NAIDOC Week: Honouring Our Grandmother Tree

All ages

Running over three special days, join us for a free drop-in event this July school holidays to help create an art installation honouring our Grandmother Tree – the Sydney red gum. Set up in Hintze Hall, the Grandmother Tree is set to transform as Guringai, Yuin, and Sydney Traditional Owner Amanda Jane Reynolds lead children and families through unique art-making, ancestral teachings, and a daily sacred possum drumming ceremony.

Honouring the Tree as Guardians of the Grandmother Lore, the oldest Lores remembering all our families and kin, Amanda and friends will demonstrate traditional art-making using ochres on possum pelts. Create your own unique piece to connect with Grandmother Tree as a leaf or totem hanging.

Meet Amanda Baker (Aunty A), artist, teacher and mother of the Guringai peoples, who introduces her totem Garraway, the yellow-crested cockatoo, and how this white-feathered bird is "blak, loud, and proud!" Hear stories about the possum, glider, parrots, and native bee as other sacred totem species who also call Grandmother Tree home. For more family stories be sure to visit the Garrigarrang exhibition and museum collection, which is celebrating its 10th year anniversary.

Come together at noon each day for the ceremonial circle to share a mother’s heartbeat blessing through a sacred possum drumming – honouring connections to Sea, Land, and Sky Country and acknowledging all present. We drum for our families, friends, plants, and animals – we drum for Mother Earth and Father Sky and in celebration of the dance of the Ancestral Grandparents.

Celebrating our Grandmother Tree during NAIDOC week, join us for this family-friendly experience.

Amanda Jane Reynolds is a Guringai and Yuin cloak-maker, multi-media artist, curator and storyteller who is passionate about exhibitions and public art; cultural healing and connection programs; and sharing stories through a range of creative mediums.

Her heart and spirit is devoted to the flourishing of south eastern cultural traditions, knowledge and histories, and to transforming public spaces of colonial dominance. So deeply grateful for the many Elders and Knowledge Holders who have and guided, taught and encouraged her, Amanda has dedicated her life to listening, learning and healing her family and community cultural stories and traditions.

Amanda Baker is a proud woman, artist, teacher and mother of the Guringai peoples who loves collaborative art and working with children and families. In addition to being a School Learning support Officer, Amanda develops ongoing creative collaborations through her business Indigenous Art with Aunty A. Aunty A joyfully shares her totemic connection with the yellow crested white cockatoo through her art, encouraging participants to connect more and love our unique plants and animals.

Rebecca Hird Fletcher is a Guringai woman with strong Awabakal ties through her matrilineal line. Her family line is Ashby through Charlotte Ashby, daughter of Bourangah (Sophy), daughter of Matora and Bungaree.

Rebecca is a PhD candidate and Vice Chancellor Indigenous Doctoral Research Fellow at RMIT. Her research centres on the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young peoples who experience detention in Southern Queensland. Rebecca facilitates Cultural art yarning circles with justice involved children and young people in the youth detention centres and community.

Cherie Reynolds, a talented young creative and TAFE student, grew up on Gumbanginyirr Country, learning culture from her mother’s family. Over the past decade, she has traveled regularly to Sydney to continue her cultural custodian learning with her Aunty Amanda Jane Reynolds, participating in community events, cloak workshops, and cultural ceremonies.

In 2017, she supported her aunty during the Barangaroo Ngangamay women's ceremony, and in 2019, she assisted with curatorial installation and programs for the Grandmother Lore exhibition during the Tarnanthi Festival, preparing her family's installation honoring the Sydney red gum and the teachings of "All our relations."