Tracing the past, shaping the future
Exploring how Indigenous Knowledges and cultural land management can shape a more sustainable future.
Earlier this year, we asked the Lismore community about their vision for our town's future, gathering ideas through meetings, small group chats and many cups of tea. One of the most consistent themes across these discussions was the opportunity to shape our future through Indigenous Knowledges and culture.
This dovetailed with the NSW Government's commitment to ensuring that all built environment projects in the state are developed with a Country-centred approach, guided by Aboriginal people, who know that if we care for Country, Country will care for us.
But what does it really mean to work with Indigenous Knowledges? What do people mean by cultural land management? How can—and should—Indigenous custodianship integrate with European concepts of land ownership, planning and management systems?
This exhibit explores these questions by exploring how the physical environment has changed from pre-colonial times to the present day. We do this through the lens of plant communities, contrasting the environmental conditions shaped by the Country-centred worldview of the Bundjalung people with those shaped by the dominant Eurocentric, human-centred perspective of today.
This exhibition has been developed collaboratively with Jagun Alliance, Zion Engagement and Planning, Agency In Design and ReconEco.
5 Nov 24 — 6 Feb 25
Tue-Thu, 1-4pm (closed from 20 Dec 2024 to 13 Jan, reopening Tue 14 Jan)
Living Lab Northern Rivers shopfront
11 Woodlark Street, Lismore.
Body as Country: Creative movement workshop
This two hour-long creative movement workshop facilitated by Mitch King and Tess Eckert invites participants of all ages to explore movements inspired by the elements that make up our inner and outer landscapes.
This workshop will include guided visualisations and fun creative games and tasks using the elements of dance (space, shape/gesture, time, emotion, story) to explore the elements of water, earth, air, fire, and the animal body to reconnect through our bodies to country.
Open to all ages and abilities. No prior dance experience needed. Children under 13 years old must be accompanied by a guardian. Please wear clothing that is comfortable to move in, a water bottle, a journal, an open mind and curious body!
Tuesday 28 January 2025
4.00pm - 6.00pm
Event Space, Lismore Regional Gallery
11 Rural Street, Lismore
Free. Places are limited and registrations are essential.
Body as Country workshop facilitators
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Tess Eckert
Tess Eckert is a Scape-artist, expressive arts activist, facilitator, and student of life. That is to say, she is fascinated by creatively exploring the relationship between our diverse inner and outer landscapes via contemporary dance, poetry, sound, and mixed-media.
Tess utilises the language of dance/movement and somatic arts for community building, healing, and social justice.
Eckert is a descendent of U.S. First Nation’s, German and Swedish ancestors. Having migrated to the Bundjalung Nation/Northern Rivers 12 years ago from the Rocky Mountains of North America, central to Eckert’s collaborations is an investigation of how to create a sense of belonging and connection to our inner and outer worlds, with the aim of opening up possibilities for healthier ways of being, relating and moving.
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Mitch King
Mitch King is a performing artist, creative producer, and a proud Yaegl & Widjabul Wia-bul man from the Bundjalung nation on the east coast of Australia.
His main disciplines are music, theatre, and dance - he loves telling stories through sound, movement and film.