We have stories for all the dark spaces inbetween considers the interrelation of data networks and Indigenous ways of knowing land and relation. The title comes comes from Aboriginal astronomy, where both the darkness and light of the night sky tell stories and inform our world. The expression invites us to consider networks of care, and how all things, not just the visible, need to be known and maintained to sustain us all.

In Arnhem Land, people believe that galka (dark heart person) is still living with us. You will find them in the bushes with painting on their body. Galka is the second film by Yolŋu film maker Ishmael Marika. It brings to the screen a character and a danger long since spoken of in Yolŋu culture, and heralds a warning to all who may find themselves in the presence of Galka.

Master weaver and colour dyer Laŋani Marika, the most senior elder of the Rirratjiŋu clan, imparts her colour knowledge to the generations of tomorrow in these two videos extracted from an original 6 piece video installation by The Mulka Project of Northeast Arnhem Land. Created by two accomplished Yolŋu cinematographers, Patrina Munuŋgurr & Gayili Yunupiŋu, this exhibition weaves together Laŋani’s alchemy, art, and ethnobotany with vibrancy and colour. This collection of knowledge now permanently resides within The Mulka Project’s Yolŋu owned archives in Yirrkala but will be on display to the public for a short time over the Darwin International Film Festival at Darwin Visual Arts Association between the 15th and 24th September.

In this video, originally commissioned by the Sydney Opera House, Hepi uses the migratory route of the Anguilla Reinhardtii (the longfin eel), as an allegory for the performance of pursuit and return. Hepi personifies the Anguilla’s journey home through the Sydney Opera House and into the waters that surround it in a dynamic chase scene, as the eels travels over two-thousand kilometres from New Caledonia to the freshwaters of the Royal Botanic Gardens. Presented in two opposite screens are two interrelated images that speak and return to one another with edited loops and glitches. For centuries eels have held peoples’ imagination. The way in which they mate and reproduce has long been considered a mystery. Many are the theories and myths on how they come into being. The ancient Egyptians, for instance, believed they were a gift of the Nile that released them when warmed up by the sun. Aristotle instead claimed they emerged from a mix of rainwater and mud, while a Scottish tale from the 1860s reported they began their lives as beetles. Swedish journalist Patrik Svensson has discussed these stories in The Book of Eels (2020): eels were told to be born of sea-foam, created in spring when the sun rays touched the dew of lakeshores and riverbanks, or made out of hairs that had fallen into the water from horses’ tails. In her statement about the work the artist then explains: Return and transition hold a mythos around it as we grapple with our own endings, changes and chases. Seeing animals such as eels that show up in unexpected waters, yet still knowing how and when to migrate back, allows for dealing with the stories of my own migratory sensations, memories and loss. The interrogation and pursuit of the eel question is something that as an artist fascinates me. It makes me think of it as the ultimate metaphor for the “oceanic feeling” and the desire for a continued spirit of pursuit.

Master weaver and colour dyer Laŋani Marika, the most senior elder of the Rirratjiŋu clan, imparts her colour knowledge to the generations of tomorrow in these two videos extracted from an original 6 piece video installation by The Mulka Project of Northeast Arnhem Land. Created by two accomplished Yolŋu cinematographers, Patrina Munuŋgurr & Gayili Yunupiŋu, this exhibition weaves together Laŋani’s alchemy, art, and ethnobotany with vibrancy and colour. This collection of knowledge now permanently resides within The Mulka Project’s Yolŋu owned archives in Yirrkala but will be on display to the public for a short time over the Darwin International Film Festival at Darwin Visual Arts Association between the 15th and 24th September.