Gunyah Manu (Home Camp)

Gunyah Manu (Home Camp) 2022 was exhibited in Collective Movements at Monash University Museum of Art

this mob is an arts collective for emerging creatives based on Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri lands. As the next generation of influential Blak creatives, this mob believes that young Blakfullas have an integral voice in shaping our collective future. this mob formed in 2016 to address the lack of safe spaces for Victorian-based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to come together and create. Since then, this mob has forged spaces for young people to learn, make and present their art and voices across a number of different curatorial projects, workshops, public interventions, performances, discussions and publications. Operating out of a studio at the Collingwood Yards, the collective is made up of creative practitioners with different material practices including writing, curating, painting, sculpture, weaving, performance and more. The group’s membership is not fixed, and new member are brought in project-to-project.

The work Gunyah Manu (Home Camp) was led by Yorta Yorta and Wurundjeri artist Moorina Bonini and Boonwurrung artist and cultural educator Mitch Mahoney in collaboration with Anaiwan and Gumbaynggirr artist Gabi Briggs and Luritja artist, curator and writer Jenna Rain Warwick. It is a representation of traditional housing that derives from the collaborators’ collective knowledge about building techniques and sustainable practice. Gunyah Manu (Home Camp) represents making space for young artists—integral to cultural and spiritual strength-building and peer support, and centred in traditional practices that continue to inspire, ground and empower young Blakfullas in both their art-making and artistic journeys. Its presentation will change as the work moves from location to location. At the heart of thismob is the group’s commonality, support for one another, willingness to share and listen, and a sense of urgency directed towards making rifts in the art world that provide emerging First Nations artists with platforms to make the work they want to make.

Lead Artist: Moorina Bonini

Consultant: Mitch Mahoney

Contributors: Kareen Adam, Karen Adams, Gabi Briggs, Yasbelle Kerkow, Hannah Morphy-Walsh and Jenna Rain Wariwick

Djab Wurrung stringybark, bamboo, dute twine, sand, quarry rocks and tree stumps. Approx. 340 x 520 diameter.