Many Nations is a permanent exhibition in Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Melborne Museum - showcasing the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures.
The objects in Many Nations are displayed across six cabinets: Animal Creations, Marking Identity, Working Country, Celebrating Culture, Keeping Places and Toy Stories. The objects represent many years and places in Australia, and some, such as this carving of Bunjil made by Taungurung maker Mick Harding in 2013.
Bunjil
Date 2013
Maker Mick Harding
Clan/Language Group Taungurung
Location Victoria
Materials Blackwood
Story
'Bunjil nugal-u gugra duworra-bun-iyt nugal-nganjin-dha gaaguk ngun godjin nugal-nganjin liwik ba nugal-nganjin garrimiin ba nugal-nganjin bunbunarik nerdu.
Bunjil is wearing a possum skin cloak as a mark of respect to him, while also acknowledging our ancestors, us today, and our children in the future.
The making of the Bunjil sculpture was a new challenge for me, using large and small carving chisels in combination with my burning skills to represent Bunjil in a respectful manner.
To make him look like a bird and wrap him with a possum skin cloak was to demonstrate that he is the creator according to us, the Kulin Nation, and how he gave us the rules to live our lives by. Wrapping him with a Gugra (possum skin cloak) was to show everyone that our ongoing use of the Gugra is a demonstration of connection to our country and culture, while the symbology of each of the panels of the Gugra and the unique mark making, belongs to us, here in the south east of Australia.'
Mick Harding, 2013