Leanne Tobin is a multidisciplinary artist of Dharug heritage descending from the Buruberong and Wumali clans. Leanne works collaboratively with community groups, schools and institutions to tell local stories, and evoke an environmental conscience and respect towards the land and its original people. ‘Ngalawan – We Live, We Remain’ comprises The Call of Ngura (Country) 2022, an installation of hand-blown glass eels, and The Running of the Eels 2022, an animated moving image work. 

Leanne’s work tells a creation story shared by the Dharug and Gundungurra peoples of the serpentine eel-like Ancestral Creator Gurangady/Gurngatty that created the mountains and the rivers. The work evokes the migratory journey of the eels through the materiality of glass and its accompanying animation. It follows the eels as they climb across dams and land, transforming in preparation for their journey northwards to their spawning grounds in the coral sea. On their return to freshwater, the young transparent eels take on the colours of the river as they move between freshwater and saltwater. The running of the eels was once a time of great ceremony. 

The eels’ adaptive qualities and metamorphosis alludes to the historical and contemporary experiences of Dharug people who faced horrific frontier conflict and disruption but have adapted and survived. Leanne also points to the present environmental crisis we live in caused by overdevelopment and pollution of the riverways, stating “what happens upstream affects those downstream”.