TREE
AUDITOR

A photographer, disguised as a tree auditor, disguised as a social art project.

“are you counting the birds?”

As part of the larger (Nambour/Namba-based) Keeper Project, Fiona Harding took on a self-assigned, tree auditor role spanning three weeks. The work utilised costume, photography, and data collection to record trees and resident’s attitudes towards them. Questions of hierarchies, power structure, interconnectedness, and human-centric thinking emerged through direct resident statements.

Nambour/Namba experienced logging as its first colonisation industry after thousands of years of soul stewardship by First Nations people (Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi People) who named the area after a tree. The effects of past actions became clear in the data. Only 23% of trees had a diameter over 50cm and of that percent, only 5% included trees over 100cm.

Auditing rules were established by the artist including; staying within boundary lines, targeting public land, only auditing trees accessible without damaging vegetation, wearing the same costume daily (combo of hi-vis and khaki), treating the position as a full-time job, methodically recording all the trees in an area until a meal break or shift end, and ceasing auditing if approached by the public to engage in a discourse.

Over the three weeks, a plethora of data was amassed including resident perspectives. These perspectives ranged from viewing trees through a lens of personal convenience or preference to a blanket love for all trees to those advocating for a return to native vegetation.

Through the repeated act of auditing, themes of stillness, attention, and a consideration of trees, as living beings of the community, arose. The project resulted in an increased empathy and sensitivity to trees, wider acceptance of people and the imagining of place pre-colonisation.

Further Documentation of the project can be viewed HERE.