PLAN YOUR VISIT - 'bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country' on now

Bundanon

2 November 2024 – 9 February 2025


bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country is a body of works by renowned Gweagal/Wandiwandian storyteller and artist Aunty Julie Freeman, leading Walbunja/Ngarigo artist Aunty Cheryl Davison, and Wiradyuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones.

The season upholds and maintains Aboriginal values and kinships, featuring an immersive gunyah (home) installation including drawings by the significant Yuin artist Mickey of Ulladulla, a solo exhibition of paintings by Aunty Julie sharing grandmother stories of local plants, animals and weather patterns, and a new installation by Aunty Cheryl Davison, representing the importance of Burrawang seeds, a key traditional food source.

Connected through new soundscapes designed for each gallery space, bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country sings the stories of this place, celebrating local traditions and the ongoing collaboration of these three artists and cultural leaders.

Collectively the three artists have created a major installation consisting of a large-scale architectural gunyah structure made from Bundanon’s turpentine trees. Suspended from the gunyah, are screen-printed skyscapes depicting the locally significant Glossy Black-cockatoo creation story of Cambewarra Mountain by Aunty Cheryl Davison. Embracing the gunyah, an epic 75-metre mural by Aunty Julie Freeman tracks the coastline from Sydney to Gippsland, and illustrates the significant bays, beaches, mountains and rivers that make up the South Coast cultural landscape that is Yuin country.

Included within this installation is the work of the significant nineteenth century Yuin artist Mickey of Ulladulla, connecting South Coast narratives from past to present, with works loaned from the National Library of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia and the State Library of NSW. The installation envelops audiences and speaks to Aboriginal ways of understanding place, encouraging audiences to reimagine the South Coast of NSW.

The season will also include Aunty Julie’s first solo exhibition featuring a major suite of new paintings and cultural objects, sharing grandmother stories of the plants, animals and weather patterns from the escarpments, mountains and waterways of her country. Aunty Cheryl presents an installation of new woven and textile works, building on her research into Burrawang palm seeds, one of the South Coast’s key traditional food sources.

Curated by Jonathan Jones (Guest Curator) & Boe-Lin Bastian (Curator, Bundanon).

 

Artists

Aunty Julie Freeman

Aunty Julie Freeman’s mum was a shellworker and artefact maker from the La Perouse Aboriginal community on Bidjigal Country with cultural connections to the wider Sydney and Illawarra region, including the Gorawarl clan, whose traditional Country includes present- day Kurnell on the southern shores of Kamay (Botany Bay) of the Dharawal Nation. Aunty Julie’s dad was a Wandiwandian fisherman of the Yuin Nation, born on the Coolangatta Estate near Nowra on the South Coast of New South Wales.

Like many La Perouse and South Coast families, her family joined the Aboriginal fishing community of Wreck Bay near Huskisson, a place of great diversity where everyone could stay connected and safe. Aunty Julie comes from a long line of storytellers and artists, and from an early age, she learned the local tradition of shellwork from her mother and grandmothers.

Aunty Julie is a highly respected knowledge-holder from the South Coast region, and is an accomplished and recognised artist, cultural leader and storyteller.

Aunty Cheryl Davison

Aunty Cheryl Davison is a Walbunja/Ngarigo woman who was born in Bega and spent her early childhood on the shores of Wallaga Lake on the far south coast of New South Wales, before her parents moved the family to Nowra in the early 1970s. She is an artist, singer and storyteller, having founded Djinama Yilaga, a choir singing songs in the Dhurga language in 2018.

Aunty Cheryl has taught visual arts, graphics arts and printmaking, creating the foundations for a diverse arts practice, and works as Aboriginal Creative Producer for the Four Winds Festival in Bermagui, programming cultural events featuring some of Australia’s leading musicians.

She also served on the Gulaga National Park Board of Management that governs the direction of care for the Yuin people’s beloved and sacred mountain Gulaga.

Jonathan Jones

Jonathan Jones is a member of the Wiradyuri and Kamilaroi peoples of south-east Australia. He first worked with Aunty Julie Freeman and Aunty Cheryl Davison as an emerging artist in 1997, in an exhibition curated by Aboriginal photographer Dr Peter Yanada McKenzie.

Jones works across a range of mediums in minimal repeated forms to explore and interrogate cultural and historical relationships and ideas from Indigenous perspectives and traditions. Jones has exhibited both nationally and internationally since the late 1990s, and his work is represented in major public collections throughout Australia.

Access

bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country is an accessible exhibition with several resources available below and at the Art Museum Reception. Visitors are advised that this season is an 80% visual exhibition, predominantly featuring immersive installation, painting, textiles and soundscapes.

Sensory Map

The sensory map for bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country includes information specifically on the Art Museum and current exhibition, noise and lighting levels and other information relevant to sensory processing. Please contact the museum staff if you have any questions about the exhibition or Bundanon Relaxed dates for sensory-friendly visits to the exhibition.

Download the Sensory Map here | Phone: +612 4422 2100

Large Print

Large print versions of the exhibition text are available to borrow from museum reception.

Tactile Materials

Tactile and sensory materials that support the experience of the exhibition are available to visitors at the museum reception.

Seating

There is a small amount of seating in the exhibition. Individual seating is available from museum reception, please speak with the friendly staff if you would like extra seating to experience the show.

There is also a wheelchair available to borrow from the museum reception.

Event Supporter

This event is proudly supported by Sydney Festival 2025.

Sydney Festival 2025
Close
Close
Close

Bundanon acknowledges the people of the Dharawal and Dhurga language groups as the traditional owners of the land within our boundaries, and recognises their continuous connection to culture, community and Country.

In Dharawal the word Bundanon means deep valley.

This website contains names, images and voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Close
Close