The Sydney landscape is dotted with some pretty iconic public art, like that crushed car in the middle of a roundabout in Walsh Bay, or that six-metre-tall marble fishing hook overlooking the sculptural sails of the Sydney Opera House. But when it comes to our city’s statues and the historical figures they commemorate, the spread is somewhat embarrassingly skewed to colonial and patriarchal figures. However, an ambitious new permanent public artwork coming to Circular Quay is set to shake up the status quo.
Titled ‘Badjgama Ngunda Whuliwulawala (Black Women Rising)’, the 5.5-metre-high cast bronze sculpture is the creation of Dharawal and Yuin artist Alison Page, developed in consultation with the Sydney Coastal Aboriginal Women’s Group and the Gujaga Foundation.
The sculpture depicts an Aboriginal woman rising powerfully from a body of water. Part woman and part whale, the figure represents the deep connection Aboriginal people have to Country and serves as an invitation for all women and all people to connect with her strength and resilience.
Speaking on the artwork, the artist said: “‘Badjgama Ngunda Whuliwulawala (Black Women Rising)’ emerges from the water below the city, a place of spiritual potency for Dharawal women. She is the mixing of the salt water and the fresh water, her energy and essence lives within the Aboriginal women of Sydney today. She is every black woman, every mother, daughter, sister, aunty. She is Country.”
Commissioned by Lendlease, the work will be produced by UAP foundry in Brisbane and is set to be unveiled outside of the Waldorf Astoria Sydney hotel development at Circular Quay in early 2027.
The news of Circular Quay’s new sculpture comes after the recent announcement of another major public art project paying tribute to Indigenous history, with the redeveloped Sydney Fish Market also unveiling a sculpture series that will honour Blackwattle Bay’s First Nations and maritime histories.
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