Slovenia, 2025. Photo Vic McEwan.
From 14 November 2025 – 24 January 2026 Dr Vic McEwan will be undertaking an Institute of Advanced Social Humanities Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
He will be joined during this period by other artists to develop and present a range of work across the UK, Germany and Slovenia.
Artists
Cheryl Blore
Cheryl Blore is a Barkindji/Wilyakali Elder from Menindee NSW. She was employed at the Menindee School for many years and would attend art classes with the students, learning from Rick Ball. Cheryl has been collaborating with her sister Cindy Bates and fellow Elder Barbara Quayle to paint protest signs to share with people the unprecedented environmental changes that are occurring to the Barka River. This water source holds significant importance within Barkindji culture. If the land is sick, then the people are sick. The health of the Barka (Darling) River impacts the mental health of all Barkindji people.
David Doyle
David Doyle is a Barkindji and Malyangapa man from Menindee, New South Wales, and his roots are deeply entwined with the Baaka (Darling River). He currently lives and works in Broken Hill. David serves on the Menindee Aboriginal Elders Council as proxy for his mother and on an advisory board for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, where he advocates for sustainable water management practices. He is an artist whose primarily sculptural works emphasise Barkindji culture and his community’s bond with the land and water. He also owns and operates ‘Wontanella’, a cultural tourism business based in Menindee, whose name means ‘many waters’ in his language. David says that, ‘as a member of the Barkindji - the river people - I embody the spirit of a river person, dedicated to preserving and revitalising our natural heritage for future generations’.
Kirsten Wehner
Dr Kirsten Wehner is the James O. Fairfax Senior Fellow in Culture and Environment at the National Museum of Australia. Kirsten is a curator, artist and writer whose work centres on transforming people’s relationships with the more-than-human world. Her current projects focus on how creative practices can help us live better with waterways. Kirsten is the co-author/editor of 'Living with the Anthropocene: Love, loss and hope in the face of environmental crisis' (New South, 2020) and 'Curating the Future: Museums, communities and climate change' (Routledge, 2016).
Martin Fox
Martin Fox has a four decade career span as a video artist, professional editor, sound recordist and director, mostly for film and documentaries as well as for a number of dance productions. Martin has been video artist for De Quincey Co’s Metadata and Linda Luke’s solo Still Point Turning, and edited video for several dance works, including Margie Medlin's dance film Morphing Physiology.
Sarah McEwan
Sarah McEwan is the Creative Producer of the Cad Factory. She has been working and volunteering at the Cad Factory since 2006. She likes to time‑travel through the past in order to learn from what has happened before and to understand, navigate and create the world she wants and needs in the present and the future. In the spirit of ethically engaged practices, she values community, collaboration, gentleness and embracing differences.
Vic McEwan
Dr Vic McEwan is a contemporary artist whose practice involves sound, photography, video, installation and performance. His work explores socially engaged and site-specific art, with a deep interest in the creation of cross-sector partnerships. Vic is the Artistic Director of the Cad Factory, an artist-led contemporary arts organisation based in Narrandera, NSW, and with a satellite studio in Sydney. He sits on the Arts and Health Network NSW/ACT and is a board member of Music NSW. Vic was recently awarded his PhD from the University of Sydney, becoming the first artist to graduate from the Faculty of Medicine and Health.
'More than a Fish Kill' screening and discussion event
University of Cologne, Germany
4 December 2025
'More than a Fish Kill' screening and discussion event presented by the Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities, University of Cologne, Germany
Inhabiting Wounded Landscapes and Environments
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
12 December 2025
Vic McEwan delivered the afternoon keynote presentation entitled 'Socially Engaged Art Amongst 30 Million Dead Fish' at the Inhabiting Wounded Landscapes and Environments: Interdisciplinary and Sensorial Explorations, the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Public Programs
Documentary Filming
7 – 21 January 2026
The Cad Factory, Aunty Cheryl Blore, David Doyle, Martin Fox and Kirsten Wehner will be filming a documentary from Menindee to London, Cambridge, Edinburgh and back again to Menindee
Viewing of Barkindji collection items, Cambridge
12 January 2026
The Cad Factory, Aunty Cheryl Blore, David Doyle, Martin Fox and Kirsten Wehner will be at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge England to look at Barkindji collection items
'More Than a Fish Kill' Screening
13 January 2026
Australia House, The Strand, London
Following an official reception hosted by the Australian High Commissioner, the Cad Factory will present a screening of the 'More Than a Fish Kill' documentary, followed by a panel discussion chaired by Independent Curator Kirsten Wehner with Artistic Director Vic McEwan, and First Nations artists David Doyle and Cheryl Blore. The panel will explore how we can work across cultures, sectors, and geographies to turn devastating ecological disasters into catalysts for cultural healing and revival.
'More Than a Fish Kill' Screening
17 January 2026
National Museum of Scotland
The National Museum of Scotland will be hosting a screening of 'More Than a Fish Kill' on 17 January 2026.
The film responds to the Menindee Fish Kills in the Darling-Baaka River, western New South Wales, from 2018-19. The screening will be followed by an interactive panel discussion.
Viewing of Barkindji collection items, Scotland
20 January 2026
The Cad Factory, Aunty Cheryl Blore, David Doyle, Martin Fox and Kirsten Wehner will be at the National Museum of Scotland to look at Barkindji collection items
Artwork Development
During the European tour, work towards the creation of a new major immersive installation is being undertaken. This involves collaboration with the shifting environmental conditions of the UK for a work that explores impacts on Australian rivers since colonisation.
This project is supported by the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh, the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, and the ARC Laureate Fellowship, ‘Resonant Earth’ (Prof. Liza Lim), Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and the NSW government through their arts funding and advisory body Create NSW.