At PUNQ 2026, the biennial arts festival of Townsville and surrounds, the Jarrowia, Butchulla and Gunggari artist Zane Saunders presented his latest installation and performance piece Preface.
Half an hour before he entered the space, the audience was invited in to explore the installation. It was situated in a handful of interconnected spaces in Townsville’s old bank building, a perfect location for an investigation into the tension between Aboriginal knowledge and Culture and the impact of colonisation.
The installation comprised nine discrete and disparate stations – some more esoteric than others. One of the most obvious was a large red ring circling a platform. On the top of this plinth sat a sheep, triumphant, almost smug; underneath, upside down and in the dark, was a kangaroo and its joey. Could there be a clearer message about the way colonisation changed the face of Australia and forced a new way of living off the land?
There was another invitation as you entered the space too – to take a small, dark, smooth stone and carry it to a station deeper inside the bank building. There, you could add your stone to those already piled within the outline of a figure on the ground, marked in yellow tape like a crime scene body shape.
Zane Saunders’ Preface review – quick links
The ripple effects of colonialism
In Townsville, previous attendees had clearly placed their stones in very deliberate spots: the head, the heart, the extremities. Mine went to the heel – although it seemed a pitifully weak analogy to suggest colonialism as the Achilles heel of traditional Culture.
Indeed, Saunders himself had a much more fitting comparison. He likened it to the Goldilocks story, adding that to truly understand how it feels is to imagine him or someone from his community coming to your house, killing all your family and then moving in. And you have to continue living there too.
Sitting with that concept brilliantly contextualises Preface – the introduction to what comes next, although what that may be, we currently do not know.
Saunders has some ideas of what that could be, but he’s not here to preach. His work is about conveying some of his thoughts, and those of the Elders and others with whom he regularly speaks and swaps stories, and to offer the idea, perhaps, that after the horrors of the past and the ongoing trauma, one way forward is for us all to open our eyes to the natural world around us and to begin to care for it.
Whether or not that’s done via First Nations’ traditions and Culture is not the point, and in Preface, Saunders’ performance was thoughtfully calibrated to bring the audience in – to include them in the concepts, but also the actions.
A powerful performance
After the audience explored the space, placed their stones and considered the potential meanings of the less obvious stations, Saunders appeared, bare-chested and sporting Tradie undies beneath a transparent crinoline.
It was the simplest attire, but at the same time spoke volumes. The crinoline period – those mid Victorian years of the mid 1800s – saw colonialism well and truly established in Australia and its legacy remains, no matter how modern the undies beneath.
A mostly silent but hyper focused Saunders then visited the various stations, sometimes contemplating, sometimes interacting. His movements were slow and deeply, deeply deliberate. There was nothing incidental or unconsidered.
From a theatrical point of view, it was a compelling display of a performer utterly in command of his medium and taking his audience with him. The crowd knew to move out of the way as he approached – the crinoline probably assisted a little here – but there was no nervous shuffling or undercurrent of impatience at the measured pace.
Saunders showed he has the ability to take focus and hold it. When he did choose to break it, by inviting the audience to use clapsticks or place mannequin limbs in prescribed positions, the response was neither hesitant nor overly performative.
We were being invited to share the experience and we were grateful for that.
Zane Saunders’ Preface was commissioned and presented by PUNQ Festival, and produced in partnership with Dancenorth. Further tours are being planned.
The writer visited Townsville as a guest of Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts.
