With S-I Projects, we have contributed to the baanytaageek - Great Swamp Fragments publication as a part of the exhibition held at MUMA Museum in 2023.
The following project text is written by Nigel Bertram and Catherine Murphy -
Two hundred years ago, on the estate of the mayune buluk of the Boon Wurrung language group, a vast baanytaageek, the Great Swamp, was covered with shallow waters and thick, impenetrable vegetation. With much difficulty, this dynamic low-lying region on the northern edge of Western Port Bay was comprehensively cleared and drained in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and subdivided for farming, infrastructure and settlement. Today we are all custodians of this altered ecosystem, degraded after more than a century of extractive processes. Only a few remarkable fragments of the wetland complex remain— a raised mound of melaleuca, a tidal inlet edged with mangroves, and a dense thicket on a boggy creek bed. This exhibition reveals the intricacies of these particular, isolated and generally inaccessible fragments through moving and still imagery, a geophonic soundscape, Boon Wurrung spoken language, and a layered, archival map of the larger catchment.
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Warrnambool, South West Victoria, Gunditjmara Country
Parkville, Naarm, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country
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