Client: Amazon Australia

Location: BWU2 Fulfilment Centre - Kemps Creek 

Artists: Leanne Redpath (Watson) with Barahanos Byrne (Tina Barahanos & Alexandra Byrne)

Title: Ngarra Naangun Buru Bamurawa (coming together we see buru on the place of grasses)

Year: 2022

Medium: Roland Tru-Vis Eco Solvent Laminated Print on Avery 2611 wall film. 

Dimensions: H4.3m x W6.8m

Fabrication Partner: Comcut Group

 

Context: This artwork was created especially for the Amazon Australia BWU2 Fulfilment Centre Kemps Creek. 

The artwork conveys connection to Country and Language while seamlessly merging traditional Dharug and contemporary cultures. Emerging links between the past, present and future uses of the site are conveyed through its historic, cultural and ecological story: a meeting place to connect, share and exchange.

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“Visual, spoken and written language are the way we tell our stories and share our knowledge with each other. The site is a traditional place for trading tools and for seed gathering." Leanne Redpath

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Leanne began telling the story of this area and sharing her images of meeting places and flora and fauna. We talked about grasses and other plants that grew here, how they were used for weaving medicine and food, the loss of habitat and the enduring resilience of this land. We spent time travelling around the local area in and around the industrial developments and adjacent creeks, green spaces and bushland taking photos of the plants and animals we saw. We were so excited and heartened to see small groups of kangaroos at three different sites in one day.

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The artwork brings together Leanne’s Dharug cultural knowledge and designs with Tina and Alex’s imagery of natural elements from the local Kemps Creek area. These combined elements were made into drawings and digitally collaged to create the finished artwork. They include Meeting Places and significant flora and fauna such as Kangaroo grass (Themeda Australis), Wattle Mat-rush (Lomandra species), Paroo Lily (Dianella caerulea), Red-fruit saw-edge (Gahnia sieberiana), Blady Grass (Imperata cylindrica), and Eastern Grey Kangaroos (Buru footprints). Together these placemaking elements are represented in Dharug language paired with an English translation to preserve language and embed it in the landscape of our present.

 

Images show the work installed and a detail of the text.