Silence Listening: A Midwest Truth-Telling Exhibition
Location
Batavia Coast Marina, Geraldton / Jambinu
Dates
Dates
Saturday 21 June – Sunday 7 September 2025
Tickets
Free
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised this webpage and exhibition contain the images, names and stories of Elders who have passed away. These have been used with permission.
Silence Listening has been extended until 7 September 2025, in memory of exhibiting artist Charmaine Papertalk Green, whose recent passing is deeply felt by many.
This truth-telling exhibition centres Yamaji culture and dialogue, exploring the enduring impact of colonisation, while fostering understanding and collective healing.
Curated by Bard, Jawi Aamba (man) Ron Bradfield Jnr and George Criddle, Silence Listening explores the colonial histories of Jambinu (Geraldton), and Mullewa.
The exhibition features works by two important Yamaji artists, the late Uncle Dr Brian Dodd McKinnon and the late Charmaine Papertalk Green, alongside British-Australian artist George Criddle. It responds to Charmaine Papertalk Green's concept of ‘silence listening' - an intercultural and collaborative process addressing the violent colonial histories that have been actively denied within the settler narrative.
Working with Aunty Jill McKinnon and Crystal McKinnon who are collaborators and representatives for Uncle Dr Brian Dodd McKinnon, we honour his life and work by featuring paintings from his PhD collection, I Used to Walk So Softly on this Land, along with audio recordings of him discussing his art. In addition, newly commissioned works by Charmaine Papertalk Green and George Criddle include large-scale collaborative pieces that reflect on listening, working together, activism, and truth-telling.
About the artists
Ron Bradfield Jnr is a saltwater artist and curator from Bardi Country, north of Broome who grew up in Geraldton. As the CYO (Chief Yarning Officer) of Yarns R Us; Ron facilitates cultural conversations across all levels of our communities, helping Australians to revisit and explore their own personal stories – so as to better consider their own connections to this place.
The late Uncle Dr Brian Dodd McKinnon (1957-2023) Was born to an Amungu mother and Wongai father and grew up in a Geraldton fringe camp named Blood Alley at the foot of Mount Misery. He left home at the age of 12 to work along Western Australia’s coast wherever he could. At 18 Uncle Brian settled in Geelong, Victoria. Since 1996, McKinnon has exhibited nationally and internationally showing powerful work that addressed his experiences of growing up in Western Australia’s Mid-West and the ongoing challenges of Aboriginal people. Uncle Brian was the inaugural Vice Chancellor’s Pre- Doctoral Indigenous Research Fellow at RMIT University’s School of Art.
Born in Eradu, the late Charmaine Papertalk Green (1962-2025) was a proud Wajarri, Badimaya and Wilunyu woman of the Yamaji Nation. An esteemed multimedia artist and poet, her practice incorporated woodblock printing, painting, collage, video and installation. Through her work she challenged colonial narratives, giving a voice to the silenced histories of her people. In recognition of her cultural and creative contributions, she was inducted into the WA Women’s Hall of Fame in 2023.
George Criddle (b. 1984) is a conceptual and socially engaged artist whose colonial ancestors played a central role in in frontier violence and nation building in Jambinu, (Geraldton). Their work interrogates the privileges inherited by their family as a result of colonial dispossession, acknowledging the impact of their own lineage.
Silence Listening: A Midwest Truth-Telling Exhibition is funded by the WA Government through the Departments of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, and Primary Industries and Regional Development, with support from Yamaji Art, Museum of Geraldton, and ART ON THE MOVE.
