A silver gelatin dry plate glass negative in landscape format.

Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

Sepia photograph of the Technological Museum and a cow in the foreground

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Sepia photograph of the Technological College and Museum in Broken Hill

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Colour photograph of red corrugated iron building from a high vantage point

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Powerhouse Museum, Stage 2 exterior from high angle, city skyline in background

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Blurred image from film with museum object number

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

Aboriginal Fisheries

WAHWANGU (Barwon)

Powerhouse Publication: 1001

Powerhouse Renewal

Two people standing next to a cow in a field of cows.

Powerhouse Food: Producers

Across Western Sydney24 Aug 2024 — 25 Jul 2025
Pop art collage with many bright colours and overlapping graphics.

Powerhouse Lane

Parramatta Lanes23—26 Oct
Shadows cast by the Powerhouse Parramatta exoskeleton on concrete

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

A woman stands on stage in front of a large audience. She has her left hand raised in the air and a microphone in her right hand. The audience are holding their phones up recording the woman.

Blak Powerhouse

Powerhouse x We Are Warriors

Slider thumb2023
Stories

WAHWANGU (Barwon)

Powerhouse Publication: 1001
Lyrics by DOBBY
Aboriginal Fisheries
Barkindji call him Ngatchi, Murrawarri call him Mundagutta, we call him Wah Wae, mob further up the river call him Guttya. Same fella. What the whitefellas call ‘Rainbow Serpent’. That Wah Wae is clever because he can talk any language, and you just gotta know what language to talk to him in. And what to call him.
Brad Steadman

Language is in the Land

Better rivers in better states!
A better livin’ a better place!
Preparation of better days!
Generation of better ways!

If the Language is in the land, then the rhythm within the word,
If history’s in the song, then I’ll be singin’ it with the birds
They kill a million fish, and our Rivers are barely running,
You ain’t thinkin’ of my community you are swimming up in your money

I’m ‘bout to talk, I hope you’re listening, My people are never givin’ in,
A PSA to the government while I’m running within the riverbed
Tellin’ you it’s a drought, what they rather have you believe,
they manipulating the Country without the knowledge of what it means

I’m sick of watching the Media trynna keep it all under wraps,
I been doing the same thing, through my lyrics I bring it back
It’s difficult to be critical when they’re tedious with the stats,
TV’s a medium of the past, check Wikipedia for the facts,

We gotta call out the cover-up when they sweep it under the mat
with the Treaty and with the Gap, even Leonardo DiCap,
The rivers are runnin’ dry, and nothing livin’ throughout the traps,
From Brewarrina to Menindee I think the system is outta whack

So how depressing is that? Imagine it for the kids,
You’re irrigating illegally I would naturally resist
It’s 2 hundred thousand dollars, that slapping him on the wrist,
I feel like slapping him in his face, tell ‘em “that’s for killin the fish!”

We’re Shouting it through the halls, let it rattle up through the walls
Take a hammer right to the weir, Instagram it and Let it fall
If the Language is in the land, then the narrative’s in the soul,
if the history’s in the family then I’ll carry it evermore

I said the History’s in the ground, the Language is in the land
Follow the Mundagutta as he would travel into the dam,
It’s pink and blue in the air, the sun is watering down
The sky turning to caramel like a Paddle Pop in the cloud

And the Birds, singing for rain, while the Rivers are running deep,
see the Yellow belly and Cod, and there’s plenty of ‘em to eat
Give the water to Mother Earth, gotta give her what she deserve

Better rivers in better states, better living a better place!
Preparation of Better days, generation of better ways!
x2

Am I the road back to the Country, or is the Country the road back to me?
Brad Steadman

Lyrics by DOBBY from the album WARRANGU; River Story
Vyva Entertainment, Sony Music Publishing and ABC Music, 2023.

About the Author

DOBBY (Rhyan Clapham) is a proud Filipino-Aboriginal musician, rapper and composer connected to Murrawarri and Ngemba lands. Known internationally for his electrifying live performances, he is also a speaker and workshop facilitator and was recently awarded the 2022 Archie Roach Foundation Award. DOBBY is signed with Sony Music Publishing and ABC Music for his latest album WARRANGU; River Story featuring a fusion of HipHop, classical music and narrated storytelling that draws from his family connection to Baiame’s Ngunnhu (the Brewarrina fish traps).

Watch DOBBY's latest track 'Language is in the Land' that features the lyrics featured in 1001 and the 1001 Remarkable Objects printed book.

Powerhouse Publication: 1001

1001 by Powerhouse, front cover and spine.

This work appears in the latest Powerhouse Publication, 1001 Remarkable Objects. A celebration of the scale, breadth and relevance of the decorative arts and design collections held by Powerhouse Museum it catalogues the eponymous exhibition that opened at Powerhouse Ultimo, 26 August 2023. The publication opens with a series of 32 still life images produced by photographer Lauren Bamford in collaboration with art director and stylist Sarah Pritchard. It is punctuated by 15 narratives, from the four curators plus 11 Australian authors commissioned by Powerhouse to respond to one or more remarkable objects.

Order yours here