Climate Crisis, Extinction Crisis - a performative artwork at Parliament House

Tomorrow, Thursday 17 September, I’ll be outside Australian Parliament House creating a new performative, participatory and ephemeral artwork: “Climate Crisis. Extinction Crisis”.

Over the course of the day I’ll make a six-metre work using calico, red ochre and kangaroo skin. Climate Crisis Extinction Crisis will emerge first in ochre onto the calico, and then be built up with pieces of kangaroo skin. The materials are important. Kangaroo skin brings the body of a native Australian animal physically into the work. Ochre connects it to earth and Country. Calico gives me a simple, natural surface on which the work can be created, carried, raised and ultimately taken away again. And that temporary nature matters. The work is temporary. The crises it addresses are not.

As an Australian of Aboriginal descent, I understand Country, Culture and Community are interconnected. The loss of species is not something separate from us. We’re a part of Country. When it’s diminished, relationships, knowledge and culture are diminished too.

Making it together

The work will also have a participatory element. While I’m making the main banner, people who visit can make a moth print using lino blocks I’ve cut. They can print onto paper or paperbark and add their moth to a collective collage displayed alongside the main work.

The moths have particular resonance at Parliament House. Bogong moths were once famous for arriving at Parliament House in extraordinary numbers. Their dramatic decline is a powerful reminder of the climate and extinction crises, and of the interconnections between species and ecosystems. They migrate up to 1,000 kilometres across Country - from breeding grounds as far north as Queensland to the Australian Alps.

But the participation is about democracy too. I don’t want this work to be only my statement. Climate change and extinction affect us all. Making a moth gives everyone the opportunity to leave a mark and add their voice to something collective.

There’s something important about doing this outside Parliament House. Decisions affecting climate, biodiversity and Country are made inside the building. But most Australian’s are locked outside the discussions and decisions. We should have opportunities to speak, participate and be heard.

Why Parliament House?

When I began developing this work for my Art School studies at CIT, I first imagined making it outside the college. But the concept kept evolving. I thought about my climate hunger strike at Parliament House in 2023 and about the difference that location can make to the meaning and impact of action. It became obvious to me that this work belonged here too.

So tomorrow I’ll begin with a largely blank six-metre piece of calico lying on the ground.

I’ll grind, mix and paint ochre. I’ll let that dry. I’ll build in kangaroo skin. Around me, visitors will be able to print moths and create something collective.

And eventually we’ll raise the completed artwork vertically outside the institution where decisions shaping Australia’s response to climate change and biodiversity loss are made. That process - making, participation, place, materials and eventual removal - is part of the artwork itself.

Come and make a moth

If you’re around Parliament House tomorrow, please drop by. There’s no need to stay for the whole process. Come and say hello. Watch for a while. Make a moth if you’d like. Add it to the collective work. And help make visible something that’s very easy for politicians to ignore or reduce to vague policies, targets and statistics:

Climate Crisis. Extinction Crisis.

Thursday 17 September 2026

The lawns out front of Parliament House, Canberra

10am to sunset

The work is temporary. The crises it addresses are not.

The artwork is temporary, but the climate and extinction crises it addresses are not.