Healing Land, Remembering Country

“We carry the responsibility for continuing to care for and look after the land upon which we live. Take a moment to connect with this site; consider that this place has an active memory. As you stand here, you are its most recent memory and part of a contemporary ceremony, an action and process marking the beginning of change.”

Tony Albert’s Healing Land, Remembering Country is a continuation of a practice where the artist engages with sites of historical and inter-generational trauma. The artist invites us all to engage with the histories of place by inviting members of the public to share memories on paper imbedded with local seeds, which in turn are used to heal the land and our memories. The greenhouse is intended to act as a site for reflection, writing, sharing, and healing. Baskets made by Indigenous artists from across Australia act as the vessels to hold and care for people’s gifted memories. Surrounded by former convict prison buildings, Healing Land, Remembering Country creates a moment for pause and reflection, within a place of new growth. Connecting the multi-layered histories of this site to others, the seed paper will be planted at different locations to re-generate flora.