Welcome to Park Street Melbourne
We would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation who are the traditional custodians of the land upon which Park Street stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Wurundjeri Elders, past and present, and extend this respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples.
Tim Moriarty – the artist
“Dark lightning is the most energetic radiation produced naturally on Earth, but was unknown before 1991 to western science.”1
In the context of indigenous culture, lightning dreaming visited the women through their dreams, and was depicted on rock art by the men. The image above is from Tim’s family stories, and is from Oenpelli, Northern Territory. It is estimated to be dated more than 11 thousand years old.
Tim Moriarty’s background includes highly original creative and strategy for such companies and projects as Google, YouTube, National Museum of Australia, Macquarie Bank, Australian Government, Tourism Australia, Village Roadshow and Sony. Tim’s art has been featured around Australia and his latest project is a multi-million-dollar stainless steel optically illusive depiction of the traditional emu dreaming for the new airport at Badgerys Creek.
His Aboriginal skin name is Bundiyan: Cheeky Brown Snake “Striking in multiple directions, clarity, grandson of the Rainbow Serpent”.
Tim’s ancestry comes from Borroloola, on the Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory. As part of the Yanyuwa people, with close family connections and story that traverses from North Queensland all the way through to Kakadu and northern Western Australia as part of family and traditional story and landholders.
1American Geophysical Union. "Scientists detect 'dark lightning' energy burst linked to visible lightning." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130424210319.htm (accessed November 19, 2023).
“Celebrating indigenous culture and creating a vibrant and striking scene to bring Park Street to life”.
We interpreted this as “what knowledge can we pass on that not only tells a story related to the area but also demonstrates the great understanding the traditional custodians of Melbourne, and other indigenous tribes, have of the way land, sea, earth, flora and fauna interact”. And do all of that with an aesthetic of multiple scenes within a theme.”
An example of this understanding is that the Flowering of Swamp Gums (Eucalyptus ovata) and Christmas Bush (Coranderrk) coincides with, and therefore indicates, the beginning of Eels migrating down the Yarra River then to the barrier reef to spawn. At this time, the eels will be at their fattest providing more food. If you have seen the Yarra river you will know the water is not clear due to silt. It’s impossible to see if eels are fat and plentiful. Knowledge of interactions ensures efficient hunting.
Most importantly, for Tim Moriarty (the artist) was to be true to the indigenous principle that knowledge is best passed on by first creating an environment that is configured for learning, one where people want to ask questions. See the artwork, walk down Park St and if that inspires you to want to learn about the seasons, you can. If not just enjoy the aesthetic and the sounds.
There are two indigenous principles we have followed in developing the artworks that you see.
Indigenous art has a function, the aesthetic is an outcome, not necessarily the purpose. Lacking a written language, art is used as a means of keeping a record and passing on information. It tells a story.
Indigenous Australians encouraged learning by asking questions. Settlements, village structures, and daily activities were configured to learn. The centre of the settlement was a place to meet, sing, sit around the fire and ask questions. Children interacted with multiple elders in these settings.
Sing, sit around Park Street, listen to the sounds, interact with friends or new acquaintances, but most of all enjoy.
Indigenous knowledge has always been closely shared through the senses. In ceremony, we dance, create music, and we paint up. When experiencing and developing knowledge of the seasons today, we have many new wonderful technologies, but the essence is still the same, we want people to experience through different senses. As more technologies become available or people use different mediums to express themselves, Aboriginal culture can always find a way to evolve and enlighten and bring us together.
The area that is now called Melbourne was a meeting place for all three of the Kulin tribes of the greater area. Melbourne is still a meeting place and the street art and places like Fed square are a great example of how cultures evolve to allow people to express themselves and bring us together. As you walk through the different areas of Park Street enjoy the art and sound that may suggest different memories or different ideas based on different times of the year. Create your own meaning and experience through the traditional eight seasons that was the backbone to this beautiful country. In the old times the different times of year would dictate different types of activities and you can see this in the artwork as you try to look for the symbols that might give you these clues.
Indigenous knowledge was, and is, subtle and often blended into the environment so if you don't see or hear something straight away you might next time!
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The artwork represents different seasons -
Each season is identified by a symbol located within the art -
Each season has a QR code for more information. -
The seasons are both sequential and circular representing the continuous and permanent nature of all things.
Whereas European seasons are defined by the calendar, for Indigenous Australians the seasons somewhat defined the calendar. That is, certain activities were undertaken during each season. As such, an understanding of the signals of the seasons and their implications was critical to survival and sustainability. Survival, because knowing when food was likely to be plentiful reduced the drain on resources.
The artwork you see along both sides of Park Street represents the Wurundjeri seasons in Melbourne. Europeans see four equal seasons of 3 months per year, but as any Melbournian will tell you, Melbourne can have four seasons in one day! So, it is not surprising that the Wurundjeri people (the traditional owners of the land on which Melbourne sits) consider there to be more than four seasons in a year. Indigenous Australians consider seasons to be defined by environmental signals such as the flowering of particular plants, humidity or wind patterns, not by a page in the calendar.
Whilst it is impossible to do justice to the wealth and variety of traditional systems of tracking time and seasons. The recurrent theme across all Indigenous cultures is the interconnectedness of human activities and the cycle of changes in flora and fauna that attend the tilting of the earth’s axis.
You may notice that, from a bird’s eye view, the individual artwork representing each season are sequential (one season follows another) and circular (representing the never-ending cycle of both seasons and life).
Whilst we know little about the Aboriginal definition of seasons in this area, what we do know indicates a number of between six and eight seasons. Further, as Indigenous Australians define seasons by environmental signals it is possible that a particular season may not appear in every year. Each season is of varying lengths, some as short as four weeks some up to 3 months. The stories behind the artwork are based on eight seasons.
As you walk through you will notice each section of artwork has both a small symbol and a QR code. The symbols are representations of one of the environmental indicators that defines a season. Use the QR code for more information.
Please note: All Aboriginal people worked to a lunar calendar in which there are 13 cycles of the moon around the earth, not 12. For each Season we have given a guide as to when it likely occurs in the Western calendar. In traditional Wurundjeri life it is likely the start and end of a season was adjusted based on natural events.
Interesting fact: The dependence of the lunar calendar can be shown by the fact that for all tribes the ordinal numbering system went from first to twenty-eighth and stopped. The cardinal system went to infinity.
