Bembit Bag-Rook Community Centre

• Early years education and care services
• Three and four-year-old kindergarten
• Playgroups and parent groups
• Maternal and child health services (from March 2023)
• Specialist support services for children

A range of community, health and educational services, programs, and activities for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.

Bembit Bag-rook Community Centre offers the following spaces for hire:

• Fully equipped kitchen
• Full disability access
• Baby change facilities
• Trestle tables and chairs
• Free WIFI
• Outdoor BBQ area and children’s play area nearby
• Carpark

Electric vehicle charging stations.

Wadawurrung artist Madi Mercer was commissioned to produce two artworks for the central curved wall and lightwell play area in Bembit Bagroot Community Centre. These include the mural Love of the Land - Where I’d rather be and hanging sculpture Sit and listen to the singing of the birds. The two works collectively invite community users of the centre and the kindergarten children to reflect on connection to Country.

Madi Mercer (otherwise known as Ghostgum) is a proud Wadawurrung person living and creating on Boonwurrung Country, in Naarm. She grew up on Boonwurrung, Wurundjeri, Wiradjuri, Gadigal and Wadawurrung Countries with her family, but has been based back in Naarm for university. 
Madi's artistic practice stems from cultural identity, connection to Country, and art as a personal exploration. She creates to facilitate healing, reconnecting to self, and as a form of intuited therapy. Madi's works aim to highlight the importance of acknowledging and respecting the beauty, history, and Cultural significance of all levels of Blak Country, expressed within the multi-disciplinary outputs and materials she explores. 

Artist Statements:

Sit and listen to the singing of the birds

Birds are the messengers of our Ancestors, and of the Spirits. They will come to us to tell us stories, send messages about the weather, give us messages from loved ones, and show us how to live freely. They know more about the skies than any other, and they are important ones to sit and listen to. Their beautiful voices always have something important to tell us, and it is up to us to sit quietly and listen to what they have to say.    

Love of the Land - Where I’d rather be

The artwork is a response to not being able to live the way my heart desires - to live on Country, enjoying peace with the land, skies and waters. I dream of living within a loving, supportive community, living sustainably in collaboration with each other and what the Earth provides, and being deeply grounded and immersed within Culture. It is a depiction of the future that I wish to create not only for my own family and people, but for all people that envision more for themselves and their future generations, living responsibly and carefully with the land. Love, peace, comfort and community are human rights, and Colonisation will not continue to keep us away from that. We can build this community ourselves - together.