Nature journaling: entangling the inner and outer wilds
This workshop invites participants into a rich, reflective practice that weaves nature journaling, creative writing, and meditative art to explore our entangled relationship with the more-than-human world. Moving beyond documentation, this process opens pathways for deep observation, emotional insight, and imaginative storytelling rooted in ecological awareness.
Participants will be guided through a series of mindful, creative steps—beginning with close observation of a natural element, engaging in expressive art-making, and finally, crafting eco-fiction inspired by both scientific insight and sensory experience. We'll explore how mushrooms, trees, or even a simple leaf carry hidden narratives of connection and communication, and how biosemiotics—the study of signs and signals in the natural world—can enrich our language and deepen our empathy.
Through playful and provocative writing prompts we'll consider how limited senses or shifting narrative perspectives can enhance our storytelling. Participants will experiment with writing with nature, not just about it—cultivating an ecocentric perspective that fosters connection, curiosity, and creative emergence. This workshop is for anyone interested in slowing down, tuning in, and transforming personal encounters with nature into compelling and empathetic narratives that honour the wild both within and without.
Ola Kwintowski
she/her
Researcher & Writer
Ola is a researcher and writer based on the Sunshine Coast. Her work draws on a decade of experience as a professional photographer, combined with a deep passion for literature and the outdoors, enriching her ability to weave visual and sensory detail into compelling storytelling.
She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), where her research explores the entangled relationships between humans and the more-than-human world to develop ecocentric narratives that foster empathy, connection, and environmental awareness. A key part of her research and creative practice involves nature journaling—an immersive method that blends observation, sketching, and reflective writing to explore entanglements between inner emotional landscapes and the outer wilderness. This hands-on approach informs both her creative work and academic inquiry, grounding her stories in lived experience and embodied attentiveness to place.
Ola’s work has been published in numerous literary journals—she is passionate about creating stories about the wonder, complexity, and agency of the natural world.