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.
Curated by Beulah Ezeugo for TULCA 2025
Sound Editor: Alan Meaney