Nawi by Joe Hurst

Location

Steel Park, 531-565 Illawarra Road, Marrickville
Midjuburi (Lillypilly) - Marrickville Ward

Artist statement

My concept is to represent a nawi (or bark canoe). I have designed the nawi over-scaled to create a sense of space. The nawi was used on the waterways of the Sydney basin including what is now called the Cooks River and its tributaries. The Cooks River is a mangrove tidal estuary river of what is now called Botany Bay. The nawi were constructed from cobajora (Yellow Stringybark trees) that lined the waterways, and were used for fishing baludarri (leather-jacket) or garuma (bream) and other small fish, using a garradjun (fishing line) and bara (fishhook made from oyster shell), enough for cooking on a small guwiyung (fire). These canoes were an important form of transport used to cross the river and to float up and down with the tides. The mahn (fisherwomen) and mani (fishermen) skilfully navigated the mangroves and the rocky shelves to gamay (Botany Bay) at the mouth of the river.