Slumber Party, 2022

four antique beds; Australian native plants (buchie rush, bullrush, bracken fern, lomandra, eucalyptus, grass), weeds (umbrella sedge, setaria), terracotta clay, jute string, paper wire twist ties, second hand denim pants, skirts and shorts

Courtesy the artists. Acknowledgements: warm thanks to Momentum Collective for use of the Oaks Centre at Casino. Advisors and helpers: Penny Evans, Charlotte Haywood, Megan Cope, Sonya Breckenridge,Troy Combo, Ashley Moran and Peter Robinson.

Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from Create NSW and assistance from Arts Northern Rivers

Casino Wake Up Time is a collective of Bundjalung and Kamilaroi women who have been meeting and weaving for over ten years. The members are Auntie Janelle Duncan, Auntie Margaret Torrens, Theresa Bolt and Kylie Caldwell based in Casino. This work for the 23rd Biennale of Sydney represents countless hours of harvesting and picking natural fibres on Bundjalung wetlands, rivers and along roadsides, processing and splitting fibres, and weaving collectively in a pandemic. Casino Wake Up Time is leading NSW Aboriginal contemporary weaving into new and abstract forms. The woven objects on cast iron frames represent stories of riparian zones, freshwater flow, kinship of plants and revitalisation of women’s cultural weaving practices. The fibres important to Bundjalung weaving are buchie rushes, bullrush and lomandra grass; aquatic and riparian vegetation that are essential protectors in supporting healthy freshwater.  

The bed frames suggest dormitory beds from violent colonial practices of removal and the paternalistic slumber state of society, government and industries regarding actions to care, protect and restore our freshwater systems. Kylie Caldwell says ‘it is a domestication of acceptance, the complacency of freshwater care and negligence prevalent in our society. We need to show up and take care of these waterways!’