The 2010 National Tour of Lisa Hilli | Just Like Home is proudly presented by Kultour and developed in partnership with Multicultural Arts Victoria (a Kultour Company Member).

Lisa Hilli - Just Like Home

National Tour: March - October 2010

Just Like Home is an exhibition, a meal, a film and a biography, which explores artist Lisa Hilli's New Guinean and Australian heritage.

Tour dates

31 March - 11 April 2010 Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane
20 May - 26 June 2010 Nexus Multicultural Arts, Adelaide
1-24 July 2010 Colac Otways Performing Arts & Cultural Centre
23-26 Sept 2010 Elcho Island, Arnhem Land
21 Sept 11am-1pm & 28 Sep 6pm-9pm 2010 Darwin Community Arts Centre, Malak

Just Like Home

Just Like Home celebrates the continuation of Tolai cooking traditions, unique to the people of Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, with an Australian twist.

With one simple meal - shared in locations as far flung as Elcho Island in the Northern Territory - Lisa Hilli's work will explore issues of assimilation and cultural adaption with new audiences.

Lisa Hilli

Hilli's video documentary, Just Like Home, depicts her mother, Cathy, preparing I gir (e geerrra), literally meaning 'to steam with hot stones'.

Made in suburban Brisbane, Just Like Home positions this specific Tolai culinary practice in a Western context, and reveals an interesting development; instead of using banana leaves which are integral to the cooking process, Lisa's mother uses tin foil, thus adapting the recipe to suit her new adopted home and the resources at hand.

Hilli's video documentary is screened under the shade of life-sized banana tree sculptures constructed entirely of tin foil.

Papua New Guinean

Drawing inspiration from her mother, these banana trees are shining monuments to the continuation and adaptation of Papua New Guinean cooking traditions within Australia.

An integral part of the exhibition is a demonstration of a celebratory feast melding these two cultures.

Guided by Hilli and her mother Cathy, members of the public participate in the preparation, cooking and eating of I gir, a traditional vegetable and chicken dish cooked in banana leaves.

Like so many modern day cultural interactions, Hilli's Just Like Home is mediated through the sharing of food.

This participatory approach mirrors the Kultour ethos of facilitating meaningful engagement between audiences and artists and we are proud to be touring work of this kind to diverse communities across the country.

Please visit kultour.com.au for the complete national tour itinerary.