Skip to main content
Public Program

Boorongur Workshop: Weaving with Sharyn Egan

Boorongur Workshop: Weaving with Sharyn Egan
  • When
  • Where
    UNSW Galleries
  • Address
    Cnr Oxford St & Greens Rd Paddington NSW 2021
  • Phone
    +61 2 8936 0888

Learn how to make your own Boorongur or ‘totem’ in this weaving workshop with Nyoongar artist Sharyn Egan.

In Nyoongar language, Boorongur refers to a natural object, plant or animal that is inherited by members of a clan or family as their spiritual emblem.

In this workshop, Sharyn invites participants to consider a plant or animal that is important to them and create a raffia, wool and wire sculpture in response. The program offers a shared space for community to engage with Nyoongar cultural knowledges and learn about Sharyn’s material practice.

Sharyn Egan is a painter, weaver and sculptor. As a member of the Stolen Generation, much of her artwork is a commentary on her life as a Nyoongar woman and the deep sense of loss and displacement experienced by Aboriginal people. Sharyn works across a range of media including painting, sculpture, woven forms and site-specific installations, often choosing materials such as ochres, resins and grasses that connect to land. Her work explores personal and cultural relationships to Country, specifically her home on Nyoongar Boodja.

—

Presented in conjunction with barangga: First Nations Design at UNSW Galleries, 17 June – 30 July 2023.

boorongurworkshops_unswgalleries_credit_cassandrahannagan-127.jpg
 
boorongurworkshops_unswgalleries_credit_cassandrahannagan-170.jpg
 

Images: Boorongur Workshop: Weaving with Sharyn Egan for 'Barangga: First Nations Design' at UNSW Galleries, 2023. Photography: Cassandra Hannagan.