A day of sensory work with creative writing and sand balls. Including two workshops with Madeleine Child and Michelle Elvy. Enjoy morning tea, lunch, and a reading and presentation to close the day, with a focus on shifting sands and environmental care. Some fitness required, as participants must walk from the carpark on the main road along sandy beach to the house, approx 3/4 km.

We’ll meet at the Aramoana Community Hall for morning tea at 11.15, then dive into sensory sand work, with hands-on access to Aramoana beach and beach house.

Sand is our second-most used resource on Earth, after water – and in Ōtepoti Dunedin one of the most familiar sensations under our feet. Slipping, sliding, heating, cooling, rolling, crinkling… The daily rhythm of shoreline worlds living and breathing and changing.

To help get a feel for sand as a material for making and writing, learn the gentle lost art of sandball making with Madeleine. Then, apply the tactile cues and sensibilities to the writing workshop with Michelle.

From the long stretch beach of Aramoana and all it holds, down to a single grain, we’ll explore sensory input and output. We’ll use sand as the starting point to explore the way we build and create, the way we shift and move with time, the way we keep resilient despite our changing world.

Participants will have the opportunity to further polish their work with Michelle, towards the publication of a chapbook of Aramoana writing, created from the Wild Dunedin writing workshops 2024-25 with support from our Ōtepoti UNESCO City of Literature.

First Workshop: The Gentle Lost Art of Sand Ball Making Installation with Madeleine Child.

Second Workshop: Intimacy in small moments: Igniting wonder through writing small with Michelle Elvy.

Cost: $60 incl morning tea, lunch & afternoon tea, max 20

Directions:
30 minutes from Dunedin, Beachhaven is one of the Pilots Houses on The Spit at the mouth of the Otago/Otepoti harbour, Aramoana. Google Maps : 78 Moana Street, Aramoana. Please park at the first carpark on Mole Road (before the gravel road) and walk the 1km along the beach to the signposted house.

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