“Murnong” is a collection of audiovisual works comprised of three digital video projections and soundscape. This collection explores my relationship to the murnong plant, a staple food crop for my Murri ancestors before invasion, as well as peoples of the Kulin nation, a food that I recently began to grow in my backyard.
Two videos are composed of documentation of different stages of murnong growth. One video is composed of footage of a tablecloth my Aunty Cheryl Moodai Robinson made in the 1990s while working on Dharug country, which features information about, and drawings of, murnong.
This work highlights the sacredness of the plant, its importance to me, my family, and many other Aboriginal people on the east side of the Australian continent who have connections to the plant, pushing it forward as a symbol of survival. The act of growing, harvesting, cooking, eating and collecting + sharing its seeds is a powerful healing and decolonial action for myself and other Murris and Kooris, empowering us to connect further with traditional life-ways after 180 years of familial dispossession and forced assimilation.
___________________________________
This piece has been created as part of an artist residency with the Centre of Projection Art, at the Mission to Seafarers building on Boonwurung country (Docklands, Victoria).
www.centreforprojectionart.com.au/skylight
released January 16, 2023
recorded on wurundjeri woi wurrung country.