From Tuesday,the gallery’s modern northern building will be known by the Dharug nameNaala Badu,meaning seeing water,and its 132-year-old original building designed by Walter Liberty Vernon,will be namedNaala Nura,meaning seeing Country.
The north and south wings of the Art Gallery of NSW are to be given Indigenous cultural names.Graphics
The institution of the Art Gallery of NSW will keep its name,but the buildings’ signs will be replaced to reflect the new Indigenous place names for the buildings currently known simply as the north and south wings.
Naala Badu references Sydney Harbour and those waters that have sustained communities throughout NSW.Naala Nura acknowledges Indigenous Country more broadly,and the golden sandstone of the Art Gallery’s original building,hewn from local sites. By using repetition,it’s hoped visitors will absorb the hint that the two buildings are connected.
Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand said the names evoke a powerful sense of place. “We intend to carry these names with the deepest respect,” he said.
“At the heart of our vision is recognition of the uniqueness of our location and the layering of its histories,along with a profound respect for Indigenous knowledge and language.”
He acknowledged that the names might take the public a period of adjustment:“We understand that it might take some time for the new names to become commonly used,but we are confident that our staff and visitors will embrace the names and appreciate their meaning.”
New signs go up at the Art Gallery of NSW on Tuesday.Felicity Jenkins
Art Gallery trustee and inaugural chair of its Indigenous Advisory Group,acclaimed artist Tony Albert said:“As an Indigenous Australian for whom English is my second language,having not had the opportunity to learn my first language,I applaud the gift of living,breathing language for the Art Gallery’s two buildings.”
The new names will be signposted on both buildings from Tuesday and will assist visitors in distinguishing between the collections,exhibitions,programs and facilities in each. The art gallery is the custodian of 35,000 artworks including an important collection of Aboriginal works.
NSW has long had a bipartisan policy encouraging dual-language naming,and,in 2022,the gallery came close to finalising these same names before the opening of the Sydney Modern extension that year.
However,the former Coalition government intervened to request negotiations be expanded to include the La Perouse Indigenous community and the Aboriginal Languages Trust.
The gallery board had worried there would be a “potential risk” to the gallery’s standing if an announcement were made without cross-community support.
At the time,Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council’s chief executive and perplexed that the new extension would open without an Indigenous cultural name when his council had made available a dictionary of names and options well before the ribbon cutting.
Yiribana,the name of the Art Gallery’s Indigenous exhibition space since 1994,was considered as an alternative name as were derivations of the two adopted names in the Dharawal language as favoured by the Gujaga Foundation representing the cultural interests of the La Perouse community.
The renaming comes as the art commission on the land bridge next to Sydney Modern,by Wiradyuri and Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones,bíal gwiyúŋo(the fire is not yet lighted) remains under construction. The living artwork allows for cultural burnings and ceremonies and was scheduled to open in 2023.
Private funds have been raised for the commission’s public programming,intrinsic to the work,to cover the first five years of the public programming and beyond. Major steel works and plantings are mostly finished.
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