Witness is a multimedia installation about trees as ancestors, witnesses, and victims of colonial violence. The work focuses on the Djabwurrung Birthing Trees, where Aboriginal women have been giving birth for centuries. Today, these trees are under threat by a planned expansion of the Western Highway. Witness makes kinship between the Djabwurrung women and the Birthing Trees palpable, while the placement of screens and the use of multi-channel sound create a sense of constant threat.
The shots are long and fragmented; it is the audio that guides visitors through the audiovisual landscape. Central to the installation is story by Djabwurrung Songwoman Yaraan Couzens-Bundle, who shares memories of the trees. A monitor on the ground shows a long take of Yaraan and Uncle Robbie Thorpe looking through photographs of massacre sites across Victoria. Each video channel is paired with its own speaker. Every three minutes, an abstract image of a highway gets projected onto the floor, surging through the space and interrupting the other narratives.
Watch video documentation of the installation here.
With sound design by Fay Arapatsani
