Ngalambay

2024

Public Art

Artist/s: Maddison Gibbs, Danielle Mate

'Ngalambay' is an immersive portal through time and space linking Water, Mother and Country.

The artwork honours Campbelltown’s Minerva Billabong, a sacred Dharawal women’s business and birthing site, and Aunty Kay Bussell who shared Traditional Water Cleansing Ceremony with the Campbelltown Community.

'Ngalambay'features painting, lighting, mirrors and landscaping. Footprints from Dharawal’s totem, the Lyrebird, guide the way to the tunnel mouth where cave painting splatters and swirling gum leaf ancestors cleanse you, inside the tunnel are rippling lights and patterns poised between outward connection and inner reflection, restoring your journey back toward the light.

'Ngalambay' was developed in close collaboration with Aboriginal women from the Dharawal community. Likewise, the ripple motif was directly inspired from Minerva’s pool.