I am connected to the Yorta Yorta, Wamba Wamba, Mutti Mutti and Boonurong people through my heritage. My connection to these four language groups provides the framework for my arts practice research project. Totems are an important component of my work. Totems govern life in Koori tribal language groups. For example, they dictate who you can talk to and marry, and govern rights for making art, including men's business and women's business. This translates as 'Lore' in Koori culture. Lore is a Koori term meaning a way of being that encompasses kinship systems, responsibilities, and beliefs, as they interconnect with a particular area of country. In the past, when the Museum acquired Aboriginal artefacts, they sometimes did not record all the details. This meant there was then a break in the knowledge. Aboriginal people have our own collection of artefacts in various cultural institutions, but we do not have that layer of information about what the designs were about. The totems are not necessarily in the designs on the shields and artefacts. They are generally designs relating to those different areas. Gunnai/Kurnai can be quite different to Latje Latje, for example. Some of the designs on the banners may represent the totems. This can reflect an artist's interpretation of the meanings within such designs. My work incorporates a re-interpretation of a range of different totems connected to the language groups I have a blood connection to.

Animals are good to think with, or so they say. And animal totems have consistently found a hospitable ecosystem in Continental Philosophy. From Isaiah Berlin’s fox and hedgehog, to Friedrich Nietzsche’s menagerie of eagles and asses, to Donna Haraway’s companion species, different critters have been put to work at the service of The Concept. In Deleuze’s influential essay, “Postscript on the Societies of Control,” we encounter two particular animals: the mole and the serpent. (“We have passed from one animal to the other, from the mole to the serpent, in the system under which we live, but also in our manner of living and in our relations with others.” [2011: 140f]) The former is the emblem of the disciplinary society, which, according to Deleuze’s argument, is evolving swiftly into a control society, overseen by the oily coilings of the latter. What to make of this totemic distinction? What can the mole and the serpent tell us about the present moment, thirty years after Deleuze released them into our minds in this context? Since it is hardly more than a suggestive throw-away line in the original piece, we can only speculate.

MA (Xitsonga) / Eka Senthara ya M. E. R. Mathivha ya Tindzumi ta Xiafrika, Vutshila na Mfuwo / Ndzavisiso lowu wu kanela hilaha swithopo swi nga na nkucetelo hakona eka mahanyelo ya Vatsonga. Nkoka wa dyondzo leyi i ku komba Vatsonga laha va humaka kona na mahanyelo lama hlohloteriwaka hi swithopo swa swivongo swa vona. Xikongomelonkulu xa ndzavisiso lowu i ku lavisisa swin’wana swa swithopo swa swivongo swa Vatsonga na nkucetelo wa swona evuton’wini bya vanhu lava. Ntirho lowu wu ta languta swithopo swa makumembirhin’we leswi nga kona eka swivongo swa Vatsonga. Mulavisisi u hlawurile swivongo handle ko landzelela maendlelo yo karhi, kambe u ta hlawula ngopfu swivongo leswi kumekaka hi xitalo kumbe leswi taleleke hi vavulavuri eka Vatsonga. Nkanelo wa mahungu wu langute eka swihlawulekisi swa swithopo swa swivongo na nkucetelo eka vinyi va swona. Vakhegula na vakhalabye vo ringana ntlhanu eka xivongo xin’wana na xin’wana lava nga na vutivi bya matimu ya swivongo va hlokohlisiwile ku kuma swithopo na matimu ya swona eka xivongo xin’wana na xin’wana. / NRF