Temporal Mark: a Personal Acknowledgment of Country by francesdanckert

temporal

mark

Frances Danckert is a non-Indigenous artist & designer, who writes often. She was born on Whadjuk Country, Perth and is now based in Kulin, Melbourne.

I would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional owners of the unceded land that I am currently living and working on here in Brunswick. I am grateful for the opportunity to respond to Womin Djeka and strive to uphold and respect Bunjil’s laws throughout my life and design practice.

I In a time where I feel separate distanced isolated from my hometown — Whadjuk, Perth, I have had to create a new space a new home for myself — Wurundjeri Country, Naarm / Melbourne a transitional time time that feels formative — ties severed by political agenda states drifting family distant yet near same country but miles

apart

uncertainty has governed my time here has fuelled my desire

to set down roots

to seek what has stayed anchored what has remained the offer the obligation of Indigenous sovereignty. Time time that has given me space to examine why am I here? why do I choose to be here? how do I define being and feeling “home”

I am living in an urban landscape

a colonial mask over sovereign land

strip it back unearth the questions dig to find the answers (within) and with( )out myself

II Bunjil is here soars above deep below spirit within protecting enveloping the landscape

how do I connect to this land that I am starting to see anew? a new relationship a blossoming friendship

I come

I respond to the question Womin Djeka “What is your purpose?”

I extend my hand open palm open mind open heart

I come to learn

to deconstruct my colonial ways of understanding and learning to build to layer to grow

This land is old but my understanding of it feels new

unpick retrace

I want to peel back

unearth

day by day little by little

inch by inch

III nestled between two

bridges rush of water

meets

rush of road

I mark my place in shadow

colour cast against soft bank

soaring

high

above waters

fleeting impression temporal mark

I stand here I was here welcomed on sovereign land

trying to leave only the imprint of memory on land

Do not harm the land Do not harm the waters Do not harm the children

I lay back in the grass feel the earth under hand

reach further

down down

cool soil whispering against fingers

the shade of the bank offers a place of quiet reflection

recentering a haven in my concrete landscape

I pass through

place of

sanctuary

place of

(solitude)

place of

water

steel structure hangs over me

but the land is

below

me around me above me

welcoming me into a warm embrace telling me I’m home this new place

Dusk sets on Brunswick

I watch street lights flicker and glow

Hands deep in pockets

Pace quickens against the wind

Waring season has settled in days short nights

air that could sn ap

Kettle Lamp Cat

Beckon me home

Bag down Socks on Bedcovers up

I’ve been seeing layers

peeling back

picking apart

digging down

opening up

what was is always will be here Kulin land

I have dived into archives

learned the colonial history

explored concrete streets sat on grassy banks

grown familiar grown together grown full

I look up see Bunjil see Wurundjeri see Kulin see Brunswick see Albert Street see home.

Noon gudgin

Thank you

Further Readings Works that have inspired me and continue to nurture my growing relationship with Country and response to Womin Djeka...

Poetry, articles, comics and books AIATSIS Literature Review. The Benefits Associated with Caring for Country. 2011. https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/research_pub/benefits-cfc_0_3.pdf Birch, Anthony. ‘Our Red Sands dug and sifted’: Sovereignty and the act of being. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), 2016. Cobby Eckermann, Ali. Ruby Moonlight. Magabala Books, 2012. Frascarelli, Carmine. Sydney Road Poems. Rabbit Poetry Journal, 2016. Grills, Eloise. Corio. 2018. https://readingvictoria.cityofliterature.com.au/2018/10/04/corio/ Heaney, Seamus. 100 Poems. Faber & Faber Ltd, 2018. (selected works): Digging Follower Bogland Kwaymullina, Ambelin. Living on Stolen Land. Magabala Books, 2020. Pascoe, Bruce. Dark Emu. Magabala Books, 2014. Van Neerven, Ellen. Throat. University of Queenland Press, 2020. Wallman, Sam. So Below: A Comic About Land. 2016. https://sobelow.org

Videos, Interviews and podcasts Pascoe, Bruce. Kuller Kullup. Red Room Poetry [Audio]. https://redroompoetry.org/poem/bruce-pascoe/kuller-kullup/ Prithvi Varatharajan (Host) with Bruce Pascoe. (2018). Episode 2: Old river rooted neath the speargrass. New Shoots: A Garden of Poems. [SoundCloud audio]. https://soundcloud.com/user-814591491/episode2 Quinn, Rod (Host). (2020, April 25). On Country: Kulin. Overnights with Rod Quinn. ABC Radio [Audio podcast]. https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/overnights/kulin/12330016 RMIT University. (2018, March 9). People of the River [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yzcyZIvC6I

an act of documentation and discovery in order to continuously grow, build upon, share. a stepping stone.