Matha

Matha brings a message of cultural regeneration in images and language from the riverbank to the Hamer Hall wall and beyond.

Country is alive and always speaking to us. Matha takes its name from the Yorta Yorta word for canoe, and a multipart project by Moorina Bonini about the regenerative flow of cultural knowledge and the deep interconnections between knowledge, Country, and cultural expression. Moorina is an artist who’s interested in how First Peoples ways of knowing, doing and being transcend western binaries.

Through her conceptual film and song in Yorta Yorta language, Moorina shares the relational and deep connection she and her family have to river country on Yorta Yorta lands along the Dhungala (Murray) River and to the Birrarung River. This work shares how knowledge is held within Country and embodied through cultural practices—passed down, renewed, and regenerated over time.

Visions of trees, waterways and the creation of cultural belongings are intertwined with song by Moorina’s family, focusing on new ways of making ceremony and helping language thrive in the present.

Collaboration is an important aspect to this commission with Moorina, working with family and community, including Yorta Yorta/Wurundjeri filmmaker Tony Briggs and her family on the song with Jaadwa sound artist James Howard.

Moorina shares, “A central theme of the film is the revival of an important Aboriginal cultural practice on Yorta Yorta Woka (Country), specifically within the Barmah Forest—a site of deep historical and cultural significance where Yorta Yorta Yenbena (Ancestors) engaged in these practices for millennia.The name Barmah, meaning "Home of the Plover" in Yorta Yorta language, reinforces its importance as a place of cultural continuity, where ceremony and tradition endure. Matha (Canoe) reaffirms this enduring connection, bringing past and present together in an act of cultural continuity.”

Matha is presented alongside the TarraWarra Biennial We Are Eagles 2025, taking place at TarraWarra Museum of Art from Sat 29 March—Sun 20 July 2025. Curated by Kimberley Moulton.