Code-Switching: Creating Space to Align Structural Values (2023)

Code-Switching: Creating Space to Align Structural Values

This research examines the ontological design of western institutions such as galleries, museums, and

universities through practice-led and Indigenous-led research. The research was undertaken to determine if

western institutions can be reconfigured through the Indigenous research methodology, wanyarra (active) code-

switching and creative practice. The significance of this research is that it combines Indigenous knowledge

and practice, being the immaterial and material, together through practice and research. I argue that the

articulation of wanyarra (active) code-switching through practice transforms the ontological positioning of the

viewer through embodied and immersive engagement with my practice.

The final exhibition takes place across two sites, being the Melbourne Museum Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural

Centre and the Monash Art Design and Architecture Student (MADA) Gallery. The two chosen sites for the final

exhibition are both western institutions, as one is a museum, and the other is a gallery. Although each site is

a western institution, each space operates upon different structures. Therefore, having two different sites for

the final exhibition is an opportunity to critique each institution through the examples of the final works. Having

The final exhibition fall across two different sites at the same time speaks directly to the Indigenous research

methodology developed within the research, wanyarra (active) code-switching and my dapalama (between)

practice. This will see both bodies of work connect to each other across two different locations at the same

time. This is important because the two bodies of work are not separated because they are the same cultural

expression and materialisation. I argue that embodiment of the two bodies of work comes from moving in

between the physical sites and in-between the two works. This physically puts the viewer in a position of

dapalama (between). This is the significance of dapalama (between) practice as it materialises the in-between

material of the material and immaterial.

The displayed wooden museum boxes were created to hold significance Indigenous South-East cultural material

in the museum collection across the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s that had been collected by anthropologists,

ethnographers, farmers, regular people and donated to the museum collection or in some cases acquired

by the museum. These wooden boxes are echoes of the violent acts of colonisation that occurred across our

woka (country) and wala (water) to which we as a people are still recovering and healing from today. The

burnt markings across the surface of the wooden boxes have been Informed by embodied cultural knowledge

of mark-making. The historical and signifcant cultural practice of burning is used to reposition the narrative

regarding these colonial containers. Indigenous cultural practice and knowledge is centred in this work that

aims to acknowledge the dark history of historical over-collecting of Indigenous cultural materials.