Whadjuk-Noongar songlines integrated on Curtin University campus

Emma Ruben
Emma Ruben Published July 15, 2022 at 1.28pm (AWST)

Two Whadjuk-Noongar songlines have been integrated into Curtin University's Bentley campus in the form of public artworks.

Nimunburr, Yawuru, Ballardong, Noongar artist Kamsani Bin-Salleh created the artwork Winin Katidjin Bilyaa and installed it on the courtyard of Curtin's new School of Design and the Built Environment building.

The two songlines have been named The Kujal Kela meaning Twin Dolphin, and Djiridji meaning Zamia.

The artworks respond to the songlines which run through the campus, Bin-Salleh said.

"I tried to make it look as if the lines were coming out underneath the building so it's as if the building was put on top afterwards," he said.

"The songlines are connected all over Country so I thought it was a nice reminder that... it extends beyond this, and beyond the boundaries put up by governments and state lines."

Bin-Salleh also drew inspiration from the pursuit of scientific knowledge.

"The inspiration for it was as if you're looking down at a petri dish and a microscope looking at the culture in the dish and it's a bit micro and macro," Bin-Salleh said.

"It inspired me as if I was looking at the country through a microscope and you can see that it's intertwined with everything.

"As you come back up to the macro and it comes back up to us as a people and we're connected beyond these boundaries."

As an artist Bin-Salleh said he is proud of the shift in creative spaces where more public artists are being pushed to include First Nations stories.

"It's so good that we're taking the steering wheel on our cultural narratives," he said.

"It's not really looking at it through a white lens anymore, it's us making the lens and people looking through our lens at the world."

Bin-Salleh's artworks can be seen on Curtin University's Bentley campus, surrounding the School of Design and the Built Environment building.

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