All life depends on access to water and water was celebrated at the opening night of Water+Wisdom: Australia India on Thursday 30 November, when RMIT’s Professor Mark McMillian, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor, Indigenous Education and Engagement opened what he described as a ‘remarkable and coherent exhibition’ at RMIT Gallery.
Wurundjeri Elder Uncle Colin Hunter (below, with possum skin) performed the Welcome to Country, and guests included international artist Hanna Tulikki, Gunditjmara artist Sandra Aitken, artists and researchers Elder N’Ahweet Carolyn Briggs, Hannah Donnelly, Justine Philip, Jonathan Duckworth & Ross Eldridge, Bruce Partland and Jock Gilbert.
Water+Wisdom: Australia India is open until 10 March 2018, and looks at the importance of waterways in our everyday lives, and explores how visual artists, writers and film makers in both countries continue to tell the story of the stewardship of water through creative activities.
Curated by Suzanne Davies (above, right) and Helen Rayment (far left with artist Sandra Aitken), the exhibition seeks to provoke and reflect on the greatness of water in our lives to bring to the fore a focus for the future.
In this exhibition more than 40 creative practitioners and researchers tell us stories about the importance of water in spirituality, economy, transport, diasporas and family; weaving connective threads of the rich cultural, ecological and economic flow of water now across two separate continents.
Some artists tell dramatic stories of river pollution and destruction. Others evoke a spiritual power. The message is we ignore the responsibility to the waterways at our peril.
- All photos by Margund Sallowsky, 2017, RMIT Gallery.
RMIT Gallery 