Dominique Chen and Libby Harward’s work was included in Caitlin Franzmann’s commissioned exhibition Natural State, at The Condensery, Somerset Regional Art Gallery.

The program included a yarning circle and artist talks.

Exhibition essay by Dominique Chen.

(Untitled) Nja gan. Nja gan budirgu. Nja gan ninyangurra. Njine, ya, wandji ga:wa Yinibara Djawun. Ngali ninayinyili ngam. Ngali djagunan ninayinyili. Ngali djagunan ninayinyili ninayiny gubagulabu. Ngali Yinibara, Ngugi, Gamilaraay, djagunan Yinibaran, gabiyili, yagabiliny. Niyani nuwa. Niyani ganu nuwa. Niyani yaliwunga nuwa. Ngarri-y, marama-li, guwaal-ay, dhawun Yinibara-gu, 2022 - ongoing.

Materials: Bonyi, water, mud, air, microbes, bacteria and other inhabitants. Sounds of djalan/yinnar on Yinibara Country. Knowledges and memories of our ancestors.

(Dimensions): Variable and relational.

Through ice-ages, the rise and fall of megafauna, and the relatively recent moments of foreign arrivals….we have been here, present, alive and co-evolving with Country. Shaping and being shaped.

We share kinship with and within bloodlines and lifelines of the prehistoric bonyi, or bunya pine tree. Like our ancestors, here we are together on Yinibara Country to listen, share, connect and co-create through a deep understanding of our responsibility to our Living Culture. Each of us, different but welcome. Respectful and reciprocal. Always accountable. Never contained, walking and being in our own sovereign spaces.

Fermenting is (like) culture, always regenerating, always relational. Like yinnar/djalan/black woman on dhawun/djara/djawan/Country, it is listening and co-creating, in the most intimate of collaborations.

The presence of those within proximity, makes agitation, relation and co-creation inevitable. Breath, air, words, ideas, time, bacterias, histories, all influence and shape its boundaries and governance. Holding space, changing space. For many, in accordance with the Lore of Country. Collaborating…never overtaking, always remembering.

Fermenting culture is safe, and in most cases, very forgiving. Holding a spectrum of transformation within relational boundaries, always changing. Much easier to stomach. Willing healthy digestion, knowledge and Country revitalising.

Here our relation, our kin—this bonyi ferment, holds presence for us. It is speaking.

We are attending to our own business, but we are not gone.

Photography by Filmertography.