In Melbourne, the Yarra became a river in a foreign land—its flow at once familiar and estranged. Yet beneath its surface lies a history layered with displacement and control. While it is woven into the city’s identity, for the Aboriginal community, it holds a sacred place that predates colonisation, carrying spiritual and cultural meanings eroded and reshaped by colonial structures.

To stand by this river is to feel both connection and dissonance: the comfort of water’s continuity, and the unease of knowing its story has been rewritten.