The multidisciplinary art event guided by the Wurundjeri seasonal calendar embeds Eastern Kuku Yalanji knowledge and connection to the Daintree in the landscape surrounding the Birrarung (Yarra River).
Julaymba - the Daintree name in language of Traditional Owners, is an immersive visual, sound and physical VR experience of the world's oldest rainforest.
It's an integral piece of this weekend's BAT MASSIVE, a night time event blending music and arts, the environment, and grey-headed flying fox colony which calls the local water system home with culture at Abbotsford Convent in Naarm's inner suburbs.
Alongside Yandell Walton's large-scale projection installation, ambient sounds from Japanese-born artist Ai Yamamoto, Georgian choir Gorani - when the bats fly overhead, alternative synth sounds from local favourite Simona Castricum and a host of DJ's take over the expansive space from dusk.
Writer Tee Mitchell explored survival, kinship and adaptation drawn from the bats in essay, adding to the canoe tour of Birrarung through Yarra Bend park trailing through the landscape.
"I am super excited to continue the Cultural Exchange with the Wurundjeri people who are the rightful story tellers of Naarm!," Julaymba producer Kirsty Burchill, daughter of project lead and Kuku Yalanji Elder Uncle Richard Birchill, told National Indigenous Times.
"We (Dad and I) have already been privileged to share with Uncle Collin (Hunter, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Elder) and some of the Elders and Traditional Owners within Melbourne that continuing our tradition of sharing stories is such a privilege and an honour."
Julaymba was developed in a partnership between Jabalbina Aboriginal Corporation, Traditional Owners and world-leading studio AR and VR PHORIA.
"When I look back on my own life, growing up in Daintree, I felt that we weren't getting the real story in our textbooks and from teachers," Uncle Richard told National Indigenous Times earlier this year.
"This is a kind way of telling my story, a personal way to pass on the truth of our history."
Uncle Richard said grown men have cried after taking part in the experience.
PHORIA co-founder Joseph Purdam was "keen to explore how this technology could support cultural storytelling and preservation".
BAT MASSIVE is part of Abbotsford Convent's WinterLIVE program - a series drawn the Wurundjeri seasonal calendar.
"It's been about engaging many different artists and communities across the site in interstitial spaces so the spaces that often aren't utilised in between the venues and obviously the venues as well," the heritage site's creative programming project manager Dario Vacirca said.
Mr Vacirca added the series is an engagement with the seasons for festival-like events.
In June, they hosted the Indigenous and artists event SOLSTICE - which featured Julaymba.
"What we've done is we've really brought the artistic and musical event together inside of that landscape," Mr Vacirca said.
"We've done that through the way we're curating and the way we're getting people to kind of move through the project."
Of Julaymba he added the opportunity to see what the Daintree was like before colonisation, and what is could be again, and expression of connection place, the animals and environments which calls the rainforest home is "extraordinary".
"It allows you to visualise it in such a strong way that otherwise you just have to imagine. And I think that that's the genius of the work, that it actually really transports the individual to the Daintree," Mr Vacirca said.
In March, Uncle Richard told National Indigenous Times: "I see the potential of this project to not only share my story but also to ensure our language, our culture, and our country are preserved for future generations."
Ticket sales to BAT MASSIVE help support Wildlife Victoria's work for the protection of native bats.
They are available online at the Abbotsford Convent website.
