Barka: The Forgotten River exhibition

This rich exhibition offers insights into the world of the Barka River (aka the Darling). It demands your imagination to explore its gifts. The Australian Museum is committed to ensuring that First Nations Australian voices are presented, and they are here: warm, determined and diverse. But the design approach in this exhibition is minimalist, so you need to explore energetically. That will also let you hear the Barkandji community’s call: you too have to help save the river. You are drawn in first by a spectacular image – a striking, aerial photo of the amazingly meandering Barka River and the plains around it at Menindee. This river is one of the longest on earth and one of the most powerful – and yet this image, although visually astounding with its deep red colours, looks empty. The next step in this exhibition challenges this emptiness immediately – with objects less overwhelming but far more rewarding. Glistening mussel shells hang down on fine lines just across from the huge photograph. Theymake a striking contrast – the fine shells reflect shimmering light as they twist on their strings, delicately carved with images of the many birds, animals and people who depend on them. So the river is not empty at all! The accompanying panel – Yuritja Kirra –Mussel Country – tells you the real story of this river, where water and its living creatures are interdependent, sustaining each other with food, stories andmemories. The remarkable longevity of that Barkandji care is demonstrated just below the sparkling shells, where more robust mussels are laid out on sand like a string of pearls. Mussels are scarce in the river now, but the panel explains that the Barkandji have looked after the river for thousands of years so their oral traditions tell about a time when river mussels were abundant. The thicker shells on the sand in this installation were found in deep excavations along the river – confirming Barkandji stories about the abundance of mussels earlier on. The Barkandji today still care for the river and the environment but they are not ‘frozen in time’. Instead, they live in the high technology present. They are battling heavily industrialised agriculture draining water out of the river for irrigation at the same time as pouring back the damaging inputs needed for cotton, avocado and grazing. The Barkandji, having faced over 200 years of colonial impact, are calling out for your support to save the river and their more-than-human world. Close to the mussels are a series of warm portraits of people from the Barkandji community – painted by Justine Muller – which are enriched by their voices as they