tamarahuntaboriginalblog

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What it meant to me...

Cadi Jam Ora immersed me in Aboriginal culture in a contemporary manner, surrounded by plants and actively walking along a mural. I spent nearly an hour just walking around looking at the different plants and the way I read the storyline from the hopeful present day into the tragic past really made me feel the emotion behind the artwork. It also led me to notice other Aboriginal murals within the Botanical Gardens (pictured) and opened my eyes to what I had not been previously looking for.

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The Storyline

The Cadi Jam Ora storyline snakes through the entire garden and is a wonderful mural documenting Aboriginal history, culture and anecdotes. It is set in a chronological manner which I believe can be read either from forwards or backwards in time. I first read it one way and then read it the other. It was significant to me because if you read it from the present-day into the past (as I did), then it reads as a story of tragedy as you go further down the mural, however if you read it the opposite way it would read as a progression into a hopeful future.

The mural splits the timeline into key sections, for example “The Domination”, and within these sections it highlights key events, like the heart-breaking fire of the Garden Palace where many important Aboriginal artefacts were lost, and key figures in Aboriginal history like Bennelong and Colleen Shirley Smith.

I feel that way it was arranged like this with many different things documented in a garden full of Aboriginal plants and discussion of languages can be linked to what we are studying, that each part of Aboriginal culture, history and identity cannot be studied separately but it part of one whole. The Dreaming is linked to the present, the present to language, and language to plants.

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What is Cadi Jam Ora?

Cadi Jam Ora translates as “I am Cadi”, linked to the fact we are on the Aboriginal land, essentially it is saying I am living on Cadigal land. The Cadi Jam Ora First Encounters Garden was created by the Royal Botanical Gardens Sydney in partnership with Aboriginal People. It includes a garden with many plants linked to Aboriginal People explaining their Aboriginal names, uses and overall meanings. It also includes different boards explaining language and culture. We can see examples of the plant arrangements, explanations, and pictures of the language benches, within my galley. There is also a 52-foot long mural storyline which was my main focus.

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The Significance of the Site

The site of the Cadi Jam Ora is significant because it was the site of the First Farm. This was the area that the settlers cleared when they first landed in Sydney and wanted to start growing crops that were native to Europe. Therefore, to place a garden which is specifically made to celebrate and reintroduce traditional Aboriginal plants is very significant to this spot. I found it very moving that the plants were there in their rightful space and I spent much time reading the placards describing their traditional names and uses. I really liked reading about the poisonous Burrawang (pictured) that was nutritious but toxic and so needed lots of skill in preparation to receive its benefits.

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My eyes were opened to other Aboriginal Art and Murals within the Botanical Gardens

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The Aboriginal Garden

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Cadigal Languages Represented in Cadi Jam Ora

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Cadi Jam Ora - the beginning of the storyline

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The Domination

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The Invasion

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The Survival

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Cadigal Dreaming