A Glossary of Water

Rivers might have different names today and Australian maps have forgotten whole Countries, 
but this always was, 
always will be, 
Aboriginal land,
Aboriginal waters.

We acknowledge the many ancestral Countries and waters that we are connected to. We honour Traditional Owners and pay our respect to Elders and future communities.

A Glossary of Water is a substantial publication presented as an artist book, a scholarly reference, and a beautiful object.

Edited by José Roca and Juan Francisco Salazar, A Glossary of Water is a limited edition aquatic artefact—a companion to the 23rd Biennale of Sydney.

The principal working themes – weaving and rivers – naturally expand towards topics like rights of nature, sustainability, food security, consumption, pollution, biodiversity, extinction and ancestral technologies.

This publication sheds light on an important and urgent subject and highlights the deep connections that Australia has to its waterways and bodies of water.

The book follows the logic of a glossary, using approximately 80 terms as headings and 'definitions' such as creek, dam, estuary, flood, weave and weft.

A Glossary of Water has been printed sustainably on excess paper stock of different types and weights from previous book projects, rather than recycled paper, giving the profile of the publication the look and feel of the sediment of the river.

Immerse yourself in A Glossary of Water and listen to a selection of rīvus participants as they read their contributions ...

FLOW AND CONTAINMENT
GAY HAWKINS, 2021

"In me everything is already flowing."—Luce Irigaray, 1991.

FLOWS
CAVE URBAN, 2021

MIMESIS
HANNA TUULIKKI, 2021

[Parramatta] Burramatta


NGALAWAN—WE LIVE, WE REMAIN
LEANNE TOBIN, 2021

PHASE TRANSITIONS
DAVID HAINES AND JOYCE HINTERDING, 2021

Petrichor—from Greek petra, stone, and ichor, the blood from Greek gods—is a term coined in 1964 by Australian scientists Isabel Joy Bear and Richard Thomas to name the smell of the first rain on dry, warm earth.