An Dorchadas (The Darkness) is a new project related to my current PhD research into folklore, emigration and design.
RMIT University Supervisors: A/Prof James Oliver and Dr Brigid Magner. The first part of this project (Confirmation of Candidature) was presented at the Practice Research Symposium at RMIT Design Hub in October 2023. The next PRS presentations will be held in October 2024 in Melbourne and are free and open to the public.
Follow the project on Instagram.
Irish/Australian folklore, migration and alienation: Decolonising creative practice and positionality through non/fiction writing and publication design.
Thematically, this research seeks to expand an understanding of Australian identity in relation to 19th century Irish emigration and the remains of alienated family histories – a result of the lack of extant material culture, the destruction of records through war, and the ongoing effects of colonisation across the former empire.
Gaeilge/Irish language and cultural traditions were maintained over centuries in the form of folklore. Along with 19th century collections by Yeats, Wilde and Gregory, folklore and folk music were extensively gathered from across Ireland from the 1930s by the Coimisiún Béaloideasa Éireann (Irish Folklore Commission). Research into this archive revealed ancestral connections to the folklore of Western Ireland, providing direction for the fieldwork, and inspiration for the creative writing.
This project aims to deepen creative practice through developing a positionality that applies learnings from Indigenous epistemologies to represent colonial immigration histories. The creative work will include publications of visual ideations, folkloric texts, fieldwork photography, a journal of research from Victoria and Ireland, and a narrative incorporating multiple timelines: postcolonial Australia, mid 19th century Ireland, and an ancient cosmological world.
Keywords: Mid-19th Century, Irish Emigration, Australian Immigration, Irish Diaspora, Irish Folklore, Australian Folklore, Language, Land, Place, Alienation, Colonial Studies, Decolonial Studies, Historical Fiction, Folk Horror, Artificial Intelligence, Image Ideation, Visual Storytelling, Publication Design.