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While we use the word ‘Aboriginal’ to explain the terminology of ‘the health gap’ in current research and policy, we would like to acknowledge it as a colonised term. We advocate for shifting to the use of cultural group names as identifiers. Where this is not possible, we use ‘Indigenous’.
Exhibition: Madjawa Maangi
Now showing at UNSW Health and Translation Hub until January 28th 2027
Madjawa Maangi explores Indigenous cultural health — the interconnectedness between people and Country through culture. The exhibition is inspired by the creation story of the seagull who brings the pippi from saltwater to freshwater Country, reflecting the importance of sharing knowledge, skills, and resources.
Left to right: Brett Biles, Warren Foster Senior, Aryati Yashadhana, Michelle Fields, Ted Fields
Across a mixed media exhibition spanning traditional, contemporary, and digital forms, Madjawa Maangi reveals enduring relationships between people and Country, through cultural expression. Pre-colonisation cultural objects from Yuin Country, including stone dishes, axes and cutters, were generously loaned by Umbarra Cultural Centre. Resources from the Gaawaadhi Gadudha Research Collaborative share research exploring the ways culture continues to support healthy people and Country.
Photo: Katherine Griffiths
Madjawa Maangi is curated by Warren Foster (Senior) (Yuin Djirringanj), Ted Fields (Yuwaalaraay, Gamilaraay) and Shelly Fields (Gamilaraay), drawing on their extensive experience delivering cultural health initiatives, language revitalisation programs and grassroots cultural engagement, and bringing together saltwater and freshwater knowledge, perspectives, and practices.
Photo: Katherine Griffiths
Photo: Katherine Griffiths
Photo: Katherine Griffiths
Photo: Katherine Griffiths
Photo: Katherine Griffiths
Photo: Katherine Griffiths
Photo: Katherine Griffiths
Photo: Katherine Griffiths
Photo: Katherine Griffiths
Photo: Katherine Griffiths
Photo: Katherine Griffiths
Photo: Aryati Yashadhana
Aaron Kennedy (Jerrinja/Djirringanj)
Hailah Peters-Limerick (Wambaya)
Jordan Roberts (Bundjalung)
Kevin 'Sooty' Welsh (Weilwan)
Ted Fields (Yuwaalaraay/Gamilaraay)
Shelly Fields (Gamilaraay)
Warren Foster (Senior) (Yuin-Djirringanj)
Research Translation Display
Gaawaadhi Gadudha Research Collaborative
Indigenous Knowledge Futures
feltExperience Empathy Lab (fEEL)
Workshops & Yarns
A series of workshops and yarns accompanied the exhibition, exploring the relationships between culture, Country and health through the knowledge and perspectives of cultural knowledge holders. Sessions focused on Country, fire, weaving, language, medicine and cultural landscapes, creating opportunities for participants to listen, learn and take part in cultural practices and knowledge sharing. Together, these experiences brought cultural health into practice, building understanding of its significance to Indigenous peoples and communities and the central role of culture and Country in health and wellbeing.
August 31st 2026
Yuin Traditional Dance Workshop with Warren Foster Senior
As accompanied the exhibition, exploring the relationships between culture, Countrn experience of Yuin cultural knowledge and storytelling through traditional dance.
A series of workshops and yarns accompanied the exhibition, exploring the relationships between culture, Country and health through the knowledge and perspectives of cultural knowledge holders. Sessions focused on Country, fire, weaving, language, medicine and cultural landscapes, creating opportunities for participants to listen, learn and take part in cultural practices and knowledge sharing. Together, these experiences brought cultural health into practice, building understanding of its significance to Indigenous peoples and communities and the central role of culture and Country in health and wellbeing.
August 31st 2026
Yuin Traditional Dance Workshop with Warren Foster Senior
As accompanied the exhibition, exploring the relationships between culture, Countrn experience of Yuin cultural knowledge and storytelling through traditional dance.
Madjawa Maangi Opening Ceremony
Welcome to Country with Aunty Barb Simms-Keeley and Smoking Ceremony with Warren Foster (Senior), Ted Fields and Shelly Fields.
September 1st 2026
Traditional Medicine Workshop with Ted & Shelly Fields
An exploration of Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay plant medicines and cultural knowledge relating to Country, healing and wellbeing.
Yidaki Sounds Session with Warren Foster Senior
An experience with healing sounds and vibrations of the yidaki.
Panel Yarn: Country, Culture, People & Wellbeing with the Gaawaadhi Gadudha Research Collaborative
A conversation exploring cultural health research and the relationships between Country, culture, people and wellbeing.
Thursday 1 October
Cultural Landscapes yarn with Ted Fields, Darren Green and Dr Aryati
Yashadhana
A yarn exploring cultural landscapes such as Dharriwaa (Narran Lakes) and their importance to cultural health.
Women’s weaving circle with Michelle Fields and Nellie Pollard-Wharton
A hands-on weaving circle celebrating cultural practice, knowledge sharing and connection.
Fire as Medicine (Yarning Session) with Warren Foster (Senior)
A yarn exploring the role of fire in healing, caring for Country, and cultural land management.
Gamilaraay language of northern New South Wales with Ted Fields.
An introduction to Gamilaraay language through shared learning and cultural knowledge.
Djirringanj Language workshop with Warren Foster (Senior)
An introduction to Djirringanj language and its relationships with culture, Country and knowledge.
Welcome to Country with Aunty Barb Simms-Keeley and Smoking Ceremony with Warren Foster (Senior), Ted Fields and Shelly Fields.
September 1st 2026
Traditional Medicine Workshop with Ted & Shelly Fields
An exploration of Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay plant medicines and cultural knowledge relating to Country, healing and wellbeing.
Yidaki Sounds Session with Warren Foster Senior
An experience with healing sounds and vibrations of the yidaki.
Panel Yarn: Country, Culture, People & Wellbeing with the Gaawaadhi Gadudha Research Collaborative
A conversation exploring cultural health research and the relationships between Country, culture, people and wellbeing.
Thursday 1 October
Cultural Landscapes yarn with Ted Fields, Darren Green and Dr Aryati
Yashadhana
A yarn exploring cultural landscapes such as Dharriwaa (Narran Lakes) and their importance to cultural health.
Women’s weaving circle with Michelle Fields and Nellie Pollard-Wharton
A hands-on weaving circle celebrating cultural practice, knowledge sharing and connection.
Fire as Medicine (Yarning Session) with Warren Foster (Senior)
A yarn exploring the role of fire in healing, caring for Country, and cultural land management.
Gamilaraay language of northern New South Wales with Ted Fields.
An introduction to Gamilaraay language through shared learning and cultural knowledge.
Djirringanj Language workshop with Warren Foster (Senior)
An introduction to Djirringanj language and its relationships with culture, Country and knowledge.
Photo: Aryati Yashadhana
Photo: Kerry Turnbull
Photo: Kerry Turnbull
Photo: Kerry Turnbull
This interactive digital experience brings together cultural objects from Yuwaalaraay and Yuin Djirringanj Country, sharing their cultural significance through 3D imagery, Country and the voices of knowledge holders. Visitors can explore detailed 3D representations of cultural objects while listening to Ted Fields (Yuwaalaraay, Gamilaraay) and Warren Foster (Senior) (Yuin Djirringanj) share knowledge about the objects, their uses and their relationships to culture and Country.
Some of the Yuwaalaraay objects were originally scanned through a research project undertaken in collaboration with Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation, which explored reconnection to Country among older Aboriginal people living in urban places. The digital objects have subsequently been brought together with objects from Yuin Djirringanj Country as part of Madjawa Maangi.
The project is a collaboration between knowledge holders, researchers and artists from the Gaawaadhi Gadudha Research Collaborative and the felt Experience and Empathy Lab (fEEL), UNSW Sydney. It extends the exhibition’s combination of physical and digital cultural objects, using interactive 3D technologies to create another way for visitors to encounter cultural knowledge and connections to Country.
3D model environment development: Volker Kuchelmeister
Voiceovers: Ted Fields and Warren Foster (Senior)
3D scanning: Volker Kuchelmeister and Aryati Yashadhana
Message Stick – A Special Dreaming Place is a collaborative sound work by Yuin Djirringanj knowledge holder Warren Foster (Senior) and Band Practice.
The work brings together voice, music and recordings of Country to create an immersive journey through culture, place and memory. Voices from Warren Foster (Senior), Ted Fields and Shelly Fields are interwoven with clapsticks, didgeridoo, field recordings from Country and original electronic music by artists Band Practice. The sound installation reflects Madjawa Maangi’s exploration of cultural health and the interconnected relationships between people, Country, culture and wellbeing. Moving across freshwater and saltwater cultural landscapes, it invites visitors to listen to Country as a living place of sound, story, knowledge and relationship. Through the meeting of cultural and contemporary sounds, Message Stick – A Special Dreaming Place explores how knowledge, memory and connections to Country are carried between generations and across freshwater and saltwater Country.
Band Practice
Evan Gehring, Grant Worth,
Laura Worth, Tim Worth
Voices
Warren Foster (Senior), Ted Fields and Shelly Fields
Clapsticks and didgeridoo
Warren Foster (Senior)
Modular synth
Tim Worth
Field recordings
Aryati Yashadhana
Mix and master
Jeremiah Glazer
Artwork: Aryati Yashadhana & Grant Worth
Photography from the Gaawaadhi Gadudha Research Collaborative
Aryati Yashadhana
Brooke Brady
Curation & Production Coordination
Aryati Yashadhana
Kerry Turnbull
Graphic Design
Marilena Hewitt
Funding
Madjawa Maangi is presented as part of the 2026 First Nations Arts & Cultural
Program at the UNSW Health Translation Hub