Four Thousand Fish - Sydney Festival

In 1790 British colonists hauled in an excessive four thousand fish in one day, disrupting the delicate ecosystem that the accomplished Aboriginal fisherwomen of Warrane (Sydney Harbour) had preserved for millennia, and undermining the women’s status as the main food providers for family and community.

This large scale art installation was created in 2018 to celebrate fisherwoman Barangaroo, the influential and resilient Cammeraygal woman after whom the place is named.

As part of this immersive and interactive installation at the Cutaway, Lucy worked closely with Wiradjuri Curator Emily McDaniel on visual storytelling; creating graphic design for promotion, large scale signage and way-finding for navigation throughout the site. She also designed instructional diagrams and a 3D fish model for the participatory element of the installation in which visitors were invited to create frozen fish using seawater and a cast mould, which saw more than ten thousand ‘fish’ symbolically returned to the harbour through summer heat, fire burning within the metal nawi, and the setting of the sun. Over the duration of the project in January 2018, 23,420 visitors attended the installation and 13,852 participated in the symbolic act of creating and returning the frozen fish to Warrane.

The project was dedicated to a woman named Barangaroo, and the subsequent generations of Aboriginal women that have protected, fished and cared for Sydney Harbour. It was the result of collaboration with Dharawal and Yuin artist Phyllis Stewart, Biigal artist Steven Russell, Yuwaalaraay designer and artist Lucy Simpson and Arrernte / Kalkadoon and Bundjalung woman Lille Madden.

Images courtesy Jamie Williams for Sydney Festival.