Presented by Darebin Arts, as part of inSITU: Workshop Series - Spiralling

Spacious Histories with Neika Lehman

Historical archives and records are important places and materials for understanding past events, experiences and human values. But whose values make it into the data of ‘official’ records and how do these values frame the knowledge and materials being presented?

Such questions surge the new wave of critical archival poetry written by those whose personal or ancestral experiences are missing or mistold by the arbiters of history. This workshop is grounded in a deep place-based time that considers the chaotic 250 past years of settler-colonial invasion a violent and far-reaching palimpsest, full of gaps and contradictions.

In this workshop, we use the power of our individual and collective imaginations to sketch intimate human (and more-than-human) experiences that aren’t incorporated into ‘official’ histories. Looking to artists and poets as the great storytellers of history, we will practice techniques like ekphrasis, collaging and ‘archival imagining’ to imagine more nuanced and spacious historical worlds.

This venue is fully wheelchair accessible and has all gender bathrooms.

If you would like to come along and require Auslan Interpretation, please send us an email at writingprojects@darebin.vic.gov.au.

Saturday 17th May, 10:30am - 12:30pm
Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre, 189 High Street, Northcote
Free, bookings required. Limited places available.

About Neika Lehman

Neika Lehman is a Trawlwoolway writer from Lutruwita / Tasmania, living and working in Naarm / Melbourne. Their poetry, non-fiction essays and criticism have been widely published. They are a RMIT Vice-Chancellor's Indigenous Predoctoral Fellow.

Darebin City Council acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people as the traditional owners and custodians of the land and waters we now call Darebin and affirms that the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people have lived on this land for millennia, practising their customs and ceremonies of celebration, initiation and renewal. Council acknowledges that Elders past, present and emerging are central to the cohesion, intergenerational wellbeing and ongoing self-determination of Aboriginal communities. They have played and continue to play a pivotal role in maintaining and transmitting culture, history and language.