Back To Country
Back To Country
We acknowledge the Gadi people who continue to care for Country as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which this work was developed. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. We acknowledge any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people listening to this audio.
Back to Country: A Guided Reflection on Sovereignty is a 10-minute audio experience that uses mindfulness and visualisation techniques to ground people in space and time. The listener is guided to reflect on the deep history of the land they are on, Aboriginal land.
backtocountry_stereo (mp3)
DownloadIn the audio, listeners are taken on a journey back in time by Budawang / Yuin actor Jorjia Gillis and then Welcomed to Country by Gadigal / Dharug / Gundungurra / Yuin Elder Uncle Greg Simms.
This project was led by Wiradjuri academic Tamara Power with creative and cultural contributions from Budawang / Yuin researcher and designer Danièle Hromek and design academic Gabriel Clark.
The original script, written by Tamara Power and Maddy Lines was adapted by the team for this project.
The audio design by Martin Peralta layers binarual audio with the sounds of country to create a hypnotic aural landscapes of the past and the present.
An immersive 16 channel audio version version of this project was designed for the Data Arena at the University of Technology Sydney.
Is a descendant of the Wiradjuri people, nurse researcher and senior lecturer in the Sydney Nursing School at the University of Sydney. Her work is predominantly focused on chronic disease in Aboriginal communities and Cultural Safety in education and healthcare. She has led multiple teaching and learning projects and been awarded individual and team, citations and awards for her innovative teaching methods, including a team, Australian Award for University Teaching for outstanding contributions to student learning, focused on developing Indigenous professional capabilities.
Is a Saltwater woman of the Budawang (beach plover) people of the Yuin (black duck) nation. She is a spatial designer, speculative designer and public artist, fusing design elements with installations, sculptural form and research. Danièle also works as a researcher, educator and cultural advisor considering how to Indigenise the built environment by creating spaces to substantially affect Indigenous rights and culture within an institution. Her work is grounded in her cultural and experiential heritage, often considering the urban Aboriginal condition, the Indigenous experience of Country and contemporary Indigenous identities.
Is a lecturer at the School of Design at the University of Technology Sydney his research is predominately focused on design and multimodal storytelling. He has led innovative design and storytelling teaching and learning projects for the Visual Communications degree and has been awarded a number of grants and commissions for his work as a researcher in Comics and Graphic Storytelling. He is also a digital content producer conceiving and producing a number of award-winning multimodal storytelling projects for the ABC iview, ABC radio, Fbi Radio, City of Sydney and the Sydney Opera House.
Jorjia Gillis is a proud Saltwater woman of the Budawang tribe of the Yuin nation. As a Sydney based actor, theatre maker, emerging writer and arts facilitator Jorjia has worked on a number of theatre and TV productions. Jorjia is passionate about storytelling and being a part of a growing a vibrant arts and cultural landscape in the Australian arts sector. Jorjia is a Graduate of the University of New England and the Academy of Film Theatre & Television.
Is an activist for reconciliation, a traditional woodcarver, a storyteller and an Aboriginal cultural educator. He grew up in La Perouse and now lives in Western Sydney. His ties to the Aboriginal community of Greater Sydney are through his ancestral links to the Gundungurra (water dragon lizard people) of the Blue Mountains and the Gadigal (whale people) of the Dharug nation. He is also connected to the Budawang (beach plover people) of the Yuin nation on the South Coast through the Brown family.
Martin Peralta is an audio engineer, digital producer and sound designer. Mixed, composed music for and sound design work on ABC podcasts like Ladies We Need to Talk and Walkley winning Trace and Unravel. His work as part of SBS My Grandmother’s Lingo team won a Webby Award, SXSW Interactive Innovation Award, and the Walkley Award for Multimedia Storytelling. He has also worked on podcasts with Gimlet Media, Audible, and City of Sydney. Has been involved as a sound designer on installations Black Box, and Underbelly Arts Festival and many online projects.
Zacha Rosen is a radio and podcast producer. He produces the FBi Radio show Or It Didn’t Happen, hosts Not What You Think, and has been a supervising producer, and literary producer, on Sydney stories show All the Best. He’s also produced podcasts for organisations like the Instituto Cervantes and the Black Dog Institute.
As an arts writer, he’s written for Concrete Playground, the Sydney Latin American Film Festival and the Carriageworks.
Is a writer and educational content creator. With a background in languages and cultural studies, her focus is on intercultural communication. She has experience across the education sector as a Research Assistant and Communication officer, with a particular focus on health.
A big thank you to the number of people who helped support this project including William Lawlor from MediaLab in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences UTS, Jason Benedek from DAB Production Support UTS and Thomas Ricciardiello and Ben Simons and the team at the Data Arena UTS.
This project was funded by the UTS Vice Chancellors Learning and Teaching Grant 2018 and the UTS First year experience grant 2016 (original script development)
This project was the recipient of the 2020 UTS Integration of Indigenous Professional Capabilities into Curriculum Award for Facilitating Institutional Reflection on Aboriginal Sovereignty.
Back To Country: A Guided Reflection on Sovereignty is licensed under Creative Commons License.