Amala Groom (Wiradyuri)

Sunshine Coast National Art Prize 2025 - Finalist

_{Image courtesy of the artist and Ryan Andrew Lee}

Artist Statement

The Lodge is a ceremonial moving image work by Wiradyuri artist Amala Groom that reclaims Canberra’s Parliamentary Triangle—a colonial site on Ngunnawal Country—as sacred ground. Through performance, ritual, and sacred geometry, Groom activates the landscape as a site of spiritual sovereignty. The work maps a path through geometric forms—triangle, circle, vesica piscis, and more—drawing on their ancient metaphysical meanings to transform the built environment into a living mandala. Influenced by the Theosophical ideals embedded in the city’s design by Walter and Marion Griffin, Groom repositions these esoteric frameworks through a First Nations lens, critiquing their colonial entanglements while honouring their latent energetic potential. Referencing the duality of the White and Black Lodges from Twin Peaks, she locates the Parliamentary Triangle as a vortex of colonial power—and reclaims it through embodied resistance. The Lodge invites audiences into a ceremony of deep seeing, revealing the spiritual architecture of Country beneath imposed order.