Wonnarua is a video-based installation work that aims to provoke discussion around themes of Indigenous ways of living in juxtaposition with Western Settler-state system’s unsustainable, damaging ways of using stolen lands. In today’s current global state of environmental (and cultural, communal and spiritual) emergency, the need to embrace traditional Indigenous knowledge is now more crucial than ever before. The traditional custodians of these lands have sustainably looked after country for 90,000+ years, yet in the short 231 years since colonisation these lands have been abused and sold for profit while the Aboriginal people and culture along with their vast knowledge for country and sustainable land management methods have been suppressed and put to the side. 

The video diptych juxtaposes living portraits of five Aboriginal men from the Wonnarua Nation with provoking drone shots of the vast Muswellbrook coal mines, which are situated in the heart of the Wonnarua Nation. This moving image installation advocates for profound inquiry into the events and resulting cultural, environmental and spiritual impacts that have taken place in this country in the short period since colonisation began in Australia. This work is a statement on a way of living; a plea for cultural embracement, reconciliation, and change; a push for government and corporate systems to stop oppressing Indigenous people and culture. It is a plea to listen, learn and implement the vast knowledge of First Nations people in the re-thinking of today’s current systems that are clearly not working, in order for everyone to move forward inclusively, together as one.

Ryan Andrew Lee is a conceptual artist whose works visually explore alternative ontologies and epistemologies which are strongly influenced by Indigenous First Nations, Spiritual and Universal philosophies of life and mind. Ryan’s strong background in cinematography and experimental documentary film-making shine strongly throughout his works; using the medium of moving image and installation as his favoured tools of choice Lee proactively strives to create works that resonate on a deeper level of consciousness with the intent to unify rather than divide. Ryan’s works are sometimes factually and historically based (whether that be a positive or negative history) which aim to educate and offer up distinct perspectives on cultural, environmental (and sometimes political) issues in hopes to provoke further discussion on such topics; sometimes we must investigate the past to understand the present. Lee is a solo practitioner who also works with the community and extensive economic, cultural and social networks to both inform and excel his practice. Lee also works collaboratively with individuals and groups on a project by project basis.