Augustine Miller is a fictional story, written in response to a site specific installation project in 2006. It is a performative arts installation telling the story through object, place and oral narrative.

The site this narrative takes place is on the campus grounds of Southern Cross University Friends of the Koala Centre, a small area forested with tall grey gums by the lake.

This work is a written, performed and set installed by Emma Fayelecaun.

I wrapped seventeen tall gums in white cloth and tied them with string.

A teaset, a table and chairs, a sewing machine, cello, knives, forks, spoons and plates were also wrapped in white cloth. The set also includes handmade books that hang from the tree branches containing drawings by the characters Augustine and her mother Mary.

I embody the character of Augustine as I perform, the narrative is told in the third person, this is the story of Augustine Miller.

A young girl once lived here, her name was Augustine Miller.

Augustine lived with her parents Gerald and Mary, they were both kind hearted people, with light and generous spirits.

Gerald Miller was once the mayor of the nearby town but he ceased to agree with the choices the people made for themselves and for their children so Gerald gave his position away and moved with Mary and Augustine to a small village that sat beyond the valley, at the confluence of the mighty Deep River and the sweet treelined Appleseed Tributary.

Gerald bought the regions oldest working apple orchard and turned his mind to the earth.

Mary Miller was the finest seamstress in the town and the people of the village knew this, they were overjoyed with the news of her being nearby and found garments that needing repair and alteration regularly, bringing her jobs and ideas as an attempt to connect.

People would come from the neighbouring villages to have dresses made for special occasions and the wealthy townspeople who lived on the hill would visit also with ideas and requests for garments they would like specially made.

Folk usually rode a long way to visit the seamstress Mary Miller, and so they were usually parched and famished upon their arrival. Augustine would help by preparing apple cakes and tea to serve to their guests.

After 15 years of being the only child Augustines was pleased to learn that in two seasons her mother was to have a baby.

This winter was warmer than the last, Augustine and her mother often walked together down to the water in the afternoons. There they would fill baskets with lavender and laugh of things that were not spoke of at home.

On this day Augustine had traveled to the town to deliver three dresses to the townspeople, her father was working on installing a new window in the house and Mary had gone walking by the lake.

The air was fine and clear, Mary slipped into the cool waters to bathe, she swam out into the tea coloured pool and floated on her back. Her body felt light in the water and she smiled at her sparkling wet belly bulging in the soft pink sunlight, she felt happier now than she remembered feeling before.

Marys baby began moving inside her, they shared a moment as they recognised one another as sharing a body and an experience that was only theirs. Mary spoke gentle words to the unborn soul, admitting her anticipation to introduce herself.

As the sun fell away Mary began to feel strange, she became uncomfortable and so she waded to the edge of the lake.

The time was not yet right but the hour arrived soon and Mary Miller gave birth to a baby boy. She breathed many breaths, her last one so heavy with uncertainty that it sent the lorikeets up from the Grevilleas and over to the orchard. Mary raised the boy up from the waters edge and kissed his head. She lay him on her chest, closed her eyes and bled and bled into the cool water as it lapped at her thighs. The baby boy cried, he cried for a long time but he soon grew so tired and cold, that he stopped crying, then they both were still.

At sundown Gerald Miller went to the lake and found his wife and son.

After some time Augustine arrived home and on the news of her loss she was broken with disbelief and sadness.

Her father carried her back to the house and put her to bed where she slept for two turns of the earth.

Gerald Miller gathered his wife’s belongings from the house and he took them outside. He stood and looked these things for a long time, he smoked a cigarette and wondered what they were about?

Over the time Mary Miller had collected lots of beautiful things, some that were familiar, some that he remembered and some that he had never seen before.

After the sun had sunk behind the tallest hill, leaving it’s burnt orange flavor in the sky Gerald started work, he picked up Marys dressmaking table and with it  walked down to the lake. Augustine slept.

He soon returned and took Marys tea set, the one that she would serve her guests with when they came to discuss the garments they desired her to create for them.

Augustine woke.

Gerald collected the rest of Marys things and took them down to the lake.

Augustine followed.

Without hesitation he returned to the house and then to the lake many times that evening.

A blistering white moon bulged in the deep sky lighting his way, the woods and the lake whispered prayers in his path.

Augustine stood for a while and let the cool winds comfort her, they spoke no words as she watched her father smoothly moving like water through time.

Eventually he had completed his arrangement of Marys possessions down by the lake, everything was there, wrapped, softened, silent and white.

Augustine lay on the grass and watched him as he began to wrap her teaset in a length of white cloth, she looked on and beyond at the yards of clean white cloth, she closed her eyes seeing only cloth for miles behind her eyes.

A delightfully warm sun spread light over the lake and warmed Augustine lying on the cool earth.

Her father poured her some sweet tea from a wrapped teapot, into a wrapped teacup.

She didn’t ask why, they simply shared tea and warmth.

Eventually Gerald spoke to Augustine, he requested that she not come back to this place again, his words made her unhappy. Augustine thought before deciding she was to disobey her father, she went back to the to the place.

There she could hear the sound of her mothers sigh in the song of the birds and this made her feel glad.

She sat for a day and a night at the cool waters edge with her toes she drew her own outline in the water, the trees behind her stood tall an strong like ancient warriors that never stopped growing, she felt safe. She thought a little about her mother but that made her hurt. She thought a lot about her little brother, who he was and what he would have been like. Imagining he was there with her she visualised the young boy, she reached out and felt the warmth of his pink cheek and they shared a moment of certainty. She spoke to him about plants and animals and he watched her and listened to his sisters soft voice.

She told him that she loved him and he told her that he loved her back.

Augustine returned to her fathers house but he was not there, he was no where to be found.She waited for him but he did not come. Eventually she returned to the lake to be near her brother and her mother.

Augustine poured tea as she conjured her family in her heart and her mind.

She spoke again to her brother and then every day after that. He soon became her dearest friend, she told him all of her secrets and he told her about his existence without life.

Sometimes he revealed a message to Augustine from their mother, who would tell of her contentment and thankfulness for what a wonderful family she had had.

After many phases of the moon had passed Augustines brother summoned her to the waters edge, he told her that their mother had requested that Augustine unwrapped her dressmakers tools and use them to create something everyday for the people of the villages, she shared many wonderful secrets that day and made Augustine laugh out loud.

Few folk saw Augustine anymore, and many wondered if she was still there, she had become self sufficient and she needed less and less as she found more and more in the simple delights of the woods.

Augustine was known as The Seamstress of the Lake, and that her every stitch was laced with truth and what could only otherwise be described as magic. For years she lived alone in the woods and made dresses, at night she lit a fire and continued to work by moonlight making the most beautiful garments you ever saw.

She made dresses, many incredibly beautiful dresses and she would hang them in the branches of the trees on the outskirts of the village. On the turn of each new moon Augustine would present her new work. At dawn white dresses were seen breathing in the sunrise. The village people were free to take what they needed. In return they left their old blankets and garments that were no longer useful to them. In the night their offerings would disappear only to return in 30 days as finery. Old cloth was renewed with a sense of care and curiosity, each piece unique in its style and perfect patient in its craftsmanship.

The river soon was renamed Cloth Tree River

FIN