Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world….*

Australia and its architecture tends to transplant ideas of place, form & seasonality from afar; privileging a Western world view rather than perceiving what is really here. This tactic forms a concerted project to learn by collecting hundreds of minute long video and sound recordings.

They capture movement & sound; light interacting with landscape; the glittering of a spider’s web in the sun; the play of the breeze over drifts of native grass. They become an archive, reflecting seasonal temporality and embedded knowledge systems. They seek to record what actually occurs here across the year; to understand local micro-ecologies; to preserve a memory of what Here is, before it likely sustains radical change as the planet warms.

The video pieces act as a tangible provocation – where exactly are you standing, gazing, all senses alive, for this minute? Whose traditional lands are you standing on? What names were it known by? What knowledge is embedded in this landscape? What were its seasonal, cyclical, interconnected constructs? Each piece locates spatial coordinates; time & date stamps - Cartesian markers acting as portals to alternate perspectives.

Each piece demands questions that start to articulate both a pre-settler experience as well as the consequences of colonisation on First Peoples. The simple act of researching an original place name reveals truth telling & deeper knowledge of this place. 

Special thanks to the endlessly generous Adam Magennis
@kaptify_art www.kaptify.com.au
Lloyd MST, Graphic Design
https://lloyd-mst.com/

*Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2013.

References:
Birch, T 2005 Death is forgotten in victory: colonial landscapes and narratives of emptiness; in J. Lydon & T. Ireland (Eds.), Object lessons: archaeology and heritage in Australia (pp. 186-200). Melbourne, Vic. Australian Scholarly Publishing.
https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/items/c3089f09-4698-5fcc-854d-191434a2b342

Briggs NC AM & Rees SL ongoing, Gathering Space: Ngargee Djeembana, exhibited as part of Who’s Afraid of Public Space ACCA 2022; and Melbourne Now, NGV 2023
https://acca.melbourne/whos-afraid-of-public-space/onsite/gathering-space-ngargee-djeembana/

Fels, MH 2011, ‘I Succeeded Once’:The Aboriginal Protectorate on the Mornington Peninsula, 1839–1840, ANU E Press and Aboriginal History Incorporated Aboriginal History Monograph 22.
https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/aboriginal-history/i-succeeded-once

Hromek, D 2020, Aboriginal Cultural Values: An Approach for Engaging with Country, Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, NSW. https://djinjama.com/engaging-with-country/

Harwood, T 2023, Climate Aware Creative Practices (CACP) Network 2023 CACP Keynote Lecture, Monash University.
https://www.monash.edu/muma/public-programs/recordings/2023/audio-climate-aware-creative-practiceskeynote-lecture

Kwaymullina, A 2022. Living on Stolen Land, Magabala Books, Broome, Western Australia.
https://www.magabala.com/products/living-on-stolen-land

Land, C 2015, Decolonizing Solidarity: Dilemmas and Directions for Supporters of Indigenous Struggles, Zed Books. https://decolonizingsolidarity.org/

Macfarlane, I 2002, Aboriginal Society in North West Tasmania: Dispossession and Genocide, University of Tasmania. https://eprints.utas.edu.au/220/

Neale M & Kelly L 2020, Songlines - The Power and the Promise, Thames & Hudson Australia.
https://thamesandhudson.com.au/the-first-knowledges-series/

Plomley NJB, Tasmanian Aboriginal Place Names, Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Tasmania.
https://docslib.org/doc/7817350/tasmanian-aboriginal-place-names

Various, 1996, The AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).
https://shop.aiatsis.gov.au/collections/frontpage/products/the-aiatsis-map

Various, 2023, Map of Formally Recognised Traditional Owners, State Government Victoria First Peoples - State Relations. https://achris.vic.gov.au/weave/wca.html

Various, accessed 2023, Tasmanian Aboriginal Place Names, Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre.
http://tacinc.com.au/tasmanian-aboriginal-place-names/

Various, 2020, This Place - the Story Behind Aboriginal and Torres Strait Place Names, ABC Indigenous.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmWe-V9tacwEPDUHggQgzE8YPRMaInQyA