Yawara muku nura (language graveyard), 2022

Plaster casts, sand, gold flakes

Variable dimensions

 

This work was developed on Kaurna Country

 

Location: DB4-21

 

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Colonisation was a tragic event for the Indigenous people of Australia, none were left unaffected. Bradshaw draws from the disconnection and absence of knowledge of her Language Group, Wangkumara, to challenge the socio-political climate of what Aboriginality is and means in Australia from a detached-urban position.
 

Historical events of what occurred on Wangkumara Country are few, limited, and strew favour to those who claimed the land. One such example is contained in a short statement:
 

"In 1872, Aboriginals kill white stockman John Dowling, near Thargomindah. As a reprisal, troopers kill an estimated 300 Wangkumara."

 

Yawara muku nura (language graveyard) is a memorial to the lives and knowledge lost in this tragic event. The extent of this event is conveyed though the 300 cast objects, replicas of traditional Wangkumaran artefacts, are laid on a bed of Wangkumaran sand. These objects act as ghosts, whispering words of knowledge from a language that is all but lost.