POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

'Waabigu Maragalgaa' neckpieces by Penny Evans

Object No. 2022/42/1

‘These pieces speak to Yarraan, our magnificent Red Gums who line our riverbanks and surround the waterhole near where my Waabi-galgaa or grandmothers were born. They are like limbs or fingers and wear their scars as the eucalypts and grandmothers do.  Some of their scars are filled with resin-like pooling glazes depicting the dhani or Red Gum which can be boiled to treat dysentery or rubbed into sores to heal them. The smaller black beads are the grubs who live in the roots and bark and are a tasty treat for our people. String is made from Native Hibiscus harvested on Bundjalung country threaded with Dhinawan (Emu) feathers from Gamilaroi country.’ Provided by the artist 2022   Penny Evans (b.1966) is a Gamilaraay/Gomeroi, Irish and German woman who currently lives and works in Lismore. Penny works across mediums including printmaking, collage, textile, multimedia and ceramics and has been exhibiting since the 1990’s. Her practice is an investigation into her personal heritage, that of the complex relationship between colonised and the coloniser. She has a vested interest in the period of early colonisation, a period of great trauma that echoes into the lives of people today including herself. Through the process of making she maps her emotional and biological landscape. She maps her learning and her unlearning slowly revealing the truths and untruths of history. Time plays a large role in her work. Transgenerational trauma and genetic muscle memory are integral to her work. Her practice slowly unravels the two and offers a view of the world from her perspective. Penny sees herself as an extension of the past, her ancestors and their stories live in her and have shaped her and her practice. Considering the consequences of deep connection with self and culture that plagued previous generations and contributed immensely to the lack of sense of self and belonging First Nations people endure Penny’s practice is radical healing and truth telling. Adornment made and worn by First Nations peoples are embedded with symbolism. They are visual identifiers of the persons status, the peoples and Country they belong to and their roles in that society. These two neckpieces are memory holders and expressions of Penny’s matriarchal lineage. Penny poetically conveys the belief held by First Nations peoples that Country is a body and relatives we belong to by making the fingers both the body of Country in the form of Red Gum limbs and the fingers of her female ancestors. The medicinal property of the Red Gum is acknowledged along with the foods that they can harbor. These learnings are usually passed down from mother to daughter, or grandmother to granddaughter. If Penny were to wear this piece, her Gomeroi matrilineage and her relationship with Country as a living and giving entity is then visible on her body.