Emma Syme & Leanne Wicks
Emma Syme and Leanne Wicks’ collaboration is grounded in Dabee Country in the Capertee Valley, within the broader lands of the Wiradjuri Nation. Their work is shaped by a shared commitment to slow and responsive ways of making. Their practices meet through time spent walking on Country, observing natural cycles, working with timber, fibres, plants, dyes, birds and salvaged materials, and honouring the responsibilities that come with deep connection to place.
For Emma, artmaking is part of continuing Dabee culture and keeping it strong. Her work emerges from intense, spiritual time on Country, selecting culturally appropriate trees and seasons to create traditional and contemporary cultural items including coolamon, digging and walking sticks, and clapsticks used in song performances.
For Leanne, artmaking is a way of understanding place through connection. Her work is informed by slow walks, careful observation, research, ethical harvesting and an ongoing relationship with the more-than-human life of Dabee Country. Through eco-dyes, prints, textiles and knitted forms, she records and responds to birds, native trees, plants and seasonal change.
Together, they bring cultural knowledge, environmental attention and material sensitivity into conversation. Their collaboration reflects a shared desire to honour the beauty and value of this land, to work carefully with what Country offers, and to invite others into deeper appreciation, respect and care.
Yambuwan Dhuradhu (using everything) is a collaboration between Dabee woman Emma Syme and Anglo-Australian woman Leanne Wicks. The artists have used their respective ancestral traditions to create artworks from five native trees: wattle, geebung, white box, native cherry and kurrajong. The work celebrates both the act of making together and the beauty of sustainable materials from Country. Emma’s timber items result from continuing her Aboriginal culture from harvest, fashioning and decoration. Leanne’s textile pieces use prints and dyes extracted from leaves, bark and flowers.
