Janjari by Dr Fiona Foley

Exhibition: Thu 22 Aug – Sat 23 Nov 2024

Launch: 6.00pm, Fri 23 Aug - with Cairns Festival, A Cultural Rising, featuring Performance by Christine Anu

Artist Talk: 10.30am Sat 24 Aug

Janjari, a major new work by internationally renowned Badtjala contemporary artist Dr Fiona Foley marks the first acquisitive commission by Hervey Bay Regional Gallery since reopening in 2022. 

Filmed entirely on K’gari, a flowing narrative guides the viewer from west to east of the world’s largest sand island. Foley’s work is deeply rooted in her ancestral connection to K’gari, a location that holds ongoing cultural, spiritual and environmental significance for Badtjala people. This video includes imagery alluding to K’gari’s creation story, featuring Yindingie (carpet snake) who formed the landscape of Butchulla country from the island to the western boundary of Mount Bauple. 

Remaining committed to flipping the ethnographic lens of colonial myth making, Foley has used 19th century costume traditions in Janjari. However, the Aboriginal performers wearing the clothes in the film reclaim their power and agency as the protagonists of the island.

Janjari is the Butchulla word for spirit guardian. The raw and varied beauty captured in Janjari brings K’gari’s spirit alive. Laced with Fiona Foley’s signature tension between a haunted past, contemplation of solitude and moments of joy and humour, this piece is a significant addition to the artist’s oeuvre and HBRG’s collection.