Embassy of Australia, United States of America

We couldn’t take all our trade and agriculture policy friends to 🇦🇺 so we brought a Taste of Australia to Washington! So great to see so many try Vegemite for the first time (and admit they like it!). Thanks to Meredith Dairy, Woodside Cheese for the Kris Lloyd Artisan cheeses, King Island Dairy, Chris’ Foods Heritage Dips & Pepe Saya Cultured Butter. Our guests were delighted to sample wonderful Australian artisan cheeses and butter. Delicious with our world class wines and beers and our newly invented ‘Aussie Fashioned’.

Join us for a special series of panel discussions hosted by Brenda L Croft and the Embassy of Australia, celebrating NAIDOC Week and this year’s theme: Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud. Featuring illuminating discussions with Australian First Nations Women Elders and Rising Leaders, we’re honouring the strength and resilience of Australia’s First Nations women. Join us for the opportunity to hear from Brenda L Croft, multidisciplinary creative-led researcher, 2024 Gough Whitlam & Malcom Fraser Visiting Chair of Australian Studies, @harvard-university, and experience Brenda’s brand-new exhibition opening in our gallery, ‘Naabámi (thou shall / will see): Barangaroo (army of me)’ – a series of large-scale photographic portraits of contemporary Australian First Nations women and girls, with cultural connections across Australia. Registration is essential (and free) at this link: https://lnkd.in/g9Vb-qyZ The Australian National University Lendlease Creative Australia

Today, we welcomed guests from the The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Conference on Architecture and Design and gave them the grand tour of our new chancery - the art, the spaces, the design theory, and our commitment to sustainability - with members of the Embassy team sharing our story alongside partners from KCCT Architects and Interface Engineering, Inc. #AIA24

“Deterrence matters not just for avoiding war, but also in avoiding escalation and preserving the peace. Or what others call ‘scenarios short of war’”. Ambassador Rudd is in Honolulu - home of Indo-Pacific Command - and will deliver a second address on deterrence in a few hours, at the   Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies

Natasha Stott Despoja - Australia’s candidate for the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women - is a fierce advocate for women's human rights and women's political and economic participation. She has proven herself a collaborative and constructive member of #CEDAW in her first term. If re-elected, she will continue to prioritise the lived experiences and priorities of women and girls in all their diversity.

As we commemorate National Reconciliation Week, we are highlighting Djinama Yilaga, an intergenerational Choir established in 2019, under leadership of Walbunga/ Monero-Ngarigo Artist, Cheryl Davison. Djinama Yilaga perform songs in Dhurga, the predominate language of the 13 Tribes of the Yuin Nation. The community led Choir emerged as a mechanism to rematriate and revitalise language through song. The Choir sing of things that are important to maintaining stories and cultural identity of First Nations people and their connection to Traditional Ancestral Lands. Writing and telling stories through song helps members and other Aboriginal people heal from intergenerational trauma created by having their language taken from them through past policies. #NRW2024 You can see Djinama Yilaga perform at Golden Triangle DC’s Lunch Culture series: 📅 10 July 2024 ⏰ 12:00-1:30 pm 📍 Murrow Park, 18th Street and Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington DC, 20006 1- by Pia Johnson 2- by David Rogers 3- by Elise Idiens 4- (from left to right) Melanie Horsnell, Michelle Davison, Tamsin Davison, Maria Walker, Requia Campbell, Shakeela Uta, Kobi Davison, Iris White, Cheryl Davison, Robyn Martin

We are honoured to spotlight the renowned artist of our upcoming exhibition. Brenda Croft is from the Gurindji/ Malngin/ Mudburra peoples from the Victoria River region of the Northern Territory of Australia, and Anglo-Australian/Chinese/ German/ Irish/ Scottish heritage. Since the mid-1980s Brenda has been a key participant in Australian and international First Nations and broader contemporary arts/ cultural sectors as a multi-disciplinary creative practitioner – artist, author, curator, educator, researcher and scholar. Brenda is based at the Australian National University as Professor of Indigenous Art History & Curatorship, living and working with Ngambri/ Ngunnawal/ Walgalu/ Wiradjuri Traditional Custodians on their unceded Ancestral Country. Currently, Brenda is the 2024 Gough Whitlam & Malcolm Fraser Visiting Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University, living and working on the Ancestral Homelands of the Massachusett. 📸 © Daniel Boyd, Barangaroo precinct

It's Reconciliation Week in Australia. During this week, we honour figures like Barangaroo (?-1791), renowned for her mastery as a fisherwoman and her staunch attitude towards the early colonisers. Her people, the Cammeraygal, were custodians of North Head and Manly, Sydney, on the northern side of Port Jackson. Barangaroo was the wife of Bennelong. His name has long been memorialised in numerous sites around Sydney, most notably Bennelong Point, now the site of the Sydney Opera House. Barangaroo’s story is lesser known. After Bennelong’s capture, Barangaroo became an important figure in her own right – feisty and determined, advocating for her people’s rights and interests. The naming of Barangaroo precinct calls up the Cammeraygal woman who inspired the site’s selection for a highly desired part of Sydney’s CBD. Reconciliation Australia #NRW2024 #barangaroo

On International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexphobia and Transphobia, we celebrate Australia’s work to advance human rights to ensure #freedom #equality and #justice for all #LGBTQIA+ persons 🌈 #IDAHOBIT

This month, we shine the Embassy Art spotlight on Sonja Carmichael and Elisa Jane Carmichael. The mother-daughter duo are Quandamooka women from Mulgumpin & Minjerribah (Moreton & North Stradbroke Islands, QLD). They are of the Ngugi people, one of three clans who are traditional custodians of Quandamooka, or Yoolooburrabee, people of sand and sea. Both artists live on Minjerribah, where their collaborative works come to life but can be found in collections internationally. Their inspiration is drawn from many stories connected to Quandamooka weaving, and through exploring traditional and contemporary materials and techniques. Sonja & Elisa often collaborate on fibre basketry sculptures informed by their family’s spiritual connections to Country. Sonja is an active member of their community and a leader in the regeneration of Quandamooka weaving, passing on cultural knowledge and skills through workshops, exhibitions and research. She completed a practice-led Master of Philosophy (Art History) at The University of Queensland, 'Regenerating Quandamooka Weaving: Solving the Knot'. Elisa deepens her practice through new techniques and materials while acknowledging, nurturing, and protecting her culture and the resources of Country. Her unique explorations into contemporary Quandamooka weaving and vivacious use of colour and materials are increasingly more recognised by the industry. For their ancestors, weaving was a way of life. Ungaire (freshwater reed) continues to grow strong in the harsh terrain of swampy areas on their island. The grass strands gracefully shift from variations of white and pink to varying shades of green. Ungaire is the cultural heart of ancestral weaving, traditionally used for making Quandamooka gulayi (dilly bags). Knowledge of Quandamooka weaving practice was nearly lost to colonisation. ‘The Gulayi bag has a unique diagonal design and solving the knot, practically and metaphorically, strengthens the continuous thread that binds us to our Ancestors. When looking at gulayi made in the 1800s, held in museum collections all over, including at the Smithsonian, we think about the stories the bags carry; our Ancestors’ hands rubbing ungaire against their legs; their body oils strongly woven into the design and bag, holding a deep tangible connection to the ever-present hands of our Ancestors.’ Artwork: Ungaire (freshwater reed, Minjerribah - North Stradbroke Island) and Quandamooka Gulayi (Quandamooka dilly bags), 2023 (copper, copper mesh, stainless steel cable) ©Sonja Carmichael and Elisa Jane Carmichael. Courtesy of the artists. This artwork commission was supported by Agency and Onespace Gallery. 1 by Louis Lim, courtesy of artists & Onespace 2-4 by Chris Roque, courtesy of UAP Urban Art Projects More from the artists: https://lnkd.in/ewdUJGVC