Winner of the prestigious Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Biennale (April-November 2024), “kith and kin” at the Australian Pavilion is an expansive, genealogical chart spanning 65,000 years. Developed by artist Archie Moore and curator Ellie Buttrose (from QAGOMA, Brisbane), the exhibition is described as “a holographic map of relations which connects life and death, people and places, circular and linear time, everywhere and everywhen to a site for quiet reflection and remembrance.”

Moore—who was born in 1970 in Toowoomba, Queensland—is of Kamilaroi/Bigambul Aboriginal Australian and British descent. He works across media to portray research-based self and national histories. His ongoing interests include key signifiers of identity (skin, language, smell, home, genealogy, flags), the borders of intercultural understanding and misunderstanding and the wider concerns of racism.

In “kith and kin”, Moore has hand-drawn in chalk upon blackboard a monumental First Nations family tree. The materials used address the fragile and insufficient dissemination of indigenous histories. Gaps occur in the lineage, signalling the severing of families through massacres, diseases and the deliberate destruction of records. Information—including family names, racist slurs, indigenous kinship terms—is taken from various archives, newspapers and government documents. The exhibition also highlights how indigenous Australians are some of the most incarcerated people globally.

Moore explains the title: “The phrase ‘kith and kin’ now simply means ‘friends and family’. However, an earlier old English definition that dates from the 1300s shows kith originally had the added meanings of ‘countrymen’ and also ‘one’s native land’, with kin meaning ‘family members’. Many indigenous Australians, especially those who grew up on country, know the land and other living things as part of their kinship systems—the land itself can be a mentor, teacher, parent to a child.

“The sense of belonging involves everyone and everything, and for First Nations peoples of Australia, like most indigenous cultures, is deeply rooted in our sacred landscapes from birth until death. I was interested in the phrase as it aptly describes the artwork in the pavilion, but I was also interested in the old English meaning of the words, as it feels more like a First Nations understanding of attachment to place, people and time.”

‘kith and kin’ unfolds as a powerful corrective to historical wrongs, and a solemn, intensely humane acknowledgement and celebration of individual lives.

Moore studied visual arts at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. He is represented by The Commercial Gallery in Sydney.

Links: Website (www.kithandkin.me)

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