A 6.4-metre-tall marble sculpture has just been revealed on the stretching lawns on the headland overlooking Bennelong Point and Circular Quay, honouring the multifaceted living history of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.
Created by Waanyi artist Judy Watson and commissioned by the City of Sydney, this colossal crescent is called Bara, meaning 'shell hook' in Gadigal language, and is a tribute to the ancient living culture that called this part of Sydney home for thousands of years, as well as recognising the destructiveness of colonial settlement. It's hoped the location of the sculpture will offer a place of quiet contemplation for today's Sydneysiders in search of a moment of calm in the heart of an ever-frenetic city.
"The crescent shape is a beautiful expression of Aboriginal technology, with the shells fashioned into fishhooks by women who dangled them from their nawi canoes. The ‘bara’ is like a reflection of the moon in the sky, the bays in the harbour, the sails of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge," Artist Judy Watson said.'
Bara will be the fourth public artwork to appear in the ‘Eora Journey’, a project that has been curated by Hetti Perkins to honour First Nations people in public spaces that have key historical and cultural significance. Bara will form part of Yananurala, which translates to ‘walking on country’, a 9 kilometre walk along the Sydney Harbour foreshore that will highlight places of Indigenous cultural and historical significance all the way from Pyrmont to Woolloomooloo.
Constructed close to the site where the British first raised their flag to claim Australia under the guise of terra-nullius, Bara is an important public recognition of the ancient history of Sydney, with Lord Mayor Clover Moore saying that this artwork will; “remind us of what endures, of what is of lasting importance, and of how, in the 21st century, we must, at last, learn how to live in harmony with the land and its resources.”