At more than five metres tall, new ‘superhero’ will rise above Circular Quay

Sydney’s heroic statues of explorers, colonial governors and architects will soon have a new, imposing counterpoint – a monumental bronze sculpture of a powerful Aboriginal woman, half human and half whale, marked for Circular Quay.

Badjgama Ngunda Whuliwulawala (Black Women Rising) has been commissioned for public space at the front of Lendlease’s luxury residential One Circular Quay tower and the new Waldorf Astoria hotel, above the original shoreline where the Tank Stream once met the harbour.

A render of Badjgama Ngunda Whuliwulawala (Black Women Rising) by Alison Page.Credit:

The multimillion-dollar bronze is the work of Dharawal and Yuin artist Alison Page, and a group of 20 local Aboriginal women, who want the imposing sculpture to become a site of cultural pride and a reminder of the resilience of Indigenous women and their deep spiritual connection to Country.

The first Aboriginal councillor in the City of Sydney’s 180-year history, Yvonne Weldon, has long called for a review of the city’s 25 colonial statues as part of a push to “truth-telling”. This sculpture, says Page, will speak to “female power in a white man’s world”.

“This CBD is peppered with monuments of white men in history, and they are done in [a] way that is colonial; it’s all linear, they are standing on sandstone plinths and doing something heroic,” says Page. “This bronze bubbles at the base, as if she’s forming out of water, as if she is this superhero with her energy and essence living within the Aboriginal women of Sydney today. She is everyone, every black woman, every mother, daughter, sister, aunty. She is Country.”

Rising 5.5 metres tall, the imposing bronze mermaid-like form will be constructed at the UAP foundry in Brisbane, the same forge that made Lindy Lee’s 13-tonne serpentine sculpture Ouroboros, the most expensive work in NGA history.

It will be created from 73 individually cast 12mm-thick bronze panels that together will weigh 4.5 tonnes.

Each will be aligned, welded and finished smooth by hand into a single piece without an internal supporting structure. It will be delivered by road whole from Brisbane, at the insistence of Page, who does not want to diminish the power of the bronze figure as she makes the journey between the two capital cities.

Fabrication will take about 11 months, with installation expected in early 2027.

Lendlease’s project director of development, Steve McGillivray, said exceptional public spaces could act as canvases for cultural expression, enriching the connections between people and place.

Curator Rhoda Roberts said the work was more than art: “It’s a reconnection of hidden stories and our deep love for country and its shared waterways that have shaped the city. Alison Page’s monumental artwork pulsates, transforming Circular Quay into a place where every visitor encounters the spiritual presence and energy of Sydney’s First Women.”

The sculpture will sit six metres above the freshwater Tank Stream.

“To have this woman rise from the floor of the city … she is never going to be erased,” Page says.

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