Marsden Gallery
6 April - 9 May
Exhibition launch: Friday 9 April (6-8pm) | Click here to RSVP for the Launch event

Bush
Country
Voices

Co-Curated by Western Sydney Parklands, City People and Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre

Bush Country Voices is an immersive audio/visual experience that seeks to challenge and explore our relationship to Country. Filmed in the Cumberland Plain bushland of Western Sydney Parklands – Australia’s largest urban park – a series of multi-screen projections captures the landscape in this moment in time, while a music soundtrack builds on the natural sounds of the Parklands. Traditional custodians, artists, environmental experts and urban planners share their thoughts on the Parklands’ past, present and future, while reflecting on their own evolving feelings about the land.

In February 2020, a group of artists lived on-site at Western Sydney Parklands to explore and creatively respond to the landscape around them. They spoke with Darug elders and Aboriginal rangers as well as the Parklands’ staff responsible for this precious green corridor which extends through the Liverpool area and right up to Blacktown. And they climbed its hills and ridge lines with views to the Blue Mountains on one side and the city on the other – the backbone of what one custodian described as “a living body, with the rivers and creeks like veins and arteries”. For each artist, the experience created different emotions – from the pleasure of seeing kangaroos in their native habitat to relief at a break from development and urban life, even fear of the (to one artist) alien nature of the Australian bush.

This exhibition invites you to share that experience and to surround yourself with the voices and sounds of a journey into the bush, where Darug and Gundungarra Country meet.

The exhibition was created by CuriousWorks with music by James Peter Brown.

From its state of the art dog park at Shale Hills, the Plough and Harrow picnic shelters to a 60km network of walking and cycling trails, or its futuristic Bungarribee Park playground, Western Sydney Parklands is also known as “Sydney’s Biggest Backyard”.  Part of the newly established Greater Sydney Parklands agency, and stretching over 5280 hectares and 27 kilometres from north to south, this spectacular space also features thousands of hectares of native Cumberland Plain bushland. The Parklands’ environmental regeneration program will return 40% of the Parklands to bushland by 2030.

With the voices of:
Paul Glass, Djon Mundine, Leanne Tobin, David Kirkland, Marian Abboud, David Capra, Anna Kuroda, Michael Cohen

Click here to watch more videos for Bush Country Voices - featuring the voices of the artists involved in this insightful project.

To find out more about Western Sydney Parklands and how you can visit these places for yourself, see www.westernsydneyparklands.com.au

To read about the Western Sydney Parklands Arts and Cultural Accelerator facilitated by City People see https://citypeople.com.au/portfolio/western-sydney-parklands-arts-and-culture-projects-accelerator/

We have three exciting programs planned during the School Holidays led by the Rangers at Lizard Log for both kids and adults. These will take place on 8 April, 12 April and 15 April.

We will supervise your children over the lunch hour if you book both of the kid’s programs.  If you are staying for the whole day, please BYO Lunch.

Wild Kids
Lizard Log, Abbotsbury
8 April, 12 April and 15 April
10am - 12pm  
$5 

Kids will experience the outdoors in new ways; playing multi-sensory games, embodying animal movements, developing natural awareness, building habitats and creatively crafting with nature. Two hours of wild play

Nature and Art
Lizard Log, Abbotsbury
8 April, 12 April and 15 April
1pm - 3pm  
$5

Two hours of creative exploration with nature. Kids will be guided to explore the colours, shapes and textures of the natural environment and will learn how natural foraged items can be used to make beautiful pieces of art.

Nature Connection Walk
Lizard Log, Abbotsbury
8 April, 12 April and 15 April
3.30pm - 5.30pm  
$10 per adult

Adults will experience the healing and restorative effects of movement, mindfulness and nature connection on our two-hour walk through nature