Royal Botanic Garden Sydney calls for public contribution to NAIDOC Week art exhibition

As part of the 2021 NAIDOC Week celebrations, the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is partnering with ANTaR, the national organisation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander reconciliation and rights, to bring its interactive symbol of reconciliation, the Sea of Hands, to The Calyx lawn.

The Sea of Hands at The Calyx is designed by award winning artist Frances Belle Parker, a proud Yaegl woman. The design is planned to be a fully immersive audio-visual experience and focuses on the NAIDOC theme of ‘Healing Country’.

The design will involve thousands of people planting over 10,000 hands in the colours of charred and burnt banksia pods as part of the ‘Heal Country’ theme.

Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Chief Executive, Denise Ora said it was wonderful to partner with ANTaR and Parker and advises “NAIDOC Week is a special time of year and as individuals we can take part in learning and celebrating First Nations culture to inspire the greater community to take action today and every day. To me, the spirit of NAIDOC Week should be felt throughout the year.

“It seems fitting to call on the local community to come together to take part in creating the Sea of Hands art exhibition and we look forward to seeing everyone in the Garden participating in communicating this important message for reconciliation.”

Parker was inspired by the landscape and the cultural practice of land burning and adds “I am inspired by the Yaegl Landscape and those stories which were shared with me and passed down from our old people, it is my responsibility to document these stories now.

“To truly celebrate and recognise the indigenous people of this country, healing of all our people, alongside healing of the land, is critical. One way in which First Nations people in Australia actively worked to heal country was through cultural burning.

“The hands in this work will be arranged on The Calyx Lawn featuring coastal banksia which is a symbol of resilience as they tend to grow back stronger and thicker after fire.

“Here they will be depicted during their regeneration phase, open, with vivid colours coming from their beaks.”

The final design will be revealed at the Community Day on 4th July after the public installation takes place.

For more information about NAIDOC Week at the Garden visit rbgsydney.nsw.gov.au/NAIDOCweek 

The Calyx lawn is a large open space and the Sea of Hands is an outdoor event with a Covid Safety plan registered with NSW Health. The capacity of the lawn with 4metre2 is 600.

Conditions of entry include requirements to stay away if unwell, record keeping via QR codes, 1.5metre physical distancing, hand sanitiser at key points around the venue.