During her residency in Makassar, Indonesia, Ilona McGuire will explore identities and connections across the seas that pre-date the colonisation of Australia. She will address the relationships between Makassan and Aboriginal cultures that are woven into ancient trading networks, tracing pathways laid by countless Ancestors who were once friends. McGuire’s project will consider how we can work together to repair these connections, continue trading networks and create something from which First Peoples of these lands and waters can draw strength from. 

Along with Andi Nur Azimah, McGuire inaugurates Breeze, a new partnership between PICA, Rumata’ Artspace and Universitas Negeri Makassar that provides a platform for knowledge gathering, the exploration of cultural connections and opportunities to develop intercultural relations between Western Australia and Makassar, two areas linked by the historical and cultural ties between Australian First Nations and Makassan people whose connection pre-dates colonisation. 

Supported by PICA’s Art Ambassadors.