Artist interview: Paola Balla
Artist Paola Balla discusses her work for WILAM BIIK
Murrup (Ghost) Weaving in Rosie Kuka Lar (Grandmother’s Camp) by Paola Balla (Wemba Wemba & Gunditjmara)
WILAM BIIK is an exhibition of cultural consciousness and knowledge, of an unsevered connection between First Peoples of South East Australia and their Country, over thousands of generations.
Header image: Paola Balla, Murrup (Ghost) Weaving in Rosie Kuka Lar (Grandmother’s Camp) 2021 with Rosie Tang, Untitled Wallpaper, image c. 1978, reproduced 2021 (detail) installation view, WILAM BIIK, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2021. Courtesy of Paola Balla. Photo by Andrew Curtis.
Filmed by James Wright at TarraWarra Museum of Art in October 2021, on Wurundjeri Country.
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Songlines
Discover how songlines are woven through WILAM BIIK as First Nations Curator Stacie Piper shares what songlines mean to her and explains how these Ancestral routes informed her curatorial work for WILAM BIIK. WILAM BIIK is an exhibition of cultural consciousness and knowledge, of an unsevered connection between First Peoples of South East Australia and their […]
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at TarraWarra Museum of Art
The First Peoples of Australia are the oldest continuing culture in the world—over 60,000 years—and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists comprise a significant proportion of our artmaking community. Working in a wide variety of forms and media, their works often convey a range of responses that reflect their abiding connection to Country; their Ancestral […]
Crediting works to Liwik (Ancestor)
First Nations Curator Stacie Piper discusses the inclusion of Liwik in WILAM BIIK For WILAM BIIK, curator Stacie Piper chose to refer to some works as ancestral tools and adornments, and credit the maker as Liwik (Woiwurrung word for Ancestor), rather than using the Western museum terminology of artefacts or objects by maker ‘Unknown’. WILAM […]
First Nations map of language groups
Discover the diverse languages and home Countries of WILAM BIIK artists First Nations Curator Stacie Piper explains how language groups and home Countries informed her curatorship for WILAM BIIK: “When it came to curating this exhibition I decided there was only one place to start — with Country, the story of Home. I have always […]
Listen to WILAM BIIK music playlist
Get into the spirit of WILAM BIIK, curated by Stacie Piper, with a special playlist of Indigenous music. As you listen, picture yourself resting by a river, the surface of the water gently rippling as it flows past you. Breathe in the minty aroma of the Coranderrk bush. Rub the rich, warm earth between your […]