Kuku Yalanji multimedia artist Henrietta Baird has been awarded the Carriageworks First Nations Fellowship, a $100,000 prize supporting a First Nations artist in the research and development of new work.
Ms Baird plans to use the two-year fellowship to continue her work with native bush plants. The artist gathers the flora and uses them to choreograph stories, like in her upcoming work 'Plant a Promise'.
It's a method she came upon while studying, surrounded by examples of native plants.
“I went into work at the Royal Botanic Gardens and I wondered how I could use plants as a way to create choreography," Ms Baird told NITV News.
“I wanted to look at how we make medicine, what are the processes, what are the cultural protocols around that, and how can we tell that story."
A lack of Indigenous voices throughout her land management studies is what sparked Ms Baird’s research going into the fellowship.
Henrietta Baird's dance performance at Carriageworks in Sydney. Source: Blue Lucine
“I felt like there was something missing... there wasn’t somebody from the Country to actually talk about what is really needed in this area.
“For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we think about how we care for Country and whether that means land management or following certain protocols and how we put them in place.
“Looking at global warming, we’ve got the fires, we’ve got the flooding. How do we prepare for those things?
It's an interesting question, and in my work it is what I am trying to convey," Ms Baird told NITV News.
A key part of her research will be engaging with Elders in the community to learn about the plants and stories from the Sydney area, and building a community garden at Carriageworks.
Sketches of Ms Baird's set plans at Carriageworks. Source: Henrietta Baird
“I want to do more research on how to... get Elders on board to work with non-Indigenous communities and to see how we can work together building a better community through planting.
With much of her research still in the planning phase, Ms Baird said she is excited for what is to come, and the opportunities to learn.
“Up home my family we talk about our stories, but I didn't really know much stories from down here, " she said.
"So I think that’s the process to get Elders... involved, so we can find out what their life was like back in the day, what plants they used to use, and what plants are important to them,” she said.
