Barka: The Forgotten River brought Barkandji knowledge, environmental testimony and contemporary art to the Australian Museum in Sydney in 2023.
The exhibition was created by Barkandji elder Badger Bates and Sydney artist Justine Muller around the Darling River, known as the Barka to the people whose identity and history are inseparable from it.
River clay, red gum and recorded voices
The exhibition combined footprint impressions made in river clay, oil painting, multimedia installation and carved sculpture.
Bates added native waterbirds carved from river red gum, a material growing along the Barka. Muller contributed portraits and audio recordings in which Wilcannia residents described their relationship with the river and the deterioration they had witnessed over time.
The collaboration began after Muller’s car broke down in Wilcannia and she painted Bates’s portrait. He later invited her back to Barkandji Country, where their separate practices developed into a shared project.
An exhibition touring with the river’s decline
Barka first opened at Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery in 2018 after approximately three years of work. It later travelled to Adelaide, Canberra, Mildura and Maitland before being reconfigured for the Australian Museum.
The Sydney opening included performances by Barkandji musicians Barkaa and Leroy Johnson, as well as demonstrations of mussel carving, jewellery making and wood carving.
Bates described the exhibition as a warning about what would be lost if the river died. The concern extended beyond water levels to animals, plants, culture and the communities living along its banks.
The artists also faced difficulty securing future funding because the project was considered politically sensitive. That uncertainty reinforced the urgency of the museum presentation.
Barka: The Forgotten River treated environmental decline as cultural loss. Its materials, voices and images carried the river into the gallery while insisting that the Barka could not be understood apart from Barkandji life.