We visited this wonderful exhibition, part of Melbourne’s RISING Festival, on Thursday the 20th of July just before it closed on the 30th of July 2023. It’s described on the RISING program as a new First Peoples exhibition curated by Kimberley Moulton a Yorta Yorta woman from Victoria. The program claimed visitors would: Be immersed in Ancestral systems of knowledge. Traverse time and celestial worlds. Reflect on the shadows of Australia’s history. And indeed we were. It was held in the unrenovated rooms on the top floor of Flinders Street Station.
To quote from the program again, visitors were invited to: Enter a new dimension where time undulates between past and present, and where spirits and creatures of country ask us to listen deeply. It’s appropriate, as we nervously await the outcome of The Voice referendum, to revisit the work of thirty of the most exciting First Peoples artists and collectives from across Australia.
It was hard to photograph, being primarily mixed media installations with soundscapes, animations and videos alongside paintings and sculptures. but I gave it my best shot. All of the exhibits were well explained with a description of the work by the curator and artist statements from those involved in its creation. There were lots of multi artist works; I record the lead artist for each one as identified by the curator. My keyboard doesn’t allow the proper spelling for some names – in particular an ‘n’ with an underscore and an ‘nj’ amalgamation. Quotes below are taken directly from the notes accompanying each work.
This is Rarrirarri, 2023 by The Mulka Project and Mulkun Wirrpanda (NT) Yolnu.
This work enlivens the botanical, animal and spiritual designs of acclaimed Yolngu artist Mrs. Mulkun Wirrpanda who died in 2021. The central object is a gundirr (mound)
Mulkun was a master of bark painting, weaving, and talented carver and printmaker. Her work highlights the many sacred clan designs and the co-existence of animals within Yolnu country. Mulkun’s designs are cross-sectioned upon the gundirr …they reveal the intricate internal structure of the gundirr; their passageways and chambers, as well as the eggs and creatures living symbiotically within them. Through digital animation and sound we follow Mulkun’s milkarri (sorrow songlines). Her botanical designs begin to grow into existence.
As flowers blossom Mulkun’s bonba (butterfly) designs are enticed into the garden. Later njädi (northern meat ants) begin to move and trail out from their homes inside the gundirr. It was bewitching and one could have stayed watching it for ages.
This is Message in My Dreams by Dylan Mooney (TSI/QLD) Yuwi/Meriam/South Sea Islander. This work reflects on Ancestral and Ceration Spirit communication through dreams and the way dreams are interpreted by from a First Peoples worldview. It’s an animated digital work crating a meditative dreamscape that features totem animals. The artist is questioning the meaning of dreams: are they showing we are in the right place, are our Ancestors visiting us and communicating knowledge?
Way of the Ngankari 2015 by Warwick Thornton (NT) Kaytej. In his usual idiosyncratic way Warwick has filmed the powerful and revered Ngangkari healers of his community and connected them with Star Wars Jedi power. He says: In my family we have Jedi, They are not called that; they are called Ngangkari, men and women with special powers that can be used for good or evil. The power to heal and the power to kill. These were animations, constantly moving, very striking.
He says: They are medicine men and women, but on a more spiritual and astral plane. … Each of these animations connects together some of the key motifs of twentieth-century popular culture and Aboriginal culture.
Two of his uncles were Ngangkari – a phenomenon he has re-visited in his latest film, The New Boy (worth a look). He thanks George Lucas for the inspiration.
Another merging of old and new cultures in seen in Rock N Roll 2023 by Tiger Yaltangki (SA) Yankunytja with Jeremy Whiskey (SA) Pitjantjatjara / Yankunytja. These are vintage AC/DC posters that have been painted over.
Tiger loves AC/DC. There was an accompanying soundtrack from renowned guitarist Jeremy. All very bold and loud!
Images of the band members and its iconography are interspersed with Tiger’s representations of mamu (spirit beings). Who he regards as a benevolent presence, bringing an element of mischievous humour to the posters.
Kubumi, 2023 by Maningrida Arts & Culture (NT). The spirit ecologies of Kubumi waterhole are expansive and ebb and flow with the waters of Maningrida. … Kuninjku fibre artists and sisters Anniebell Marrngamarrnga and Dorothy Bunibuni have woven large scale artworks from handpicked fibres that featureNgalkunburriyaymi Yawkyawk (Freshwater Mermaid) and Kumuken (Freshwater Crocodile) and Narwarlah (Brown River stingray) that swim above us.
The installation includes a video of paintings of Mimih spirit figures by Ken Ngindjalakku Djungkidj .Mimih are said to have taught the first humans how to junt and butcher game and also how to dance, sing and paint.
And an immersive waterscape painting of Kubumi by Paul Nabulumo Namarinjmak.
Tiirtjingalpai – practicing care for the spirits of the dead, 2023 by Rene Wanuny Kulitja (NT) Pitjantjatjara. This installation references a cultural practice of lisstening out for spirits of Country particularly in the process of returning a gravesite to a state of safety. A dead tree stands tall in the room, significant as wayward spirits sometimges seek refuge and wait under trees or within hollows.
Rene, filmed in a dry riverbed, narrates to the room, inviting the audience to be attentive to the sounds and changing light
– from sunset, to night, to dawn – and pay attention for birds and spirits. Tjanpi (spinifex grasses), sand and light reflect the desert country surrounding Rene’s home, Mutijulu.
The Umbra, 2023 by Hayley Millar Baker (VIC) Gunditjmara / Djabwurrung was a suspenseful cinematic, ‘film noir’ rendering of a story … [following] two young girls navigating an event of astral travel.
It was really well done, but we did not have time to watch the whole video. Very noir!
Invoke | Inverse 2023 by Julie Gough (TAS) Trawlwoolway was very inventive – well they all were really. Through kinetic sculpture, projected footage and shadow work, [this installation], places the story of Lutruwwita (Tasmania) Aboriginal Ancestors from the 19th century back in Country. It uses a mechanically animated track that moves silhouette figures around the room, intermittently casting their travelling shadows onto a projection of Lutruwita Country. Very hard to photograph. Here you can see the cut out figures and their shadows down below.
The silhouettes represent the 26 remaining Big River and Oyster Bay people still at large in Country at the end of 1831 accompanied by their many dogs. They were joined by other tribal people and walked from the central high country to Hobart to negotiate with the Governor. They were subsequently exiled to Wybalenna Aboriginal settlement on Flinders Island. The terms of any agreement under which they disarmed and boarded the vessel has not been found.
There was a surveillance tower in the room, which gives the feel of a shooting gallery. I’m not sure that was intended but that is how it struck me. Here is a close up of the images. A terrible story, inventively told.
I loved Spirits Of The Land 2023 by Aunty Zeta Thomson (VIC) Wurundjeri / Yorta Yorta. So colourful! Paintings in the room are of images of Ancestor spirits of country called Mookies, creatures called Hairy Beccas that teach children discipline and keep them same, and phenomena called mim min lights which are malevolent illuminations to avoid. Pretty scary.
And this one.
The video being shown was an animation telling the story of country, based both in the past and present it connects the importance of respecting country and river ways and spirits of country, honouring the old people that came before. It was beautiful.
The artist is a descendant of the Yarra Yarra Clan of the Wurundgeri people , a descendant of a leader of the Ulupna Clan of the Yorta Yorta people and also a descendant of the Wamba Wamba and Wiradjuri people.
She says: Mookies are a belief that speak to the spirits of the land and our Ancestors, we are spiritually connected to the land, waters and heavens, that’s where all our stories are.
If children stray from where they should be they will be taken by the hairy beckka … if a Mim Min light shines on you it will take you away, you will vanish and you will be gone.
And because I love these images, here is a last one from the video. Looks like a hairy bekka.
There’s a long story attached to the Torres Strait Island inspired installation Zugubal: The Winds and Tides set the Pace, 2023 by Brian Robinson (TSI/QLD) Maluyligal / Wuthathi. This is a Torres Strait Island celestial story, the star and spirit ecologies of country share thousands of generations of knowledge with you. They guide us through the seasons and give us a deep sense of country and the cosmos. A large scale vinylcut print dominates one wall. Everchanging stars on the ceiling and moving water on the floor.
The artist is celebrating Indigenous astronomy. He says: Because of their seafaring lifestyle, Torres Strait Islanders have always relied on their sophisticated understanding of the stars, the seasons, the weather, the winds and the currents both for navigation and for identifyiing appropriate times to gather, nurture or avoid food plants and animals.
In Islander mythology, celestial beings (star constellations) are known as Zugubal, powerful spirits who influenced the environment and climate which in turn set the course and rhythm for community life.… The best known of the Zugubai is Taigi which can be seen in the southern skies standing in a canoe in the Milky Way. The installation tells the story of why Tagai is in that position – the vinylcut is illustrating that story. And explains the constellations Pleiades (Usal), Orion (Utimal) and Baidam the great shark constellation which also includes stars from other western constellations. The light show concludes with a full astronomical map.
This is Mok Mok Murrup Yakuwa, 2021 by Paola Balla (VIC) Wemba Wemba / Gunditjmara. An immersive film installation referencing the Wemba Wemba story of Mok Mok – a devil woman and sovereign goddess.
According to the artist: Mok Mok Murrup Yakuwa is a version of reality that lives across life, dreaming and death. A film was played behind bush-dyed fabrics.
Beautiful but impossible to convey in photographs. Recognise the silhouette?
This is Deeply Rooted, 2023 by Karla Dickens looks at ecofeminism and matriarchal protection of the ‘traumascapes of country … the faces embedded in the roots bear witness to the destruction and pillaging of the land and they are representative of those with the knowledge and responsibilites to protect her.
The artist says: The traveller cruises up the highway deep in music, thought, and smells of leafless decay … Be still, hold and greet the old ones crude knots embedded in the fingers of limbs lanky branches hover and and around you …
The road creeps on with reminders of widow-makers deeply rooted spirits anchored to this journey fuelling a power, growing deeper in invisibility impatiently waiting to be seen, hear, and felt …
PEERT KOOROOK – Guardian of Womens Country, 2023 by Vicki Couzens (VIC) Keeray Wooroong / Gunditjmara. The Ancient story of Peert Koorook and her companion the Karroy (Southern Brown Bandicoot) not only evokes spirit of country, it is also a lesson. The sculpture of Karroy is enlarged and the Peert Koorok story is projected onto its body, highlighting the relational link to animal kin, law and living with country.
Peert Koorrook guards Womens Country in the shape of a woman with her companion the bandicoot. If the bandicoot is killed and eaten by the people, they will have bad luck and Peert Koorrook will haunt them every night.
High Country 2023 by John Prince Siddons (WA) Walmajarri, is centred on the connection between animal guides and the effect of disastrous Australian weather events on community and country, such as the catastrophic floods in Fitzroy Crossing. It includes two terrific paintings on canvas, this one depicting floods. The insects and all the animals, all the babies they won’t have time to make a safe place when that flood come and destroy everything.
And this one depicting fire; the artist says: Barranah – hot season, when fire start even through wet season, from lighting One little fire can destroy everything.
It also included neon designs that reference cultural motif. The artist says: This has been my dreas to incorporate flowers and neon lights.
And a wall covered with painted Kangaroo skins. The weaving of his cosmology and kitsch tropes of Australia are significant to Prince’s practice.
An installation of fake flowers with neon spirit guides on either side. The artist says: This is the flower pattern. Art pattern from flower just to remind me what flood and fire do to our land.
watershadow, 2019Judy Watson (QLD) Waanyi . This was an installation of flowing hand painted fabrics that were very beautiful.
But with a painful message, referencing the names of some of the people who were listed in the ‘Deaths in Custody’ report. In dialogue with them are representations of what Judy calls ‘heart strings’, an organic form which represents the string of her Ancestors.
Heartstrings were often made with hair and plant fibre but are also symbolic of rope and hanging, referencing the violence of deaths in custody. The installation includes an actual three-dimensional heartstring; rendered in twisted steel it moves slowly in the space, casting its presence through shadow into the room. It was very effective – eery. All the while one is viewing this, you hear the flow of water under Elizabeth and Flinders Streets connecting the built environment to Wurundjeri country of Healesville and the Birrarung Marr. We are asked to reflect on what has been made to disappear.
And here’s a picture of the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders Streets taken from inside the exhibition on what was a dreary, cold and wet day.
You can read more about the exhibition, including about the artists and some of the stories I have referred to on this website.
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