In an exciting new chapter for the Biennale of Sydney, the Sydney Opera House has unveiled a captivating new instalment of Badu Gili—meaning ‘water light’ in the language of the traditional owners of Bennelong point—the enchanting video installation that is projected nightly onto the iconic Sydney monument during the festival.
This year, Badu Gili: Celestial will weave its magic on the Eastern Bennelong sails, casting its spell at sunset and captivating audiences at different times throughout the evening. This dynamic projection promises a celestial dance of light and sound, showcasing the extraordinary talents of celebrated Meriam artist Gail Mabo from Mer Island in the Torres Straits, and Nikau Hindin, a Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi artist from Aotearoa.
Crafted as a tapestry of First Nations storytelling, this visual display is a collaborative masterpiece between the Opera House, the Biennale of Sydney, and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. Navigating the celestial realms with Mabo's bamboo and cotton star maps and Hindin's Māori aute bark cloth, the six-minute digital animation becomes a portal to ancient practices of celestial navigation across both artists’ Indigenous cultures.
For Nikau Hindin, her part in the installation is a culmination of a number of different pieces she’s made over the years with her primary material, aute, a Māoir bark cloth more commonly known as Tapa cloth. The work shows her process of beating the fibre of the plant, and watching it expand into something you can wear or use for adornment, or even turn into objects like a manu aute kite. “The animation is about the practice of aute, but also the revitalisation of celestial navigation,” Hindin explains. “I make star maps about the rising and setting of different stars during different times of the year, because we used to use stars as a way to locate ourselves in time and space. So I use my aute as a way to hold stories from my culture, to repay and store knowledge, and to talk about our world view.”
Working with the Biennale and Fondation Cartier has been important to Hindin not just as an artist, but as an Indigenous cultural practitioner, and through the Badu Gili, so many other people’s stories are being told. “These are the sort of voices that have not been heard for a very long time and I think that it’s the right time for our voices to be amplified,” Hindin says. “Even though they’re supporting me, my project involves many other collaborators and bark cloth makers from all around the Pacific, so it’s also an investment in community. It’s not just me that’s benefitting.”
A unique and special experience for Hindin as a Māori to be working on Gadigal land in collaboration with Indigenous Australians, the artist notes that it’s an honour, and holds a lot of cultural significance, to share this space. “It’s a big privilege to have my artwork, to have Māori patterns, on Gadigal land, and we were very aware when we were making this to acknowledge the Tangata Whenua or the traditional custodians of the land. In the beginning of my section is a traditional Karanga, which is a Māori call that we do at the first interaction between two peoples, and then you also have a Waerea. The Karanga was performed by Te Kuru o te Marama, so this was a traditional way that we could acknowledge Tangata Whenua, because it’s a significant place and I’m very lucky to be there.”
Hindin shares a hope that her part in the installation will inspire viewers to seek, learn and reach for more. “[My work] is very reliant on the environment, using natural resources and connecting with different seasons by noticing the stars and the moon. I hope that people know that that’s a pathway to take, and that there’s a whole livelihood there that people could have if they wanted to.”
This article has been abridged for our website.
