For Reconciliation Week 2017, Microsoft commissioned Balarinji to storyboard and theme artworks from The National Museum of Australia’s Balarinji Collection for public art video walls for its flagship Microsoft Store at Pitt Street Mall Sydney.
‘River Grass’, ‘Pelican & Goanna’, ‘Jabiru Place’, ‘Sea Turtle’, ‘Desert Wind’ and ‘Goanna Place’, were six unique Balarinji designs that told an animated story from the desert to the coast. The videos were animated by AKQA with guidance from Balarinji’s storyboards.
The public art project celebrated Aboriginal culture, and acknowledged the 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum, which led to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples being counted in the Census, and hence becoming citizens with the right to vote.
Balarinji Chair, Yanyuwa man John Moriarty AM was an original campaigner for this watershed Referendum that scored a vote of over 90%, the highest vote for any Australian referendum ever recorded.
