Redfern Park - Inspiration for a photographer

A new feature of Redfern Park since its refurbishment is this water feature. The interactive water feature is a cross formation of lotus lily stems reaching two metres in height with pop jet water features and water rill channels for water play. It is located in the area designed for young children to play.

At one end is a memorial plaque to Michael Riley, a local Aboriginal artist/photographer, Michael Riley. You can read more about Riley here: Message Stick, and see many of his works here: Sights Unseen.

The plaque reads:

Michael Riley 1960 - 2004
Of the Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi People

"I found I wanted to tell stories and get stories from Aboriginal people."

Michael was born in 1960 in Dubbo. Aboriginal people of Michael's generation thrived both in numbers, vocal visibility and artistic achievement.
His generation was a line of sophisticated people who fell between, in Michael's words, 'The Trad Ab and the Rad Ab' but wh developed into worldly art practitioners and stylish urbane personalities.

His quiet seemingly aloof demeanour actually belied a deep thinking person of extreme warmth, humour and generosity. Michael's poignant insightful frames and landscapes express the universal search for an historic spirituality. Initiially there was the dreaming, but if this is lost, what replaces this guiding core of our lives? The relationship (and attendant issues), to some degree go beyond questions of indigenity alone. Equally he is loved and missed.

Djon Mundine OAM

"Aboriginal spirituality is still there within the land even if the surface has changed there's still a sense of beauty and spirituality there."