Dhäwu’mi Wäna (House of Stories) Cultural Center, Garma Festival
Cave Urban was invited by the Yothu-Yindi Foundation to create a cultural gathering space for the 2022-2025 Garma Festival at the Gulkula ceremonial site in northeast Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. Built to support the activation of discussion, art and ceremony.
Made in collaboration with Agency Projects and Event Engineering, Dhäwu’mi Wäna (House of Stories) is a tensile pavilion built from locally sourced stringybark tree trunks, saplings and branches, steel cables, and gabions filled with bauxite rocks from the site.
“Being in our Homelands, means that the land owns us, our identity comes from this land, our Homelands have stories behind them, which is done on bark paintings, sung in our song lines, danced in our dances; our language comes from this land, and the history of our land has been handed down generation after generation.”
- Y Munungurr, Laynhapuy Homelands Statement, 22 March 2009.
The canopy was created from self-seeded stringy bark saplings, selected by the Elders to protect land and spirit, harvested and made in collaboration with the local community and Garma Festival volunteers.
The design evokes the landscape not only through its materiality but also by projecting ever-changing shadow and light patterns onto the sand. A central oculus framed by the colours of the Yolngu clan reinforces their identity while creating a focal point for the space.
Dhäwu’mi Wäna is activated with programming around a central open fire at night and cultural forums and storytelling during the daytime. In this way, the many stories told beneath the structure and the resulting recordings can geographically sit at the source for people to revisit, learn and celebrate.
Dimensions: 8m x 8m x 5m
Location: Garma Festival, Gulkula site, East Arnhem Land, NT
Lead Artist: Cave Urban
Team: Juan Pablo Pinto, Nici Long, Mercurio Alvarado, Honey Long, Prue Stent, Emma Hudson, Taya Solomon and GARMA Volunteers
Engineering: Jeremy Sparks, Event Engineering
Agency Projects: Kade McDonald, Stephen Johnson
