Pavilion of Sand
Pavilion of Sand Cultural Workshops
Join local Worimi and Awabakal cultural practitioners, artists and elders across both weekends of New Annual. Join workshops and learn a range of cultural practices from the local area, from weaving to dance. Hear stories and language from community leaders and experience the Pavilion of Sand installation as it comes alive with culture. Cultural workshops are taking place between 11am - 4pm as follows:
Sat 13th: Fishing net weaving
Sun 14th: Fish and eel trap making
Sat 20th: Boys and girls dance workshops, 11am-1pm, 2pm-4pm
Sun 21st: Language and storytelling sessions
It becomes the structure, ballast, shelter and seating. It becomes a space for dance, cultural practice, conversation and performance. A place in which stories about this Salt Water Country can be shared.
As a way of weaving local stories, knowledge and experience into the design of the pavilion we are working with local cultural practitioners to create large scale community led artworks to be projected on the structure, painted on its walls and stitched into its shade structures.
Part One of this year long project happening in February uses a temporary low-fi prefabricated structure with repurposed shipping containers to host community workshops that will inform the design of the Pavilion to be realised in October’s New Annual Festival.
With immense transformation taking place in the world the Awabakal community of Newcastle and the broader Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community have a wealth of knowledge, expertise and cultural awareness to guide us through this process.
This new festival, New Annual, is an exciting opportunity to re-frame who is centred in this process, and who is centred in our cultural landscape; what stories do we choose to prioritise and learn from.
Awabakal designer and cultural practitioner Shellie Smith, Wiradjuri designer and interdisciplinary artist Joel Sherwood-Spring and Architect Genevieve Zoe Murray have collaborated on the design of a Pavilion that works to do just that.
Installation
