Sohan Ariel Hayes & Michael Woodley, Birndi Wirndi - Worlds Apart (2010)
Artist: Sohan Ariel Hayes & Michael Woodley
Work: Birndi Wirndi - Worlds Apart (2010)
Partner: Juluwarlu Aboriginal Corporation
Location: Roebourne, Western Australia
In late 2010 Perth-based artist, Sohan Ariel Hayes, spent two months in Roebourne working with Michael Woodley from the Juluwarlu Aboriginal Corporation. In addition to holding several editing and filmmaking workshops for Juluwarlu's multimedia trainees and presenting an outdoor projection at the Cossack Art Awards, Hayes and Woodley worked closely together to create Birndi Wirndi - Worlds Apart, a projection work that aims to assist in sustaining the cultural struggle being experienced by the local Yindjibarndi community.
Birndi Wirndi - Worlds Apart depicts the hearts, minds and spirits of the Yindjibarndi people who, although challenged by the enormous forces of WA's mining boom, still stand strong. Birndi Wirndi was originally projected across the facade of Roebourne's old Victoria Hotel. Closed in 2003 at the request of the local aboriginal community, the hotel had been a site where the excesses of the 1960s mining boom played out with terrible impact on the Roebourne community.
