Belong: Language connecting feeling, culture, country is a free exhibition by photographic artist Martine Perret and audio visual/music composer Jonathan Mustard, developed through collaboration and consultation with Aboriginal Elders from the Goldfields.
Through three immersive installations, the exhibition shares the enduring strength of Aboriginal languages, and of the people who keep them alive.
Artist Martine Perret said the exhibition highlights how language is intrinsically tied to culture, identity and wellbeing, and why the care of endangered languages matters so deeply.
“When a language is lost, it’s not just words that disappear. It’s knowledge, connection, memory and meaning. Language carries a community’s way of seeing the world. That’s why it’s so important to listen, to record and to protect what remains. Every speaker, every story, helps us keep that knowledge alive.”
Across the exhibition, visitors will encounter Ngala Wongga, (Come Talk), cultural significance of languages in the Goldfields– a sensorial installation featuring the voices of some of the last speakers of several Goldfields languages; Juruyinku Kujuyinkuya (Connection in Tjupan) – a large-scale light and sound work based in Tjupan language and painting; and Transference – a new work reflecting on intergenerational knowledge and the way memory lives in land and people.
Museum of the Goldfields Regional Manager Kirsty Brooks said Belong: Language connecting feeling, culture, country offers visitors an experience that is both personal and immersive, encouraging deeper engagement with language and culture.
“This is an exhibition that stays with you. You don’t need to understand the words to feel the weight of what’s being shared, because language lives in gesture, sound and presence. It’s a reminder that these languages are still lived – not lost.”
Belong: Language connecting feeling, culture, country will run from Saturday 17 May – Sunday 31 August.
For further information, please visit https://visit.museum.wa.gov.au/goldfields/belong-language-connecting-feeling-culture-country
