Museum’s latest exhibition explores relationship between Aboriginal languages and identity

The Museum of the Goldfields’ latest exhibition will explore the deep relationship between Aboriginal languages, identity and country through sound, image and storytelling.

Belong: Language connecting feeling, culture, country was developed by photographic artist Martine Perret and audio visual/music composer Jonathan Mustard in collaboration and consultation with Aboriginal elders from the Goldfields.

The free exhibition, which opens on Saturday, will share the enduring strength of Aboriginal languages and the people who keep them alive through three immersive installations.

Ms Perret said the exhibition highlighted how language was intrinsically tied to culture, identity and wellbeing.

“When a language is lost, it’s not just words that disappear. It’s knowledge, connection, memory and meaning,” she said.

“Language carries a community’s way of seeing the world.

“That’s why it’s so important to listen, to record and to protect what remains.

“Every speaker, every story, helps us keep that knowledge alive.”

Across the exhibition visitors will encounter Ngala Wongga (come talk) — a sensorial installation featuring the voices of some of the last speakers of several Goldfields languages, Juruyinku Kujuyinkuya (connection in Tjupan) — a large-scale painting and sound work based in the Tjupan language, and Transference — a new work reflecting on intergenerational knowledge and the way memory lives in land and people.

Museum of the Goldfields regional manager Kirsty Brooks said the exhibition offered visitors an experience that was both personal and immersive.

“This is an exhibition that stays with you,” she said.

“You don’t need to understand the words to feel the weight of what’s being shared, because language lives in gesture, sound and presence.

“It’s a reminder that these languages are still lived — not lost.”

Belong: Language connecting feeling, culture, country will run from Saturday until August 31.