My needs were different now that illness had ‘rewired my brain, my body’, but my devotion to the lake’s resilient, adaptive nature was as strong as ever. And its ‘cryptic language’ was showing me how to care for myself – ‘this frail stranger’ I met on its shores.
Artist Statement
With deep appreciation I acknowledge the opportunities I’ve had to visit and write about the Lake Clifton thrombolites, known as Wagyl Noorook (eggs of the creation serpent) in the Binjareb language of the Noongar people, on whose land this poem and photographs were formed, and I thank my cultural mentor George Walley.
My artwork titled I HAVE COME TO TELL THE LAKE MY SECRET consists of a 30 line poem and three illustrative photographs. The photographs were taken by me when I was an active, agile nature writer researching Yalgorup National Park and its lakes, particularly Lake Clifton with its ancient thrombolites. I spent five years visiting the Yalgorup wetlands as an artist in residence (2009 -) with SymbioticA, UWA which led to the publication in 2014 of The Lake’s Apprentice (UWAP), a compendium of my essays nature notes, photographs and poems. My poem At Lake Clifton, again – on being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease was recently published in Cuttlefish, an anthology of Western Australian Poets (Sunline Press 2023, edited by Roland Leach). My last two books of poetry and prose published by UWAP involved arduous physical research, but I realise such experiences are now beyond me. My apprenticeship at the lake had been described by Nicholas Rothwell as ‘an act of pilgrimage’, so I went back hoping that landscape would help me process my reactions to the enormous changes of my condition. I felt diminished by my limitations, resentful of the huge commitment to therapies which a chronic illness demands.
Immediately, I was struck by how ‘The lake, vast and old, asks nothing of me’. Yalgorup wetland is ‘where I learned old ways to mind the fragile, applaud divergence.’ And the lake I’d had such an intimate relationship with, that the First Nations Bindjareb people know is healing and central to their creation story, did not disappoint me. Just as when cultural leader George Walley first told me its stories, the lake, thrombolites and connected wetlands showed me again ‘adaptation’s virtue, how often life is eccentric.’ The organic world within and around the lake, its shimmying peppermint trees and shimmering lines of golden water-light, helped me to laugh a little at my tremors, suggested ‘kinder words for shaking.’
Writing about this was deeply restorative: I found that even though ‘when I talk words escape me’, my poem could ‘catch them like birds in a mist-net’. I found the lake, which was ‘ancient before I learned to talk’ still had much to teach me. My needs were different now that illness had ‘rewired my brain, my body’, but my devotion to the lake’s resilient, adaptive nature was as strong as ever. And its ‘cryptic language’ was showing me how to care for myself – ‘this frail stranger’ I met on its shores.
My photographs of Lake Clifton, its thrombolites and the observation jetty were first exhibited at CASM in 2012 at the closing of the Adaptation Project hosted by SymbioticA, UWA and toured Western Australia with Art on the Move. They appear in my book The Lake’s Apprentice UWAP 2014. A longer version of my return visit to the lake and my poetry writing practice of forty-five years, such essential steps in processing my diagnosis with a degenerative chronic condition, is forthcoming in the anthology of personal essays Women of a Certain Courage (Fremantle Press 2025, ed. Bron Bateman) under the title I don’t dance like I used to.
The organic world within and around the lake, its shimmying peppermint trees and shimmering lines of golden water-light, helped me to laugh a little at my tremors, suggested ‘kinder words for shaking.’
Biography
Annamaria Weldon has lived in Western Australia since 1984. She was born, worked as a journalist and was first published as a poet in Malta. Weldon travelled widely; by the age of ten she had lived in Africa, Britain, Central America and Malta and spoken four languages. As an adult migrant to Western Australia, she continued her work in journalism and public relations. Widowed at 47, Weldon made the transition to full time creative writing. Her four full length books are: Stone Mother Tongue (UWAP 2018), The Lake’s Apprentice (UWAP, 2014), The Roof Milkers (Sunline 2008), Ropes of Sand (ANM 1984). Her poetry, essays and short stories have been widely published in national journals and anthologies, broadcast on Radio National and incorporated in multi-disciplinary presentations at art exhibitions and festivals. The Nature Conservancy Australia awarded Weldon their Inaugural Essay Prize. She has won several poetry awards. A former community writing facilitator and writer in Residence at SymbioticA, UWA and at St James Centre for Excellence, Malta, Weldon’s interests are cultural diversity, inclusivity and ecological awareness. She is writing an autobiography in two parts, drawing on memories of travel and creativity before and after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. As a nature writer accustomed to physical agility and mental acuity, this life-changing condition has proven a challenge and provoked newly published poetry and a forthcoming essay for the anthology ‘Women of a Certain Courage’ (Fremantle Press 2025).
Connect
Website: annamariaweldon.com.au
Facebook: Annamaria Weldon – Writer
list of works
I HAVE COME TO TELL THE LAKE MY SECRET
Annamaria Weldon
At Lake Clifton, again
on being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease
2024
30 line poem
60cm x 42cm
Published in Cuttlefish, an anthology of Western Australian Poets (Sunline Press 2023, edited by Roland Leach).
Annamaria Weldon
Thrombolite reef at Lake Clifton
2009
Photograph, mounted
47cm x 61cm
Annamaria Weldon
Thrombolites Clear Water
2009
Photograph, mounted
47cm x 61cm
Annamaria Weldon
Thrombolites under the Observation Jetty in Autumn
2010
Photograph, mounted
47cm x 61cm
Artwork
