Daniel Havey

Ink + paper + @_dancingmonsters_ made for a great Saturday afternoon! Thank you everyone who made it to the workshop. I got so into the printmaking that I forgot to take pictures but lucky @dchavey remembered so we get to have a monstery show and tell. So good! 📷: 1 @dchavey 2-3 @wyrm.ouroboros 4 Dianne 5-8 @wendypryorcreative 9 Penny The Dancing Monsters Trading Cards printmaking workshop was made possible with funding from the Suzanne Elliot Charitable Trust and behind the scenes support from @unionstprint and @ncgramp

This is a portrait of the first Monster I hosted, Flowerbeard, by talented artist (and also my gorgeous and beloved daughter) @anikahavey Flowerbeard doesn't get out much these days, he sits in my flat, flowers and various colourful trinkets flowing from his mouth. The universe has been vomiting wonders since an opening appeared from no-thing to release all the possible things. Flowerbeard appeared in our first parade, along Semaphore Jetty. At the time we took for granted the extraordinary flow of living monsters in the sea below us. Truly I didn't know the dimensions of this living wonder until they began to wash up dead on the beach in their thousands. The toxic algae is a monster too. I don't know how to write about that. All I can do is put on a strange mask and continue my part in the endless parade. We'll be parading along the Jetty again 5pm this Monday 6th of October, starting from the @semaphoremusicfestival Monsters Picnic by the Time ball Tower park. By dancing to the ocean we can express our care and love for the ocean and our joy and terror in the cascade of wonders. #dancingmonsters #semaphorejetty #semaphoremusicfestival @a.n.e.e.k.s #universe #algalbloom #kareniamikimotoi #parade #monsterparade

Dancing Monsters at the Port Adelaide Xmas Parade 2024. A couple of weeks ago I dreamt that I met the real Santa. He looked the same, except without the red and white gear. The only thing he said to me was "its going to get weirder between now and Xmas". I like to think that we did our bit to help realise that prediction in the parade on Sunday. Xmas means all sorts of things to people, and as a festive season, it has been a space for varied and rich traditions to express their values, some of these as inversions of the "normal". These practices included gender swapping, and the pre-Christian Winter Solstice festivals also included masters swapping roles with their slaves. As much as it is a time to celebrate social norms and values like generosity, community and family, Xmas seems to hold space for something stranger and maybe unsettling as well. I think we all feel this don't we? For some of us it's unbearable. The contradictions that live in our family relationships seem to be most animated at this time, making Xmas lunch feel like a wild time - the Xmas gremlins lurking under the table as we eat, ready to erupt. That kind of wildness is like the real Elves - joyful, generous, strange and even scary. They're best honoured in the Xmas festival, not muffled by commercialised hyper-positivity. They need somewhere to dance, and where better than a parade? The upbeat commentary blaring over the loudspeakers during the parade made some well intentioned but wildly inaccurate claims about Dancing Monsters. I just want to correct the record. Dancing Monsters is an ensemble of people brave and weird enough to follow through on their imaginations, dancing joyfully past the signs that say "be normal". They make amazing costumes that bring all sorts of non-human strangeness into being: the animal, animated place or nature, trickster/mythic/silly/random or indescribable beings. The danced without a sign, a business to plug, a tradition to uphold or financial reward. Thank you to all who paraded with us for this wonderous effort. #dancingmonsters #portadelaide #portadelaidechristmaspageant #portadelaidechristmasparade #weird #xmasisweird

Consultation with the Lichen Monster is a public service available through The Nature Festival when there is enough water in the swamp for frogs to sing. At dusk, as the Ibis settled in the trees, the Guide introduced folks to the Monster. She croaked and growled more harshly than the ibis and prescribed without human language. People were generous in assisting the guide to interpret the prescriptions, and he would like to thank the Monster, the Swamp and everyone who happened along by invitation or intrusion while the consultations were taking place. These included: - The mysterious parklands night driver (aka the white Unihorn) and their canine consort. - St Lucia Limbaria of the symbiotic butterfly. - The silent dead within mycelial reach. - The frogs who sang helpfully and then went silent when things got strange and still. - The Ibis and other birds who tolerated our presence. - Nature Festival for enabling us to welcome the awe that awakens in the space between awesome and awful. - All the people whose curiousity and courage pushed them to seek the consultation, not least Mhel Kirtis whose incredible channeling of the Monster inspired the event. - The beautiful swamp/lagoon/wetland that hosted us. ❤👹❤ #dancingmonsters #naturefestivalsa #warraninthi #adelaideparklands #kaurnacountry

Eco-gossip. I've been thinking about how Eco-gossip might be defined... Gossip is derived from the Old English godsibb "sponsor, godparent," from God + sibb, meaning relative or kin (as in sibling). The sense was extended in Middle English to "a familiar acquaintance, a friend, neighbor" (c. 1300), especially to women friends invited to attend a birth. In the 1500s, it shifted to "anyone engaging in familiar or idle talk". I'm curious to know what was happening around this time that drove this shift in meaning. What was it about familiar or idle talk that drew increasing disapproval? The term "idle gossip" survives today. To be idle is to be inactive, or not working at a job. It may be that "inactivity" came under increasing judgement from the 17th century on, as the work ethic developed alongside the establishment of industrialised capitalism. The ways of being, and talking about being, that preceded this time may have been marginalised as unproductive, which is borderline sinful in the Puritan thinking that shaped the work ethic. Now we have internalised these ideas such that we feel guilty about "doing nothing". Some of the most valuable insights I've had developed through activity that would look, to a 17th Century Calvinist Minister, or perhaps even a 21st century motivational speaker, like I was "doing nothing". Incidental conversations with family or friends are often important ways to metabolise these experiences. These are practices that can bring us into presence with the living world around us, and loosen us from the busy machinery of productivity. When we slow down and notice, we can better see our place in the ecosystems around us, and talking about this is crucial for sustaining these observations - we are social beings, and we have always understood our place in the wider ecosystem through the stories we weave in our human communities. Eco-gossip is therefore reclaiming both idleness and chatter, so that we can remember where we are, and who we are with. We'll be engaging in Eco-gossip tonight (28/8/2024) in the Eco-resilience group, Semaphore Uniting Church. Everyone welcome. #eco #gossip #eco-gossip #idleness #ecology #socialecology

TONIGHT | LIVE at @gilbertstreethotel from 7.30pm . @barnabas_bossi 🎸 @bossis_guitar_studio . @dchavey 🪘 @_dancingmonsters_

As we Monsters wandered out to perform in the 2024 English Ale festival, a First Aid person caught my eye. She told me that we should find a way to tell the story of each of these monsters. I agreed, adding that some of their stories have indeed been told. I’ve been wondering how far to push this idea though. We’re at a time now when, for us displaced settler folk (the main demographic for the English Ale festival), grounding good stories in relation with local place and culture is very difficult. Things are moving so fast, we are always on the move, and many of the stories we have traditionally used to place ourselves are a bit rubbish. We can listen to First Nation stories, but they will not always be assimilable, nor should they. We have to acknowledge where and who we are in starting these conversations. Some of the Monsters are very evolved conversations, others are covered in swamp mud, the story barely recognizable or mysterious. It is enough that they are seen, that they move strangely, some even scream or laugh incoherently. The image alone is already a story, as is rhythm, melody, movement, and non-verbal utterances. Imaginal forays into our sensory world, making claim to realness. For me, this means conjuring a monster asks us to balance some humility with creative spit-balling (a great word: a spit-ball is a dynamic collaboration of our bodily fluid with matter traditionally used for writing stories). We allow them to grow through material construction and/or images we have in our minds, then we make them dance with music and movement. A narrative may develop alongside, afterwards, or not at all. Nature throws out all the shapes imaginable and waits for the right time/context for these to take root and grow. It feels so good to keep that conversation open. I want to avoid falling back into old, delusional stories. Those stories die with or without us. Staying connected is to be in dialogue with the living world, It’s a conversation that is so much bigger and stranger than the story of me, you, or any other Monster. Photos @whoisgeorgechan Video: Steve Mitchell #dancingmonsters #englishalefestival2024 #parade #mylor

The Honeyeaters have finished with their nests for now. These were all within metres of each other. #newhollandhoneyeater #nests #patawolongacreek #goldenwattle

DANCING MONSTERS WORKSHOP Mirnu Wirra/Golden Wattle Park Saturday 30th of September 2pm. Message me for precise location or enjoy wandering around until you find us. During this workshop we will: 👹 Hear at least 2 amazing stories about Mirnu Wirra. 👹 Discuss and share knowledge on costume development. 👹 Outline and plan the parade to be held there on the Oct 15th. 👹 Jam with percussion (provided) and rehearse for the event. 👹 Get some background on Dancing Monsters practice if needed. All are welcome. #naturefestivalsa #dancingmonsters #mirnuwirra #adelaideparklands #goldenwattle

COMMUNITY SAFETY WARNING I’ve been trying to put my finger on something while watching the (mis/dis/wish) information splattering across the internet about The Voice to Parliament. Something very troubling is emerging, and I feel like there needs to be a community safety warning. It would go something like this: 1. Everything is fracturing, and the people you love may drown in stories that alienate you. Or your stories may alienate them. Sometimes you will need to be like the patient parent waiting out a child’s tantrum, sometimes you will become aware that you are in a tantrum and will need find a way out. 2. The truth is very simple and also mind-bendingly complex. Our minds are bending. Take care of yourself and don’t feel like you need to get it completely right. That is impossible. Acknowledging this, and making space for others to acknowledge this will be important in times to come. 3. The lure of certainty will be like the siren song of fascism for some. Everything is stories. If you are fixating on a story, ask yourself: how much energy does it derive from demonizing others? Those stories usually end in tears, even if the demons are real. 4. The stories you choose don’t have to fix everything (be wary of these), they just need to relentlessly include the possibility of respectful relations with everything and everyone you find yourself with. If protecting your castle forces you to abandon this, your castle is worth nothing. I think this list could go on, but that’s all I’ve got for now. Please feel free to add to it. #voicetoparliament #climateemergency #rightrelations #posttruth #storyiseverything