Concept Realisation

Dr Vicki Couzens in collaboration with Jeph

Neale and Hilary Jackman

A Possum Skin Cloak or Spirit Cloak conjoined with a wedge-tail shaped Spirit Memory Imprint is the dual aspect form chosen to characterise and signify the conceptual intent of Wurrunggi Biik: Law of the Land.

Possum Skin Cloaks are significant objects of cultural expression, used in both practical daily life and for ceremony. Babies are wrapped in Cloaks, people are buried in Cloaks. Many of our treasured historical photos depict our Old People in Cloaks. After the interruption of European invasion, Cloaks have been returned to their rightful place in community, and are now iconic to the south-east of Australia.

The wedge-tailed eagle is another iconic figure in our collective Aboriginal Creation story across the south-east. Bunjil is the great Creator Spirit in this story and travels as an eagle. In this work the wedge shape of the eagle’s tail is used to infer the presence of Bunjil and the Creation Ancestors. It is described as a Memory Imprint and is in fact meant to be the representation of the residual ethereal, metaphysical imprint of the Creation Spirits ever-presence.

Here, in Wurrunggi Biik: Law of the Land, these two significant elements combine to embody the spiritual, conceptual, intellectual, and emotional values of Aboriginal Creation Law. Their physical realisation in place is a revealing, a bringing forth and making visible the intangible presence of our Creator Ancestor Beings: Sovereign sentinels and guardians of place; custodial stewards of Country. Our Creator Ancestor Spirits, from time immemorial, observe, guide and direct the continuous, never-ending cycle of creation.

The Work’s ongoing presence in place is intended to seed a deep cognizance of the constant, unbroken ever-presence of the Creation Spirit Ancestors. This seeded awareness will conjure and grow a heartfelt shift in perceptions and understandings of place, belonging and the shared responsibility, within the Wurrunggi Biik: Law of the Land, to care for our Mother Earth.