Hobart launch: writer Helen Cushing on how to contribute to Kuno

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Storytelling has always been for me a way of helping people learn about Nature, and perhaps even learn to love Nature, says writer and journalist Helen Cushing. To me, Kuno is a bit like a digital campfire that we can come to and tell our stories, inspire each other, connect and importantly re-connect with Nature.

When I was an aspiring penniless novelist in the last century, the last millennium, I ended up writing a couple of romance novels for teenagers and they were based in the Natural environment.

Helen Cushing spoke at the Hobart launch

One of them was set on the Overland track, a beautiful five-day walk in Tasmania's Highlands, and there was a young girl who didn't want to be there. She hated bushwalking and then she was dismayed to discover that her ex-boyfriend was in the group. And then she fell in love with the tour guide. As the plot developed, this young woman Naomi grew up and learned to be in Nature and learned a bit more about herself.

Another book I wrote was called Love & the Greenhouse Effect, and that was way back in 1992 when we called global warming the greenhouse effect. And this young heroine Jessica had no time for romance, because she was too busy saving the world... until she met a very handsome Norwegian exchange student.

Dan Broun CMLSC12 — Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. Image: Dan Broun

So storytelling has always been for me a way of helping people learn about Nature, and perhaps learn to love Nature. And that's what I really appreciate about Kuno.

Earlier this year, Phill Pullinger asked me if I would like to be a contributor and I jumped at the opportunity. I visited New Zealand this year to catch up with family, and in the process reconnected with some places in New Zealand that I ended up writing about for Kuno.

This meant that I was connecting people and places, stories, cousins and trees, conservation and rewilding and Kuno gave me an outlet to bring together these stories with the Natural environment.

Mears Track sign Helen Cushing — Visiting Mears Track, New Zealand. Image: supplied

I believe that Kuno offers a really great platform for writers and photographers to do just this, to inspire people with storytelling.

We've always told stories around the campfire and, to me, Kuno is a bit like a digital campfire that we can come to and tell our stories, inspire each other, connect and importantly re-connect with Nature and with Mother Earth.

So thank you very much to Phill and the founders of Kuno because I know how hard you've worked to reach this point.

Helen Cushing

Freerange Journalist

Helen is a freelance writer and yoga teacher living in Tasmania who writes extensively on plants...

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