BIRRUNGA WIRADYURI
Ngulumunggu Boundary
2017
acrylic on canvas
92 x 153cm
Ngulumunggu translates from Wiradyuri as ‘Outside of a thing, edge, end, the border.’ This piece shows the boundary of the imposed curfew area, beginning in the mid to late 1800’s where ‘blacks’ were excluded from around 4pm/sunset. This practice was still in place well into the 1900’s, in fact is still in living memory for many people.
In recent years there has been a movement to rename the Boundary streets as an attempt to set things straight. This, in my opinion is not useful and is informed by a Eurocentric sense of priority and propriety. So, this piece came to me to produce as a visual representation of the both the area of the curfew and the patterns of colonial occupation upon the lands of the Yugerra People in the South and the Turrbal People to the North.