Exhibition catalog
Walking A/r/tography [artwork] in Mapping A/r/tography: Transnational storytelling across historical and cultural routes of significance, curated exhibition
International Society Of Education through Art (UNESCO body)
2019
Metrics
67 Record Views
Abstract
The Australian site of the Mapping A/r/tography project engaged the method of a/r/tography and acknowledging the Australian first people’s Indigenous connection to walking the land as ‘songlines’ ‘strings’ or ‘Dreaming tracks,’ ancient passages, pathways, the inquiry explored how these routes are enacted as cartographies of the landscape. Thus, the inquiry on the Australian site engaged a rich cartography of place, culture, history and identity on and around the Gondwana Rainforest in South East Queensland.
The sites of the Gondwana Rainforests are the most extensive subtropical rainforests in the world. This ancient world heritage site aroused transnational and intra-national storytelling about human-land relations and the complex connections between identity and space for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians through the lens of homelands and languages.
The research team chose to engage secondary and primary (elementary) school students to join them in the inquiry. As a first step, we invited Indigenous Elders to share their knowledge of Country with the students prior to the site visits in order to understand the correct protocols and to engage with deep knowledge of the site. The students were then positioned and trained as a/r/tographic co-researchers who then collaboratively walked the site cyclically over time, mapping the encounters and experiences through as a sustainable living inquiry.
Students from Arcadia Secondary College and the Silkwood School on the Gold Coast joined Southern Cross University researchers and visited the Gondwana Rainforest at the site of Natural Arch. They walked and mapped the site through drawing, photography and video. From this a/r/tographic fieldwork, they then spent several studio days creating further mappings and artworks, co-analyzing and co-creating further data from the original maps, which included drawing, painting, poetry and speculative fiction. This exhibition showcases a co-curated selection of this work.
Details
- Title
- Walking A/r/tography [artwork] in Mapping A/r/tography: Transnational storytelling across historical and cultural routes of significance, curated exhibition
- Creators
- Alexandra Lasczik - Southern Cross UniversityKatie Hotko - Southern Cross UniversityT McGaheyAmy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles - Southern Cross University
- Publisher
- International Society Of Education through Art (UNESCO body); Vancouver, Canada
- Identifiers
- 991012870599302368
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Education; School of Education
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Exhibition catalog