A Collection of Ocean Waifs | Enya Moore & Kate O’Shea
A Collection of Ocean Waifs is an audio collaboration between Enya Moore, Kate O’Shea, Ron Bradfield Jnr, and Padraig Stevens. Through sound and spoken word, the work explores the legacies of The Wild Goose: A Collection of Ocean Waifs (1867), a handwritten newspaper created by Irish political prisoners aboard the Hougoumont - a ship that departed Portsmouth, England, and sailed to Walyalup (Fremantle, Western Australia). Produced and shared while crossing oceans, The Wild Goose not only occupied a space between colonial borders - it created a new one. The legacies of British imperialism and colonisation have forged complex, interdependent networks between colonised places that remain under-examined. Among these, the historical and cultural ties between Ireland and Australia are one of many deserving of exploration. This audio work draws on the story of The Wild Goose to bring together voices from both Ireland and Australia, creating a reflective space to consider how ‘strange’ lands may share common ground.
Enya Moore and Kate O'Shea are a collaborative duo that have cultivated an enduring artistic and research partnership that spans decades. Kate, usually based in Cork, Ireland, is currently undertaking an artist residency in Walyalup (Fremantle, Western Australia). Her creative practice includes printmaking, publishing under Durty Books, the newspaper Gravity Express (with Vagabond Reviews). Enya, based in Gadigal Country (Sydney, Australia), is a researcher, educator, and writer. Her work explores networks of solidarity, and cultural ecosystems as well as anti-colonial histories. Enya is a lecturer in design at the School of Architecture, Design and Planning in the University of Sydney, where Kate has collaborated with her in the Masters in Design programme. Over the years, they have continuously expanded their artistic and intellectual collaboration. In 2020, they co-developed Networks of Solidarity, a four-part online series bridging Gadigal Country and Dublin 8. Their recent projects include Social Space (Broken Fields Collective, Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2023), Art, What Is It Good For? (South Tipperary Arts Centre, 2023), and Broken Fields Micro Exhibition (46 Grand Parade, Cork, 2023).
Sound Editor: Alan Meaney
A Collection of Ocean Waifs was created by Enya Moore, Kate O'Shea, Ron Bradfield Jnr and Padraig Stevens who are based on and between Galway (Ireland), Walyalup (Fremantle) and Gadigal Country (Sydney).
It was created on and between the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and the lands of the Whadjuk Noongar people of the Noongar nation. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of these lands and waterways and extend our respect to their Elders, past and present.
Biographies
Padraig Stevens is a songwriter and musician who lives in Co. Galway
Ron Bradfield Jnr is a Bard, Jawi man of the saltwater peoples around Djarindjin, Western Australia. Born in Mooniemia (Northampton), he grew up in Jambinu (Geraldton), but now calls Walyalup (Fremantle) his home. As the CYO of Yarns R Us, Ron supports artists, arts professionals, arts organisations and institutions across Australia and overseas and is currently the Community Engagement Facilitator, with the John Curtin Gallery at Curtin University. As a storyteller and artist, Ron tells and makes stories that unpick his own personal experiences surviving our society and what it is to be ‘Australian’. As the eldest son of a Stolen Generations mother, Ron presents stories of himself as a child, as an adult and as an ex-serving member of the Australian Defence Force. Tapping into the physical memories of a time past through the use of familiar objects and Australian culture markers, Ron retells his stories, challenging today’s Australians about how they remember the places they grew up in and the experiences they had, well away from the reality of Aboriginal and Islander peoples.
References (in order of appearance in audio)
Stevens, P. (2025). We Sail Away [Song].
Flood, J., & O’Reilly, J. B. (1867). The Wild Goose: A collection of ocean waifs [Newspaper]. Published on the Hougoumont ship.
Stevens, P. (2025). How Strange Lands Still Bear Common Ground [Song]
Robinson, T. (2008) Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage, New York Review of Books.
Flood, J., & O’Reilly, J. B. (1867). The Wild Goose: A collection of ocean waifs [Newspaper]. Published on the Hougoumont ship. John Flood papers, comprising seven issues of the ship newspaper The Wild Goose, 1867, and Flood’s conditional pardon, 1871, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
Moore, E. (2025) Jumpcuts Essay, Jumpcuts: an exhibition by Kate O’Shea and Aideen O’Donavan, Moores Building Art Space, Fremantle, WA.
Kavanagh, S. (2025). Making spaces [Song].
Sullivan, C. W., III. (2002). Fenian diary of Denis B. Cashman: The Hougomont diary of Denis B. Cashman. Wolfhound Press.
O’Byrne, M. (2025, November 4). The Catalpa Escape Podcast Series (Episode 7) [Audio podcast]. In M. Barker (Ed.), Fremantle Shipping News. https://fremantleshippingnews.com.au/2025/11/04/the-catalpa-escape-podcast-series-episode-7
Butterly, C. (2025). “The flotillas reminded us all that the only sane response to a dystopian world is to have radical imagination.” Hot Press. https://www.hotpress.com/opinion/global-sumud-flotilla-the-flotillas-reminded-us-all-that- the-only-sane-response-to-a-dystopian-world-is-to-have-radical-imagination-23114753
McGrath, W. (1969). Convict ship newspaper, ‘The Wilde Goose’, re-discovered. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, 74(219), 20–31. Cork Historical and Archaeological Society.
Available to stream online
TULCA Podcasts
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Access
Audio only, available to stream online from 7 Nov
Opening Times
7-23 November 2025
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Strange lands still bear common ground
Curated by Beulah Ezeugo
7-23 November 2025
Galway, Ireland
Image: Rubbing of a plaque from the memorial The Wild Goose, in Rockingham, Western Australia. The plaque was unveiled on 29 March 2014 to commemorate the newspaper created by Irish political prisoners transported aboard the Hougoumont to Freemantle, Australia.