Rayakana Milaythina – Wukalina
Why here and now:
Being that it is the ancestral country of my community and myself, it was essential to undertake a rayakana milaythina residency in the northeast. It is this country from which our people born and it was this are from which our ancestors were dispossessed.
This area is the single most culturally important area for our community today. My family traces back to Tanganutara who was born and raised around Port headland () / musselroe before being abducted by sealers into the bass strait as a girl in the 1800s. There are several names for country around that area that come directly from her – including layrapinthi – mouth of the musselroe river. All Tasmanian Aboriginal community have similar ancestral ties to this country specifically.
Our ancestors were removed from this country during the Black War waged against our ancestors by the British colony and were persuaded to leave by colonial agent George Austus Robinson, under the pretence of temporary sanctuary and respite from the violence of the war – with many of our people being removed into incarceration to Wybalenna on Flinders Island and other families descended from women abducted into the bass strait.
The residency was largely focused on the area within the Wukalina / Mount William national park being that area of country that has been least disturbed by development and farming since the dispossession of our old people. This area is notable in that there are important coastal heritage including more than 90 ‘midden’ or living sites across the coast as well as dry forests, lagoon systems and grasslands. The north east is also a stronghold of the forester kangaroo largely wiped out across the rest of the island.
This year the residency dates coincided with a community camp held within the Wukalina / Mount William National Park. This is the second year the camp has occurred, its purpose being to reconnect community to our home country as well as maintain a physical presence in the context of ongoing claims for ancestral land return.
Previously community presence has included annual camps held at Larapuna which is now returned to community under lease as well as the ongoing operation of the Wukalina walk – a tourism experience run by community within the park. There has also been years of work on a proposed sea country indigenous protected area and the expansion of the Aboriginal ranger program into management of this area.
This residency was centred around a celestial indicator recorded and passed on from our old people and revived into our language and practice only in the last few years. The star story speaks about the first fire given to our people and was originally transcribed from our old people including Manalakina – an important chief of the North East.
It has been only three years since our family started observing it and I was especially excited that the community camp fell on the dates of this seasonal indicator this year. I firmly believe that we cannot revive culture as individuals and families but that it needs to be within our whole community to be healthy and continued knowledge.
It is with this context or connecting to this cultural story and seasonal indictor that the rayakana milaythina residency took place alongside the community camp at Wukalina this year.
The Residency on Country:
This residency took place from the 12th-16th of December.
On this residency I took my partner and daughter as well as film maker and ceramic mentor Troy Melville. Troy was a perfect collaborator for this residency, having worked with community for years he would be able to easily fit within the camp context without being off-putting to anyone present – in fact just last year we both attended the camp filming for a different project storytelling the landscape. Troy is also an experienced ceramicist having both studied and taught the form and in the processes of establishing his own teaching studio.
We travelled up on the Friday, arriving very late at night to set up camp and begin fresh in the morning. I did see a few familiar community members up around the fire on the first night and had a good chat to them, including about the project – which was met with very positive responses.
On the morning of the first real residency day, I was able to offer community in attendance a yoga/movement class on the beach. Around seven people participated, and it felt great to be trusted to lead community through a practice that few were familiar with and it was very fun to end with a chant in language to ground ourselves into the place.
Later on that day Jam Graham-Blair and myself ran a casual palawa kani / plant and bushfood learning walk for around 15 people – largely families of children and parents in which we encouraged practicing of palawa kani as well as identifying and cultural uses significance for the plants in the area. This was another really enriching experience, getting to share, learn and practice culture alongside other community.
After lunch a lot of women were weaving river reed baskets in the shade. I sat down and actually had the patience to make my first full basket – funnily enough I first learn how to twine at Musselroe when I was a teenager and first learnt how to weave traditional baskets from Nindarra Wheatley around five years ago at Wukalina. To have finished one finally felt like an achievement that only could have happened here.
In the afternoon we went for a great swim – we found some wild clay where we were swimming and harvested some. Later I gave a little talk around the fire about the significance us being here together at this time and of the celestial indicator taking place that night and invited everyone to wake up before dawn to try to watch the star story with me. That night Jam led a smoking ceremony and we stamped/clapped and called to country in language almost at sunset which was absolutely beautiful.
That night I woke up at 3am and went down to the beach. On the way, I talked to quite a few community who had stayed up all night and seen the sky country indicator throughout the night. There were around 10 other people on the beach with me watching the sky – unfortunately at the peak time to see the indicator, the clouds set in low and obscured our view. Although I had gotten everyone to wake up at 3am for almost nothing, it was still special to be down on the beach together at that moment.
The next morning was the end of the community camp, and everyone packed up and left as the wind set in. We stayed longer and spent a lot of time harvesting and filming on the beach.
Originally we intended to spend the next few days of the residency at the community house at Diana’s basin down the east coast but there had been a devastating fire and the rangers warned it was both sad and not safe. Instead, we headed along the north coast to stay at Tomahawk.
Our day at Tomahawk I did some notetaking, reflecting and drawing before we walked the beach and crossed to the little island at the low tide line. This was an enriching and unexpected adventure that allowed us to get to know the area and see the coastline from a different angle.
The next day we travelled home down the east coast making stops at policeman’s point, St Helens and Binalong Bay before getting home.
Over the main day of the camp, I talked to as many community as I could about the rayakana project, this residency and ideas for the final showing. I got some great feedback, thinking points and recommendations for community members who could participate/perform at the final showing which was helpful.
What Harvesting and Making Happened:
- I harvested plant material on the cultural walk
- I harvested seaweed, kelp and sea shells along the beaches
- I harvested 3 different wild clays
- I made a basket and participated in some distilling of essential oils
- A lot of filming and photos
- I have harvested the materials to create natural glazes from country and am very familiar with the materials harvested from this area
Things That Made an Impression:
- The form of driftwood, kelp and abalone shells arranged by the tides on the beach
- The communal activity – the walks, the weaving, the language sharing, observing the star stories.
- The action and vibe of participation when leading the yoga on the beach
- Fire – gathering around it, watching it and observing the sky story together
Important themes: Relationship to Ancestral Country – maintaining, rebuilding and living in relationship with our country
A key theme of this whole project – building, maintaining and living in relationship with our country came across in such potent ways throughout this residency. Having communal and intergenerational sharing and cultural activities taking place throughout the camp and finding meaningful ways to facilitate positive experiences for community was a really fulfilling part of this residency. I was struck by the forms that community created and those that were created by country – in many places on the beach it looked like the abalone shells had washed up on a natural plinth or the kelp had been formed into such beautiful shapes by the water and the sun. Most of the activities and things made were in direct response to what was on country – community went diving, harvested plants for tea and oils, wood for clapsticks and waddies etc and the vibe of the camp was very rich in culture and stories.
Important themes: Sky and Fire
In the same way the Trawtha residency was characterised by water and flowing rivers, the wukalina residency was all about fire, ocean and sky. The indicator I was focusing on is a celestial one that centres our relationship to sky country. The idea of how we relate to and live with sky country is one that provides a rich ground conceptually, added to that this indicator relates to the first fire given to our people on this country and there is much to explore and weave into the work.
Important themes and messages: Land Return
It is almost impossible to tell a story related to this area of country without highlighting and advocating for land return. It is the purpose of all cultural and community efforts relating to connecting to and caring for our country. There has not been a single generation that hasn’t reiterated the call for our home country to be returned since the agreement was made between Robinson and Manalakina in the 1820s.
Key Conceptual Framework and Questions That Inform the Process and the Form:
- Trace
- I think this concept will continue to inform the whole project and each work created throughout the residencies. Trace “Explores practices which begin with what has been left behind…echoes, residues, impressions and marks that give presence to the past…Rather than focus on the historical and archival such practices embody forms of continuity and the cyclical…against a continued discourse of Aboriginal art that centres marks made by the individual, we turn towards forms of repetition, iteration and mediation and retracing the ancestral.
- Activation and Movement:
- I think it’s important that the form and its ability to make sounds can embody: active, fast and movement in itself without requiring too much manipulation. Unlike the Trawtha work this one is not as gentle or fragile/spacious feeling in its activation. a feeling when activated. I think the themes and aesthetic of fire and movement will/ should come through this piece in really tangible ways.
- Fire
- It is important that the form clearly articulates a sense of fire. I am excited to incorporate some alternative firing methods to achieve varied decorations shaped by and informed by fire itself.
The Meeting with Uncle Jimmy:
The meeting with Uncle Jimmy went really well. I feel we always have rich and inspiring discussions. So much so that we had our call on Wednesday before the camp on Friday and as a result Uncle Jimmy was inspired to come up at attend the camp on his way to the islands. It was fantastic to have him there on country throughout the residency and his excitement for reviving and reclaiming stories and practices of sky country is encouraging to myself and other community.
Throughout our conversations at the camp, we were able to look beyond the residency and start to think about the project as a whole: how it fits with broader cultural revitalisation, and encouraging the broader society to reshape relationships with our country in order to actually care for it, also the final presentation. Uncle Jimmy did express interest in participating in the final presentation if it accessible for him and it can be done on Truwana which I really like the idea of.
