Spring at Wama

Celebrate Spring with us.

On 21 September, we are launching Spring, an earthwork and community care project by New York-based Australian artist Jemila MacEwan and soil scientist Richard MacEwan.

This event schedule includes performance, talks, and activities including:

10.00 - Precinct opens, including 'Seed Tree', a family-friendly art workshop

11.30 - Smoking ceremony for 'Spring' led by representatives Paul Kelly from Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation and Ben Muir from Barengi Gadjin Land Council

1.00 - Geology of Gariwerd: Dr. Stephen Careycommences (discussion)

1.50 - Jallukar Landcare Native Grasslands discussion with Ange Turrell (discussion)

3.00 - Spring meditation and seed planting performance led by artist Jemila MacEwan

4.15 - Intergenerational conversation between Jemila and Richard MacEwan, the co-creators of 'Spring'

+ bakery items from Blue Wren cafe and coffee

"I have been creating works about time and the environment for many years, but this is the first time I am making a work about intergenerational knowledge and care. I am collaborating with my father who has been doing inspiring work recovering native plant life including grasses on his land."

Jemila MacEwan

Meet the Artists

Jemila MacEwan is a conceptual artist known for earthworks, installations, films, and durational performances that follow the rhythms of nature—celestial, geophysical, and biological.
Their work takes an expansive view of time and geography, often unfolding over days, weeks or years. MacEwan seeks to build trust in the resilience
of the living world, wielding the intimate entanglements of art, society, and the environment to create large-scale projects.
In their project Spring, the artist has collaborated with their father, Richard MacEwan—a retired soil scientist and horticulturist—inspired by his efforts to restore native ecosystems on their family’s land in Lockwood South, Victoria.
Spring extends their shared commitment to environmental care and to trust in what grows slowly, invisibly, over time.
Richard MacEwan is a retired soil scientist who carried out teaching and research on soils and land management in Victoria for over twenty years. Richard lives on a small rural property near Bendigo on soils derived from the Harcourt granodiorite where he battles with rabbits and weeds on his mission to leave the land more ecologically enchanting. Spring is Richard's first artwork collaboration with his daughter, Jemila MacEwan.