Grainger Creative Research Residency 2023 - Amos Roach and Johanna Selleck

Amos Roach and Johanna Selleck – ‘REIMAGINING LANDSCAPES’ (January – December 2023)

Reimagining Landscapes is a collaboration between award-winning musician, dancer, director, and proud Ngarrandjerri/Djab Wurrung/Gunditj Mara man, Amos Roach, and composer, flautist and musicologist Johanna Selleck. The project centres on reimagining the physical, social and cultural ‘landscapes’ of the Parkville campus of the University of Melbourne, considering the flora and fauna that would have existed here prior to invasion and colonisation. Drawing on research by the University Sustainability Team and materials in the Grainger collection, the project aims to facilitate discussions between First Nations peoples and environmental scientists in the spirit of knowledge sharing. In response to these discussions, students of art, music, and dance will be invited to respond creatively through their own mediums.

Central to this project will be performances by Amos Roach and the Six Seasons Orchestra, an ensemble that aims to normalise the use of traditional First Nations instruments in the ‘classical’ orchestra in a way that builds a sense of confidence to practice Culture openly and publicly. This ambitious project intends to create a real and ongoing place within the orchestra and cultural spaces for the instruments, songs and dances of the Kulin Nation people, recreating the ancient songs and dances of the Kulin Nations using both traditional Kulin Nations instruments and ‘classical’ orchestral instruments. The music will be accompanied by the stories and dances that belong to that music.

Biography:

Amos Roach is a proud Ngarrandjerri/Djab Wurrung/Gunditj Mara man. Amos is an award-winning musician, dancer, and director. He was the Inaugural First Nations Artist in Residence at the Australian Art Orchestra in 2021. Acknowledged as one of Australia’s finest performers, Amos has been learning and playing the Didgeridoo/Yidaki since he was a child. Traditional First Nations Culture informs the fundamentals of his craft. Amos’s music presents a narrative of healing and life: part of the Song-Line that connects animals, plants and people to Country and culture. A lilt of smoke, the riverland echoes, we too fly with the beat of the sand and saltwater rushing through the veins of Amos’s music as he carries the Song Lines from rainforest to desert to our ears.

Dr Johanna Selleck is a composer, flautist, and musicologist. She holds a PhD in composition from the University of Melbourne, where she is an honorary fellow. Her compositions have been performed by internationally renowned artists in Australia and overseas and she is widely published as a composer, researcher, and recording artist. She is an active volunteer in local environment groups, where she works on revegetation projects and propagating rare and threatened indigenous plants in the area of the Dandenong Ranges and Upper Ferntree Gully, where lives.