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Gretel Tobin

@gretelpetal_

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making on Wurundjeri country✬˚ ༘ 𓇢𓆸
🎨 @hyphae.cocreates
🍀 @rippleprojects_

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"Refreshing, Inspiring, Nourishing and Powerful.

Newkind was an incredible opportunity to come together, to listen, share and reimagine. Loved every part of it!"

- Gretel, Participant at Newkind 2024 💬

2.5 weeks to go, join us for Newkind 2026! 🌱✨

Newkind Conference 2026
📆 30th September to 4th October 2026
📍 Kinglake West, VIC

Full program & ticket info linked in bio.

#Newkind2026 #Connection #Community #SocialChange by @gretelpetal_

Workshops at Planting Party on 5 September at Fed Square celebrating community-led environmental action, art and connection, presented as part of RESET.

🌱 If You Plant (Paint) It, They Will Come
🕐 All day

Join us in bringing life to plant and animal cutouts in this communal painting activity with @gretelpetal_ !

In collaboration with the 13 community groups involved in this years planting series, “If You Plant (Paint) It, They Will Come”, explores planting as an act of reciprocity, resistance and relationship building.

In a time of declining biodiversity, planting actively builds habitats and strengthens our human relationships with natural environments.

Each cutout represents significant flora and fauna to the various planting sites. Whether living, endangered or extinct, these cutouts become symbols of hope in our ability to co-create our future ecologies/homes.

Once painted, the flora and fauna cutouts will return to live at each planting site!

🌱🌱🌱

Gretel Tobin (she/her) is a visual artist and environmental educator, born and working on unceded Wurundjeri Country. Gretel’s practice centres connection and curiosity for our natural world, particularly through illustration and communal art-making. Gretel is the cofounder of Hyphae Cocreates a collaborative art project and General Manager of B-Alternative where she is deeply engaged in waste reduction and regeneration projects.

Fed Square and @creative.climate gratefully thanks its partners for making Planting possible: @creative_vic, @creative.australia, @melbournewater and Burndap Birrarung burndap umarkoo collaboration, @nowornever.melb and @landcarevic.

Fed Square thanks their year-round Sustainability Partner @BupaAustralia for supporting RESET. by @gretelpetal_

Some of the sweet sweet in-between moments from our recent regen trip up north.

In one sense this country feels so familiar - scrubby and fresh - Xanthorrhoea’s (grass tree’s), Mallaleuca (paper bark) and crisp ocean air. Yet also distinctly otherworldly to the land I’ve grown up around down south. Somehow the Brumbies, which are mostly just an ecological disaster seem to make so much sense in these vast savanna heathlands.

Slowly walking along ancient coloured sands. A small tidal shore separates pristine water springs from unknown ocean currents. These same currents feed this shoreline with a consistent daily meal of ocean plastic (or human plastic I guess we should call it).

Lyn and Arthur, the most amazing older couple joined us for the last couple of days of beach cleanup - then hosted us at their home for a few days. They make 75 look like the most exciting time to be alive. Every week Lyn rides 20km via the highway into Mareeba and back, collecting each and every scrap of rubbish that she spots along the way. A few of these photos are from Arthurs tour of their incredibly lush tropical veggie garden - that I am just slightly envious of. Also from a beautiful hike we went on, after some deliberation of the casual 25km half day hike they’d initially planned for us. We need more Lyn and Arthur’s in this world - my heart burst a little thinking just how awesome they are. (P.s Mum, you have to meet these two!)

I’m so grateful to have spent a second year getting to know this special country - alongside these awesome humans! by @gretelpetal_

🫧
pop by @gretelpetal_

Where are you going with that magic scroll little buddy?

Sometimes destruction is chosen, sometimes a natural consequence of Mother Nature, and sometimes a little bit of both.

We don’t have to look far at the moment to notice destruction. Humans destructing natures construction. Destruction that can sometimes paralyse’s our humanness.

In the same sight, within and around destruction ~ we observe, listen, protest, challenge, love & danceee!

Some little moments of magic recently (including ants walking on water O: ~ and an incredible performance by @theironingmaidens last night.)

Thinking of all the plants, animals and homes being impacted by humans destruction at the moment. Even if you live in a built environment, don’t forgot to love and notice the rivers in our drains and the critters in our brains! 🌱 by @gretelpetal_

I love my job! ~ 🤗♻️🍽️

I’ve been so so lucky to work on so many awesome projects this year with the beautiful @b_alternative team!

We delivered Australia’s first market-place reusable trial at The Queen Victoria Market - preventing over 40,000 single use items from landfill! I designed educational posters to explain the pilot to diverse audiences and big banners to place make @streatmelbourne and @cityofmelbourne new Circular Economy Precinct!

We collaborated with @wipwrk to make the bin covers/ signage of our dreams ~ recycled from end of life vinyl banners - Hopefully these will support many many years of resource recovery - keeping valuable gifts, like food and paper from going to the weird place we call landfill!❤️🧡💛💚💙

And beautiful beautiful @strawberryfields_festival where we washed nearly 50,000 dishes and had so many awesome conversations in campgrounds about partying with the planet! Our wash station was the most beautiful ever - adorned with gum leaves and sexy signage 🌱🤗

Pictures taken on Yorta Yorta Country by @wildwestcaro. The rest on Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung Country. 🌱💚 by @gretelpetal_

by @gretelpetal_

Entangled Life - My work for the Art for Takayna Exhibition showing at the Long Gallery in Hobart this Friday until the 21st of June!

In April we spent 5 days learning alongside the Arthur, Maytim River, on the northern edge of the ancient Takayna rainforest.

While visiting a logging site, just a few hundred meters away from this river, I payed close attention to processes of regrowth. Although this ecosystem will never be able to regrow into a temperate rainforest, life within it will still re-emerge and relationships will be reimagined.

As we paddled down the Arthur/ Maytim river, where the lives of hundreds of species were connected and entangled, I wondered how these species adapted overtime to now share a life together. As land continues to evolve and shift, I wonder what this land will look like in 100 or 1000 years time. And I wonder what natural or human processes will determine this evolution.

While all native forests deserve protection, Takayna is a unique priority. Takayna is ancient, it has an incredibly unique biodiversity and is a significantly large area of wilderness, that is mostly intact from fragmentation and invasive species. There is absolutely no reason to continue destroying native forest for wood chip, when we have a functional plantation industry.

I am super grateful to the incredible team at @bobbrownfoundation for bringing the protection of Takayna to the frontline and to the 100+ other artists that contributed to this exhibition - Together I’m sure we will end Native Forest Logging!

Sale of these works will go back to protection of these forests. If you have the capacity to donate to native forest protection please do!

Also a massive thankyou to @mulbury for the beautiful recycled timber frames!

#artfortakayna #artfortakayna2025 #endnativeforestlogging by @gretelpetal_

A drawing I made for Love Magic by @unassigned_gallery and @spaces.of.play ! I wrote some words for exhibition and book below!

🌀💙

When I spend time being more human, less robot - love emerges. My breath slows to the pace of this diurnal tide and suddenly everything expands. Whirlpools of bubbles cast shadows crystallised with light. A baby propagule of Neptune’s necklace sways to the gradual overflow of this expanding rock pool. Its shadow lands small, warped, questioning. These conical stars known as limpets are entrenched like an awkwardly fitting puzzle piece in the moon like crust of sandstone. A fairy wish has landed in this dormant thistle seed - delicately held in this collision of surface tension. My fairy wish is to be more human, more animal. To return to my body, this body of water. Because when I am more human, I can feel love everywhere and in everything. I feel love in the flickering of light coming through my bedroom window each afternoon. I feel love when I hear laughter. I feel love when I notice faces in the crinkled edges of cumulus clouds. I feel love when I can observe and be curious and ask questions and create. When I return to my body, light has no choice but to enter - to warp, reflect, translate, suggest. This light suggests a love that is infectious, expansive, inclusive. It suggests a love that is far beyond just ourselves and our possessions. It suggests a love that is possible despite this grief stricken shoreline. A love so deep that we couldn’t possibly hurt her.

The intertidal zone is a habitat that I love deeply and am infinitely curious about. Intertidal Love is about unraveling and finding a presence alongside our natural surroundings. Finding this love feels particularly important given how easy it can be to detach from our natural environments or spend a little too long in our sympathetic nervous system. At this moment there are many barriers to connecting to a place, yet land and sea need people to love them. I hope that through art and storytelling and inclusive love, that we can strengthen our communal relationships with places and build more reciprocal systems to care for place. by @gretelpetal_

It’s been freakin beautiful to be spending more time creating these past few months:) 🌀🌀 I’ve slowly been returning to a desire to play, create and share - despite this polarising process of witnessing and grieving current world horrors. There a lots of people to thank for bringing joy, connection and hope to the forefront right now!

Namely, The gorgeous Don and Nour from @spaces.of.play and @unassigned_gallery have a beautiful creation that is Love Magic - an exhibition and book exploring the multifaceted, boundless and important nature of LOVE! This launches this Thursday - come along if you can lovers! Eep🌱🌀 (some progress peeks at my drawing in the second pic)

I recently finished studying environmental science and outdoor education. I spent three years with the biggest bunch of legends learning alongside place. I have a bunch of reflections, photos and musings from this wonderful course and I’m super keen to share bits and bobs soon - so they don’t just sit in a cupboard/ camera roll hiding 4EVA!

And woahhh -
I just spent a week listening, thinking, sharing and creating in the Takayna Forest in Lutruwita with the @bobbrownfoundation A4T! Our State and Federal Governments still somehow justify destruction of these incredibly biodiverse, ancient ecosystems, that are rich in ongoing and historical Palawa culture. There are a million things I want to share about this place and other ecosystems that so desperately need protection! Feeling very inspired by all the people on the front line defending these places right now:))

Lots to share soon - Love Gret
🌀🌱 by @gretelpetal_

Mi amor 💙

Also go listen to Velvet Bloom’s debut album if you haven’t already 🫠🌀 by @gretelpetal_

Take me to the intertidal 🌊🪸🦀🌀 by @gretelpetal_