Bundanon

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 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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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.