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Bathing in its numerous forms has cultural origins in many cultures across the world. As we come into intimacy with water and heat, our nervous systems relax, we shed layers of tension, drop into new forms of awareness, of each other, and the place around us.

As a settler I see an opportunity to explore how these psycho-physical experiences of bathing could be used to cultivate a collective tenderness and openness to deconstruct colonial patterns of thinking and relating to the land.

The experimental aspects of the work are both in the materiality of the infrastructure and the emergent co-creation of contemporary rituals of relaxation, collective care and attunement to place.

Guiding Questions:

How might a forum of convivial and embodied group experiences allow for the unsettling of colonial place relations?

How might we reconfigure settler place relations to support new reciprocal and custodial exchange?

What temporary bathing infrastructures might support the emergence of these conversations?

What is the relevance of the research outcomes to the wider community?