Martin Potter.
Brisbane Planetarium
Artist Statement
The show explores Australia’s past 140,000 years, incorporating traditional and scientific knowledges to tell Australia’s epic story and transport viewers to four locations: Girraween Lagoon on Larrakia and Wulna Country outside Darwin in the NT; Cloggs Cave on GunaiKurnai Country in Victoria’s East Gippsland region; Lake Mungo in NSW on the land of the Barkandji/Paakantyi, Ngiyampaa and Mutthi Mutthi people; and Jiigurru (Lizard Island) on the Great Barrier Reef, which is sacred to many, including the Dingaal community.
Creating ‘The Earth Above: A Deep Time View of Australia’s Epic History’ has been a deeply collaborative experience. Our work together on Country made the stories better. Co-creating these stories echoes connections that have been made between Indigenous knowledge systems and emerging research that transforms our shared understanding of Australia’s deep time history.
The Australian First Nations’ understanding of Country represents a complex system that is much more than a place. All facets of the environment – rock, tree, river, hill, animal, human – are formed of the same substance by the Ancestors who continue to live in land, water, sky. Country exists as a ongoing, relational experience. It doesn’t matter the form (bird/ plant/ human etc) – being on Country means being in a relationship with this elements that are inherently part of us, as we are part of them. Ultimately this film is expression of Country and of a philosophy of Country – an ontology of Country, as well as an acknowledgement that different knowledge systems – when they enter into sustained and careful dialogue and deep listening can transform our ways of being.
About the artists
The Ruwe Collective is an Australian based collective of Indigenous and non-indigenous filmmakers, Elders, Traditional Owners, storytellers, artists, performers, archaeologists and animators who have come together to create a series of immersive stories that capture the entanglement of emerging archaeological research with Indigenous knowledges. The full-dome planetarium show ‘The Earth Above: a deep time view of Australia’s epic history’ is one of these stories. The Ruwe Collective come from every nation represented in this story – from saltwater country in the far north of Australia to the lakes and mountains of the south. ‘Ruwe’ is a Ngarrindjeri word denoting a central government representing many tribes and it also connotes Country.
The planetarium video has been co-created with traditional owner groups across 4 key sites: Girraween Lagoon (Larrakia and Wulna), Lake Mungo (Paakantyi, Ngyiampaa and Mutthi Mutthi), Cloggs Cave (Gunai-Kurnai) and Lizard Island (Dingaal and Ngurrumungu).
Traditional Owners and key community members from each nation featured in The Earth Above co-created the stories: writing, voicing, visualising and animating the work. Through this co-creation ‘The Earth Above’ aims to contribute to a transformation of our understanding of Australia’s ancient Indigenous heritage and environment.
Credits: Ruwe Collective (Director); Martin Potter (Producer, Co-Writer); Writers: Kenneth McLean, Lorraine Williams, Russell Mullett, Warren Clarke, Bernadette Pappin, Mary Pappin Jnr., Will McCallum, Charlie Hill-Smith, Annie Risk, Donna Jackson, Louie Charlie; Scott Jackson (Lead Animator), Lowell Hunter (Artist). Indigenous consultants and voices: Kenneth McLean, Russell Mullett, Junette Mitchell, Joan Slade, Warren Clark, Ernest Mitchell, Audrina Pappin, Bernadette Pappin, Warren Clarke, Lawrence Clarke, Joan Slade, Uey Slade, Lorraine Williams, Annie Risk, Donna Jackson and Stephanie Williams. Motion Capture performers: Kenneth McLean, Alfie Hudson, Bernadette Pappin, McKerral Pappin, Audrina Pappin, Keaton Pappin, Douglas Pappin, Melanie Pappin. Composer: Simon Walbrook