The Voice of the Maribyrnong

2025

4K video, 4:23 looped

The Voice of the Maribyrnong uses videography, photography and sound to interrogate colonial histories of the Maribyrnong River and its tributaries, reframing the river as a living entity rather than a resource for industrial advancement. Following colonial settlement, the Maribyrnong River became an industrial centre; it was used as both a transport route and a drain for waste products discarded from factories. Bluestone was extrated from quarries surrounding the river, and used to construct buildings such as gunpowder magazines that advanced colonial violence. Early photographs of the Maribyrnong River reflect imperial perspectives, framing it as either an idyllic pastoral landscape or as a resource for industrial growth. Using methods of ‘making with’ the Maribyrnong River such as underwater videography through which the camera is guided by water currents, Elijah relinquishes control of the making process by sharing authorship with the Maribyrnong. In this way, the river is represented as an agentic body rather than a passive resource. Punctuated by archival photographs, the work frames settler colinialism as an ongoing process while drawing attention to the history of landscape photography as a tool of imperial violence.

Archival images courtesy of Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West

Video still 02:28