Zane Saunders, Preface, 2026, Performance Installation in Old NSW Bank Building on Gurambilbarra/Townsville. PUNQ 2026 Commission. Photograph: Russell Millage
The old Bank of New South Wales building (across from Townsville Bulletin Square and Cowboys Leagues Club): 337–343 Flinders Street, Gurambilbarra / Townsville, QLD Australia 4810.
View the interactive PUNQ Art Trail Map for directions.
Venue AccessibilityWheelchair access via Stokes street entrance.
There are wheelchair accessible toilets nearby in Townsville Bulletin Square: 340 Flinders Street, Townsville Bulletin Square, Gurambilbarra / Townsville Queensland 4810.
PricingThis is a free event.
Preface
Zane Saunders
A preface is written before the main text. In this major new performance installation, Jarrowia, Butchulla and Gunggari artist Zane Saunders explores the tensions between Indigenous knowledge, spirituality and colonial narratives. Set within one of Gurambilbarra / Townsville's oldest colonial buildings,?Preface?combines live performance, sculpture, sound and video to create an immersive experience that invites audiences into a deeply personal realm of ritual, spirituality and reflection, where questions linger long after the performance ends.
Preface is commissioned by PUNQ Festival, produced in partnership with Dancenorth, and is supported by QPAC and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
Creatives
Concept, Direction, Performer: Zane Saunders
Design Consultant, Fabrication: Justin Bishop
Design Consultant, Audiovisual: Russell Milledge
Consultant and Dramaturg: Isaac Drandic
Production Manager, Lighting Consultant: Charles Wiles
Crew
Stage Manager, Production Support: Felicity Organ Moore
Management
Producer: Kate O’Hara Director, Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts
Executive Director, co-CEO, Dancenorth: Hillary Coyne
General Manager, Dancenorth: Eloise Grace
Melania Jack: PUNQ Creative Producer
About The Artist
Zane Saunders is an Aboriginal interdisciplinary artist and performer of Jarrowia, Butchulla and Gunggari descent, based in Kuranda, North Queensland. Working across performance, installation, sound, sculpture and moving image, his practice examines the intersections of spirituality, Country, memory and the enduring impacts of colonialism. Through immersive, ritualistic works, Saunders invites audiences into spaces of contemplation, challenging inherited narratives while reconnecting with Indigenous systems of knowledge and cultural responsibility.
His performances occupy galleries, theatres and public spaces, transforming each site into experiential environments where movement, symbolism and contemporary media converge. Rather than presenting fixed interpretations, Saunders creates conditions for reflection, asking audiences to consider their own relationships to culture, belief and place.
Saunders has presented work nationally through organisations including the National Gallery of Australia, Dancenorth and the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, where he presented Cure in Meanjin / Brisbane in 2019. He has also undertaken an Australia Council residency at Location One in New York and was commissioned by NorthSite Contemporary Arts in 2025 to create Lighthouse, a major digital façade work for Bulmba-ja.
His latest major work, Preface, extends an ongoing investigation into Indigenous spirituality and the legacy of religious colonialism. Premiering at PUNQ Festival in 2026, the work represents the culmination of years of research, collaboration and artistic development, continuing his exploration of contemporary Aboriginal performance, installation and ceremony.
The old Bank of New South Wales building (across from Townsville Bulletin Square and Cowboys Leagues Club): 337–343 Flinders Street, Gurambilbarra / Townsville, QLD Australia 4810.
View the interactive PUNQ Art Trail Map for directions.
Venue AccessibilityWheelchair access via Stokes street entrance.
There are wheelchair accessible toilets nearby in Townsville Bulletin Square: 340 Flinders Street, Townsville Bulletin Square, Gurambilbarra / Townsville Queensland 4810.
PricingThis is a free event.
Back to HomePUNQ respectfully acknowledges the Wulgurukaba of Gurambilbarra and Yunbenun and the surrounding groups of our region; Bindal, Gugu Badhun, Nywaigi, Warrgamay, Bandjin and Gudjal as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather, share and celebrate local creative practice. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first people of Australia. They have never ceded sovereignty and remain strong in their enduring connection to land and Culture.