Sydney artist Jonathan Jones’ art project Barrangal Dyara (Skin and Bones) features Parkes students speaking in Wiradjuri.

Fifteen Parkes school children had the honour of being involved in something very special on Monday when an ABC Arts crew came to town to record them speaking phrases in Wiradjuri.

The recordings will feature in Barrangal Dyara (Skin and Bones), an art project by Sydney based Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi artist and first Australian Kaldor Public Arts Project winner, Jonathan Jones.

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The project will recall the 19th century Garden Palace building where it originally stood in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden, before it devastatingly burnt to the ground on September 22, 1882.

Commissioned by the Father of Federation, Sir Henry Parkes, The Garden Palace was a large, purpose-built exhibition building and Sydney’s first museum.

It held a vast collection of Aboriginal artifacts which were destroyed along with the building.

Artist Jonathan Jones said the objects were collected from Aboriginal communities along the colonial frontier over the 100 years or so preceding the exhibition in The Garden Palace.

“That’s why when you go to a museum today there is not that much material to see, as so much of it was lost in the fire,” he said.

The vast sculptural installation will stretch across 20,000 square-metres of the Royal Botanic Garden.

Thousands of bleached white shields will represent the masses of rubble – the only remnants of the building after the fire.

They have been crafted by Bendigo Pottery, Australia’s only remaining ceramics factory and an exhibitor at the original exhibition in 1879.

“The heart of the project features a native meadow of Kangaroo Grass, used to make bread for 32,000 years,” Jonathan said.

“As you walk around the site eight different language groups will be activated, each using a different way to remember the lost objects. Some have used song for example.”

An ABC Arts crew contributing to the Behind The News program recorded three students from each school participating in the project.

“What the children are recording here today is the phrase ‘remember the…’ with each saying a different object,” Jonathan said.

Wiradjuri Elder, Uncle Stan Grant is also involved in the recordings.

“We wanted to convey the idea of inter-generational learning – elder, teacher and student,” Jonathan said.

“Our recordings have Uncle Stan saying the word ‘remember’, then a teacher saying a sentence about the particular object, and the student saying ‘remember the (object)’.

“We are lucky with Wiradjuri, because it is so complex we are able to make sentences.”

The project runs from September 17 to October 3 at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney.

You can find out more about Jonathan’s project here

Ella Ward – Remember the Broad Shield.

Lara Bennett – Remember the Possum Skin Cloak.

Levi Edwards – Remember the Yam Stick.