ABSTRACT
The town of Derby, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, is surrounded on three sides by a tidal mudfl at. A couple of times a year, the twelve-metre tides of King Sound lap the edge of town, at other times the vast “Marsh,” as it is locally known, dries to a hard pan and becomes the playground for folk on motor bikes, kids and dogs on foot, criss-crossed by roads running to fi shing spots and favourite weekend campfi re sites. I lived on and off in Derby for over a decade and the Marsh was at the heart of my experience of this remote place. In 2007 I worked in the West Kimberley with DAADA Inc. (Disability in the Arts, Disadvantage in the Arts WA), a community and cultural development arts organisation focussed on social inclusion and wellbeing with communities in Western Australia. We decided to put together a community art festival called MarshArt-inviting community members, local and visiting artists to make art works on and about the Derby Marsh. MarshArt sought to experiment with how art could draw out and document stories of people’s relationship to the Marsh in ways spoke to the diverse cross-section of people who live and visit Derby.
