Rendering presence: walking/swimming propositions in lockdown

This proposition walks the edge of longing and belonging while entangling with Stage 3 lockdown, Stage 4 State of Disaster Restrictions and Stage 6.1 – 6.3 lockdowns in Melbourne, Australia (Victorian State Government, 2020- 21). It walks a barefoot line with waves and sand as the sea meets the shore, and where outdoor exercise is restricted to one or two hours per day. It renders presence through absence as walks and occasional swims are shared with a mother/daughter together/apart in lockdown. Being in a nursing home where visits are no longer possible due to COVID-19 restrictions, this walking together/apart finds digital and place-based practices for mother/daughter/son/friends to be with each other through moments of interiority despite horizontal restrictions. Written as a contemplative inquiry that works with a/r/tographic sensibilities (LeBlanc and Irwin, 2019), this piece opens up considerations of ourselves as being in relation with. Each walk/swim discloses a series of provocations such as being with the haze of our times and being with the capacity that stillness brings (after Ungunmerr, 2017). At the same time, it prompts deeper attention to being with the ‘lockdowns’ we impose on refugee detainees as an everyday out of sight, out of mind happening (Boochani, 2019). This series of contemplations considers walking/swimming propositions in lockdown as a means to be present to embodied knowledge in the making.