Bajirru! there you all are, hello! From the Yanyuwa language of Balarinji’s origin community Borroloola NT
Jinangu awara wabarrangu barra kalu-wingka marnijinju wabudala kari-nguthundawabarrangu jinangu Australia li-wulu marnaji barra liyi-Yanyuwawu awara li-Marranbala li-Arrwangala li-Gudanji jinangu awara Burrulula marnaji yamulhu
Our Country we belong to is Borroloola. Yanyuwa, Marra, Gudanji and Garrawa people.We welcome everyone to this land Australia.
Yanyuwa elder Samuel Evans Jamika
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. are respectfully advised this website contains references, artworks and images of people who have passed
#Branding #Community engagement #Curation #Graphic design #Interiors #Landscape architecture #Logo #Microsoft #Mural #Nespresso #Precinct #Public art #Qantas #Reconciliation Action Plan #Retail #Sculpture #Sydney #Transport for NSW #Workplace
Transport for NSW

M12 Motorway Designing with Country

#Community engagement #Curation #Precinct #Public art #Sculpture #Sydney #Transport for NSW
CLIENT
Transport for NSW
LOCATION
Sydney
YEAR
From 2019 - current
The new M12 Motorway will provide access to the future Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport at Badgerys Creek. A strategic objective for the M12 project was to “create a unique and distinct identity interpreting the rich sense of place and Aboriginal cultural heritage”. Through public art and design concepts, a key aim for the project was to provide an immersive ‘Welcome to Country’ experience to everyone travelling along the M12 Motorway.

Transport for NSW engaged Balarinji from the beginning of the project to develop a detailed Designing with Country framework and curate public art to embed local Aboriginal heritage and culture within the M12’s identity.

Through ongoing co-design and deep collaboration with the local Western Sydney Aboriginal community and community-endorsed Aboriginal artists, Balarinji developed the M12’s distinctive Aboriginal narrative and design concepts as well as a public art strategy that informed the artworks throughout the corridor.

Through Balarinji’s authentic co-design process, the M12 artworks are deeply connected to Country and reflect the unique cultural landscape of Western Sydney. They speak to the cultural resilience of Dharug people and Country.

Balarinji’s methodology included:

* Deep, authentic engagement and co-design with verified local Aboriginal community members and community-endorsed Aboriginal artists.
* In-depth, peer-reviewed desktop research.
* Workshop methodology to facilitate local Aboriginal knowledge holders and creative professionals to articulate and interpret an authentic knowledge for conceptual design interpretation.
* Translating the site’s core Aboriginal narrative for the M12 Design Team to integrate local Aboriginal cultural interpretation.
* Commitment to offering and building capacity in the Aboriginal creative community, by fostering local art practice and by growing partnerships with established and emerging Aboriginal architects and designers.

Themes and stories

The storytelling throughout the M12 acknowledges the area’s rich Aboriginal and cultural heritage as well as today’s local Aboriginal community.

  • Interconnectedness

The overarching design theme of the M12 is ‘interconnectedness’ which highlights the central Aboriginal tenet of both physical and spiritual belonging to Country. This grounding on Country places People, Culture and Country in relationship to each other. Interconnectedness stretches across time, culture, the natural world, technology and travel.

  • Great Emu in the Sky 

A key theme running throughout the M12 is the story of the Great Emu in the Sky, a Dreaming story of the local Dharug people which tells the story of Mariong (the Emu and Mother) and how she became the Milky Way. The Emu Dreaming story is interconnected across Australia.

  • Aboriginal Six Seasons

For thousands of years Aboriginal peoples have used seasonal indicators to guide when and what to eat and how to live within, and manage, the natural environment. Through artworks, wayfinding, colours and planting, travellers will experience the Aboriginal six seasons and the seasonal landscape. This concept encourages travellers to experience being ‘on Country’ within the overarching Aboriginal principle of Land as Mother.

  • Seasonal native planting

The M12 corridor will celebrate the unique flora and fauna cycles that characterise the six seasons of Western Sydney. Seasonal planting along with educational signage, will feature at each rest node, along the shared path and integrated into the Great Emu in the Sky sculpture. The seasonal planting encourages travellers to experience and connect with Country. 

  • Language

In Aboriginal culture language is closely linked to caring for Country. By speaking language on Country, you awaken Country and its innate spirituality. The use of language within the M12 corridor supports positive emotional and mental wellbeing.

  • Connection to Country

The connection to Country theme of the M12 corridor explores the importance that landscape plays within Aboriginal culture and the Dharug community’s ability to read the nuances of the land. 

Public Art Components

Adjacent to the M12 Motorway will be a shared path and six rest nodes. As you travel along this path you will experience the natural environment around you through a number of sculptural artworks as well as interactive wayfinding and signage elements. These installations interact with the different seasons and times of day, creating shadows and patterns across the path, giving new perspectives each time you travel along it.

Eucalypt Canopies

Created by Barry Gunter (Gandangara), Jasmine Seymour (Dharug) and Jamie Eastwood (Ngemba/Dharug) in co-design with Balarinji, the Eucalypt Canopy installations highlight the Six Seasons through tri-colour patterns.

The concept of scale of the Eucalypt Canopy installations with people using the shared path has been inverted. By changing the scale to an oversized eucalyptus leaf, the user becomes part of the environment with a different lens through which to experience the intricate detail of Country.

There will be three large leaf canopies, one at each of the entry points adjacent to the shared path on the main line acting as welcome landmarks, further expressing the theme of Aboriginal protocols and Interconnectedness. The third will be located near the creek lines to acknowledge the importance of creeks and water systems within Aboriginal community and culture, particularly Wiannmatta – Mother Place (South Creek).

There will be six smaller leaf canopies, one at each rest node along the shared path representing each of the Western Sydney six seasons.

Great Emu in the Sky Sculpture

Located at the Western Sydney Airport interchange, ‘The Great Emu In The Sky’ sculpture will be 30 metres high and tell the Dharug Dreaming story of the Great Emu constellation. It will act as a Welcome to Dharug Country and reflect interconnectedness, custodianship and Western Sydney’s unique Aboriginal culture.

The sculpture will be visible from a number of viewpoints for motorists, pedestrians and bike riders, Metro passengers, and even travellers on flights approaching and departing from the Western Sydney International Airport.

By day the sculpture will represent the emu nest. The signature sticks forming the nest will reference the landscape and materials of the Dharug area – ridge lines, silcrete, sightlines, waterways and the six seasons.

Like the Great Emu constellation which changes throughout the six seasons, at night the sculpture will light up and show two emu forms only visible from certain viewpoints; the emu sitting on the nest and the emu in the night sky. The sculpture links to the Aboriginal principle of custodianship and knowledge sharing; you only see what you are meant to see and once knowledge holders share their stories with those who respectfully receive the information, it becomes obvious.

The sculpture was created in co-design by the artist cohort; Danny Eastwood, Jamie Eastwood, Danielle Mate-Sullivan, Jasmine Seymour, Leanne Watson and Balarinji studio, and was conceived by Balarinji lead artist on the work, Tim Moriarty.

Overbridge Artworks

Featured on the safety screens of the six overbridges within the M12 corridor will be large scale artworks that depict the Dharug Emu Dreaming Creation story.
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Integrated Wall Elements

The major retaining walls located along Elizabeth Drive and the Airport Interchange will complement the other nearby artworks.

The walls will reference the Emu constellation through the use of an elegant, refined and receding material palette incorporating a constellation relief. In addition, undulating perforated weathering steel panelling will fix to the face of the walls of Elizabeth Drive interchange and incorporate Dharug language and a continuation of the constellation motif.

Wayfinding

Balarinji created a wayfinding style guide to ensure the unique and distinct identity of local Aboriginal stories and heritage was reflected in the M12’s wayfinding and signage.

Artist and Community Knowledge Holder Cohort

Danny Eastwood (Ngemba)
Jamie Eastwood (Ngemba/Dharug)
Barry Gunther (Gandangara)
Danielle Mate Sullivan (Murrawarri/Euahlayi)
Jasmine Seymour (Dharug)
Leanne Watson (Dharug)
Frances Bodkin (D’harawal)
Julie Jones (Dharug)
Corina Norman (Dharug – Warmuli/Cannemegal)
Tim Moriarty (Yanyuwa), Balarinji Lead Artist Great Emu in the Sky
Balarinji Design Studio