Supported by Slag Heap Projects, PERMANENT SMOKO was a site-responsive residency and collaborative artwork, developed across ten days (6–16 October 2025) on Wilyakali and Barkindji Country in Broken Hill, NSW. PERMANENT SMOKO prioritised slow, relationship-centred processes1: shared meals, smokos2, group field trips, community workshops, open studio yarns, and informal interactions. The project was an intentional centering of hospitality, conversation, and collaborative making and being as a way of mapping and remembering, attempting to deepen shared understandings of place.
The group residency offered space to sit with Broken Hill’s ancestral, social, geological and political histories and complexities: the enduring presence of unionism, labour solidarity and community organising; its spaces, vibrations, edges, isolation, openness, aliveness and queerness; its sacred relationships to land and kin. A place that holds a palpable generosity of spirit—looking out for one another and sharing what you have; a guiding undercurrent (Line of Lode3) of the residency and the resulting artwork.
PERMANENT SMOKO unfolded through socially-engaged practice, spatial experimentation and resourcefulness, using second-hand and borrowed materials to resist extractive logics. It emerged through acts of borrowing, sharing, reworking and making-do which brought about a collaborative installation developed with the Slag Heap4 community. PERMANENT SMOKO treats shared activities, rest and relationship as the ongoing work, imagining a time when we all knock off5 forever. The artwork was shared in a series of public locations in Broken Hill and along the Sundown Trail. It’s now part of the Slag Heap Projects collection to be reimagined for future community gatherings and events.
This project was made possible by Slag Heap Projects with support from Regional Arts NSW, RANT Arts Tasmania Regional Arts Funding and Create NSW. Special thanks to Asma d Mather, Hester Lyon, and Verity Nunan of Slag Heap Projects and the Slag community for hosting us; Broken Hill Art Exchange for supporting our accommodation; the Tip Shop for loaning us materials; and to Cynthia Schwertsik and Taya Mikah Solomon for sharing in this special time on Wilyakali and Barkindji Country.
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2 Smoko is an informal term for a short break from work, originally intended for smoking cigarettes, but now more generally refers to a tea, coffee or snack break outside the work space. It’s inseparable from Australian blue-collar culture, representing a moment of camaraderie, peace and resistance.
3 The Line of Lode is one of the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits, a massive ore body that runs through Broken Hill.
4 The slag heap is a large pile of mining waste, a prominent landmark and contested site that bisects Broken Hill. The Slags are community members that have an established relationship with Slag Heap Projects, a local artist-run initiative interested in giving form to ephemeral conversations and the methodology of walking as a way to understand, embody and generate histories of place.
5 Knock off is another informal term meaning to finish work for the day. Here, the idea of “knocking off” refers to a refusal of the production paradigm.
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The group residency offered space to sit with Broken Hill’s ancestral, social, geological and political histories and complexities: the enduring presence of unionism, labour solidarity and community organising; its spaces, vibrations, edges, isolation, openness, aliveness and queerness; its sacred relationships to land and kin. A place that holds a palpable generosity of spirit—looking out for one another and sharing what you have; a guiding undercurrent (Line of Lode3) of the residency and the resulting artwork.
PERMANENT SMOKO unfolded through socially-engaged practice, spatial experimentation and resourcefulness, using second-hand and borrowed materials to resist extractive logics. It emerged through acts of borrowing, sharing, reworking and making-do which brought about a collaborative installation developed with the Slag Heap4 community. PERMANENT SMOKO treats shared activities, rest and relationship as the ongoing work, imagining a time when we all knock off5 forever. The artwork was shared in a series of public locations in Broken Hill and along the Sundown Trail. It’s now part of the Slag Heap Projects collection to be reimagined for future community gatherings and events.
This project was made possible by Slag Heap Projects with support from Regional Arts NSW, RANT Arts Tasmania Regional Arts Funding and Create NSW. Special thanks to Asma d Mather, Hester Lyon, and Verity Nunan of Slag Heap Projects and the Slag community for hosting us; Broken Hill Art Exchange for supporting our accommodation; the Tip Shop for loaning us materials; and to Cynthia Schwertsik and Taya Mikah Solomon for sharing in this special time on Wilyakali and Barkindji Country.
Footnotes
1 Aka the hanging out method as core praxis.2 Smoko is an informal term for a short break from work, originally intended for smoking cigarettes, but now more generally refers to a tea, coffee or snack break outside the work space. It’s inseparable from Australian blue-collar culture, representing a moment of camaraderie, peace and resistance.
3 The Line of Lode is one of the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits, a massive ore body that runs through Broken Hill.
4 The slag heap is a large pile of mining waste, a prominent landmark and contested site that bisects Broken Hill. The Slags are community members that have an established relationship with Slag Heap Projects, a local artist-run initiative interested in giving form to ephemeral conversations and the methodology of walking as a way to understand, embody and generate histories of place.
5 Knock off is another informal term meaning to finish work for the day. Here, the idea of “knocking off” refers to a refusal of the production paradigm.
13 hours on the train, scones and baby emus, sharing desert rigs, camping on the shores of the Menindee lakes, dead trees as far as the eye can see, yabby burgers at the Menindee Knockout, eating on the street together and fundraising for Palestine, Merle’s johnny cakes (make ‘em pretty), Hester and Dan’s garden, Uncle Badger's workshop, Sarah’s quandong jam, ancient desert seashell deposits, Semitj's generosity, flying Taya’s teabag kite, Kirsten’s soft sculptures, twisties on the cool concrete floor, stroking donkey ears, quartz seams peeking through the earth, desert walking, star gazing, trying the iconic cheese slaw, subbing in for social netball (go Slugs!), convent kitchen dinners, sunset swims (the rocks glow gold), co-dreaming new collaborations (a raft, a community garden) and places to meet again, coming with questions and leaving with more, rock people always find each other.
Photography: Grace Dewar, Laurie Oxenford & Taya Micah Solomon