Concept

“Indigenous Water Filter”

This artwork acknowledges the ancient understanding and practices of the first occupiers of the Land.

Clean water is a basic necessity for life. The ancient Elders took inspiration for the design of this very efficient water filter from the simple observation of the way leaf litter would block streams after rainstorms and how the water flowing out of the lower side of these natural ‘dams’ would be crystal clear while the upper side was muddy.

Thus, inspired by nature, they fashioned these water filters from leaves and twigs wherever they camped beside water. With just a few basic natural materials they achieved a standard of water quality, tens of thousands of years before the earliest Sanskrit and Egyptians references to water purification.

Charles Smith & Joan Walsh-Smith

 November 2012