TransHuman Saunter: Multispecies Techno-Entanglements in the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens

TransHuman Saunter is a digital geolocative artwork created in Brisbane on the Indigenous land of the Turrbal and Yuggera people. It involves four women artists of colour who invite one to saunter alongside the “non-human” Indian Banyan tree. The project deploys participatory design as a research method. It uses digital media such as audio, images, and poetry to reflect on ecology, mythology, social, cultural, postcolonial, and personal narratives creating an accessible space for unknown histories. The artists are Agapetos Fa’aleava of Samoa, Lan Thanh Ha of Vietnam, Naputsamohn Junpiban of Thailand, and Indian- Australian Natasha Narain. Creatively produced by Kavita Gonsalves, the iteration for the Conference on Memory at COVA focuses on Agapetos’ and Natasha’s work in the form of a combined performative presentation. Agapetos’ work explores her relationship with the Banyan Tree through the traditional Samoan tattoo called the Malu- shelter/protection. The malu’s motif is a map of her ancestors navigating through the ocean to find land and opportunity. Like the Banyan tree, the malu has travelled far and wide to settle on Australian soil. Natasha’s work offers a polyphonic pilgrimage invoking the earth goddess of Bengal while exploring the colonial history of botanical gardens, trade, and indenture, revealing memories etched into barks and speaking for the tree as having feelings and forming new friendships. The works contribute to pluralistic ways of knowing through an evocation of unseen narratives: the “lesser”-beings and the “non”-beings. The project is accessible via a smart phone or a computer on Website.