Cite, Sight, Site was commissioned by the Blacktown Arts Centre for Terra InFirma curated by Paul Howard.  Terra inFirma was a considered response to the marking of 250 years since (Captain) James Cook’s unwelcomed disembarkation at Kamay (Botany Bay).

Cite, Sight, Site emerged from a dialogue with Darug (Blacktown is on Darug Country) artist Leanne Tobin.  As part of the preparations for Terra inFirma, the participating artists were brought together with traditional knowledge holders to discuss Country and how to acknowledge and work with respect on it.  It was a transformative, deeply moving experience for us. that has shaped how we have worked ever since.

The parkscape substrate seamlessly conflates images of the commemorative parks established at the sites of the first European Landfalls in Southeast Asia with that of the park Kamay (pocked) marked with monuments.  From the left the park in Malacca established to memorialise the landing in 1509 of Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in Malacca, the park with the shrine commemorating Magellan’s trespass in 1521 near the current day city of Lapu Lapu in the Philippines and on the right the park at Kamay (Botany Bay) in Sydney that marks Cook’s landfall.  The sequence from left to right, replicating how we read (in the West) a text acknowledges the inevitability of the European occupation of Australia.  Once the Portuguese had invaded Malacca it was only a matter of when not if one or other of the European colonising powers would re-enact the narrative of the “great” navigator arriving only to be followed shortly after by a heavily armed fleet of dispossessors, or conquistadors.

Printed on perpendicular bands of 80 gsm A4 yellow paper, the inverted parkscape image became a stage on which the Year 12 Indigenous Studies students at Chifley College, Bidwell Campus Mt. Druitt were able to reflect on their own identities in the light of events 250 years earlier.  During workshops held over 9 weeks commencing in February 2020, we worked with the students to develop and refine their imagery before importing their finished art works into the digital file containing the parkscape panorama.  The 2nd COVID lockdown made it impossible for the students to cut out and apply their own artwork. Working with the Blacktown Arts Center installation team lead by Bianca Yrure the parkscape image substrate was applied to the over 3 days in early July and the overlay contributions were “reconciled” to the underlying inverted Black and White in the days that followed.  The contributions from Allayah, Blake, Leah, Rory, Tameka, Jai, Cassidy, Cathrin, Walther Kyle and Brendan were printed in full colour using an un-inverted version of the parkscape file on white 80 gsm A4 paper.  We cut their art works out on their behalf, carefully aligning them before fixing them into place with wallpaper glue.

Once the installation was complete Leanne Tobin lead those involved in producing and installing the work in a ceremony in which the “landscape” planks were reconciled to the image of Country.  Our way of recognising that as Cultural terms “Country” and “Landscape” intersect and at that meeting point a space for acknowledgment might be created by Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants through reflective ritual.