We are a transdisciplinary team of educators who teach and engage in sacred living systems knowledge.
Our Team
Dr Emily Samuels-Ballantyne & son Zach Samuels-Ballantyne
Emily is a Living systems philosopher and designer, passionate about engaging people in sacred living systems education through heart, art and science.
7 year old Zach inspired the concept of being kind to takanya / Tarkine after meeting Dr Keith Martin-Smith in the forest at a citizen science BioBlitz with the Bob Brown Foundation.
Dr Keith Martin-Smith
An invertebrate biologist who is a passionate teacher and photographer. An invertebrate biologist are a special type of biologist that examine and study living species that have no backbone (hence the term invertebrate).
Gemma O’ Rourke
Gemma O Rourke is an Artist, Healer and Yoga Teacher. She creates and teaches drawing on her Shamanic connection to Mother Earth and the wisdom of Celtic and palawa ancestors. This informs her understanding of the interconnectedness of all things in a no-time spiral of Everywhen, acknowledging and honouring the sentience and sacredness of all Beings.
Emily Wood
A passionate scientist who cares about living systems education and action to support it.
Tatjana Pejic
Passion for project making and marketing for a regenerative future.
Sebastian Samuels
Passionate project manager and advisor. He is supporting the project for his children and future generations.
Article about Tarkind:
Tarkind: Painting a Living World Back Into View
We began Tarkind in 2022 as a small collective, myself and my son Zach, invertebrate biologist Dr Keith Martin-Smith, and palawa woman Gemma O’Rourke, to weave science, story, and art into everyday care for place.
Why a living-systems lens?
In Tarkind we work from a simple conviction: life works in relationships. Fritjof Capra calls this the systems view of life: living beings, communities, and ecologies are networks of relationships whose health depends on patterns, flows, feedback, diversity, and rhythm, rather than on single parts. For Capra, this isn’t only biology or ecology; it’s also ethics and meaning. When you see the web, a quiet spiritual intuition follows: we belong to something larger. That belonging is not a doctrine; it’s a practice of attention, of noticing consequences, caring for cycles, and letting our actions be accountable to the whole.
Daniel Christian Wahl extends this into culture. His question is: what kinds of cultures help places to heal? He invites us to design for regeneration, work that leaves people and places more capable than before. That means place-sourced learning, bioregional thinking, circular use of materials, and stories that grow responsibility rather than extraction. In his frame, art, education, and landcare are not extras; they are cultural technologies that renew our capacity to live well together.
How this shapes Tarkind
Walk, notice, name. We use iNaturalist and field journaling to see the web, Capra’s patterns are therefore made tangible.
Paint what we felt and found. The art is how the insight lands in the body and the community; it keeps the story alive.
Plant and repair. Regeneration is Wahl’s litmus test: did our time together leave the place more resilient?
This is also the heart of my Con Viv work, head, heart, and hand in one movement, supported by David Orr’s reminder that all education is environmental education, and Satish Kumar’s call to hold soil, soul, and society in balance.
Why it matters: a living-systems worldview builds tolerance (difference is an asset), love (care becomes structure: roles, rhythms, and repair), and a gentle spiritual stance (reverence for the whole we share). If more of our schools, councils, and neighbourhoods worked this way, conflict wouldn’t vanish, but it would have somewhere useful to go, into listening, making, planting, and the slow renewal of culture.
What is citizen science?
Citizen science is everyday people helping do real science. We notice, record, and share observations, photos, sounds, simple measurements, and those data feed into research, conservation planning, and education. It’s hands-on learning that turns curiosity into evidence: you don’t need a lab coat, just attention, respect for place, and a phone or notebook. For kids and adults alike, it builds ecological literacy, confidence, and a sense of belonging to the living world.
Who are the Great Southern BioBlitz?
The Great Southern BioBlitz (GSB) is a southern-hemisphere biodiversity event held each spring that invites communities to document as many species as possible over one long weekend using platforms like iNaturalist. Local groups host walks, workshops, and mini-surveys; participants upload what they find; volunteer identifiers help name species; and the pooled results give scientists and land managers a richer picture of local ecosystems. We collaborate with GSB to connect our Tarkind walks and art sessions to this wider effort, so every observation we make together becomes part of a bigger, shared map of life in our region.
Next event: Magical Farm × Great Southern BioBlitz × Magical Farm Landcare Group, Saturday 25 Oct 2025, 10:00–2:30. We’ll gather at Magical Farm, convoy to Allens Rivulet Track for the Bioblitz, then return for a shared lunch, Tarkind community art, and a short planting. Bring iNaturalist, warm layers, water, a plate to share, and an art canvas (large or small) + paints. Families welcome. Message me for details.
Tarkind is a reminder: when we live with life, the future stops being an abstraction and becomes something we can touch, tend, and paint together.
