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Artwork is a rendered version of an artwork by Ashlee Murray.
Design: Kevin Vo
Blacktown Arts in partnership with C3West (Museum of Contemporary Art Australia), received a Museums & Galleries of NSW 2018 IMAGinE award for the recent iteration of our Blacktown Native Institution project. This project was recognised in the Engagement Programs category that acknowledges community and culturally inclusive programs, as well as those that are strategically linked to organisational priorities.
Building on two previous art activations responding to the site of the Blacktown Native Institution, this recent iteration of the project brought artists and community together to raise awareness of the site’s significance, to heal, pay tribute to Aboriginal histories and to imagine a future for the site. Artists Tony Albert and Sharyn Egan joined with Moogahlin Performing Arts to work with local Aboriginal communities, responding to the history and bringing to life the culture of the site.
Nine months of community consultation culminated in a spectacular onsite event which drew together more than 500 members of the local community. Egan worked with local weavers to create a largescale sculpture of flannel flowers in memory of the Institution’s residents, while Albert and local children used ceremony and objects to share positive memories across time. Moogahlin Performing Arts developed a dance performance with community members to honour local customs and growing up Aboriginal in Western Sydney, which included more than 40 young Aboriginal dancers.
This project has been integral in raising awareness of this important site, and in healing the site for local Aboriginal people. By acknowledging its painful colonial history alongside its much longer history of Aboriginal cultural practice, the project has fostered a renewed connection to site and Country for the many community members who were involved.
Congratulations to all fellow nominees and winners!
Read the full list of nominees
About IMAGinE Awards
The IMAGinE awards recognise and celebrate all institutions and the people who work in museums and galleries across NSW and the contributions they make. These awards offer a unique opportunity for museums and galleries in NSW to promote their achievements and raise their profile within the sector and the broader community.
Photo credit
Artist Tony Albert leading a weaving workshop, featured: Tony Albert, Gubangala Gumadangyiningi (Let’s honour his/her spirit), 2018, at Ngara – Ngurangwa Byallara (Listen, hear, think – The Place Speaks), 2018, Oakhurst NSW, co-commissioned by Blacktown Arts on behalf of Blacktown City Council and C3West on behalf of Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, image courtesy and © the artist, photograph: Anna Kučera
New artworks by leading Australian contemporary artists will be unveiled at the Blacktown Native Institution site at Ngara – Ngurangwa Byallara (Listen, Hear, Think – The Place Speaks) on Saturday, 9 June 2018.
Blacktown Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) have commissioned new works and installations by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists Tony Albert, Sharyn Egan and Moogahlin Performing Arts.
As part of their work, the artists address issues associated with the history of the site, as the former home of the Blacktown Native Institution. This is one of the earliest known examples of the institutional removal of Aboriginal children from their families.
A key element of Ngara – Ngurangwa Byallara is the collaboration between artists and local Aboriginal communities to develop work which brings the spirit and culture of the site to life, and honours the site as a living memorial to Australia’s Stolen Generations.
“I am proud that Blacktown is home to one of the largest urban Aboriginal populations in Australia,” Blacktown City Mayor Stephen Bali MP said.
“The Blacktown Native Institution is a significant part of Blacktown’s identity – and the identity of this nation.
“While acknowledging past wrongs, through this project we also aim to celebrate the Darug peoples’ continuing cultural practices and connection to this place.
“Council’s arts centre has a long history of working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, and our communities deserve to work with artists of international stature such as Tony Albert, Sharyn Egan and Moogahlin Performing Arts.
“We hope that this collaboration will shine a light on the important history of the Blacktown Native Institution site and the arts and cultural practices of Blacktown’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”
MCA Director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE says, “The Blacktown Native Institution Project demonstrates the need to celebrate living Aboriginal culture, while not forgetting the atrocities of colonisation. This long-term project brings artists together with community to remember the site’s history and to create a future for this important place.”
“On Saturday, 9 June, we come together for Ngara – Ngurangwa Byallara (Listen, hear, think – The Place Speaks), to celebrate the site’s importance both as a place of ceremony and culture for the Darug people and as the location of the Blacktown Native Institution. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people alike are invited to experience major new commissions responding to the site, including monumental sculpture, interactive artworks and large-scale performance, each made in collaboration with the local community.”
Ngara – Ngurangwa Byallara (Listen, Hear, Think – The Place Speaks) is part of the Blacktown Native Institution Project, a collaboration between Blacktown Arts (an initiative of Blacktown City Council) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (through their C3West Program). The project is supported by Landcom, Gadigal Information Service and Koori Radio.
More Information
Where: Blacktown Native Institution site, corner Richmond Road and Rooty Hill Road North, Oakhurst.
When: 4 pm – 8 pm on Saturday, 9 June 2018
Cost: Free
Parking: Limited parking is available on site. A bus will leave The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre at 3.30 pm and return following the event.
Wet weather: Call 9839 6558
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Leanne Tobin, It Starts Here Now, 2015, performance documentation, Blacktown Native Institution Artist Camp #2, 2015. Image courtesy and © the artist
Leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists Tony Albert, Sharyn Egan and Moogahlin Performing Arts bring fresh ideas and energy to Ngara – Ngurangwa Byallara (Listen, Hear, Think – The Place Speaks). Informed by new community collaborations, their works aim to bring the spirit and culture of the Blacktown Native Institution site to life, and imagine a future for this important landmark.
The artworks will be unveiled on the site at Ngara – Ngurangwa Byallara (Listen, Hear, Think – The Place Speaks) on Saturday, 9 June 2018.
TONY ALBERT
“My project is about healing the site. I’m working with community member Julie Jones and ten local children and their families to reimagine ten of the children originally at the Institution. People will be encouraged to gift a memory to the reimagined children by writing it down on paper embedded with vegetation. The paper will be buried onsite and will heal the area. The objects I am making with the children can also possibly have a presence inside institutions, museums or galleries around Australia and the world. Great memories can be gifted and brought back to Country for the purpose of healing the site.”
Queensland artist Tony Albert is well known for his innovative approach to collaboration with children and young people. For Ngara – Ngurangwa Byallara (Listen, hear, think – The Place Speaks), he has worked alongside local Darug woman Julie Bukari Webb and 10 local youngsters and their families to create Gubangala Gumadangyiningi (Lets honour his/her spirit), a reimagining and honouring of 10 of the children who originally lived at the Institution. A suite of objects created by Albert and his young collaborators will be utilised in a ceremony to reach across time to heal and share positive memories. Visitors will be encouraged to gift a memory to the reimagined children by describing their gift on paper embedded with vegetation. The paper will be buried onsite and will help to heal the area and build a new and positive future.
SHARYN EGAN
“I’m a Nyoongar woman from Perth, Western Australia. Being involved in the Blacktown Native Institution Project is quite special for me as I’m from the Stolen Generation as well. I’m working on flowers, as flowers are used for all occasions, sad, happy, joyous – it seems to cover all the emotions that are involved in this project. I’m using marine rope – it lasts for years and keeps its colour. I’m working with the community on them. I’m going to do them on a large scale so they can bring a bit of notice to the site where the Institution was.”
Perth-based artist Sharyn Egan’s work is informed by her personal experience of loss and displacement as a member of the Stolen Generations, and centres around sharing the medium of weaving with communities during the exchange of stories and experiences. The Blacktown project sees her working with the Baabayn Aboriginal Corporation and local weavers to create a sculptural installation of 7 large-scale flannel flowers made of colourful marine rope. Native to the local area, this delicate flower will be transformed into a monumental memorial to the Institution’s residents, as a semi-permanent installation at the Blacktown Native Institution site.
MOOGAHLIN PERFORMING ARTS
“We thought about what life was like before invasion and wanted to celebrate that life, rather than respond to European intervention through the Blacktown Native Institution. Working with kids, elders and families, along with a number of dance groups, we are creating a performance that celebrates the community that’s there now as well as the historical, traditional community. There will also be gunyas, shelters where people lived, allowing for moments of private contemplation. We want it to be a celebratory work that engages as many people from Western Sydney as possible.”
Sydney’s Moogahlin Performing Arts bring their expertise as storytellers and deep knowledge and experience of local community to this event, with manuwi jam ya murong (footprints in the sand). This celebratory work honours local people who have grown up in Blacktown, with the creation of a large scale installation of the Darug totem – the long necked turtle, in collaboration with local community elders, kids and families. On Saturday, June 9 the totem will come to life as the grounds for an evening of dance performance, whilst the installation of traditional gunyas or shelters will allow visitors to experience a moment of private contemplation in this uniquely sacred space.
Ngara – Ngurangwa Byallara (Listen, Hear, Think – The Place Speaks) is part of the Blacktown Native Institution Project, a collaboration between Blacktown Arts (an initiative of Blacktown City Council) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (through their C3West Program). The project is supported by Landcom, Gadigal Information Service and Koori Radio.
More Information
Where: Blacktown Native Institution site, corner Richmond Road and Rooty Hill Road North, Oakhurst.
When: 4 pm – 8 pm on Saturday, 9 June 2018
Cost: Free
Parking: On-site parking is available, with entry from Richmond Rd
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Tony Albert, Lily Shearer, Frederick Copperwaite, Liza-Mare Syron and Sharyn Egan by Joshua Morris.
On a busy intersection in Oakhurst, where Rooty Hill Road North meets Richmond Road, a bare site is protected by cyclone fencing and a small lock. Beyond the grassy surrounds the landscape is typical of Western Sydney’s growing urban sprawl. On the gate is an official “No Trespassing” sign in bold red. Most locals are unaware that within the parameters of the fenced off area lies the foundations of The Blacktown Native Institution. Established in the 1820s, it is one of the first known sites where Aboriginal children were removed from their parents and institutionalised – a practice that continued until the 1970s.
In 2013, Blacktown Arts Centre presented The Native Institute. Led by artist provocateur Brook Andrew, six artists – Daniel Boyd, Robyn Caughlan, Karla Dickens, r e a, Leanne Tobin and Jason Wing – took on the role as ‘mirrors and finders’ of a history once forgotten.
A component of the project was a series of interventions on the actual site entitled Sites of Experimentation, where the artists responded to the space based on their collective research, and the imagined lives of its past inhabitants.
The Blacktown Native Institution site continues to be activated as part of the C3West partnership, a collaboration between Blacktown Arts Centre on behalf of Blacktown City Council, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and UrbanGrowth NSW.
The room sheet featured below unpacks the works from the 2013 exhibition.
Visit the BNI Project website for more information on the site, the project, and future events.
Photos
Photographs of the exhibition installation by Jennifer Leahy, Silversalt Photography, 2013 featuring:
Photo 3: Robyn Caughlan, The Ancestors and I Walk The Same Footprints But At Different Times You See, 2013.
Photo 4: Karla Dickens, Bible series, 2013.
Photo 5: Leanne Tobin, Suffer the Little Children and The Humble Petitioner, 2013.
Photo 6: Daniel Boyd, A Shift in Paradigm Takes Time, 2013.
Photo 7 (from left): Karla Dickens, Civilising Series; Jason Wing, Double Crossing; Daniel Boyd, A Shift in Paradigm Takes Time; Jason Wing, 28 December, all 2013.
Photo 8: Jason Wing, 28 December, 2013.
Photo 9: r e a, The Native Institute 371.919915, 2013.