A Walk Around Ngayirr Ngurambang (Sacred Country)

Even as coal mining expands across regional Australia, harming most aspects of Country, moments of possibility continue to emerge through reflecting on, and being with, water places. This reflection recounts a walk along the Goulburn River, a waterway now partly shaped by extractive practices, to The Drip, an important water place. The walk formed part of the process of developing an exhibition on Ngayirr Ngurambang (sacred Country), curated by co-author Aleshia Lonsdale, a local Wiradjuri woman, and featuring artworks by Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists. By sharing this account, we aim to foreground relational connections grounded in Ngayirr Ngurambang. We argue that centring Indigenous understandings of water places, and deepening non-Indigenous understandings of what Country means, can help open up alternative futures. We also suggest that walking with Country and engaging with artworks that convey what Country means—by First Nations and non-First Nations artists—offers practical ways to decentre settler-colonial power, practices, and knowledges.

art exhibitions · artistic creation · Coal mining · Decolonization · extractive practices · Goulburn River · Relationality · settler coloniality · Australian Indigenous Culture and History · Indigenous and Place-Based Education · Indigenous Cultures and History

• People of Three Rivers

  Open Access•Jessa Rogers•Australian Feminist Studies•2026

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