Listening to the Land
Melbourne muralist and artist Hayden Dewar partnered with First Nations artist Ashleigh Pugh to create a mural, titled Listening to the Land, for Westerfield Drive Playspace in Notting Hill.
The artwork features two young children, their appearance reflecting the diverse cultural backgrounds of the local residents. The children are playing and discovering nature, with one feeding a rainbow lorikeet and holding a banksia flower and the other holding a blue-tongue lizard and playing with a eucalyptus branch. They are playing in nature and imagining what the land might have looked like thousands of years ago.
The background features a pre-white settlement landscape with a detailed lyrebird in the centre. Although the bird isn’t local to the area, the feathers had special ceremonial significance to the Bunurong people, who are the Traditional Owners of the Land. The lyrebird is known for its impressive ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds and creating songs that reflect the local environment. Many Aboriginal stories speak of the lyrebird as being gifted in this talent to talk to all other creatures.
The local community said they wanted the mural to reflect flora and fauna as well as a connection to First Nations people. The mural was funded by the Victorian Government through the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning’s Pocket Park Program and was launched in June 2022.
Location
37 Westerfield Drive, Notting Hill 3168 View Map
-37.9062839,145.1491811
37 Westerfield Drive ,
Notting Hill 3168
37 Westerfield Drive ,
Notting Hill 3168
Listening to the Land