Works featured in Solastalgia: South Coast Regional Art Centre, Goolwa 2018

Importance of Stories and Language

video installation 2018

“Ngarrindjeri people persistently defend their lands, culture, and their traditional way of life with resilience and determination as they have done generation after generation. Ngarrindjeri culture and language once thought as fragments of a human past that would soon disappear in the fog of history have been revived. Remaining  Ngarrindjeri Elders who have experienced living on the land and Fringe Camps have continually maintained their stories through cultural activities like weaving.

At the core of Indigenous knowledge is the respect for country, trust, reciprocity, the stories, the living Elders and the Old people who passed on.

This video clip of Aunty Ellen Trevorrow is from my video archives and forms part of my PhD study.  The focus of this research is to record and understand Indigenous Elders' knowledge journey practices, observed during the cyclical process of how knowledge is created, synthesised and shared ethically in their unique social and cultural contexts.

In this context, the video epitomises a weaving process as a tool and a ceremonial process of transferring knowledge and stories to the younger generation. It is a metaphor of resilience and vulnerability of oral tradition.  So, each of us has a role to play in empowering Elders with the support necessary and make a positive step in helping close the gap.”

Jelina Haines, PhD Researcher & Video Ethnographer