Six talented Barkandji/Barkindji artists have united to collaborate on a fresh and vibrant art exhibition: Ngaratya.
The exhibition will feature more than 50 works within the stunning Bunjil Place Gallery.
Ngaratya, which translates to together/us group/all in it together, will serve as a contemporary "capsule" of stories, memories and conversations expressed through sculpture, prints, moving images, photography, writing, and design.
Brought to life by Barkandji curator and photographer Nici Cumpston OAM and her sister, writer, researcher, and storyteller, Zena Cumpston
The two have worked together to co-curate, as well as make their own works as part of this collective exhibition.
They bring together Barkindji/Malyangapa carver, educator, and poet David Doyle; Barkindji photographer Kent Morris; Barkandji performer, dance maker and educator Adrianne Semmens; and Barkandji multi-media artist and broadcaster Raymond Zada.
The six artists spent time travelling together on Country, engaging with cultural landscapes, their elders, and community.
Which helped with the results of their artwork becoming an immersive installation that comes straight from the heart.
Barkandji/Barkindji are the people of the Baaka (Darling River), culturally responsible for the waterway and vast Country spanning more than 100,000 square kilometres across western New South Wales.
The narratives explored by the artists are shared with joy and passion, collectively speaking to many diverse stories of Barkandji/Barkindji people and culture, such as the plight of the Baaka (Darling River), waterways as our lifeblood, ancestral connection, Indigenous plant use, deep knowledge of Country and innovation, bloodlines, cultural continuance, belonging and intergenerational learning.
Whilst this Country and its people have suffered through the ongoing pressures of colonisation, ngaratya (together, us group, all in it together), is ultimately a journey of love, empowerment, respect, and connection.
About the artists:
Nici Cumpston travels along the backwaters and inland lakes of the Murray Darling basin to create large-scale hand-coloured black and white photographs. Through these works she shares stories of ongoing Aboriginal occupation of this land.
By visiting new sites alongside the other artists, she has developed a new series of photographs. Her expertise as a curator is guiding and supporting the artists to develop their ideas and present dynamic new artistic commissions for the exhibition.
Zena Cumpston is a writer, storyteller, and researcher and will present her artistic practice publicly for the first time as part of this exhibition. Zena's work centres around her interest in plant knowledge.
Through her multi-disciplinary storytelling she illuminates the innovation of her people, shining a light on the ways Aboriginal peoples have used plants for nutrition, technologies, and medicines over many thousands of generations.
David Doyle is a carver, poet and educator creating works of art across a diverse range of media. His ongoing research into traditional methods of harvesting and processing traditional food sources provides great inspiration for his visual arts practice.
Kent Morris creates photographs, photographic installations and moving image works that reconstruct the built environment to reveal the continuing presence and patterns of Aboriginal history, of culture and knowledge embedded in the contemporary Australian landscape, despite ongoing colonial interventions in the physical and political environments.
Adrianne Semmens is a dance practitioner with experience working across the arts, education, and community sectors. In her multi-disciplinary practice, she explores identity and connection to place that is enabled through embodied movement and text.
Raymond Zada is a visual artist working primarily with photography, printmaking, video, and digital design. Through innovative techniques he examines and presents the complexities of Australian history and the disconnect between language and reality.
Ngaratya (together, us group, all in it together) premieres at Bunjil Place Gallery, on display from 14 May to 3 September 2023, before touring nationally.
