Woven Histories

Photo Courtesy of Megan Evans

Woven Histories was a commission from the State Government to create

a temporary public artwork in the Ballarat Botanical gardens for the International music festival to celebrate 150 years since the Eureka rebellion.

Woven Histories involved artists, Gayle Madigan who is Indigenous and Megan Evans who is non-Indigenous, collaborating on an ephemeral public artwork, symbolising two perspectives, Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

The project was researched and designed over a six month period travelling to and from Ballarat. Extensive consultation was done in the Ballarat community with both the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community. We met with and interviewed people from the following areas – the Botanical Gardens, the Ballarat School of Art, The Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-operative the Wathuroung Elders group, Indigenous youth group, local writers/historians, Elders from the non-Aboriginal community, ANTaR Members, local artists, local librarians, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat City Council, horticultural students from Ballarat TAFE, Ballarat Council Depot.

The devastating effects of colonisation on Australia’s Indigenous peoples were widespread and total. In Victoria, from the 38 tribes that existed, 14 tribes were completely annihilated. Despite the devastating impact of dispossession and massacres that took place across Victoria the Indigenous tribes that survived maintained their connection to country according to traditional law and custom.

There has also been massive degradation to the land. The region of Ballarat was riddled with mullock humps as a result of gold mining and the surrounding landscape was cleared and replanted with non-Indigenous trees in an attempt at environmental colonisation.

The history of the Eureka rebellion mostly ignores the place of Indigenous land and culture. This sculpture symbolises issues of dispossession, exclusion and environmental colonisation this in a contemporary context.

Photo Courtesy of Ponch Hawks

A circle of eleven 45ft high pine trees were chosen that were situated near to the newly established Indigenous Wetlands, to create a temporary sculptural installation. The circle of trees has a universal sacred meaning across all cultures. They were a powerful metaphor for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who have died, for the 22 men who were killed at the Eureka Stockade gave their lives for a better Australia, and the thousands of Indigenous men women and children who were massacred to fulfill the Terra Nullius myth.

The circle of trees were covered in white ochre and then bound with sticks from Poplar and Pussy Willow trees that were cut from an island in the Indigenous wetlands. They represented a memorial in honor of all who have fallen. In the centre of the circle was another pine tree which was covered in red ochre and the lined with large gum leaves. This tree symbolizes survival and rejuvenation of spirit, land and people. This tree represents all the Indigenous children that were stolen and institutionalized in the orphanages and children’s homes in Ballarat. It honors the strength, courage, and commitment these children had to each other which helped them to survive. Around the central tree is a collection of rocks that jut out of the ground to create the effect of the violent disruption to the land as a result of mining.

Photo Courtesy of Megan Evans	Photo Courtesy of Ponch Hawks

The Community was invited to participate in a Reconciliation event

Over the three days of the festival there was an opportunity for the community both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal to sit down together and create an addition to the sculpture. A blanket made of leaves from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous trees was made by pinning together the leaves using both thorns from the Scottish Hawthorn tree and Pins from the Indigenous Hakea plant. Many people participated in this event and both helped to create a community blanket as well as their own individual offerings.

Photo Courtesy of Ponch Hawks

On the third day of the festival there was a Reconciliation picnic at to which everybody who participated in the making of the blanket was invited as well as all the people who have been involved in the project along the way. At the end of the picnic a ceremony was held in which the blankets were carried to the lake at the Indigenous Wetlands floated on the surface, symbolising the fragile state of reconciliation. This was a very moving event for many people.

Photo Courtesy of Ponch Hawks

This idea has been taken up by other ANTaR groups on several occasions as a way to engage people in the process of reconciliation. It was also done at the Sustainability Festival in Federation square where the general public participated, as well as in the City Square on Harmony Day as a project in collaboration with the MAD Project involving several hundred school children.

Woven Histories DVD now available!

	To obtain a copy of the Woven Histories DVD, contact the ANTaR office by email or on 9419 3613.