Powerhouse Parramatta has opened its door to the public with great success.

Throughout November, audiences can enjoy programs featuring leading Australian and international innovators, thinkers, creatives and artists, developed in collaboration with Western Sydney communities.

First Nations talent is in the spotlight, with various Indigenous creatives featured.

One program highlight is Overflow, a First Nations-led exhibition grounded in the living principles of Water Country, working with seven Aboriginal organisations to consider the importance and care of salt and freshwater systems throughout NSW.

These stories are brought to life through the cinematic lens of acclaimed filmmaker and Kamilaroi man Ivan Sen.

The installation captures community projects spanning species protection, flood mitigation, sustainable and commercial fishing, water monitoring, language revitalisation and cultural water rights from Baramadagal Community; Gamay Rangers; The Goondee Aboriginal Museum and Keeping Place; Jagun Alliance; Joonga Land and Water Aboriginal Land Corporation; Moogalin Performing Arts; and Naru Aboriginal Corporation.

To learn more about the inspiration and creative process behind Overflow, Style Up sat down with Powerhouse Director First Nations, Beau James.

From the Mununjali clan of the Yugambeh Nation from South East Queensland with links to Stradbroke Island, James is an experienced manager and First Nations programmer who has worked with Arts Law Centre of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Most recently, James was the head of First Nations programming with the Sydney Opera House.

"Overflow is a First Nations-led and designed exhibition, and it's built on the living cultures of water country," he told Style Up.

Speaking on the water featured in the Overflow exhibition, James expressed how the water reflects Parramatta River and how the exhibition is somewhat of a love letter to Parramatta River.

"We call it (the Overflow exhibition) our love letter to Parramatta River. Parramatta, the city, is actually built on a flood zone," he said.

"The Parramatta River out here is always ebbed and flowed and when we first started building this building, people were saying, it's going to flood, it's going to flood. It's like, all of a sudden water was a bad thing and what we wanted to bring it back to is what is neither bad or good.

"It shouldn't be a resource that's taken freely, but for us, it's kin and water has a living memory, and this water has done what it's always done and will continue to do, no matter what we do around it."

Touching further on how the creative team successfully brought the water into the building and made it a part of the exhibition, James said it was quite a lengthy process.

"I mean, there's a lot you have to think about, of course you don't want it to leak or anything like that. So we had some really rigorous work over the last few years working out how we would make that work, but it was so important that we got it in this space for status because we've got the open outside area and what we want to do is bring the outside in, and the inside out."

"Once we worked with water bodies, we worked with a whole heap of builders and we got what we thought was a really robust way of working."

"We've put this amazing water body on this top level and this water body is really good too because it does what the parameter of a wall they do.

"It's tidal, so every half an hour it cycles and it goes down (2:17) and then it comes back up.

"All our pipes are running underneath, but walking into this space you wouldn't even know that's going on."

James said the seven NSW-based Aboriginal organisations featured in Overflow are all "doing amazing work with Water Country, but they're all different stories".

"Half of these communities have never been on film before," he said.

These stories were visually brought to life by the cinematic lens of acclaimed filmmaker and Kamilaroi man Ivan Sen.

Sen's work carries audiences to water and invites them to cultivate a deeper connection with it through profound cultural insight.

James noted Sen went into the communities not only to film but also to capture the stories of these communities in ways that were cinematic and culturally respectful.

"He had got a brief from each of these communities about what we wanted to work on, but he just went into those communities and said we'll just turn up and we'll just start filming and we'll see what happens," he said.

"Half of these communities have never been on film before, and he just worked (so well with them that half the time they didn't even know the camera was rolling so what you see in these films here is just captured some beautiful magic moments.

"We travelled to each community probably about two or three times but we started filming in November. Everything to do with this film Ivan has done, no one else has touched it, he's done, even the music."

Set to see various locals and tourists visit the exhibition in the coming months, James hopes visitors walk away with questions about their own responsibility to water country and caring for water.

"I want people who come to this exhibition to look at the amazing work these communities are doing," he said.

"I hope people walk out asking themselves what is their responsibility to water country and caring for water."

Powerhouse Parramatta opening festival runs from the 7th - 29th of November.

For more fashion, arts, culture and lifestyle news subscribe for free to the Style Up newsletter.