Eora by Michael Riley

Eora, by the late Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi filmmaker and photographer Michael Riley (1960–2004), is a 20-minute digital film on display at the Museum of Sydney that tells the story of Sydney’s First Nations people – before and after colonisation.

With scenes juxtaposed on three large screens, the work combines archival colonial imagery, natural landscapes and cityscapes, and artworks by many of Riley’s contemporaries with an evocative soundscape that includes whispered words of local First Nations people.

What I tried to do was play around with concepts of time and space within the frame. Seeing Aboriginal people doing some hand-spray paintings on the cave wall and then seeing them jump in a car and take off, like transposed from pre-contact to today …

– Michael Riley, www.michaelriley.com.au/eora

The film, which has recently been digitised, was commissioned for the opening of the Museum of Sydney in 1995. The restaging of the work honours Riley’s intent to celebrate First Nations beauty, cultures and survival despite the ongoing effects of colonisation.

The Museum of Sydney is proud to re-screen this important film in its 30th anniversary year.