Acknowledgement of Country

Dharug

Bayadyinyang budyari Dharug yiyura Dharug Ngurra.
Bayady’u budyari Dharug Warunggadgu baranyiin barribugu.
Bayady’u budyari wagulgu yiyuragu Ngurra bimalgu Blacktown City. Flannel flowers dyurali bulbuwul.
Yanmannyang mudayi Dharug Ngurrawa. Walama ngyini budbud dali Dharug Ngurra Dharug yiyura baranyiin barribugu.

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English

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this Land, the Dharug people, and their continued connection to Country.
We pay our respects to Elders from yesterday to tomorrow.
We extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of Blacktown City where the flannel flowers still grow proud and strong.
We will walk softly on this land and open our hearts to Country as the Dharug people have for tens of thousands of years.

Credit to: Dharug woman Rhiannon Wright, daughter of Leanne ‘Mulgo’ Watson Redpath and granddaughter of Aunty Edna Watson

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Join us in celebration of the opening of Ghosts in the Kitchen with an evening of First Nations performance, dance, poetry and music.

Ghosts in the Kitchen is a group exhibition that explores the complex relationships between food, culture, and identity from the perspective of First Nations peoples within Australia.

Performances by:
Sonya Holowell and JWPATON
Amy Flannery and Aroha Pehi
Lucy Norton and Anne-Marie Te Whiu

Program curated by Verónica Barac-Gomez

Bio

Amy Flannery is a First Nations Australian creator and performer.

Amy completed her training in dance at the National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA Dance College).

After graduating from NAISDA, she has performed, choreographed and composed for a number of companies and independent productions, including Lost All Sorts Collective, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Jannawi Dance Clan, Dance Makers Collective, Erth Visual and Physical, Wagana Aboriginal Dancers, and PACT Centre for emerging artists.

You can find Amy on Instagram here

Anne-Marie Te Whiu is an Australian-born Māori who belongs to the Te Rarawa iwi in Hokianga, Aotearoa NZ. She is a poet, editor and weaver. She was a 2021 Next Chapter Fellowship recipient, and her writing has been published widely nationally and internationally including Another Australia (Affirm Press) Te Awa o Kupu (Penguin), Sport, Tupuranga Journal, In*ter*is*land Collective, SBS Voices, Cordite, Rabbit Journal, Contemporary Hum, Running Dog, Ora Nui Journal, Te Whē, Kaldor Public Art Projects, Awa Wahine and Australian Poetry Journal.

Aroha Pehi is a proud Taribelang-Bunda, Kuku-Yalanji, Ngāpuhi and Ngātiporou woman from South-East Queensland. Graduating NAISDA Dance College in 2018 she went on to pursue a career as an independent dance creative. Notably, Lost All Sorts Collective, which she co-founded, recently was a part of Yirramboi’s Barring Yanabul. She has also worked alongside Jannawi Dance Clan, Dance Makers Collective, Vicki van Hout, Atamira Dance Company, Amy Flannery, Hannah Hansen, Dujon Nuie and so many more.

She currently is focused on her Emerging Producer Internship with Bangarra Dance Theatre and Moogahlin Performing Arts, further giving her the tools to help navigate, not only herself in the arts space, First Nations artists and emerging artists.

You can find Aroha on Instagram here

JWPATON is a Yuin composer living and working on the unceded lands of the Dharug Nation (Sydney, Australia). Using electronics and field recordings Josh explores the contrast between abstract ambience and harsh textures. Carving and smearing analog and digital material to build sound worlds examining the ouroboroi of nature and technology. 

You can find JWPATON on Instagram here

Lucy Norton is a storyteller, living and creating on Gadigal land. She writes about memory, place, and the connections between people. Her work has been featured in publications including Cordite Poetry Review, Industrial Estate, and Overland Literary Journal. 

You can find Lucy on Instagram here

Rebecca Ray (she/her) is a Meriam woman from the Torres Strait Islands and a curator, writer and cultural heritage researcher. Her practice is concerned with the re-Indigenisation, rematriation and reclamation of autonomous and sovereign spaces, rooted in care for culture and community.

Rebecca brings a wealth of curatorial and policy experience to the MCA, having held Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-identified positions at major institutions including the National Portrait Gallery, Australia, Home of the Arts (HOTA), and Griffith University, Queensland. She is also an alumna of the Wesfarmers Indigenous Leadership Program, partnered with the National Gallery of Australia.

Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Arts (History and Sociology) from Griffith University. She has a research background in decolonisation, identity politics and intersectionality, developed through her early academic work with the Indigenous Higher Research Unit and the Kombumerri Archives Project at Griffith.

You can find Rebecca on Instagram here

Sonya Holowell is a voice and text artist of Dharawal and Inuit heritage. For over a decade Sonya’s expansive vocal practice has woven avant-garde world premieres with electro-acoustic experiments with medieval chant and spontaneous long-form composition. She explores the plural self in its network of relations, directed toward truth and emancipation.

She enjoys bringing this mantle to collaboration with others, as artist and consultant. Sonya performs regularly with modular synthesist Ben Carey in their duo Sumn Conduit, and is a PhD candidate in Indigenous Artistic Research. Sonya’s work as a vocalist and composer has been shown on numerous platforms including Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival, Resonant Bodies Festival, Sydney Biennale, Vivid Festival, VOLUME, soundSCAPE Italy, Soft Centre, Liveworks Festival, the Now Now Festival, Sydney Fringe Festival, Moorambilla Festival, The Banff Centre (Canada), Canberra International Music Festival, Chamber Made Hi-Viz Practice Exchange, SoundOut Festival, and others.

She has collaborated with leading new music ensembles such as the Song Company, JACK Quartet, Ensemble Offspring, International Contemporary Ensemble, Decibel, Tura New Music and the Australian Art Orchestra, and has presented her manifold work at venues that include the Sydney Opera House, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Museum of Contemporary Art, Carriageworks, Institute of Modern Art, The Powerhouse Museum, MUMA and the National Gallery of Australia. 

You can find Sonya on Instagram here

This project is presented by Blacktown Arts and supported by Blacktown City Council.

Image Credits:

Rebecca Ray, courtesy of artist
Amy Flannery, courtesy of artist
Anne-Marie Te Whiu, courtesy of artist
Aroha Pehu, courtesy of artist
JWPATON, photo by Traianos Pakioufakis
Lucy Norton, courtesy of artist
Sonya Holowell, photo by Ella Holowell

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