Experience the story of the Birrarung, through a new sound and video installation celebrating the Woiwurrung language at Fed Square

If you’ve walked through Fed Square or along Birrarung Marr Walk recently, you may have heard a gentle voice carrying a story older than the city itself, along the river’s edge.

wurrung dhumbunganjinu (we speak language) is a new sound and video artwork by Wurundjeri artist and language specialist Brooke Wandin. Commissioned by Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation (MAP Co), the work is part of an exciting public art program exploring the ways we connect with nature in urban spaces.

Launched in April and running daily, the sound installation can be experienced as you walk past The Edge theatre and along Birrarung Marr Walk through discreet speakers. A family recording in Woiwurrung language can be heard, speaking the story of the Birrarung, its ancient place names across Country, and the way it flows.

For Brooke Wandin, the work is deeply personal. Created in collaboration with members of her family, it’s a living recording of conversations at weekly language classes she holds at Coranderrk – a place that once actively suppressed the language. Together, they write and record their conversations and collective memory, passing it on to future generations to come.

The project was born from an extensive research fellowship Brooke conducted, along with significant community work to piece back together parts of the Woiwurrung language. As the 2022 recipient of the Indigenous Victorian Aboriginal Cultural Research Fellowship at the State Library of Victoria, Brooke has been dedicated to reviving the Woiwurrung language – pouring through countless records, family knowledge and archival audio, and recording thousands of lost words into a database.

Now at Fed Square, this powerful story is extended onto the Big Screen through a film created by filmmakers Rhian Hinkley and Isaac Winzer.

Featuring Brooke’s hand-drawn ochre maps of the river and its tributaries, the video work brings viewers along a journey, travelling along the river and its place names, through plants and water. Accompanied by family recordings and sound design by Sean Kenihan, the film screens to the public nightly from 6pm-7pm.

wurrung dhumbunganjinu is part of a series of works and events at Fed Square that encourages connection to nature in urban environments, to complement the new Test Garden. The Test Garden is a pop-up garden on the rooftop of Fed Square’s carpark that gives a glimpse of what’s to come with Laak Boorndap, part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation.

As Southbank continues to evolve, Brooke’s artwork offers a moment to pause, listen, reflect, and reconnect with the layered stories of this place.

To learn more about the work, visit fedsquare.com •