Manawan

An ode to Bardi Jawi Country in Western Australia’s Kimberley Region, Manawan brings the region’s towering, tropical gum trees (also known as woolybutts) to Circular Quay with a gorgeous large-scale sculpture that glows day and night with a restorative spirit.

Created by Bard man and artist Darrell Sibosado, Manawan is a forest of seven steel poles standing between 3 to 6.5 metres tall, radiating with two vertical lines of light from opposing sides. 

Traditionally used by Bardi and Jawi peoples for shelter, tool, and weapons and shaped by cool-season cultural burning, Manawan trees hold significant cultural, medicinal and ecological importance. 

Making its debut at Vivid Sydney, Manawan is part of Sibosado’s reiteration that Aboriginal culture is a living, adaptive culture that commands presence and power in contemporary art and society. 

Shining across all angles, Manawan’s generous glow symbolises the life force and healing energy within the trees, the land, and Country.