Flow (2018-ongoing)

Botanic Gardens staff listen to the trial of Cookaroo Flow in the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, 2018

In the International Year of Indigenous Languages (2019) and International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–32), this participatory, site- and culture-responsive audio installation utilised the natural flow of water to convey the voices of First Nations children in Australia and overseas, speaking their messages to the world in their First Languages.

The children’s words, recorded and edited into a soundscape, were ‘released’ into the water to flow to the oceans.

This work is essentially invisible to passersby, yet the underwater audio can be accessed via a poetically simple means: a stick held with one end in the water, the other against the ear.

Aboriginal Education Officer Terry Crawford assisted with the installation of Cookaroo Flow in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, 2018

The work was conceived in Aotearoa (New Zealand), on an Intercreate residency at Parihaka Pa, with children speaking te reo Māori. Thank you Intercreate NZ, and also Parihaka Elder Maata Wharehoka, for all your support.

Parihaka Elder Maata Wharehoka listens to the prototype

Children from the local te kura school created the audio for the prototype

Thank you also to Red Room Poetry for the Poetry in First Languages workshop at which I recorded the audio for the full public trial of the work, Cookaroo Flow, in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, with students from Alexandria Park Community School, Sydney messaging in Gadigal, and students from the Northern Territory messaging in Western Arrernte and Anmatjere/Warlpiri.

A Cookaroo Flow participant records her Gadigal contribution (photograph by Tad Souden)

Subsequent installations have taken place in:

NSW: Bungli Flow, a Gumea Dharawal iteration at Bundanon (Illaroo). Workshops (run by Red Room Poetry with the support of Bundanon Trust) in mid-August 2019, and installed at Shoalhaven River Festival (26 October 2019) – supported by Create NSW.

WA: Worain Kep-Ak Koorliny Flow – audio created with Brookman Primary School with the assistance of Langford Aboriginal Association, in 2019 and 2023, and installed in the Muddy Hands Festival, Canning River Eco Education Centre, Perth – supported by the Federal Government via Creative Australia and the City of Canning.

Aotearoa (NZ): Rotorua Flow, a te reo Māori iteration in Rotorua. Working with Malfroy Primary School, Rotorua Boys’ High School and Rotorua Lakes Council, November 2019 – supported by Creative New Zealand.