Yiradhu marang to all artists and collaborators,
My thoughts and solidarity are with those who have been impacted by the recent fires in Australia, as well as with the animals and plant life that have, in some cases, almost certainly been pushed towards extinction.
I would like to thank everyone for your recent emails, messages and phone calls, for your words of encouragement and action during these unprecedented and tragic bushfires. Many of you have asked me about how NIRIN, the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, is being affected, and even if it will still occur amongst this environmental catastrophe.
Yes, NIRIN will still take place. Sydney is safe to visit and spend time in as are other major cities. If there is any particular concern for an area of Australia you would like to visit during your stay, please let me know and the Biennale staff can respond to your query.
As a First Nations- and artist-led Biennale that asks the urgent questions of our age, it is an endeavour to hold fast. NIRIN focuses on many critical issues and pathways for action, reflecting on the environment and sovereignty as well as coming together. It is a place where creatives will congregate and support communities, and collectively reflect and give visibility to the challenges we face. Now is the time for us all to join hands and come together to discuss, debate and call for action; to grab this moment as a turning point. Family and community are our best allies against grief and disarray. Many artists, communities and collectives drive NIRIN and are working closely with urgent focus that expresses both tension and imagination connecting the environment, healing, collaboration and relationship to land.
These fires are truly a global wake-up call. It is a time for us to stay strong and come together – a pathway that can be led through First Nations methodologies and thinking – showing models of coming together, talking, supporting, and healing together, and emphasising the power of creativity in these processes.
Australia, much like fires in Brazil or recent floods in Indonesia, and plastics choking the oceans, is a magnifying glass for global change within our environments, showing the devastation and scale of catastrophe caused by climate change and human intervention. In spite of all of the challenges we face not only in Australia, but globally, including major shifts in human politics and conflict – and perhaps because of these – I look forward to NIRIN being a space where artists and collaborators can make noise and sustain ideas and pathways for a better future that is not just an imagining but a push for real change – something must shift!
The entire NIRIN 22nd Biennale team and communities look forward to greeting you all very soon.
Mandaang guwu,
Brook
