Tracker Data Project
Old Ways, New commissioning partner: Museum of Discovery (MOD.) Old Ways, New Partner: Australian National University.
Ngapulara Ngarngarnyi Wirra (Our Family Tree)
Every AFL game that Adam Goodes played tracked his body 10 times a second via a small device on his back to a global network of satellites. Adam’s spatial awareness and ability to predict play were experienced as being guided by his ancestors and expressed through heightened spatial awareness. Yet, this significance has remained invisible till now…
This artwork reveals the cultural significance of Adam’s data through the Adnyamathaha kinship system. This system is based on two key moieties (blood groups) with specific characteristics, Ararru (North) and Mathari (South) winds (Adnyamathanha: a culture guide and language book; compiled by co-authors Terrence and Josephine Coulthard). The Ararru and Mathari winds in the exhibition space were recorded on Adnyamathanha Yarta as they swirled around the Wirra (tree). The wind moves through this space via speakers on the North and South sides.
Inside the three-dimensional installation, as you enter the Wirra (tree), Adnyamathanha Elder Uncle Terrence Coulthard tells the Adnyamathanha Muda (creation story) of Ikara (Wilpena Pound) in the Adnyamathanha Yura Ngawarla (language), as seen above. You can also hear the voice of Adam Goodes echoing key sections of this Muda in Ngawarla (language), with footage of Adnyamathanha Yarta (Country) playing on two screens, situated north and south.
The creative development for Ngapulara Ngarngarnyi Wirra (Our Family Tree) engaged the ‘proppa way’ use of technology as the conduit to Abdilla's creative research practice. Over five years of development was grounded by Old Ways, New research: Decolonising the Digital: Technology as cultural practice, Country Centered Design, and Indigenous Protocols for AI.
Abdilla worked with Rupert Parry, creative technologist and ongoing collaborator, to culturally train a machine learning (ML) model. The model’s control theory translated the key Adnyamathanha Muda (Creation Story) into the sound of the Ararru (North) and Mathari (South) winds by programming their uniquely cultural and didactic characteristics into an algorithm. This materialised the connection between Country and Kinship, through an embodied experience enabled by the cultural induction of an AI system.
The methodological approach for the ML was developed from the Indigenous Protocols for Artificial Intelligence (IP//AI) research project (Out of the Black Box: Indigenous Protocols for AI; Abdilla et al, 2021) where we tested the rules and goals of a kinship system and its affordances to avoid entropy in genetic algorithms.
To symbolically return Adam’s AFL data to Country, he chose a significant Wirra (tree) on Adnyamathaha Yarta (Country). Within the artwork‘s data visualisation, both Adam’s AFL data and the 3D scan of the Wirra have a three-dimensional form called a point cloud.
The Wirra in this artwork is at least 500 years old. The age of this tree escapes Western techniques of dating - very old River Red Cums like this one hollow out from the inside, so the oldest wood cant be used to estimate the age.
This artwork shows the interconnection and interrelationship of Yarta (Country) and kinship systems developed over millennia. It invites you to experience Adnyamathaha culture with your body, it asks you to listen to the lyrical beauty of Adnyamathaha Ngawarla (language) and the sound of the wind. And it asks you to consider the sophistication of Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge Systems.
Wadu matyadi Yurluna ikarngga Kalkapunanga, Utyamathanha Yura Ikaragga ikarngga, Yura -apina Yurlu aningarngg-adnanga , Ardla-idla ngutharnggala Ardla ngalarka, Ardla Vindangga walarnggala Yura- apinha, Vidnanduwa Malkarra nguthamandala, Akurrabilanga ardla vindangga nakarngga, Yurluna ngukngukarndinda Ikarra Tharri ngukarngga, Malkarra nguthanmangala, Akurra Ngawarrimanarngga, Yura ngalukumanarnga-adnanga, Yurlu Wala billa wai virrikangga, Wadna Yalda Vambata Tharri, Akurrabilla Ikara Vambata ilda Ikanda, Ikara Ngalarka Muda Ikanda
A long time ago, there lived Yurlu the Kingfisher man, who lived at Kalkapana. Yurlu was the leader of all our ceremonies. The other Yura’s (Adnyamathanha people) were at Ikara (Wilpena Pound). They communicated by fire smoke to Yurlu to tell him to come down to. Ikara (Wilpena) to perform a ceremony. Yurlu told the people to wait and not start the ceremony until he got there As Yurlu started on his travels down South he saw a huge forest which he lit up with a fire stick. The smoke sent a signal to the people At Ikara, telling them he was coming to lead the ceremony. While the fire was burning, He cooked a couple of big muku mai (ceremonial dampers) Yurlu thought to himself, that not only the people see the smoke but also the Akurra (serpents) would see the smoke.
Yurlu thought he better hurry and move along heading down South to Ikara afraid that the Akurra would follow him. So Yurlu went quickly and so did the Akurra's. When Yurlu reached Ikara he started the Malkarra (ceremony). He told the people we better hurry and do the ceremony in fear of the Akurra’s As they will come and eat us all. Then as predicted the Akurrabila (Serpents) came and surrounded the people and started to eat them. The Yurlu (Kingfisher man) and Wala (wild turkey man) ran away towards Mount Chambers (Wadna Yalda Vambata) and then formed themselves in Wilyuru Adnya (sacred rock near Mt Chambers). That’s where Yurlu is, he is the rock that represents Arti (blood). The Arkurrabila form the walls of Ikara (Wilpena) that’s where they are today. This is our people’s big Muda our Yura Muda (history of the creation, history of Ikara). Ikara is sacred to all Adnyamathanha people
Story shared with permission from Uncle Terrence Coulthard, ‘Adnyamathanha: A culture guide and language book’, Compiled by co-authors Terrence Coulthard and Josephine Coulthard.
Credits & Acknowledgements
Adam Goodes, Angie Abdilla, and Baden Pailthorpe
Old Ways, New thank the Adnyamathaha Yarta, Elders, and ngarngarnyi (families) for sharing, teaching, and guiding with the Yura Muda and Ngawarla. In particular: Aunty Glenise Coulthard AM, Uncle Terrance Coulthard, Uncle Kingsley Coulthard, Kristian Coulthard, and the Umeewarra Media Radio Station, Port Augusta.
We also acknowledge our partners who made this work possible, the Museum of Discovery and the Australian National University.