We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of New South Wales stands.

Lisa Reihana

People aboard a sailing vessel

Lisa Reihana GROUNDLOOP 2022 (video still), Art Gallery of New South Wales © Lisa Reihana

GROUNDLOOP

Māori artist Lisa Reihana (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Hine, Ngāi Tūteauru, Ngāi Tūpoto) has created a monumental moving-image work that overlooks the central atrium of the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ new building.

GROUNDLOOP takes us on a voyage across the lands, sea and skies of our region. In this new film, Lisa Reihana imagines a future where the ocean is a superhighway – an everyday connector between Indigenous voyagers from Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia; a path along which ancestral stories circulate. 

The journey begins with a smoke signal – cast from the Art Gallery’s site – that reaches Reihana’s familial homeland near Hokianga Harbour. Heeding this invitation, an intergenerational group of Māori, Pasifika and Indigenous Australian travellers board a waka hourua (double-hull canoe) and embark towards Sydney Harbour, which teems with giant banksia pod architecture and iridescent gadi (Xanthorrhoea or grass trees). On the shores of Woolloomooloo, on Gadigal Country, visitors and hosts come together in an exuberant celebration. 

Exemplifying the Māori proverb ka mua, ka muri (‘walking backwards, into the future’), Reihana offers an indigifuturist narrative sustained by millennia-old First Nations technologies and cultural knowledge. In her world, just as watercraft course to and fro across the Tasman, so time loops.

  • K–6 discussion questions

    • In the film GROUNDLOOP we travel across the land, sea and skies. Identify what you can see in this artwork. List the sights and movement you experience. Who are the people? What are they wearing? Describe what they are doing. How would you feel if you were one of these people?

    • This artwork depicts a journey between Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Find Woolloomooloo (a suburb neighbouring the Art Gallery) and Hokianga Harbour (Reihana’s family’s country) on a map. Why do you think Reihana has chosen these specific sites for her artwork? How are the travellers moving between these two sites?

    • How has Reihana created this artwork? Why do you think she decided to tell this story using digital technology? How does song and costume add to our understanding of who these people are?

  • K–6 activities

    • GROUNDLOOP depicts an imagined, indistinct future. Create a digital portrait of yourself travelling to a place 200 years in the future. Brainstorm who you are in this imagined time, where you are from and where you might be going. Experiment with collage, scale and repetition to create your images.

    • List the objects and describe the clothing you can see in GROUNDLOOP. What do the textures and patterns tell us about the characters in the artwork? Create a costume with features that could help you survive a long ocean journey.

    • Find a photograph of a place in the world that you’ve never been to. Use your imagination to travel to this place. How would it feel to be there? What sounds, smells and feelings would you experience? How would you describe this place in a postcard to your friends or family? Create an artwork that tells the story of your first encounter with this place.

  • 7–12 discussion questions

    • Following the journey of a group of Māori and Pasifika travellers, GROUNDLOOP depicts a futuristic crossing of the Tasman Sea from Woolloomooloo in Australia to Hokianga Harbour in Aotearoa New Zealand and back again. Discuss the significance and meaning of the ocean in this work. Research the different ways people have navigated the ocean over time.

    • What technical considerations has Reihana taken into account to create this monumental moving-image work? Compare these to the way artists work in other expressive forms. How does scale help us to connect with big ideas? 

    • GROUNDLOOP is a collaborative, Indigenous-led artwork. What message do you think the artist is sending us about relationships to each other and the natural world in this region? How important is art in conveying these ideas?

    • GROUNDLOOP culminates with the meeting of First Nations people and cultures. Describe what you see in this scene. What do you think Reihana is trying to convey? Discuss the idea of a meeting place and the different ways in which people welcome each other.

  • 7–12 activities

    • In Reihana’s vision, the lands, ocean and skies are sustained by First Nations knowledge and cultural practices. Consider, for instance, the houses on Sydney Harbour which are made of giant banksias, or the scenes of sustainable fishing practised by fisherpeople on nawi (canoes). Research one example of how Indigenous communities care for Country and how such practices might help in the future.

    • GROUNDLOOP culminates in a scene of celebration between First Nations communities with the exchange of food, dance and song. Each character contributes something special. As a group, make an invitation for a party in the year 3000. What are you celebrating? Who are you inviting? What will be the food, music and entertainment? Is there something special from your own present-day community, friendship group or family traditions that you would like to see celebrated in the future?

    • The vessel depicted in GROUNDLOOP is a futuristic waka hourua, a large Māori double-hulled ocean canoe. Design your own ocean vessel for the future, adding patterns and features that are meaningful to you.