Connecting to Country
Nicholson’s work represents her own interpretation of Wurundjeri Country but includes the six fundamental elements Traditional Owners believe are the building blocks of the area.
The work includes significant landmarks of Wurundjeri County, such as Coranhanwarabul (Dandenong Ranges) and Birrarung (Yarra River), the river flats and its many tributaries, as well as the plentiful marram (kangaroo) and boorimul (emu) that once roamed the land.
Wurundjeri lore says that Wurundjeri Country consists of six elements, or layers, and Nicholson has represented each layer in her work.
The six layers are all intrinsically linked and cannot survive without each other. Bunjil, seen in the physical form as a wedge-tail eagle, is the Creator of Wurundjeri Country. He lives in the uppermost layer and is connected to all the layers below:
Tharangalk Biik: The Forest Country above the clouds where Bunjil lives. The stars from Tharangalk Biik are reflected back onto earth in the waterways, descending through all other layers of Country.
Wurru Wurru Biik: Sky Country. Where we see the physical forms of our Creator Beings.
Murnmut Biik: Wind Country. Where the smoke from Welcome fires and language spoken and sung touch every element of County.
Baanj Biik: Water Country. Life sustaining, but also used in traditional Water Welcome ceremonies.
Biik-dui: On Country. Where we walk, dance and conduct ceremonies.
Biik-ut: Below Country. Where all life began, and where we collect ochre to decorate our bodies for ceremony and dance.
Nicholson’s artwork flows from the building’s western window façade, continuing inside the shopping centre on the ceiling space, telling the story of the flow between layers of Country as it progresses.
Nicholson’s complete work is depicted in black and white and pays tribute to Victoria’s Indigenous carving culture, its artwork distinctive for its symmetrical lines and diamond motifs.
Coranhanwarabul can be easily recognised on the ceiling at Burwood Brickworks, pointing east, where the Dandenong Ranges can be viewed from the shopping centre’s rooftop urban farm. Coranhanwarabul means ‘to grow you two’ and is an important part of the Wurundjeri Creation story of Birrarung.
Coranhanwarabul is represented in the work by a single wave. The small circles within it represent flowing water.
Water features prominently in Wurundjeri Country, captured by Birrarung and its many tributaries, including Kutung-ut (Gardiners Creek), one of the traditional boundaries for the Wurundjeri, and eventually flowing into Narrm Narrm (Port Phillip Bay). The river flats were once vast plains full of boorimul and marram, both of which are also represented in the ceiling artwork.
The wavy lines with circles within them at the top of the design depict baanjmin (rain) and banj (water), which derives from the ngurrak (mountains) and helps keep these important waterways continually flowing.
Banj is essential to life, which is why the artwork depicts water as connected to and connecting each of the six layers.
Nicholson’s complete work is striking in black and white. The work is symbolic of the cultural path the Wurundjeri people weaved across the area and pays tribute to their long history, while also pointing to future generations that will walk Wurundjeri Country. The work is a reminder of the depth of Wurundjeri culture and how it remains relevant in contemporary society.
Artist as educator
Mandy Nicholson hails from Healesville, a picturesque town at the base of the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne and approximately one-hour drive from Burwood Brickworks.
Nicholson identifies as Wurundjeri-willam but also has Dja Dja wurrung, Nhurai illum wurrung, German and Irish heritage.
She has been a visual artist for more than 25 years, specialising in acrylic work, and has also worked with ceramics, in printmaking, children’s clothing, on other public art projects and in collaborations with other artists.
Aside from art, Nicholson also has a Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Archaeology and worked for many years as a field representative on archaeological surveys for the Wurundjeri Council. With a special intertest in language, Nicholson has also worked with the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages and has enjoyed a position as a language specialist in her mother tongue, Woiwurrung, at Thornbury Primary School.
More recently Nicholson began a PhD at Deakin University on ‘Being on Country, Off Country’, which investigates ways Aboriginal people remain connected even when physically not on their Country.
Nicholson concentrates much of her time on mentoring young Aboriginal women through another of her initiatives, the dance group Djirri Djirri, who featured in a performance at the official opening of the Burwood Brickworks shopping centre in December 2019.
Installing the art
A piece of art as expansive as a shopping centre ceiling and including full-length window feature is not easy to install.
The process took months to plan and execute and involved the artist, Frasers Property, building contractor Hacer Group and specialist consultants and installers.
The artwork featured in the western window was painstakingly hand-painted by the artist herself, working in changeable weather conditions and difficult positions to render her design, often choosing to work next simply on the sections she was able to reach before the scaffolding could be adjusted to complete the next stage.
Installing the artwork featured on the ceiling inside the shopping centre involved a team from The Blueprint, Hacer Group’s specialist signage contractor, the use of a scissor-lift and patience by the bucket-load.
It took many months of planning and more than a month to install the artwork across the 1,700sqm space. Consideration had to be given to how the material used in the installation would meet the strict environmental considerations of the LBC®.
In preparation, special LBC® compliant Viponds paint was used to ensure the upside down graphic adhered properly to the plaster substrate. An additional LBC® compliant print medium, 3M Envision, was sourced from the USA to enable Nicholson’s artwork to be printed to a series of rolls that could be applied on site.
Teams of two then worked on scaffolding and a scissor-lift to meticulously line up each printed panel of the artwork according to Nicholson’s design. The process was painstakingly slow and precise and had to be undertaken in an active construction site environment, which presented its own challenges.
But the end result is well worth the effort.
