for a French film at the Araluen Arts and Cultural Precinct, a day in the office catching up with a colleague from Darwin and a visit to a mutual friend and contractor for some of our interpretation work, a day out to Anna’s Reservoir and then dinner with friends because my husband and the dogs are in town, another day in the office writing and consulting on briefs and a wine tasting, preparation for a few days in Tennant Creek including a side trip to Whistleduck Campground – who wouldn’t want to visit that! And so it goes….
I have worked in the science education field for the best part of thirty years and find that if you approach things in the right way, you can hook people into the concept of thinking and acting scientifically in a way that they can adapt to all parts of their lives, and they love it. The ‘Wow!’ factor can come from something as simple as a teabag if you turn it into a ‘rocket’!
To have anyone you’ve been working with – kids, teachers, parents – say ‘I never thought of that before’ is an ongoing buzz! Everything I have aimed to do in science communication has been to find clever ways to take people’s thinking to places they have never been before – and hopefully to inspire them to take it to the next step by themselves.
We asked Anne about someone who has inspired her in her research and why:
I have a whole range of role models and mentors – people who have influenced my life in many ways – so I guess I’ll just pick a few (and when I look at these I think there’s probably a bit of a pattern). As a kid I loved the Billabong Series by Mary Grant Bruce and the poems of people like Judith Wright and, as I got older, I discovered people like Rachel Carson. So I suppose you could say I have been significantly influenced by writers who have the environment as their focus. I also love the music of contemporary composers like Peter Sculthorpe, and I can’t go past Robin Williams of the Science Show, who almost single handedly has brought science to the people in a common and accessible way. And then of course there are the people who become friends but also inspire with their lives – Ali Garnett and Kaye Kessing (of Easter Bilby fame), and predecessors in this very job, Peter King and Stuart Traynor, to name a few…… in fact it’s really too hard to make such a list so I’ll stop now!
Books or reading material Anne recommends on her area of research:
I’m in the early days of really immersing myself in the theory of interpretation, but there are several iconic characters who I would like to know more about. One, who will be in Australia soon, has the memorable name of Sam Ham. There’s also Freeman Tilden, who was one of the founding fathers of interpretation, and someone has directed me to a book called “Personal Interpretation: Connecting Your Audience to Heritage Resources” by Lisa Brochu and Tim Merriman (which I have yet to read).
