Badu Gili Healing Spirit Lighting of the Sails

Badu Gili - meaning ‘water light’ in the language of the traditional owners of Bennelong Point, the Gadigal - is a free daily experience that explores First Nations stories in a spectacular six-minute projection on the Opera House’s eastern Bennelong sails.

Watch the sails illuminate with Badu Gili: Healing Spirit, a new projection celebrating the work and stories of local and international First Nations artists, created in collaboration between the Opera House, Biennale of Sydney and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.

As a celebration of the rich history and contemporary vibrancy of Australia’s First Nations culture, Badu Gili continues the traditions of Bennelong Point, formerly known as Tubowgule (where the knowledge waters meet), a gathering place for community, ceremony and storytelling for thousands of years.

Badu Gili: Healing Spirit illuminates the eastern Bennelong sails with a dynamic projection displaying the works of celebrated First Nations artists, the late Bidjigal elder Esme Timbery and her children Marilyn Russell and Steven Russell, and artist Joseca Mokahesi Yanomami of the Yanomami people in the Amazon. 

Inspired by shellwork crafted by Esme Timbery and Marilyn Russell, prints and weavings by Steven Russell, and Joseca Mokahesi Yanomami's drawings of the spirits and landscapes of the remote Yanomami forest, the new six-minute digital animation explores rituals and the bonds of cultural and familial connection forged through art and storytelling. 

An important pillar of the Opera House’s year-round First Nations program, Badu Gili is an essential Sydney cultural experience for both visitors and the local community that aims to foster and celebrate a shared sense of belonging for all Australians.

Read the Sydney Opera House Reconciliation Action Plan.

Badu Gili  is presented in collaboration with the Biennale of Sydney and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain

Meet the artists

Esme Timbery

Bidjigal elder and senior artist Esme Timbery is recognised for her decorative shelled models and objects that range from depictions of Sydney attractions to small slippers, frames and boxes. Continuing the shellwork tradition associated with the Aboriginal community of the south-eastern Sydney suburb of La Perouse, Timbery’s works embody an enduring connection to Country, linking a long-established craft to the changing geography and cultural reality of contemporary Sydney.

Marilyn Russell

Continuing an artistic and family tradition Marilyn Russell’s shellworks are a testament to the legacy of her mother, Esme Timbery, as well as that of the Bidjigal people. Living and working in La Perouse Marilyn learnt shellwork from her mother Esme, who learnt from her mother Queen Emma Timbery before that. Marilyn’s work, which is both a connection to the past as well as a process of healing, is held in multiple gallery collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

Steven Russell

Steven Russell, a Bidjigal, Dharawal and Wadi Wadi drawer, painter and weaver, was born at La Perouse Mission on the shores of Kamay (Botany Bay), Sydney. The son of Bidjigal elder and senior artist Esme Timbery, Steven’s work is deeply connected to Country and is held in multiple gallery collections including the Wollongong Art Gallery. Along with his wife Phyllis Stewart, and their daughter Kristine, Steven is a founding member of the Jungah Weavers, a Master Weaver collective based out of Gerringong, NSW.

Joseca Mokahesi Yanomami

Joseca Mokahesi Yanomami was born in 1971 in the Brazilian Amazon. Son of a shaman, Joseca shares the ancestral knowledge and cosmology of the Yanomami through his drawings – embodying the ancient times and multiple dimensions of the Yanomani land and forest. Shamanic rituals, which communicate between humans and the “xapiri” (spirits), are central themes in his work. 

Image: OR-MOK-8631 © Lewis Mirrett