Tonantsintlalli

Research Background
Tonantsintlalli, meaning Mother Earth, was an exhibition featuring the work of Desiree Hernandez Ibinarriaga and David Marcelino Cayetano. Centred around Maya and Nahua Indigenous multidimensional cosmology that includes the material and the immaterial, the exhibition sought to regenerate Indigenous knowledge by using connection and education to counter the ongoing effects of colonialism on language and culture loss.

Research Contribution
Tonantsintlalli opens ways for viewers to connect with both the artworks and cultural practices. The exhibition created a safe space for observing, interacting, learning, reflecting and understanding. It was a vehicle for bringing cultural practices such as dancing, singing, feeling, and caring for Country, into the gallery space and sharing with others. Hernandez Ibinarriaga’s work explores ways of knowing and doing in Nuahua and Mayan culture through photographs, furniture, paintings, and sculptures. Works such as In Lak’ech, a sculpture of an outstretched hand seeking to connect, and Agave, a playfully oversized fabrication of the culturally significant plant, here rendered with removable leaves that form floor seats, were invitations for deep connection. They enticed viewers to slow down, share knowledge, reflect, and feel both material textures and immaterial energies.

Research Significance
Tonantsintlalli was accompanied by a catalogue with an introductory essay by highly esteemed British designer and author John Thackara. Hernandez Ibinarriaga gave an artist talk at the gallery and radio interviews for 3RRR in Melbourne and Tasmania’s City Park Radio’s Spanish Multicultural Program. Hernandez Ibinarriaga’s catalogue essay was republished in ‘Garland’, an online magazine aiming to tell “the stories behind what we make.” A selection of the artworks was subsequently exhibited in the group show ‘Barreeng Yirramboi’.