Yu in Fire

Hearing Country is about learning to read and exist with Country. Through understanding the deep relational basis of everything we see, hear and feel, we can build a sense of accountability that challenges ingrained individualism and ego.  

This recording is based on the teachings of Uncle Noel Butler in the recent Bugia Nawway Gabun Buridja artist residency at Bundanon. Developed for Siteworks 2022: From a deep valley, the project brought local Elders and artists together with experimental music communities from around Australia to develop new, accountable practices of performing and presenting.

Copyright Local Music

Local Music

Local Music is Uncle Noel Butler with Emily Fishpool and Sam Miers together with Elders and contributors from Yuin Country. The Hearing Country residency and project has been developed in partnership with Liquid Architecture. Active since 2000, Liquid Architecture is a Naarm (Melbourne) based organisation supporting experimental, interdisciplinary and critical work addressing sound and listening in context.

Noel Butler

Noel Butler is a Budawang Elder of the Yuin Nation, on the south coast of NSW. A qualified teacher and mentor, he has been working as a cultural educator for over 30 years. Uncle Noel’s interactive lessons include walks, camps and cook-ups, and are inclusive events for all Australians who have a desire to learn about traditional Aboriginal Cultures. Butler is an accomplished speaker who delivers his knowledge on Aboriginal Culture with passion and urgency.

Emily Fishpool

Emily Fishpool (who performs under the name E Fishpool) is a Budawang person learning and facilitating alongside Uncle Noel Butler. Fishpool’s work is informed by cultural practices that allow Country to be heard, and known, inside of themselves, channeling outward through samples and electronic composition that build unique sonic experiences that reflect Country and memory.

Sam Miers

Sam Miers is an artist born and based in Batemans Bay, Yuin Country. His work focuses on local practices of dialogic health. Miers is dedicated to a life in Batemans Bay working on ceremony with both Yuin practitioners and newcomers to the culture.

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Bundanon’s annual presentation of environmental research projects and public programs has a decade-long history.  In 2022, Siteworks is presenting a family of projects that draw on climate research, critical thinking through contemporary art, creative digital spaces, and Indigenous knowledge and technologies.

The starting point for Siteworks 2022 is the concept of the weather report, borrowed to map both environmental and emotional spaces, and chronicle internal and external landscapes. This expansive program includes a new exhibition, outdoor installations, a laboratorium space for workshops and performances, as well as talks and events over weekends throughout the season. Siteworks 2022 posits the artist as a kind of weather balloon, capturing a collection of reports on our place and our time.

Commissioned by Bundanon; part of the weather station in Bundanon, NSW, Australia - find out more here.