Craft ACT Artist-in-residence 2018: Cupped Hands

GUDGENBY VALLEY — ONE VALLEY MANY STORIES
Brett McNamara, Manager, Namadgi National Park,
ACT Parks & Conservation Service
Residency partner since 2006
In 1826 the Murrumbidgee River represented the
‘limit of occupation’ for it was forbidden for newly
arrived European immigrants to venture further
west.
This of course is juxtaposed to what we know today
as to the movement of people across an ancient
landscape. The original inhabitants of this rich
cultural landscape. A mountainous landscape.
In limiting the squatter’s appetite for expansion,
the laws at the time attempted to impede the
unregulated acquisition of land. There weren’t
enough police to ensure law and order.
A venturous settler soon moved beyond this ‘limit’
taking up land in an isolated valley high in the
rugged mountains. An open grassy valley offering
seemingly limitless opportunities to fattening
ravenous stock. He called it Gudgenby. The year
was 1844.
As this settler surveyed this majestic valley, local
Aboriginal tribes gathered, feasting on protein rich
Bogong moths, celebrating in corroboree, painting
their dream time stories on rocks shelters which are
still visible today.
More Europeans ventured into this hidden valley.
Each seeking to prosper from its natural resources.
In time foresters would seek out opportunities to
plant a commercial pine forest. To grow softwood
timber in this distant valley. The year was 1966.
With the passage of time this beautiful valley was
afforded protection, conserved, set aside given its
intrinsic natural and cultural values. A national park
for the Nation’s Capital was declared. The year was
1984.
the heart of the Gudgenby Valley. As large forestry
machinery rolled into this idyllic valley, mature
pine trees crashed to the forest floor. Local native
seeds were collected, stored away for future use,
nurtured with time, to be planted where pines once
stood.
The vision to restore the ecological integrity
within this valley sowed the seeds for remarkable,
passionate community groups.
In crafting new chapters different people have heard
the call to this valley. Artists and craft practitioners
have arrived, inspired by nature, creating creative
works, drawing inspiration from their immersion.
Today this sense of creativity has been flowing from
the mountains, creating a rich repository of diverse
work, each speaking of time spent in nature.
The values underpinning the artist-in-residence
philosophy are one’s we instinctively appreciate. We
are not separate from nature but a part of it: this is
not an innovative concept, but a rekindling of what
our forbearers understood. Spending time in nature,
connecting with nature is good for the mind, the
body and the soul. Nature can indeed nurture.
It is to this sense of immersion that Vicky
Shukuroglou and Simon Cottrell came to this
valley.
As a body of artistic works Cupped Hands represents
a considered yet reflective period of natural
immersion. It asks us to reflect, it questions our
ability to enquire. To make sense of the world around
us, a cultural world, a natural world.
With the declaration of Namadgi National Park
moves were afoot to remove this exotic pine
plantation, to rehabilitate a fragmented landscape in
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