iAccelerate Songlines

The University of Wollongong’s iAccelerate Centre — the purpose-built business incubator and accelerator is a key component to the region’s innovation ecosystem — facilitating rapid acceleration of new businesses and attracting other businesses to the region. It gives entrepreneurs the chance to see the world as their marketplace while making the Illawarra their home.

iAccelerate is committed to supporting regional communities and building a successful innovative economy for the future.

The iAccelerate Songlines artwork is a visual representation of knowledge sharing within our community – how we are sharing our knowledge via our regional outreach to innovation hubs in our community.

The iAccelerate Songlines artwork is created by Aboriginal artist Cheryl Davison.

Aboriginal artist Cheryl Davison was born in Bega and has lived most of her life on the coast. She is descended from the Walbunga and Ngarigo people and often depicts stories told to her by family elders. Davison works on paper, canvas and stone. Her prints are of an exceptionally high standard and marry contemporary style with ancient technique. Cheryl Davison’s work has been purchased by the National Gallery of Australia, NSW State Gallery, Wollongong City Gallery and many private collectors national and internationally.

iA

The “i” represents the individual. Connected to the community, represented by the “A”.

The sun

The sun is the mother and giver of all life, it is an important symbol of knowledge & power in Aboriginal dreaming.

The sacred network of mountains

Starting from Geera, also known as Mt Keira. This network spreads all the way along down the South Coast and into the highlands from east to west. We are all connected, all us mob are connected up and down the coast, through bloodlines and kinship. The country actually is what makes us all similar because we live between the mountains and the sea.

The scarred tree

The scarred tree was something the Artist had seen on her Grandmothers Country, near the snowy mountains and is very similar to what is painted here. The scarred tree was a map, when you look at the tree and then look at the landscape, it shows you which way to go through the landscape. On the shield it has a picture of the mountain, a river and a canoe. Indicating you need a canoe to cross the river, towards the mountain. Next to the tree, there is an Elder man pointing towards the mountain, showing the younger man which way to travel.

The white-bellied sea eagle

The white-bellied sea eagle is a significant animal for coastal communities. The eagle is called Meriga in dreaming stories from Moruya on the south coast. The eagle represents different things, here we are people that live on the land, we rely on Country to feed us but we also have to keep a balance with all other creatures and we have spiritual beliefs that our ancestors are represented through animals and they look after us and guide us.

The sea

The sea is significant to this region as it was one of the most reliable sources of food. The women are shown here, hand fishing from a canoe. They fished every day and they made their own hand hooks. Even through the men did their hunting, the fishing was still very important. The fish symbolises the abundance of food available in the area.

The Songlines

The Songlines are what connects our stories all up and down the coast. It represents all the clans and communities up and down the coast. It is all of our stories. Even though they look like individual dots, on closer inspection they are all connected. We are all connected, we have the same Lore and responsibilities to Country.