Zena Cumpston
Barkandji people, New South Wales
For several years I have researched and written about the plant knowledge and foodways of our people. Each of the artworks I have made explore the interrelationships of people, plants and animals on our Barkandji Country.
I see my developing art practice as an exciting new way to explore my research, to map my learning, to share far and wide.
I have included kopi, which is gypsum from our Country that is processed to make a white pigment utilised in traditional mourning practices but also, importantly, for joyous occasions such as painting our bodies for ceremony and celebration. Through each of these works I celebrate our knowledge, but I also mourn how rarely our knowledge as First Peoples is respected and empowered.
Today, the bush foods industry in Australia generates around $80 million in revenue, and by 2025 this is estimated to double. Sadly, less than 2% of the benefit of this industry goes to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
To draw attention to what I see are very strong parallels between the Aboriginal art industry and the bush foods industry, I have incorporated text to reference the work of Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Gurang Gurang activist/artist Richard Bell. Specifically Bell’s Theorem; Aboriginal art it’s a white thing! that critiques disparities in benefit.
Circles signpost a portal into Aboriginal knowledge of Country and signify return — return to our traditional foodways, our plant knowledge, our holistic land management practices. Circles speak to the foundational importance in our culture of true reciprocity, never taking without giving back.
In all of my work I call for the empowerment of our people, of our deep knowledge and skillful management of Country, for the benefit of all.
Easy read
I mourn that since the invasion of our lands we do not often get to eat our traditional foods, developed over many thousands of years to keep our people strong and healthy. I celebrate the many ways our people have kept our plant knowledge and knowledge of Country strong, despite the many ongoing challenges we face as colonised peoples.
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Zena Cumpston is a writer storyteller and researcher and is sharing her visual arts practice publicly for the first time as part of ngaratya (together, us group, all in it together). Zena’s multidisciplinary practice is centered around protecting and celebrating Country. Through diverse forms of storytelling she seeks to illuminate the innovation of her people, with a particular focus on plant knowledge. Zena strives to democratise research, working to create projects that invite a wide audience and provide platforms and opportunities that empower her community.
In 2020 Zena authored a free e-booklet exploring Indigenous plant use that has been utilised widely by schools and community groups. She has written many chapters for diverse arts and academic publications. Most recently her writing has featured in publications by the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, The Art Gallery of South Australia, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Fremantle Press (Unlimited Futures), Wonderground and the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective.
In 2021 she curated the exhibition Emu Sky for the Ian Potter Museum of Art. She also spent 2021 writing for the Australian State of the Environment Report, co-authoring several chapters. In 2022 her highly popular co-authored book Plants: Past, Present and Future was published as part of the First Knowledges series. Her linocut prints, research and writing will feature as part of the upcoming exhibition The Soils Project at TarraWarra Museum of Art.
Zena regularly presents as part of public talks. Appearances for 2023 include Melbourne Writers Festival, World Science Festival Brisbane, Vivid Sydney, Open House Melbourne, the Pedagogies of Transition Series for Monash University/Goldsmiths and the University of London and as part of the ICOMOS General Assembly 2023 public talks curated by Dr Jonathan Jones.
Zena at Mutawintji, 2022
Photo: Nici Cumpston
ngarta-kiira (to return to Country) #1–#10
2023
Melbourne, Wurundjeri Country
linocut collage and kopi on Fabriano paper
(1-4) (7-10) 76.0 x 56.0 cm (each);
(5-6) 56.0 x 76.0 cm (each)
Abundance – Jacob, Mary and Doughboy
2023
Melbourne, Wurundjeri Country
1879, original photograph by Frederic Bonney
inkjet print on canvas
300.0 x 240.0 cm
Image courtesy State Library of NSW,
PXA 562/p.10
karkala (bush bananas)
2023
Melbourne, Wurundjeri Country
woven spiny-headed sedge (Cyperus gymnocaulos), kopi
(1-7) 100.0 x 60.0 x 60.0 cm (overall) (variable)
All works courtesy the artist.
Photography by Christian Capurro at Bunjil Place Gallery, 2023.