Bundanon

A major collaborative project between artists Aunty Cheryl Davison, Aunty Julie Freeman and Jonathan Jones

Bundanon has unveiled bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country, an exhibition of new works created by Walbunja/Ngarigo artist Aunty Cheryl Davison, Gweagal/Wandiwandian artist Aunty Julie Freeman, and  Wiradyuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones, open until 9 February 2025.

Celebrating South Coast stories and upholding local Aboriginal values and kinships, this major collaboration between the renowned First Nations artists features a large-scale architectural gunyah structure made from Bundanon’s Turpentine (Syncarpia glomulifera) trees, a 75-metre-long mural tracking the coastline from Sydney to just over the Victorian border, a suite of paintings, and ambitious large-scale screenprints. The season also includes drawings by nineteenth century Yuin artist Mickey of Ulladulla, loaned from key collections across Australia, providing a historical anchor point for the new commissions and connecting South Coast narratives from past to present.

Bundanon guest curator, Jonathan Jones, is a member of the Wiradyuri and Kamilaroi peoples of south east Australia and is well known for his evocative site-specific installations and interventions into space. Working across a range of mediums, his work explores and interrogates cultural and historical relationships and ideas from Indigenous perspectives and traditions.

For bagan Bariwariganyan: echoes of country, Jones, supported by Bundanon Curator Boe-Lin Bastian, invited Aunty Julie Freeman and Aunty Cheryl Davison, two significant senior artists and storytellers from the south east whom he has known for many years, to collaborate on this major new project. Both artists’ families are deeply rooted in the NSW South Coast with Aunty Julie Freeman having connections from La Perouse to Wreck Bay and Aunty Cheryl from Wallaga Lake to La Perouse.

In Bundanon’s main gallery space, the three artists have created a large-scale immersive Aboriginal architectural gunyah structure built from over 80 turpentine trees harvested from the Bundanon site. Suspended from the gunyah in the canopy space are screen-printed skyscapes created by Aunty Cheryl Davison, depicting the local creation story of the Glossy Black Cockatoo and Cambewarra Mountain, near Bundanon.

A 75-metre mural by Aunty Julie Freeman and her daughter Markeeta Freeman wraps around the walls of the gallery, illustrating the significant bays, beaches, rivers and mountains that make up the South Coast physical and cultural landscape.

The mural is interspersed with drawings by Mickey of Ulladulla, a rare depiction of early colonisation and the shifting cultural landscape through an Aboriginal viewpoint. On loan from the National Library of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia and the State Library of NSW, this presentation marks the biggest showing of his works in recent years and the first time that many of the works have come back to Country since they were made.

Bundanon’s Gallery 2 will present Aunty Julie Freeman’s first ever major exhibition, Biddi-gal noon-kan-leek (Grandmothers belonging to me), featuring a major suite of paintings that document maternal stories of the plants, animals and weather patterns from across the region’s escarpments, mountains and waterways. Celebrating the continuing strength of women, key paintings are presented alongside cultural objects, further contextualising the stories shared by these living ancestors.

In Gallery 4, Aunty Cheryl Davison’s solo project, Dhawalanj bunbal-ba banggawu (Many trees and Burrawangs), reflects on the traditional use of Burrawang (Macrozamia communis) seeds to make bread with an ambitious installation of hand-woven baskets and a major four panel screenprint. A set of Aunty Cheryl’s soft sculptural figures, created from recycled blankets and carefully decorated, welcome visitors into the exhibition.

Connecting the three gallery spaces are bespoke soundscapes, featuring recordings of local oceans and streams, stories spoken in the local language, and Cockatoo birdsong. These new soundscapes sing the stories of this place, celebrating local traditions and the ongoing collaboration of these three artists and cultural leaders.

Artist Jonathan Jones, said: “Both myself and Bundanon are so lucky to be working with Aunty Julie and Aunty Cheryl, such significant artists who until now have not been given the recognition they truly deserve. This is a really special moment where we can put a spotlight on these extraordinary women and their stories, while creating a project that’s deeply embedded in this place and could only happen at Bundanon.”

Rachel Kent, CEO, Bundanon, said: “Bundanon is thrilled to present bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country, an exhibition that shares the significance of this place through image and sound, physical immersion and storytelling. This important project celebrates local traditions and the ongoing collaboration between these three important artists and cultural leaders.”

SUMMER AT BUNDANON – LIVE PROGRAMS

Alongside bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country, Bundanon has also revealed its upcoming summer program of live events including performances by acclaimed Indigenous Australian singer and songwriter Emma Donovan with Yuin choir Djinama Yilaga supporting (11 January); the inaugural Bundanon Artists and Makers Markets, brings together creatives from across the country to showcase and share their products (7 December); Creative Play comes to Bundanon with free art making opportunities; explore Indigenous land management with and a fascinating talk from historian Bill Gammage; and a special in conversation between Uncle Bruce Pasco and artist and researcher Jonathan Jones (12 January) and more.

To celebrate the newly opened Boyd Collection Gallery, Bundanon will also present a series of talks with artists and curators that unpack the influence Arthur Boyd had on his peers and the wider art world including a special concert with international piano soloist Alexander Boyd (8 December).

IMAGES AVAILABLE HERE

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MEDIA CONTACTS: To request interviews, further information or imagery please contact Articulate: Siân Davies sian@articulatepr.com.au 0402 728 462 or Sasha Haughan sasha@articulatepr.com.au, 0405 006 035.

ABOUT 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.

ABOUT 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 Arts and Culture at TAFE institutions along the South Coast, 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. 

ABOUT 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.