Amala Groom

Sunshine Coast National Art Prize 2025 - Finalist

_{Image courtesy of the artist. Cinematography by Ryan Andrew Lee.}

Amala Groom
(Wiradyuri)
NSW

The Lodge, 2025
Single-channel video, 6K UHD video, colour, sound
11:11mins, dimensions variable

The Lodge is a ceremonial moving image work by Wiradyuri artist Amala Groom that reclaims Canberra’s Parliamentary Triangle—a colonial site on Ngunnawal Country—as sacred ground. Through performance, ritual, and sacred geometry, Groom activates the landscape as a site of spiritual sovereignty. The work maps a path through geometric forms—triangle, circle, vesica piscis, and more—drawing on their ancient metaphysical meanings to transform the built environment into a living mandala. Influenced by the Theosophical ideals embedded in the city’s design by Walter and Marion Griffin, Groom repositions these esoteric frameworks through a First Nations lens, critiquing their colonial entanglements while honouring their latent energetic potential. Referencing the duality of the White and Black Lodges from Twin Peaks, she locates the Parliamentary Triangle as a vortex of colonial power—and reclaims it through embodied resistance. The Lodge invites audiences into a ceremony of deep seeing, revealing the spiritual architecture of Country beneath imposed order.

Production credits

Writer/Director/Performer: Amala Groom
Producer: Michaela Perske
Cinematographer: Ryan Andrew Lee
Creative Director: Kristine Townsend
Editor: Elliott Magen
Composer: Ben Rosen
Grade: Daniel Pardy
Camera Assist: Luke Patterson
Rope Assistant: Kate Harriden
Runner: Nyssa Miller
Runner: Cath Webb

Acknowledgments

This project was supported by Arts ACT, Creative Australia and the Australian National University Bandalang Studio Residency, College of Systems and Society