Mulana is a series of works by Victorian artist Megan Cadd that revolves around key events she has experienced over the last few years. The meaning of Mulana is ‘spirit’ in the Yorta Yorta language.
This exquisite exhibition reveals a personal journey which reflect her spiritual exploration of a colonised life and the path to healing and forgiveness. It’s a journey she has taken at once alone and in tandem with her people.
Being such an amazing life journey displayed through this art, it got us all at Ellis Jones thinking…
At conception, our individuality is formed and we develop deep physical and mental traits that have been passed down through complex DNA. This is the beginning of the ‘person’ and the ‘personal’ – from birth our experiences are very much our own. But, apart from these traits, we are born otherwise naked; a blank canvas.
To find meaning in life we search for connections – to other people, to the land in which we live. We adopt cultures, we consume knowledge and we grow into spiritual beings – aware of our nature. Imagine if that learning, that cultural intelligence and the connection to homeland was rocked, suppressed by external force.
Imagine the sense of displacement that might create, and the impact that would have on your life.
So on Friday the 19th of November, Cr Jennifer Kanis warmly welcomed the launch of the Mulana exhibition, which creatively documents the life journey of Megan Cadd.
Our city Melbourne is a diverse, multicultural capital with a proud Aboriginal heritage. Our citizens have taken rich and varied journeys in their lives and many will be able to relate to aspects of Mulana. That interaction with the work will also bring visitors closer to understanding the challenges Indigenous peoples have, and continue to face.
As Cr Kanis said to the crowd gathered at the launch, “For me Mulana speaks about the triumph of the spirit over the hardship of physical experience”.
Only through this individual journey will we truly heal.
>> more information on the exhibition
