Uncle Badger, Artist & Activist, Broken Hill Wilyakali / Barkindji Country

I met Uncle Badger one evening at his home in Broken Hill, where he was talking to US journalists about the Murray Darling water issues. Uncle Badger is a Barkandji Elder, prolific artist and a political activist who has been involved in advocating for the health of the Baaka for most of his life, having grown up along the river with his family in Wilcannia.

When I arrived he had been working on sculptures for a festival, that had been made from metal into mapped stories of the lakes he grew up near. He’d spent his early years along these lakes; living off all they had provided for food, activity and his arts practise; collecting emu eggs and wooden artefacts to engrave. The mismanagement of the Baaka and surrounding waterways inspired these sculptures, which tell the tales of once abundant, but now drying lakes - and dying fish.