TENYA

Date

Wed 30 Apr – Sat 10 May

Venue

The Substation

1 Market Street, Newport VIC 3015

TENYA, meaning 'Us' in Anaiwan, acts as an archive of cultural revitalisation. This sonic-visual work by Anaiwan and Gumbayngirr artist Gabi Briggs builds on her 2024 film ARKAN & IRBELA.

Visual Art

Film

Free

World Premiere

Image: Still from ARKAN & IRBELA (2024), directed by Gabi Briggs. Cinematography by Ryan Andrew Lee. Courtesy of the artist.

Preparing for a walk on Country, Briggs layers field recordings of ancestral land with dialogues where voices surface and recede.

Textures of Anaiwan Country and language renewal unsettle colonial assumptions of Indigeneity, their echoes threaded with violent geographies and resonant absence. A singular figure anchors the work, inviting audiences to grapple with what 'Us' means when survival demands solidarity and sovereignty. TENYA maps continuity through returns to place, practice, and the unspoken.

THE FIRST NATIONS EXPERIMENTAL SOUND COMMISSION

Gabi Briggs is the inaugural recipient of The First Nations Experimental Sound Commission.

In the first of its kind nationally, the inaugural ‘Listening to Country — First Nations Experimental Sound Commission’ provides critical support and a unique pathway for one First Nations sound artist to develop a new sound work, co-commissioned by The Substation and Liquid Architecture. The program offers significant creative and financial support to the selected artist and aims to restore the balance of access and visibility in experimental sound for First Nations Artists. Realised in a premiere season at The Substation in 2025, this initiative offers the selected artist a unique opportunity to develop new creative languages and forge new creative futures through experimental sound.

Performance Details

Venue

The Substation

1 Market Street, Newport VIC 3015

Dates & Times

Wed 30 Apr – Sat 10 May Exhibition hours: Wed to Sat 11am–5pm

Tickets

Free, no booking required ACCESSIBILITY ENQUIRIES Venue Phone: (03) 9391 1110 Venue Email: info@thesubstation.org.au

Photography

Aberbaldie Walking Scene

Arkan Mother and Irana Daughter at Aberbaldie Reserve

Arkan Patyang Irakena at Aberbaldie Reserve

Gabi at Canambe St

Gabi Briggs by Destiny Powell

Artist

Gabi Briggs (she/her), Anaiwan/Gumbayngirr

Creative Producer: First Nations Programming, Liquid Architecture

James Howard

Spatial Sound Designer

Hayden Ryan

Advisor

Lawrence English

Gabi Briggs Gabi Briggs is a research-based artist, weaver, and community organiser. Her practice reflects a commitment to returning back to Indigenous knowledges specifically through the walking of Country and embracing Anaiwan principles and ways of being and knowing, grounding her practice in place. Briggs engages with the complexities of race, power, and truth-telling through her art, seeking to amplify Indigenous sovereignty and enact self-determination with an emphasis on slow, considered and meaningful practice. As part of her PhD research, Briggs is undertaking a 100km walk on Country. This commission allows her to sonically explore this journey, using field recordings and oral histories. Briggs’s sonic exploration will highlight the interconnectedness and resilience within the Anaiwan Skin System, extending on her Grandmother's research into Anaiwan kinship. By contrasting these with archival recordings of colonial narratives, the exploration prompts reflection on settler colonialism and the need to eliminate the 'native' to maintain colonial power structures.