Tales from the Murrumbidgee River
By Marily Cintra @ 2008
Rain in the Murrumbidgee River, Tharwa 31st December 2009
1. The
River
The
river serpentines through the dry land, often only a small trickle on its sandy
bed. The river diverts with painful generosity to dams, home showers,
dishwashers and green manicured lawns.
The river is never the same. A moment in time and space, the waters of the Murrumbidgee pass once. Like our lives.
Fresh water conservation is a boundless issue that illustrates the world we live in. Through Message in a Bottle: Tales from the Murrumbidgee River I want to celebrate the power of the river and document stories connected to this source of fresh water. I want to portray the river in its physical and cultural aspects, and the fragility of this natural resource.
Water is
fundamental to life and clean water essential for us to live a healthy life. It is also an important part of our cultural life, of rituals from cradle to
grave. Fresh water is about fertility, cleansing, healing.
Yet,
we have grown distant from water sources, to what happens with the water we
use, and to how much water we have at our disposal. Today a billion people in the planet lack reliable access to
this fundamental resource and in Australia, water conservation is a major
issue.
The
river, domesticated at our disposal, suffers.
Murrumbidgee River, close to Cuppacumbalong Cemetery, Tharwa 2008
“Message
in a Bottle” a visual arts work where stories are collected together with river
water. It is about the tangible
and intangible of this natural resource. The work will be presented as an installation at Gallery 4,
at the Canberra Museum from December 2010 to March 2011. The installation is made of 100 bottles containing river water, collected by the people who tell the stories.
I want to reflect the ways water related to the people who use the river Murrumbidgee. The project started at the end of 2008 and I hope that you also will be able to engage in this artwork and tell your stories connected to the Murrumbidgee River.
The
first collected story is about future. my connection to the Murrumbidgee. I bring Oxum, the Afro-Brazilian
goddess of fresh waters to life in this first encounter with the river.
The Dry River. Murrumbidgee River at Tharwa Bridge, 2007
Do you have photos of the Murrumbidgee River, stories past and present, or other memories to share?
Please fill in the email form to register your interest in this project.