EXTRA! EXTRA! 2019

Studio at Extra! Extra!, 2019, Kaldor Public Art Projects, 50th Anniversary at Art Gallery NSW, https://www.extra-extra.press/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/20191108_150116-1200×675.jpg.

The studio at the Art Gallery of NSW with EXTRA!EXTRA! – a weekly newspaper which responds critically and playfully to Making Art Public, 9 Nov – 15 Dec, 2019. Each week, editor-in-chief Lucas Ihlein and special correspondent Ian Milliss were joined by special guest writers and artists, who worked with the Rizzeria team to print the newspaper in situ, EXTRA! EXTRA! -https://www.extra-extra.press/.

Some of the EXTRA! EXTRA!, team at the Art Gallery NSW, 2019, https://www.extra-extra.press/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/20191105_150209-1200×675.jpg.

The opportunity to be part of this project in 2019, was both exciting and terrifying. I had a very limited understanding of what I had agreed to do and had not even learned to catch the train alone from Wollongong to Sydney yet! I was going to give it my best shot and my Lecturer Lucas Ihlein, that had I nicknamed The Kat in the Hat, assured me everything would be fine. You can read all the great contributions and editions of EXTRA! EXTRA! at: https://www.extra-extra.press/.

Now, ordinarily this post would be about what I had learned through EXTRA! EXTRA! and some recording or interpretation of events or articles, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, during the Kaldor Public Art Projects, 50th Anniversary of The Wrapped Coast (1969). There might even have been some analysis of the legacy The Wrapped Coast and Kaldor Public Art Projects have contributed to conceptual art in Australia. However, time has past and it seems more important in 2023, to recall the lesson I carry most from EXTRA! EXTRA!, while watching and learning from established, journalists such as Wendy Bacon, Chris Nash and Ian Milliss – have the courage of your convictions, speak, write or make about them because critical reflection is always necessary.

So, off I went and it was during this project, I first met the Two Wrapped Trees (1969) by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. I already knew I had a critical mind and being Aboriginal has a lot to do with it but I was afraid of causing offence. However, I was more compelled to write about the Two Wrapped Trees, so I did.

Image: Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Two wrapped trees 1969 (detail), two Eucalyptus trees, polyethylene, tarpaulin, rope, Gift of the John Kaldor Family Collection 2011. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, © Christo Art Gallery NSW collection, https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/media/collection_images/2/250.2011.a-b%23detail01%23S.jpg.

Here’s a some of what I wrote back then: … the first work that calls my attention is, The Wrapped Trees (1969) by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Amid the chatter and giggling of school children, a long white box has been laid on the floor… it looks like a coffin without a lid. Inside the coffin-box, silent and still, are two trees, roots and branches wrapped and bound tight. This is land-art… the land has been brought from outside, wrapped and bound and brought inside. … I’m sure there’s a back story and a framework through which we are meant to view these trees. But  I’m sorry folks, I’m not feeling it. 

I am however, feeling very, very uncomfortable about these trees, wrapped and bound, brought from outside to inside, laid down in a long white box, like a coffin without a lid. I’m wondering was this feeling, this the artists’ intention? I want to know, were they alive when they were wrapped and bound, top and bottom? Were they pulled out of the earth by their roots for wrapping and binding? Did this artistic wrapping and binding suffocate and kill them?…  EXTRA! EXTRA!, Edition #2, 19.11.2019, https://www.extra-extra.press/edition-2/, https://www.extra-extra.press/2019/11/19/trees-in-coffins/.

To sign off, I’ll leave you with this – We know that the future often comes back to judge and critique the past and hindsight is 20/20… I guess, it’s what we do and how we manage that critique, that determines whether we’re just judging from the privileged position of the present or whether we can combine our lessons learned and make actions today, for a future we might to be proud of…

Thanx for dropping by,

Juundaal & The Trees

LIVE DREAMS: CLOISTERED

Curated by Alex Wisser, 2022, LIVE DREAMS at the Performance Space was an amazing opportunity for emerging and experimental works! I took the opportunity to give voice to Sister Everywhen in a performance called, Bound. So much gratitude to Alex and the LIVE DREAMS program for this opportunity!

Bound with Sister Everywhen, in is an attempt to personify, a deepest moment of consciousness and acceptance, inside Sister GlitterNullius as she realizes the full implications of human exploitation and destruction of nature, from the microbes, to fungus, insects, fish, bird, to mammal, freshwater, bitterwater to salt. In this moment, innocent, devastated and grieving she uses the last of her humanity, to articulate a last plea for nature, made in both Bundjalung and English languages.

Sister Everywhen, 2022, Photograph: Alex Wisser, taken on Dabee Wiradjuri Country.

Juundaal… X

Plastic-free Kandos, 2022!

Plastic-free Kandos, 2022, promotional flyer.

Social engagement work, Plastic-free Biennale (2020) in NIRIN, Biennale of Sydney, has been reactivated after the impact of covid-19 and reconfigured to present Plastic-free Kandos, at the WAYOUT ArtSpace, 2022! I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Lucas Ihlein & Kim Williams again and have Sydney based Artist, Rox De Luca, join the adventure to tour the project to the Kandos community! Plastic-free Kandos presents an immersive and colourful exhibition of multi-sensory elements as we continue to address the everyday problem of plastic waste!

Image: One of the sculptural pieces by Rox De Luca, in Plastic-free Kandos, 2022, Image: Rox De Luca.

WAYOUT ArtSpace visitors can wander through an exhibition that engages with plastics, from the domestic to the global. Assemblages and sculptures, prints, photos, videos and live performances tackle our sticky relationship with this useful but monstrous family of materials. The Plastic-free Kandos exhibition spotlights Rox De Luca’s beautiful and ominous sculptural works constructed from plastic-waste, that she gleans from the East Sydney coastline. The exhibition also features installation works by Kim Williams and Lucas Ihlein, from Plastic-free Biennale, 2020. The project elements, all grappling with the plastic-waste problem; the Plastic-free Song performed by the Plastic-free Highlighters, video rap by MC McNanarchy, video, and sculptural installation by yours truly.

Image: Aunty Di Pirotta and her grandchildren in Rox De Luca’s workshop and creating with Sister GlitterNullius in WAYOUT ArtSpace, 2022, Image: Rox De Luca.

With community engagement workshops lead by Rox De Luca, opportunities to talk with the artists, bell-ringing blessings and damnations, up and down the main street of Kandos, joining the young ones in the workshops and prayerful interventions on opening night by the unapologetic Sister GlitterNullius!

Image: The Kandos Ukulele Group performed a fabulous rendition of the Plastic-free Song on Opening Night! Image: Rox De Luca, 2022.

Uncle Peter Swain Welcomed the project and visitors onto Dabee Land and the Plastic-free Kandos, Acknowledgement to Country was read by Rox De Luca. The Kandos Ukulele Group performed a fabulous rendition of the Plastic-free Song and the then Minister for the Arts, Benjamin Franklin, opened the exhibition to a crowd of artists and the Kandos community!

The Honourable Minister for the Arts, Benjamin Franklin, kneels before Sister GlitterNullius at the Opening of Plastic-free Kandos, WAYOUT ArtSpace, Kandos NSW, Image: June Golland, 2022.

With community engagement workshops lead by Rox De Luca, opportunities to talk with the artists, bell-ringing blessings and damnations, up and down the main street of Kandos, joining the young ones in the workshops and prayerful interventions on opening night by the unapologetic Sister GlitterNullius!

Image: Community members sculptural artworks made from plastic-waste, in workshops lead by Rox De Luca at the WAYOUT ArtSpace, Kandos NSW, June 2022. Image: Rox De Luca.

Plastic-free Kandos: a group project, stemming from Kim Williams & Lucas Ihlein’s Plastic-free Biennale (2020) in NIRIN, the Sydney Biennale. It brought a group project from the city to the regional town of Kandos in NSW. It was an amazing opportunity to share with the local community, an exhibition of installations, social engagement workshops, performance and artist talks.

A snippet caught by June Golland, opening night Plastic-free Kandos, 2022, Sister GlitterNullius overindulging in that she hates to love best! X

There are many people to thank for getting this amazing project together – everyone who helped us install the works and promotional material, the Kandos community, Uncle Peter Swain, Aunty Di Pirotta; Videographer, Justin Hewitson, Songlark Cafe, Kandos High School, WAYOUT ArtSpace, Cementa Inc, CreateNSW, Arts Council Australia and Fortitude Illawarra who provided my NDIS Support Services to be part of this project.

Plastic-free Kandos, group project, 2022, CreateNSW, Acquittal Video, Videographer: Justin Hewitson.

Thanx for dropping by!

Your Friend, In & Out of Plastix,

Sister GlitterNullius X

Urgently arting, a savage world civil…

Image: The Wrapped Coast, One Million Square Feet, Little Bay, Sydney, Australia (1969), Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Image: Art Gallery NSW: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/, accessed: 09.10.2022.

BCM 111 Global Media & Culture Assignment 2: Annotated Bibliography. Grade: 85/100.

Title: Urgently Arting a Savage World, Civil.

The Question: Discuss four key elements to building the rudimentary foundations of a major art project, to repatriate two eucalyptus trees from the Art Gallery of New South Wales to Country.

Introduction: New Articulation of an Old Idea

The purpose of this report is to build the foundations of a complex, collaborative, multidisciplinary, repatriation art project, for my performative character, Sister GlitterNullius. It also aims to provide evidence of traditional Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies within networked activism, and decolonised audience proximity, for engaging with Indigenous creative-cultural production. In part my repatriation project will investigate and interrogate complexities for arguing that natural objects are spirit-kin and part of Indigenous cultural ontologies. Therefore the two trees, archived within the Art Gallery of New South Wales collection, should be returned to Country. Specifically, I am developing a proposal to John Kaldor’s Public Art Projects program that two eucalyptus trees cut down and wrapped by artists, Christo (b.1935 – d.2020, Bulgaria) and Jeanne Claude (b.1935 – d. 2009, Morocco), in The Wrapped Coast (1969) need to be repatriated to Country, as an act of decolonised retro-accountability (Bacon, 2019; Strang-Yettica, 2019).

This annotated bibliography will report on activism longevity and social media activism. It will also exemplify audience activation for engaging with Indigenous creative-cultural expressions, through a decolonised lens. The selection of readings will expand upon themes of proximity for developing, audience proximity to Indigenous ontologies, epistemologies and nature. To support these concepts, this report will outline one approach for understanding nature as spirit-kin within Indigeneity.

Centering Nature as Spirit-Kin in the Anthropocene: Todd, Zoe, 2015 Indigenising the Anthropocene, Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters among aesthetics, politics, environments & epistemologies, ch.7, p.241-255, Open Humanities Press.

In this chapter, Zoe Todd (2015) attests that the globalised world provides networked platforms by which Indigenous people align with other First Nations cultures in challenging western notions of the human-to-nature relationship. Internet platforms such as social media, deliver Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies addressing the environmental urgency of the Anthropocene. To this end, Todd explains that, western ideological and epistemological divisions between humans and nature need to be dismantled. Furthermore, Indigenous knowledge that the land is alive with types of consciousness, must be included within our understanding of environmental urgency. This agency and consciousness in nature gives rise to acknowledging that nature therefore, also has spirit. Todd determines that, in this recognition we are obligated to understand that humans are spirit-kin with nature. Therefore it is our responsibility to align ourselves equally with the environment and provide advocacy and protection to our non-human kin. This chapter calls for Indigenising the Anthropocene and recontextualising nature to the centre of our fight against environmental demise.

Engaging with Indigenous Cultural Artistic Expression: Audience Activation to Decolonised Proximity: Schultz, Tristan B, 2013, Encountering Aboriginal Cultural Expressions: Peace, Proximity, Obligation & Responsibility, Centre for Tourism, Leisure & Work, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW,  academia.edu, accessed: 06.10.2022.

This paper obligates the audience to activate itself within proximity to Indigenous cultural ontologies and epistemologies when engaging with Indigenous cultural-creative production. It is important to approach creative work with an understanding that more complex sets of logic are present, other than western linear ways of knowing and being. In discussing this extended idea of proximity, this paper outlines the need for the audience to undertake its responsibility to educate and decolonise the lens through which they receive Indigenous creative-cultural expressions. At the risk of encountering a neo-colonial gaze, the authors advance a number of strategies for an active audience to “delink” (p.21) from the colonised frameworks of binary, oppositional definitions when engaging with Indigenous cultural expressions.

The authors argue that Indigenous cultural production, as a mediated space within contemporary culture, requires the audience to move toward a decolonised socio-political culture of proximity. Then the signification is received from the re-coded signs revealed within Indigenous creative-cultural expressions. One example of this proximity, is not a cultural proximity of sameness identification but of engaging and being for the Other. This one example allows for diversity when underpinned by an active audience approach of self-responsibility and equality when engaging with Indigenous cultural expressions.

Image: The Wrapped Coast, One Million Square Feet, Little Bay, Sydney, Australia (1969), Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Image: Art Gallery NSW: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/, accessed: 09.10.2022.

Social Media Meets Yarning Circle Culture: Carlson, Bronwyn & Frazer, Ryan, 2018, Yarning Circles & Social media Activism, Media International Australia, Vol.169(1), p.43-53, Sage Publications, DOI:10.1177/1329878X18803762, accessed: 09.10.2022.

This article reflects upon Indigenous cultural practice of yarning and yarning circles, within the social media activism context. It reports that traditional and contemporary yarning circles serve multiple socio-cultural purposes. Yarning circles encompass oral storytelling, collective democracy, learning and problem solving with equal care. The paper explains that yarning circles ground culture and kinship ties through meeting and oral communication, simultaneously underpinning education, care, obligation and cultural practice into everyday life.

The paper outlines that yarning circles function similarly in social media activism as it does in physical environments. The authors reflect upon the role of yarning circles in activism and the online community of activist movements through the 2015 symposium Reterritorialising Social Media: Indigenous People Rise Up. They assert that yarning circles exist in social media activism and various Indigenous cultures around the world, forming  part of global Indigeneity and serving similar care and solidarity functions. The authors claim that, the practice of yarning and yarning circles online, provide a decolonised arena for political collectivity, supporting cultural, activist and ally proximity around the world. The essay states that online yarning has become an important aspect of Indigenous online creative, cultural and socio-political communications. That it contributes to the resilience of local and global activist communities, while concurrently inserting traditional practices into the networked world, an ancient mediated space operating within modern environments.

Creating Sustainability in Activism: Cineas, Fabiola, 2020, The protests feel different because they’re shifting public opinion: To sustain the current anti-racism movement, look to the past, says Professor Megan Ming Francis, blog entry, Vox Media.

This blog contribution is an interview with Professor of Political Science, Megan Ming Francis discussing elements for long term, successful activist movements. It focuses on the question, how Black Lives Matter activists can protract the velocity of the movement and encourage people to examine entrenched systemic racism. Professor Francis outlines five pivotal factors that include, public education, recognition for the mechanisms of protest, how they shift public opinion and protest beyond the streets. Also listed are the need for change within political and legal institutions as well as, developing means for maintaining protest movements. Various strategies for the sustainability of the Black Lives Matter movement, in conjunction with street protests, are drawn from strategies deployed by previous movements. Professor Francis indicates that applications such as petitions and securing court decisions, not only complement protest in shifting public opinion but infiltrate institutions embedded with systemic racism. Professor Francis also highlights another key element in protecting Black Lives Matter longevity, and that is the global, intergenerational and cross-racial alliances between its members.

Image: The Wrapped Coast, One Million Square Feet, Little Bay, Sydney, Australia (1969), Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Image: Art Gallery NSW: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/, accessed: 09.10.2022.

Assessment: Spirit-kin Advocacy is Key:

Cineas (2020)  furnishes my project with strategies for shifting public opinion and achieving its longevity through education, formal processes such as court systems and building alliances across audiences, generations, cultures and disciplines. The Carlson and Frazer (2018) reading demonstrates the effective transfer and practice of yarning and yarning circles, as ancient cultural ontologies and epistemologies activated within social media activism. While Schultz (2013) comprehensively offers numerous points of entry for decolonising the audience lens and engagement with Indigenous cultural expression. The paper calls for audiences to proactively and responsibly engage with Indigenous cultural and creative expression by locating themselves within proximity of Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies as equal allies. While Zoe Todd’s chapter (2015) Indigenising the Anthropocene, describes and explains Indigenous concepts pertaining to non-human agency, spirit and kinship rights to priority advocacy and protection from and by humans. Todd (2015) articulates these principles and beliefs that are very similar to those taught to me and that motivate my undertaking a large-scale, complex, repatriation art project.

As building blocks for this repatriation project, each of these readings clearly evidence significant, active elements of Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies within the global networked world. They invite and situate allies and audiences to reposition their experiences within proximity to a more proactive and complex engagement with Indigenous cultural practices, creative expression and activism. All the essays call for decolonising institutions and ideologies that prioritise some kin above others. They all call for action against oppression, injustice and the urgent need for collaborative advocacy, protection and equality for less powerful kin. Similarly, each reading illuminates the importance of trustworthy, responsible relationships across species, cultural, geographical, political and internet borders (Carlson & Frazer, 2018; Cineas, 2020; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015).

In relation to the trees, archived within the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ collection, it seems logical and necessary that my art project is activated within various relational and networked environments. Equally importantly, this repatriation art project must be responsibly culturally and collaboratively informed; decolonisation, activism and advocacy simultaneously. In closing, these readings will inform the principles for my repatriation project, to return two trees out of a gallery to Country.  (Carlson & Frazer, 2018; Cineas, 2020; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015).

Reference List:

Bacon, Wendy, 2020, Telling the wrapped Coast Story, blog article, https://www.wendybacon.com/2020/telling-the-wrapped-coast-story, Extra! Extra!, Making Art Public, 50th Anniversary of Kaldor Art Projects, Art Gallery New South Wales, http://www.extra-extra.press/2019/11/26/telling-the-wrapped-coast-story/#more-489, accessed: 22.09.2022.

Carlson, Bronwyn & Frazer, Ryan, 2018, Yarning Circles & Social media Activism, Media International Australia, Vol.169(1), p.43-53, Sage Publications, DOI:10.1177/1329878X18803762, accessed: 09.10.2022.

Cineas, Fabiola, 2020, The protests feel different because they’re shifting public opinion: To sustain the current anti-racism movement, look to the past, says Professor Megan Ming Francis, blog entry, Vox Media, https://www.vox.com/2020/6/26/21301066/public-opinion-shift-black-lives-matter, accessed: 06.10.2022.

Schultz, Tristan B & Des, 2013, Encountering Aboriginal Cultural Expressions: Peace, Proximity, Obligation & Responsibility, Centre for Tourism, Leisure & Work, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW,  academia.edu, accessed: 06.10.2022.

Strang-Yettica, Juundaal, 2019, Trees in coffins, Extra! Extra!, Making Art Public, 50th Anniversary of Kaldor Art Projects, Art Gallery New South Wales, http://www.extra-extra.press/2019/11/19/trees-in-coffins/, accessed: 09/10/2022.

Todd, Zoe, 2015, Indigenizing the Anthropocene, Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments & Epistemologies, Ch.7, p.241-254, Davis, Heather; Turpin, Etienne (eds.), Open Humanities Press, London, United Kingdom.

Bibliography:

Banaji, S & Moreno-Almeida, C, 2020, Politising Participatory Culture at the Margins: The Significance of Class, Gender & ONline Media for the Practices of Youth Networks in the MENA region, Global Media & Communications, Vol.17(1), p.121-142, DOI: 10.1177/1742766520982029, access: 09.10.2022.

Braidotti, R, 2006, Posthuman, All Too Human: Towards a New Process Ontology, Theory, Culture & Society, Vol.23(7-8), p.197-208, DOI:10.1177/0263276406069232, accessed: 05.10.2022.

Davis, Heather & Turpin, Etienne, 2015, Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments & Epistemologies, Creative Commons, Open Universities Press, London.

Gilbert, Helen; Phillipson JD & Raheja, Michelle, (eds.), 2017, In the Balance: Indigeneity Performance & Globalisation, Liverpool University Press, United Kingdom, accessed: 05.10.2022.

Haraway, Donna, 2018, Staying with the Trouble for Multispecies Environmental Justice, Dialogues in Human Geography, Vol.8(1), p.102-105, Sage Publications, UK.

hooks, bell, Black Looks: race & representation, 1992 & 2015, South End Press, Boston, US.

Ksiazek, T & Webster, JG, 2008, Cultural proximity & Audience Behaviour: The Role of Language in Patterns of Polarisation & Multicultural Fluency, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Vol.52, No.3, p.485-503, DOI: 10.1080/08838150802205876.

Kindsfather E, 2020, From Activism to Artistic Practice: (Re) Imagining Indigenous women’s Labour: Activism in Contemporary Art, Graduate Student Conference, Essay Award, RACAR, Vol. 47:1, p.58-71, https://doi.org/10.7202/1091821ar, accessed: 12.09.2022, 05.10.2022.

Phipps, P, 2009, Globalisation, Indigeneity & Performing Culture, Local-Global: Identity, Security, Community, Vol.6, p.28-48, DOI: 10.3316/informit.107108986596288, accessed: 06.10.2022.

Moreton-Robinson, Aileen (ed.), 2004, Whitening Race: Essays in social and cultural criticism, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, Australia.

Wilson S, 2008, Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods, Fernwood Publishing, Nova Scotia.

End

Sister GlitterNullius: Empathy. X

Sister GlitterNullius: Empathy, 2022, Video: Justin Hewitson, Edits: Jesse Tyssen, Direction: Juundaal. Filmed on Dabee-Wiradjuri Land, The Common, Rylstone, NSW.

BCM 111 Global Media & Culture Assignment 3: Empathy, 2022, Video Presentation & Script. Grade: HD 90/100.

Concepts: 1. Networked, Indigenous Identity & Indigenous Art Activism, 2. Environmental Art Activism Intersectional Environmentalism, 3. Cultural Proximity, 4. Audience Access & Activation: Developing non-Indigenous Proximity & Engagement with Indigenous Cultural
Expression.

Explanatory Note:
Video: Justin Hewitson recorded the video raw footage, from time spent on Dabee-Wiradjuri Country, The Common at Rylstone, NSW, during our Plastic-free Kandos project, June 2022. I directed the shoot, with edits for this Assignment by Jesse Tyssen.

For the purpose of this Assignment submission, the citations are those that respond to and expand upon the Subject and its topics. In part, the purpose of this video is also to articulate activism and advocacy for the equality and spirit-kinship with non-humans, and building a large, collaborative, repatriation art project, for my performative character, Sister GlitterNullius. Empathy (2022), represents a culmination of my performances this year and future goals. It will be posted to social media platforms and as such, like Sister GlitterNullius, will exist within the global networked, contemporary art context and is itself a conduit of activism and advocacy. That the script is also offered with its English translation, simultaneously, an act of decolonised invitation and activism. (Carlson & Frazer, 2018; Cineas, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Gilbert et al, 2017; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Moraes, 2014; Schultz et al, 2013; Todd, 2015).

Script Note:
For the ease of translation and reading, the Bundjalung script is in Italics, followed by the English translation in plain font. Disclaimer: I am a student of my Bundjalung language. All Bundjalung script attributions are cited to my Bundjalung familial-cultural learning, Muurrbay Aboriginal Language & Culture Co-operative, 2015, Yugambeh-Bundjalung Dictionary, https://bundjalung.dalang.com.au/plugin_wiki/index.html and Dez Marsh, Language Coach.

Empathy Script:

Jingiwahlu wahlu, Jingiwahlu wahlu. Hello. I hope your spirit is well.

Nyanyah nyarri manya! I am of and belong to native land.

Nyanyah Minjungbal, Yugambeh mibin. I am of Country, Minjungbal, Yugambeh nations.

Nigh yiggen yuggen manya gah. My name is native land (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1996 & 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moreas, 2014).

Ngali na jugun. We belong to this Country (Muurrbay Co-op., 2015).

Ngali garma mala jugun. We look after this Country (Muurrbay Co-op., 2015).

Wana janma mala gunu gala jugen. Don’t do wrong around this Country (Muurrbay Co-op., 2015).

Ngali wana jana mala jugen. We don’t harm this Country here (Muurrbay Co-op., 2015).

Ngali na mala jugen. We belong to this Country (Muurrbay Co-op., 2015).

Nigh yiggen yuggen nirijabah, birin gah! My name is Saltwater (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1996 & 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moreas, 2014; Todd, 2015). 

Ngay garni yuggen, birin. I am from and belong to Saltwater (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014; Todd, 2015). 

Nigh yiggen yuggen gali gah! My name is tree (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014; Todd, 2015).

Ngay garni yuggen gali. I am from and belong to tree (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014, Todd, 2015).

Neither human or non, can you welcome me (Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gates, 2017; Phipps, 2009; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015)? 

Can you see me? Why can’t you see me (Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilbert et al, 2017; Hall, 1997; Ksiazek & Webster, 2008; Moraes, 2014; Phipps, 2009; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015)?   ?

Don’t speak. Be Quiet. We are not child in this hypocrisy (Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Hall, 1997; Ksiazek & Webster, 2008; Moraes, 2014; Phipps, 2009; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015)?  

No return. Can’t go back. Go back. Stop going forward (Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gilchrist, 2016; Phipps, 2009; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015)!

Take me Home! Take me yamba! Take me home (Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016;Hall, 1997;  Moraes, 2014; Phipps, 2009; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015)!

Why won’t you take me Home? Why can’t I go Home (Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; Moraes, 2014; Phipps, 2009; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015)?

Everywhen ago and now we are here. Look where we are! One way, one way! I keep telling you, we are going in only one way! Stop going that way! Please stop going forward (Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Hall, 1997; Gilchrist, 2016; Moraes, 2014; Phipps, 2009; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015)!

This when, other whens and everything is everything (Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Phipps, 2009; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015).

Everywhen ago, we let it all go,now we are here (Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilbert et al, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; Ksiazek & Webster, 2008; Phipps, 2009; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015).

I don’t think I am supposed to be here. You do not belong here. These do not belong here (Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilbert et al, 2017; Hall, 1997; Ksiazek & Webster, 2008; Moraes, 2014; Phipps, 2009; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015). 

Where do you belong? I’m sure I don’t belong here (Gates, 2017, Gilbert et al, 2017; Ksiazek & Webster, 2008; Hall, 1997, hooks, 1992, Moraes, 2014).

What is your relationship here (Gates, 2017; Gilbert et al, 2017; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Ksiazek & Webster, 2008; Moreas, 2014; Phipps, 2009; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015)?

We are already there, it’s too late (Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gilchrist, 2016; Phipps, 2009; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015). 

I am your monster. Your infection. your monster, your mistakes (Gates, 2017; Gilbert et al, 2017; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Ksiazek & Webster, 2008; Moreas, 2014; Phipps, 2009; Schultz, 2013  .

Forward is not destiny, surely? How are we going to escape to survive (Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; Phipps, 2009; Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015)?

This deformity, my deformity is yours, ours both. I was birin, now jagur. I was saltwater, now stranger Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014, Todd, 2015).

Can’t get in, can’t get out, jagur -stranger. Can’t get out to get in, nor in to be bound. Can’t get in to get out, jagul -native land nor be free, not out to get in, no free, no gali – no tree, no birin – no saltwater, no yamba – no home, no jagul – no native land…Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014, Todd, 2015).

Nyah-nyah! Take care. Be careful!

Not in, but bound, can’t be in, must get out, no free. Jagur, jagul, jagur, jagul, jagur, jagul… Stranger, native land, stranger, native land, stranger, native land…(Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014, Todd, 2015).

Nigh yiggen yuggen nirijabah, ngay garni yuggen birin gah. I come from and belong to Saltwater, my name is Saltwater (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014, Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015).

Ngay garni yuggen gali gah! My name is tree (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014, Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015).

Ngay garni yuggen jagul gah! My name is native land .Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014, Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015).

Jingiwahlu wahlu. Manya gah, wahlu nyanyah nyarri manya, yambah gah, jagul gah. Hello. I hope your spirit is well. I am from all and many.  My name is many native land, my name is home, my name is native land (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014, Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015).

Jingiwahlu wahlu Jingiwahlu wahlu nyanyah mundjindi! Hello. I hope your spirit is well. I am protection of animal (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014, Todd, 2015).

Nigh yiggen yuggen manya. I am of native land (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014, Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015).

Nyah-nyah… Take care- Be careful…

Jingiwahlu wahlu! Jingiwahlu wahlu! Hello. I hope your spirit is well.  (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014, Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015).

Nigh yiggen yuggen manya. I am of and belong to native land  (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014, Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015).

Ngali na jugun. We belong to this Country (Muurrbay Co-op., 2015).

Ngali garma mala jugun. We look after this Country (Muurrbay Co-op., 2015).

Wana janma mala gunu gala jugen. Don’t do wrong around this Country (Muurrbay Co-op., 2015).

Ngali wana jana mala jugen. We don’t harm this Country here (Muurrbay Co-op., 2015).

Nigh yiggen yuggen manya. I am of and I belong to native land (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles et al, 2020; Davis & Turpin, 2015; Gates, 2017; Gilchrist, 2016; Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Gilbert et al, 2017; Moraes, 2014, Schultz, 2013; Todd, 2015).

Manya, jugal, jagur, manya, birin, nirijabah, gali, yambah… Native land, country,  stranger, native land, saltwater, tree, home…

End Script

REFERENCE LIST:

Carlson, Bronwyn & Frazer, Ryan, 2018, Yarning Circles & Social media Activism, Media International Australia, Vol.169(1), p.43-53, Sage Publications, DOI:10.1177/1329878X18803762, accessed: 09.10.2022.

Cineas, Fabiola, 2020, The protests feel different because they’re shifting public opinion: To sustain the current anti-racism movement, look to the past, says Professor Megan Ming Francis, blog entry, Vox Media.

Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, Amy; Brown, Shae L; Osborn, Maia; Blom, Simone M; Brown, Adi; Wijesinghe, Thilinika, 2020, Staying-with the traces: mapping-making, post-human & Indigenist philosophy in environmental education, Australian Journal of Environmental Education, Vol.36, p.105-128, Cambridge University Press, DOI: 10.1017/aee.2020.31, accessed; 30.10.2022.

Davis, Heather & Turpin, Etienne, 2015, Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments & Epistemologies, Creative Commons, Open Universities Press, London.

Gates, Racquel, 2017, The Last Shall Be The First: Aesthetics & Politics in Black Film & Media, Film Quarterly, Vol.17, No.2, p.38-45, accessed: 09.10.2022.

Gilbert, Helen; Phillipson JD & Raheja, Michelle, (eds.), 2017, In the Balance: Indigeneity Performance & Globalisation, Liverpool University Press, United Kingdom, accessed: 05.10.2022. 

Gilchrist, Stephen, 2016, Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia, in Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia; Gilchrist, Stephen, (Ed.), Harvard Art Museums, Yale University Press, New Haven 7 London.

Hall, Stuart, 1997, Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices, Sage & open University Press, London.

hooks, bell; 1992 & 2015; Black Looks: race & representation, South End Press, Boston, US.

Ksiazek, T & Webster, JG, 2008, Cultural proximity & Audience Behaviour: The Role of Language in Patterns of Polarisation & Multicultural Fluency, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Vol.52, No.3, p.485-503, DOI: 10.1080/08838150802205876. 

Moreas, Silvia E, 2014, Global Citizenship as a Floating Signifier: Lessons from UK Universities, International Journal of Development Education & Global Learning, Vol.6.2, p.27-42, ISSN: 1756-526X.

Muurrbay Aboriginal Language & Culture Co-operative, 2015, Yugambeh-Bundjalung Dictionary, https://bundjalung.dalang.com.au/plugin_wiki/index.html, accessed: 2022.

Phipps, P, 2009, Globalisation, Indigeneity & Performing Culture, Local-Global: Identity, Security, Community, Vol.6, p.28-48, DOI: 10.3316/informit.107108986596288, accessed: 06.10.2022.

Schultz, Tristan B, 2013, Encountering Aboriginal Cultural Expressions: Peace, Proximity, Obligation & Responsibility, Centre for Tourism, Leisure & Work, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW,  academia.edu, accessed: 06.10.2022. 

Todd, Zoe, 2015, Indigenizing the Anthropocene, Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments & Epistemologies, Ch.7, p.241-254, Davis, Heather; Turpin, Etienne (eds.), Open Humanities Press, London, United Kingdom.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bacon, Wendy, 2020, Telling the wrapped Coast Story, blog article, https://www.wendybacon.com/2020/telling-the-wrapped-coast-story, Extra! Extra!, Making Art Public, 50th Anniversary of Kaldor Art Projects, Art Gallery New South Wales, http://www.extra-extra.press/2019/11/26/telling-the-wrapped-coast-story/#more-489, accessed: 22.09.2022.

Hall, Stuart & Du Gay, P, 1996, Questions of Cultural Identity, Sage Publications, England.

Hall, Stuart, 2015 (1994), Cultural Identity & Diaspora in Colonial Discourse & Post-colonial Theory, p.392-403, Routledge Publications, England.

Kanngieser, Anja & Todd, Zoe, 2020, From Environmental Case Study to Environmental Kin Study, History & Theory, Vol.59, No.3, p.385-393, Wesleyan University, DOI: 10.111/hith.12166, accessed: 30.10.2022.

Kindsfather E, 2020, From Activism to Artistic Practice: (Re) Imagining Indigenous women’s Labour: Activism in Contemporary Art,, Graduate Student Conference, Essay Award, RACAR, Vol. 47:1, p.58-71, https://doi.org/10.7202/1091821ar, accessed: 12.09.2022, 05.10.2022.

Moreton-Robinson, Aileen (ed.), 2004, Whitening Race: Essays in social and cultural criticism, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, Australia.

O’Shaughnessy, M, 2012, Globalisation in Media & Society, p.458-471, Oxford University Press, England, accessed: 08.2022.

Strang-Yettica, Juundaal, 2019, Trees in coffins, Extra! Extra!, Making Art Public, 50th Anniversary of Kaldor Art Projects, Art Gallery New South Wales, http://www.extra-extra.press/2019/11/19/trees-in-coffins/ 

Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt, Bubandt, Nils, Gan, Elaine, Swanson, Heather Anne, 2017, Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts & Monsters of the Anthropocene, University of Minnesota Press, USA.

FIN

SF3 SmartFone Flick Fest 2022!

I am thrilled to have my short film, Sister GlitterNullius, The Monster Speaks: The Monstering, chosen for the SF3 Community & Diversity Award!

With so many amazing films from Australia and internationally, from stax of incredibly talented filmmakers, check out the collection on the website! Grab a friend! Grab some popcorn & immerse yourself! Click the link: https://sf3.com.au/

Many thanx SF3 for including my work and all the work you do, making such a fabulous smartphone film festival!

Sister GlitterNullius: The Monstering, 2022, Video: Richard Stalenberg, Editing, Riley Jones, Direction: Juundaal, Filmed with my Samsung Galaxy Ultra 20.

Your Friend, In & Out of Plastix!

Juundaal X

We’re not in Kandos anymore! How art transformed an out of luck town.

By Nick Galvin JULY 21, 2022, Sydney Morning Herald.

Kandos, about an hour north-west of Lithgow, is a pretty quiet town – doubly so since its main employer, the cement works and quarry, closed its doors in 2011. The second hammer blow came in 2015 when the nearby Chambon coal mine also shuttered.

But this particular morning there is barely a parking spot to be had on the 25m wide main street. There are other signs something is afoot. I meet performance artist Juundaal Strang-Yettica, aka Sister GlitterNullius, wandering along the pavement in full nun’s habit complimented by extravagant blue eyelashes, tolling a school bell and dragging behind her a doll’s house.

She explains that she belongs to the Sisters of Perpetual Plastix and because her DNA has been infected by microplastics she is in the process of morphing into a bird. Presumably, this is not an average Saturday morning conversation in Kandos.

Meanwhile, a group of about 40 people are pacing silently around an empty paddock. It’s a walking meditation that aims to help them become “mindfully present with the vibrant sentience of the surroundings”. Again, presumably not an everyday occurrence here.

“People in Kandos are really upfront with you”: Festival Director, Alex Wisser. Photo: Gus Armstrong, 2022.

This is the fourth iteration of Cementa, a bold, four-day, biennial contemporary arts festival that bills itself as “a unique, regionally situated, socially-engaged, artist-led organisation dedicated to cultivating contemporary art in our regional context”.

Self-described “artshole” Alex Wisser is the man behind all this.

“I make, write about, think, organise, eat, breathe, love, hate, talk and sneeze art,” he says on his website. “If you ask me why, I will tell you it is because I failed as a poet but when I say that, I am just being cute.”

In person, he is a hugely engaging, stocky, heavily bearded Californian transplant, exuding an almost manic passion for Cementa and the Kandos region.

He and his family settled in Kandos in 2012, moving from Sydney’s inner-west where he had been active in the contemporary art scene.

Cementa grew from a conversation Wisser had with Ann Finnegan a co-founder of the festival. They figured the disused cement works would be a great place to activate with contemporary art. That suggestion was met with a flat “no” from Cement Australia on safety grounds.

Leanne Thompson with her woven installation, Permeare at St. Dominic’s Hall in Kandos. Photo: Gus Armstrong, 2022.

“But a number of the town leaders came to the table,” says Wisser. “And they were all very encouraging. They saw the town was going to need something to revive its future – there was a lot of anxiety around the fact it was losing its defining industry. And while art was certainly not their idea of what would do that the very fact we showed up at that moment and they could see we would be bringing economic activity into the town made it an attractive option.”

Inevitably, responses from long-time Kandos residents to the prospect of a cutting-edge contemporary art festival coming to town, with all the exuberance, zaniness and way-out ideas that implies, were mixed. Reactions ranged from bemusement to plain hostility.

“One of the great examples,” says Wisser, “was when we were thinking about doing an installation in the swimming pool and we called council to ask if we could do that and I had a council worker call me back and ask, ‘So you want to put paintings in our swimming pool? Do I understand you right?’”

After the first event, Wisser and his team did a community consultation, asking for feedback and suggestions.

“One woman sort of sat in the corner of the meeting with her arms crossed for most of it,” he says. “Then, she said, ‘You’ve got to understand how scary this was for a small town like Kandos. We basically thought you were coming up here to look down your noses at us and laugh and make fun of us’.”

It brought home to Wisser how class-laden contemporary art can be.

Artists Alison Clouston and Boyd with their installation Dhalawala – Forest Country at the Kandos Community Centre Hall. Photo: Gus Armstrong, 2022.

“Contemporary art is identified as a middle-class cultural expression and is alien and threatening to a lot of people who don’t participate in that culture or have access to it,” he says.

But it speaks volumes for Wisser’s passion, perseverance – and diplomatic skills – that the four-day festival has gone through four iterations now, becoming bigger and more inclusive each time.

There are installations or performances in almost every part of the town, from the disused railway station to the scout hall and the main street shops to the golf club.

The local RSL is transformed for one night to present a “Vaudevillian rollercoaster ride of community-style slam, glam punk entertainment”, while the community hall plays host for the weekend to a stunning installation featuring a massive burned tree attached to 50 of its living seedlings and accompanied by a specially composed choral work.

And Cementa is now much more than a biennial festival – it has a presence year-round with residencies and other local projects, including artist Leanne Thompson’s innovative project, Weaving Water, which aims to bring people together to restore the waterways across the Capertee Valley.

Recently, organisers also raised $180,000 to buy the old town hall building on the main street to establish a permanent art space.

Indigenous work and performance is woven through much of the festival, driven by Uncle Peter Swain, a local Dabee Wiradjuri Elder.

“I was involved with the last festival,” he says. “And, yeah, there were conversations around ‘that’s not our thing, just let them do their thing’. The locals would go and hide inside for three days and then come out again on Monday. But that’s breaking down this year, I’ve noticed.”

Swain has little time for locals looking down their nose at artists who have flocked to the region, some of them buying homes there.

“What is it to be local?” he says. “For me, if somebody lives here and they really love this place and they love it for what it is then I consider them a local whether they were born here or not. I bridge all those dynamics because of my background. When someone goes, ‘I’m fifth generation’. I can say I’m about 3,000. Don’t pull the local card on me.”

Twenty-three-year-old Bridget Baskerville grew up in the region and the impact of the industrial closures are still fresh in her mind.

“Lots of people I went to school with had to leave with the families,” she says. “It felt quite quick. And then there are less and less businesses. That seemed gradual and then you get to the point where you look around and realise we’ve lost a lot of the things I grew up with.”

Baskerville is volunteering at this year’s festival and has detected a shift in the response from her community.

“It’s a dwindling town, which can be quite sad, so suddenly to see people again reminds people of how it used to be. I think that’s really exciting. I’ve even had conversations in the past few days with people saying, ‘This isn’t really my thing but actually I’m quite interested in what’s happening’.”

Wisser doesn’t shy away from the challenges of staging a contemporary arts festival in a region struggling to come to terms with its post-industrial future. On the contrary he sees those challenges and that sometimes uneasy relationship as central to the project.

“We’re talking about a dialogue between two cultures. It’s always a process. It’s never solved. I don’t want anybody to think that I’m crowing about this as though it’s something that’s succeeded.

“We’ve had our small successes, which I’m very happy with, but those small successes along with all of our failures and breakdowns are what teaches us. It’s how we learn what the nature of our society is.”

He lives for the occasions where barriers do come down and recalls a moment at the first festival where local women and artists shared stories in a spinning circle. “I felt like these two worlds were able to fit together for a moment of shared meaning. And just the fact that it was possible for that moment really informs a lot of the hope I have, or that I derive from what we do here.”

For the artists, there is also the chance to experience the sort of refreshing candour that they don’t often get in the city arts bubble.

“People in Kandos are really upfront with you,” Wisser says. “They’ll let you know if they think something is silly, absurd or a crock of shit. It’s not a foregone conclusion that everyone’s going to congratulate you. You might get someone walk up and say, ‘Well, you’re wasting your life, aren’t you?’.”

“People in Kandos are really upfront with you,” Wisser says. “They’ll let you know if they think something is silly, absurd or a crock of shit. It’s not a foregone conclusion that everyone’s going to congratulate you. You might get someone walk up and say, ‘Well, you’re wasting your life, aren’t you?’.”

But for all his optimism, Wisser remains firmly grounded about what can be achieved.

“The lesson we learned at the first festival, is that art is not a silver bullet. Art will never save a town. It’s not an industry like a coal mine. It does bring financial benefit with it, but it really works within a mix and context. And while it’s very romantic and maybe endearing to people in the city, proposing to people in this town that you’re going to ride in on a white horse and save the day with art is ridiculous and a bit patronising.”

Nick Galvin is Arts Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald Connect via Twitter or email.

Article: Sydney Morning Herald, July 21, 2022.

Cementa22 Festival Video: 8min version is here! X

Cementa 22 Festival Promotional Video: Commissioned: Cementa Inc, Video Artist: Samuel James, Project Manager: Tammy Brennan, 2022, Music: Bendsound Free Copyright, Distribution: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?.

With her DNA infected by micro-plastix, we are reminded our inimitable Sister GlitterNullius, is homeless on many levels and for just as many reasons. Through her telescope (we know it’s a kaleidoscope) and her compass (we know is a stopwatch), she finds herself on Dabee-Wiradjuri Country, Kandos NSW. Our Nun knocks on doors & knocks on windows, seeking shelter from her storms. Until finally, the Cementa22 Festival & WAYOUT ArtSpace, provide reprieve! If only for one Festival, our Nun finds herself a Home!

Come! Come with me! Be us, ancient and new together in all directions at this long awaited once! Let our feathers be free among, and belong with the artists, the knowledge keepers, storytellers and gatherers! Arrive all colours, skins and kin! Immerse with joy and disquieting truths! As be, celebrate empathy’s compass to the monstering! Our metamorphoses, be not deficit, not deformity but, courageous, impaired and beautiful!

Funding for my Cementa22 Festival performance, Keeping Gate was generously provided by Create NSW, Small Projects Grants.

Your Friend In & Out of Plastix,

Sister GlitterNullius X