Programs & Events
Join acclaimed writer, producer and director John Harvey in conversation during National Reconciliation Week for an exploration of The Heart of the Universe – an immersive video and sound installation created by John in collaboration with Uncle Water Waia for the 25th Biennale of Sydney.

John Harvey and Walter Waia are artists from Kalaw Kawaw Ya/Saibai Island in the Torres Strait. Their new work, The Heart of the Universe, is a three-channel video and sound installation that delves into the profound connection between rising sea levels and the irrepressible spirit of their people. Join John in conversation with Pauline Clague for an insightful discussion on the ideas and themes explored in The Heart of the Universe, which presents shifting images, archival memory, and embodied sound to evoke a more complex understanding of an island being swallowed by the sea.

Tickets & pricing
Free, please RSVP.
Duration
12 - 1pm
Age Suitability
All Ages
Accessibility
Wheelchair Accessible

About the Artists

John Harvey and Walter Waia are Torres Strait Islander artists from Saibai Island whose collaboration weaves together contemporary practice and cultural knowledge grounded in Saibai Island world view. Working across mediums including film, theatre, installation, choreography, and music, their work explores memory, belonging, and home against a backdrop of rising sea levels and diasporic identity. Their acclaimed short film, Katele (Mudskipper) (2022), exemplifies their voice: lyrical; grounded, and resonant in deep cultural authority. They create contemporary mythologies that are inseparable from culture, language, island homeland, and community – art that embodies a living continuum of ancestral knowledge. At the Biennale of Sydney, their work will stand as both testimony and invitation.

About Pauline Clague

Head of First Nations Engagement at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Pauline Clague—a Yaegl woman from the North Coast of NSW—is an archivist, producer, academic and storyteller. Clague has more than 30 years’ experience in the screen industry: she was series producer of the ABC’s ‘Message Stick’ and of SBS’ The Deadly Awards, and became Commissioning Editor and Head of Internal Productions at NITV, where she launched the landmark series ‘Our Stories, Our Way, Everyday.’ She was the Associate Professor, Manager of Cultural Resilience Hub at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education (UTS); the founder and Artistic Director of the Winda Film Festival in Sydney; a programmer for the imagineNATIVE festival in Toronto; and co-creator of the NativeSlam film challenge in Aotearoa New Zealand.