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- Understanding country
in Canberra in Particular

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is obviously dominated by, you know

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that very small little
moth, the bogong moth

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and it's a story now that many people

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are really familiar with

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but it's also a story now
that we should rely on

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more and more because of
that idea of this gathering

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this natural gathering which occurs

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which we can in our way
seeing them as our kin

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can feel connected to each other through.

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So this idea that we have a story

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which connects us to place,
which connects us to people,

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you know, is a really important message

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for the times we're living in.

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The process of working with
the lights and projections

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is something new

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and the idea of creating those designs

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and trying to make them
work and make sense

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is something which I haven't done before.

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So it was a really fantastic opportunity

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to experiment some play within that space

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and also think, I guess, more responsively

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around the issues that we're dealing with

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and thinking about how they
sort of more temporary artworks

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can help create a kind of language

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and help create stories
and help navigate people.

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One of the key issues that the
work sort of also highlights

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is those issues around
like environmentalism

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and you know, what's happening to country

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and the problems that have been created,

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you know, and obviously

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those problems have led us to this moment

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with COVID outbreaks,
those habitat destructions

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creating hotspots for pandemics to occur

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and so that understanding country,

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understanding the way we're connected,

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understanding our relationship
our physical relationship

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and impact that we have is so
important during these times.

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One of the really important processes

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of making the project was
connecting with local community.

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You know, we need that local knowledge,

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we need those local stories to inform us

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and to guide us.

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So the project has been really blessed

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to work with Auntie Matilda House

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who has helped guide the project

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but also just give us
those enormous, that story.

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So give us permission

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but also give us the stories and knowledge

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- Collecting the bogong
moth is something that

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it must've been a wonderful,
wonderful sight to see

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because you know, when they
get so many thousands of them

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but when they were caught the
rock was very, very, very big

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you know, they would,
then the women would put

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all the wood and everything on
the biggest on that big roll

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and it would burn and burn
and burn until it got so hot

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you'd have to stand right away from it

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and that's how when they,
after a couple of days

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they'd wipe it clean get all
the ash and everything off

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and then put the bogong moth on them

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and no they don't taste like chicken,

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they end up like little,
little dry cashew nuts

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I reckon anyways

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'cause that's how I tasted them.

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- Working with this process
has been interesting

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it's not a format I've worked with before

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and so thinking about
how to create a design

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and projecting it onto the onto the floor

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to create these spaces for people

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and we've been playing
with different designs

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and different ways of working.

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Originally I was hoping
to work with a program

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that would help animate and
sort of leave the moth down

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in a particular pattern

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but it became more apparent

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that we actually need to
work with them individually

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and make each one of them by hand

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and so that sort of that pattern

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that we've been able to create
is just slowly sitting down

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and manipulating each moth
and sitting down with them

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which I think is a really
important, you know

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an important way of
understanding that process.

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You know, there are
these sort of individuals

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flocking together, you know

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and I think that process
of how animals migrate

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of how things move, you know

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I think it is important
to remember that we still

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as human beings, don't quite
understand that, you know

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the way that animals connect
the way that this small

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you know, moths travels
thousands of kilometres to come

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and migrate back and forth,
not with living memory

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there's no living memory there

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it's actually a new generation every time

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and so how an animal, you
know manages to do that

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is something that's still, you know

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scientists have their guesses

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and they have their
predictions of how that works

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but we don't really know for sure

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and I think that's a really
important thing to remember

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that we're still coming
to terms with nature

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and when we still don't understand nature,

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it's even more,

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I guess urgent that we
don't interfere with it.

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- You can become whatever
you want to become

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but please maintain your
culture, maintain that story

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of how the bogong moth
brought all this together.

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The bogong moth is still
speaking to us, you know

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the running of the feast,
they're running to the feast.

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- Well, and I think the
most humbling part of it all

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is it's through a tiny little insect

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and I think that's the
one thing that is amazing

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about Aboriginal culture
is that we're reminded

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of this enormous weight of history

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this enormous cultural sort of story

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that talks to country
that speaks to leadership

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is all represented in one little
moth one tiny little moth.

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- Well it has brought so many
people together, you know

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hundreds and hundreds and hundreds.

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It was just like so long ago
in 2006 or eight was that

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on the 42nd sitting of parliament house,

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when all those people come down
to hear Kevin Rudd say sorry

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if you stood back from the top
of the Hill and looked down

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you can actually see and vision
how moths were on the rocks

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up there at Namadgi, you know,

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thousands and thousands of people

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and just like the walk across
the bridge, down in Sydney

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you know, thousands were there as well.

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So, you know, Aboriginal people
can keep that dream alive

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and it's just like the bogong
moths of coming together

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just like this beautiful
design that you've done.

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I think it's so outstanding

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and it's so put together

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that I'm very proud to be part of it

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and I will always be seeing yourself

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as being one of the greatest
storytellers through your art

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and I much appreciate it, thank you.

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- Thanks.

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- Thank you.