CONTENTS CONTENTS

Message from the Victorian Minister for the Arts 6

Message from the Art Gallery of Ballarat 7

About the Victorian Indigenous Art Awards 8

Award Winners & Peoples’ Choice Award 9

Deadly Art Award—Winner 10

CAL Award for Three Dimensional Works—Winner 12

CAL Award for Works on Paper—Winner 14

CAL Award for Three Dimensional Works—Highly Commended 16

CAL Award for Works on Paper—Highly Commended 18

University of Ballarat Acquisitive Award 20

Australian Catholic University Acquisitive Award 22

Finalists 24

Supporters and Sponsors 62

FROM THE MINISTER FOR THE ARTS

It is a great pleasure to welcome you While an expert panel has chosen the to the eighth Victorian Indigenous Art major award winners, I encourage Awards exhibition. you to visit the Arts Victoria website to cast your vote for your favourite Featuring 42 works by 31 artists from work to win the Arts Victoria People’s across Victoria, this year’s exhibition Choice Award—I know I’ll find it hard showcases traditional practices to pick just one! dating back thousands of years as well as the latest cutting-edge On behalf of the Victorian techniques and gives us a wonderful Government, I congratulate the 2013 insight into South East Australian Victorian Indigenous Art Awards Indigenous art of the past, present finalists and Award winners, not and future. just for the wonderful works in this exhibition but for the role they play This year we were proud to partner in developing and strengthening with Art Gallery of Ballarat to present Victoria’s Indigenous arts sector all the Awards and the exhibition. Art year round. Gallery of Ballarat has a strong commitment to collecting and Heidi Victoria MP presenting Aboriginal art, dating back Victorian Minister for the Arts to 1932 when it was the first public gallery in Victoria to acquire a work by an Aboriginal artist, and is the largest and most prestigious venue to host the awards to date.

This year’s finalist works reflect our vibrant state-wide Indigenous arts sector and showcase the talents of artists at all stages of their careers from across metropolitan and regional Victoria.

6 FROM THE ART GALLERY OF BALLARAT

The Art Gallery of Ballarat, in complimented on having the foresight Wadawurrung country, is honoured to support Victoria’s Indigenous to have been invited by Arts Victoria artists and invest in their future. to present the 2013 Victorian On a personal note, I was honoured Indigenous Art Awards. to be asked to participate on the judging panel for this year’s Awards This Gallery is proud to support and enjoyed working with Margo Neale Indigenous culture and, through this and Lee-Ann Buckskin on that aspect exhibition, to showcase Victorian of the project. I would like to thank Indigenous art. It is a tremendous both of them for bringing knowledge, opportunity to work with Arts Victoria understanding and passion to their role. to develop the Awards as a headline Victorian Indigenous art event and to Finally, I would like to offer this very build on our existing contacts with the special exhibition and showcase of local Aboriginal community. Victorian Indigenous art to the people of Victoria and beyond. We are looking forward to the opportunity to build new audiences Gordon Morrison for both the Gallery and the artists Director, Art Gallery of Ballarat involved.

We are also very pleased to welcome two Award sponsors from within the Ballarat community, the Australian Catholic University and the University of Ballarat. Bringing the awards to Ballarat has enabled the Gallery to build on its existing links with the universities by providing an opportunity to work together to support Victoria’s Indigenous artists. Both ACU and UoB are to be

7 VICTORIAN INDIGENOUS ART AWARDS 2013 ABOUT

The Victorian Indigenous Art Awards are an art JUDGES award program and exhibition developed by the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria and Lee-Ann Buckskin is Manager of the presented by the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Aboriginal Arts Development program at Carclew in Adelaide and is a member of the The Awards celebrate the quality and diversity Australia Council. of current art practice of Aboriginal and Torres Gordon Morrison is Director of the Art Gallery Strait Islander Victorians and showcase and of Ballarat and is also an Adjunct Professor, Art raise the profile of the uniqueness of south-east History, School of Education and Arts, University Australian Aboriginal art. of Ballarat.

The program is designed to develop Margo Neale is a Senior Research Fellow, partnerships within the sector, build audiences Senior Curator and Principal Indigenous and facilitate economic opportunities for artists. Advisor to the Director at the National Museum of Australia and is also an Adjunct Professor in the history program at the Australian National Beginning in 2005 and now in their eighth University’s Australian Centre for Indigenous year, the Victorian Indigenous Art Awards History. are being presented for the first time by the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

8 VICTORIAN INDIGENOUS ART AWARDS 2013 CATEGORY WINNERS AND PEOPLES’ CHOICE

AWARD CATEGORIES AND WINNERS

Deadly Art Award Ray Thomas $30,000 (Sponsored by Arts Victoria) A Gunnai Elder - Mum Alice

CAL Victorian Indigenous Art Award Winner for three dimensional works Georgia MacGuire $5,000 Ill-fitted Young Highly Commended John Duggan Tools of the trade “Hunter”

CAL Victorian Indigenous Art Award Winner for works on paper Peter Waples-Crowe $5,000 Just Sayin’ Highly Commended Bindi Cole A Time Like This

University of Ballarat Acquisitive Award Bronwyn Razem for work reflecting Victoria’s Western District Eel trap with emu feathers $5,000

Australian Catholic University Acquisitive Award Nathalie (Lucy) Williams-Connelly for work based on spirituality and cultural tradition My Family Life $5,000

ARTS VICTORIA PEOPLES’ CHOICE AWARD

Arts Victoria Peoples’ Choice Award $2,500 (Sponsored by Arts Victoria)

Visitors to the exhibition in the Gallery and online have the opportunity to vote for the Arts Victoria Peoples’ Choice. Just go to indigenousartawards.com.au or use the voting ipod in the Gallery. Voting closes 5pm Monday 25 November. Winner announced Saturday 30 November.

9 DEADLY ART AWARD WINNER

Ray Thomas Judges’ comments Brabrawooloong Gunnai/Kirrae-wurrung/ Djadjawali Radiating out from this painting is an exultant sense of love and empathy offered by the artist Ray Thomas has been involved in the arts to his subject and shared in turn with us, the for the past twenty-five years, participating in viewers. group and community shows throughout the state as well as exhibitions both nationally Each element within the simple, bold, frontal and internationally. He has facilitated artist composition contributes to a narrative about the workshops in Melbourne and regional Victoria Elder—the woven basket of fruit, the scattered focussing on the importance of research by gum leaves, the birthday flowers and card, young artists into their own cultural heritage and most of all, the blanket or cloak, its inner from their area/country. He has undertaken markings suggesting the complex patterns and residencies as well as public art commissions, song lines of the subject’s life. The result is a most recently with the redevelopment of the work of singular spiritual power—as much an Northcote Civic Square public space. icon as it is a portrait.

A Gunnai Elder - Mum Alice 2013 While this work clearly references the naïve oil on canvas tradition, with echoes of Henri Rousseau or 149 x 99 cm Frida Kahlo, it uses that mode to pay tribute to the experience of Melbourne’s urban I have always had it in mind to paint Mum’s Aboriginal community over four generations, portrait but was hampered by time constraints acknowledging cultural connection through the and distractions. Living with her as her full-time elders to an era before white settlement. carer has given me the opportunity to finally paint her portrait. I feel the work has integrity and reflects her as the person she is today. The different elements in the work tell some of her story and different aspects of her life. This work has allowed me to acknowledge my old people and to give recognition to them for their contribution to the Melbourne community in the early days in Fitzroy.

10 DEADLY ART AWARD WINNER

11 CAL VICTORIAN INDIGENOUS ART AWARD FOR THREE DIMENSIONAL WORKS WINNER

Georgia MacGuire Judges’ comments

Georgia MacGuire is currently based in Even without the aid of the artist’s statement, Maryborough, Victoria. She grew up in Canberra this is an arresting object capable of drawing in the 1980s, immersed in a developing the viewer’s attention from the other side of a Indigenous political movement, and spent fifteen crowded room. The surface of the dress with its year career working in the community sector. A peeling layers of paperbark is both tactile and move to Melbourne in 2000 rekindled a sense intriguing. of belonging to the places her mother and grandmother had lived and she redirected her However, in this case it is the artist’s words humanitarian passion into a full-time art practice. that deliver for us the knockout blow of She is currently completing a Bachelor of Visual comprehension, when we come to understand Arts at Deakin University and is working towards that the paperbark that makes up the dress her first solo exhibition. Her work currently focuses represents a material being forced to carry out on exploring the ownership of the identity of a function—covering up a woman’s body—for contemporary Aboriginal women and how the which it was never traditionally used. The cuts male colonial gaze impacts on the Indigenous and seams of the bark become metaphors female sense of self. for the wounds inflicted on generations of Aboriginal women. Ill-fitted Young 2013 paperbark and plaster bandage This work deals with difficult issues. That 110 x 60 x 25 cm it manages to do this in a subtle and non-malignant way enhances the power This sculptural portrait is the second work in of its message. a series exploring the identity of Aboriginal women in their experience of assimilation and genocide. I have taken the natural fibre of paperbark, which parallels an Aboriginal woman’s spiritual connection to country, and forced it into a Western female construct—the dress. The work is personalised through its internal structure: a plaster cast of a young Aboriginal woman’s body that carries the dress. To rip, cut, stitch and bend a fibre traditionally used by Indigenous women to feed, house, and heal, is to repeat the trauma inflicted. What is left is something that is indicative of a sublime experience. When I witnessed the completed work, I experienced something beautiful, yet almost sickeningly painful and truly sad. 12 13 CAL VICTORIAN INDIGENOUS ART AWARD FOR WORKS ON PAPER WINNER

Peter Waples-Crowe Judges’ comments Ngarigo/Wiradjuri This multi-component work delivers an Peter Waples-Crowe’s visual and performance important statement in a series of miniature practices questions the intersection of identity, posters. The artist appropriated images from race and culture, exploring the areas of the widest range of sources and pressed them dislocation, globalisation, popular culture, into service to express views about living in a sub-cultures and Indigeneity. He uses various pluralist society that might preach toleration techniques and mixed media applications and acceptance but actually practices entirely to locate a sense of belonging and position, different modes of behaviour. juxtaposing visual and re-visioned histories to produce critical reflection. His practice Many of these boldly composed and striking also explores and expands the notion of the images are imbued with a sense of sardonic ‘Aboriginal artist’, removing it from the dominant humour, as the artist raises the question of cultural constraints and perceived rigid what it is like to be an outsider, not just because categories it currently inhabits. of his Aboriginal identity, but also because of his sexuality. Just Sayin’ 2013 mixed media on paper 150 x 100 cm

This is a series of critical reflections of my cultural, sexual and social identities. They are based on the lived experience and use irony to raise questions about personal life situations and events. This work intersects my Aboriginality and my homosexuality and more—it is full of contradictions, of truth and observations. This is an ongoing series of works that strips back my usual practice and re-presents the view of a contemporary Australian. It uses images of Aboriginal people drawn from the coloniser’s perspective and revisions them to raise questions about cultural stereotypes and the depiction of Aboriginal Australians in history and now.

14 CAL VICTORIAN INDIGENOUS ART AWARD FOR WORKS ON PAPER WINNER

15 CAL VICTORIAN INDIGENOUS ART AWARD FOR THREE DIMENSIONAL WORKS HIGHLY COMMENDED

John Duggan Kamilaroi

John Duggan was born and raised in country Victoria though his family originates from Kamilaroi country in New South Wales. He learned traditional skills from family, mentors and friends. He has been refining stone knapping techniques for six years and has also branched into binding, hafting, carving and skinning using traditional methods. His work has been extensively exhibited and acquired for corporate gifts. John also teaches these traditional skills at community workshops and cultural gatherings. He was a finalist in the 2008 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards.

Tools of the trade “Hunter” 2013 stone, wood, grass tree resin, kangaroo sinew, paper bark, kangaroo fur and steel 23.5 x 71.5 x 46.3 cm

Hunting was a trade skill employed by our people requiring patience, technique, skill, and an intimate knowledge of the environment. This toolbox contains the tools and parts necessary to successfully spear, skin, and butcher animals, and materials for repairing spears when needed. Learning how to produce them requires years of practice—much like an apprenticeship. Hunters were much respected throughout our land, many of them are celebrated in our stories, and have become immortalised over time.

16 CAL VICTORIAN INDIGENOUS ART AWARD FOR THREE DIMENSIONAL WORKS HIGHLY COMMENDED

17 CAL VICTORIAN INDIGENOUS ART AWARD FOR WORKS ON PAPER HIGHLY COMMENDED

Bindi Cole Wadawurrung

Bindi Cole is a Melbourne-born artist and curator, whose work has been widely exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Australia and internationally. Her early interest in photography was curtailed by her descent into depression and drugs due to the trauma of her mother’s heroin addiction and death from cancer. After a transformative prison term, she found Christianity and recaptured her self-belief. Her deeply personal and powerful artistic practice, in a range of media, focuses on identity and the exploration of tensions within. She won the Deadly Art Award in the Victorian Indigenous Arts Awards in 2009.

A Time Like This 2013 pigment print on rag paper edition 1 of 8 100 x 82 cm

Contemporary Victorian Aboriginal people experience culture and community in a place that no longer looks like home. The decimation of culture and language in Victoria is strongly felt, yet the community is thriving. If you were to ask any Melbourne suburbanite, you might think there is no Aboriginal community here—there is, it just doesn’t look the way the media presents nor does it experience life in the way it used to. As colonisation continues to have a major impact on this community, every facet of life must change and become contemporary.

18 19 UNIVERSITY OF BALLARAT ACQUISITIVE AWARD FOR WORK REFLECTING VICTORIA’S WESTERN DISTRICT WINNER Bronwyn Razem Acquiring institutions comments Gunditjmara/Kirrae Whurrong The judges were impressed by Bronwyn Bronwyn Razem was born in Warrnambool Razem’s translation of the traditional eel trap in 1953 and learnt basket weaving from her into a sculptural form evocative of the flow mother, an elder in the community and well- of water and possibly the passage of time. known traditional basket weaver. She now The design and technical knowhow which teaches her traditional cultural practice of Razem inherited from her mother, uncles, and basket weaving, keeping this cultural tradition grandfather connects this work to her family’s alive for generations to come. She is inspired by life and traditions. She then enhances the family and the bush, using what nature provides simplicity of this very functional object by the in a very contemporary way. Her combined addition of delicate emu feathers, creating practice of painting and weaving gives her a a work that creatively and symbolically strong sense of identity and a knowing of who transcends its original form. she is and where her country of birth is.

Eel trap with emu feathers 2013 New Zealand flax, emu feathers 45 x 140 x 45 cm

The breeze going through the eel trap gives a feeling of water flowing through the vessel with the feathers softly waiving as the water flows. My grandfather Nicholas Couzens and my uncles made eel traps to fish in the Hopkins River—this is how my mother learnt the techniques which she passed on to me.

20 UNIVERSITY OF BALLARAT ACQUISITIVE AWARD FOR WORK REFLECTING VICTORIA’S WESTERN DISTRICT WINNER

21 AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY ACQUISITIVE AWARD FOR WORK BASED ON SPIRITUALITY AND CULTURAL TRADITION WINNER Nathalie (Lucy) Williams-Connelly Acquiring institutions comments

Lucy Williams-Connelly’s childhood was spent The broad area of this Award is the spiritual and travelling around New South Wales in a horse cultural traditions of Indigenous communities. and wagon in a large family of seventeen My Family Life was chosen as it captured children. She worked for many years in pre- the importance of family life and the various school and childcare centres. She learnt activities undertaken within families with traditional craft techniques from her parents exceptionally strong attachment to country. and since then has developed skills in basket It is also presented in a medium that is both weaving as well as painting using ochres, water important to support and also one that is not and oil paint on canvas, board and bark. common. The medium itself is part of the cultural tradition that needs to be maintained. Family Life 2013 Finally it was chosen so that students at ACU burning on wood would be drawn into an appreciation of a 152.5 x 76.5 cm culture and a spirituality that has much to offer them. I have been wood burning since fifteen years of age when my father taught me how to do burnings using wire on wood which had to be heated in a tin of coal. My artwork shows the way we lived and we had to make things for ourselves. We lived on the river bank in tents and my parents would make tents out of sticks and beds were out of hessian bags. I saw my father and his old friends make and use the spears, boomerangs and nulla nullas. In the morning we would go to the swamp to get ducks, birds, goannas and turtles. It was when mothers looked after the kids and cooked and the fathers would help mothers at all times.

22 23 VICTORIAN INDIGENOUS ART AWARDS 2013 FINALISTS

24 Jack Anselmi Waiting for a Dragonfly2013 Yorta Yorta pokerwork on redgum wood 115 x 5 x 5 cm Jack Anselmi was born in Mooroopna (Deep Water Hole) in 1965. He was inspired The image of a goanna waiting for a dragonfly in developing his artwork by his father, who came to me one day as I was daydreaming. painted, carved and made plaster busts, and My intention is to make the piece of wood that I his mother, a Yorta Yorta woman, who made have picked up in the bush ‘come alive’. Aboriginal artefacts. Jack worked as a sheet metal worker from the age of fifteen, developing skills in the use of tools and shaping materials. He now specializes in intricately carved wooden walking sticks and staffs.

25 Rebecca Atkinson Down the River 2013 Bangerang photograph 97 x 67 cm Rebecca Atkinson lives at Shepparton and Cummeragunja. The enjoyment she gets out of This photo was taken down at Cummeragunja being around her family and friends inspires her on the River when the water was low and you in the work she undertakes in painting, drawing, could walk along the banks, where you could basket weaving, ceramics, and photography. see the exposed tree roots.

26 Rebecca Atkinson Down the River 02 2013 Bangerang photograph 97 x 67 cm

My nephews and I were at Cummeragunja down the banks having a look and the three boys had sticks, reminding me of three little boys going hunting.

27 Paola Balla Untitled 2013 Wemba Wemba/Gunditjmara photographic pigment print on Hahnemuhle rag paper, edition 1 of 5 Paola Balla works in installation, print, drawing, 100.7 x 70 cm and painting, and has been exhibiting and producing work over the past fifteen years. Her I have long admired Tracey Bunda, a Ngugi/ practice explores the construction of imagery Wakka Wakka woman for her brilliant writing. and identity, telling hidden stories and bringing Earlier this year she had open heart surgery after them to the surface, making reference to a heart attack and invited me to photograph pop culture and history. She is also a curator, her scar for an article she’s writing reminding speaker, educator, and cultural producer. Indigenous people to take care with their health. I see her scar, hands and her sister’s shawl like a landscape—like our homelands, blood lines, the survival and beauty of Aboriginal women. Having struggled with my mental and physical health after experiencing trauma too common to Aboriginal women, I am grateful to Tracey for her courage, strength and vulnerability, and for this collaboration, which she describes as ‘an exercise in liberation and education.’ 28 Glennys Briggs Taungurung Man 2012 Taungurung/Yorta Yorta intaglio print on Magnani paper 49 x 34 cm Glennys Briggs grew up on her father’s country, on Cummeragunja Aboriginal Reserve This print is about my great grandfather, who on the Murray River. She has been an artist had to live in another’s country because his for ten years and has contributed to over was taken from him, but he still held the spirit of sixty exhibitions in Queensland, Victoria the Taungurung. His totem was the crow. The and France. She is studying for a Bachelor’s stories I tell through my art have been handed Degree in Contemporary Indigenous Art at down to me through my family and tribal the Queensland College of the Arts, Griffith affiliations. They are the vessels that hold our University, with a major in Printmaking. memories, dreams, myths and legends.

29 Bradley Brown Indigenous Life 2013 Gunnai/Gunditjmara/Bidwall acrylic on canvas 152 x 174 cm Bradley Brown lives in Bairnsdale with his wife and four children. He is a self-taught artist who This painting is like a document about has been making art for five years. He works Aboriginal people both past and present in schools teaching Aboriginal art. He has had and their connection to this country. It is two solo exhibitions and was a finalist in the about Indigenous life, culture, hunting tools, Victorian Indigenous Art Awards in 2011. and stories, dreaming. It starts with Aboriginal people doing a ceremony in the night, with animals in the sky and dots representing the stars.

30 Cynthia Bux Living Waters 2012 Wiradjuri/Yorta Yorta acrylic on canvas 80 x 100 cm Cynthia Bux learnt traditional skills from her grandfather, a Wiradjuri man, who showed her The desert can be so harsh and barren, and how to make wood carving and burnings, her then when the rainy season comes, it brings life grandmother, a Yorta Yorta woman, who made and gives life to the wildflower seeds that have feather flowers, and her mother, a Moonaculla been waiting. Even the sounds of animals and woman, who taught her about bush foods birds are heard again, as the streams of living and animals. She is a self-taught artist who water flow through the desert. is inspired by the beauty of the outback and the wildflowers. Her work was included in the Olympic Art Gallery in Sydney in 2000.

31 Bindi Cole Lakorra 2013 Wadawurrung pigment print on rag paper artists proof Bindi Cole is a Melbourne-born artist and 150 x 200 cm curator, whose work has been widely exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Australia and As a regular visitor to the city, I see that the sky internationally. Her early interest in photography is often obscured. Lakorra is the Wathaurung was curtailed by her descent into depression word for sky and this photograph looks back to and drugs due to the trauma of her mother’s a time when Melbourne would have been a flat heroin addiction and death from cancer. and open expanse with a generous view of the After a transformative prison term, she found sky above that would envelop you. It conveys a Christianity and recaptured her self-belief. Her sense of the people who walked those streets deeply personal and powerful artistic practice, long before they were streets, allowing us to in a range of media, focuses on identity and ponder something deeper, more meaningful, the exploration of tensions within. She won the and greater than ourselves. Deadly Art Award in the Victorian Indigenous Arts Awards in 2009.

32 Bindi Cole EH5452 2012 Wadawurrung digital video 9 min 54 sec edition of 250

This work is a cathartic experience for me. My experience of years doing time in prison was a life changing one. I still carry shame around it, feeling I don’t want to share the experience for fear of what people will think. EH5452 aims to bring the experience to the light, staring it in the face and sharing it with the world, turning something dark, hidden, and shameful into something light, revelatory, and beautiful. It’s time to be who I really am, inside and out.

33 Katrina Doolan Old Pooncarie Mission 2013 Barkandji photomontage on photographic paper mounted on 5mm foamboard, emu feathers Katrina Doolan grew up with her extended 91 x 59 cm family in makeshift dwellings between the road and the Murray River at Gol Gol, moving camps This photomontage, combining images in the between the road and the riverbank with the form of a coolamon and a canoe, is based seasons. She came to art as a mature woman on a series of photographs that I took at the after raising five children, joining a group of Old Pooncarie Mission on the Darling River, Aboriginal Elders in a ceramics course before where my grandmother was born. I camp out continuing her studies, experimenting in various there as often as I can, and I feel the spirit of media through painting, drawing, printmaking, my ancestors in the ceremonial grounds and photography, sculpture, and ceramics. the trees, scarred from where they carved out coolamons, shields and canoes. The land shows little evidence of settlement, but the scar trees still remain.

34 Deanne Gilson Waa 2013 Wadawurrung (Wathaurung) ink on archival paper 90 x 60 cm Born in Melbourne in 1967, Deanne Gilson has been a practising visual artist for the past I have depicted my totem Waa the Crow, thirty years. Her work in painting, drawing the bird that carried my ancestors. Waa is and small-scale sculptures depicts highly contained within the shape of a greenstone symbolic figurative forms that evoke the spirit axe head, implying the icon or spiritual nature within, referencing myth, political, spiritual within the form. The black feathers are pushed beliefs, ancestral marks and stone tool into the background as a single red feather artefacts. Recently she has been exploring breaks away and floats to the ground. The red her black and white identity through the vessel feather is a symbol of peace and the letting imagery, coupled with the exploration of the go of the suffering endured by my ancestors abuse inflicted on Aboriginal women since since colonisation. It is also a symbol of the colonisation, using the figure of The Bunyip as a heart and although the heart has broken away devil and metaphor for white man who took an from the body, Waa still stands tall, strong, and Aboriginal bride. complete, telling us that Aboriginal culture is still alive today, fluid and changing, like the wind that captured Waa’s heart.

35 Marlene Gilson Bunjil and Waa Corroboree 2013 Wadawurrung (Wathaurung) acrylic on canvas 91 x 91 cm Marlene Gilson was born in Warrnambool in 1944 and learned Wathaurung history from her My painting is of a Bunjil and Waa corroboree. grandmother. She started painting seven years Bunjil the eagle, the great ancestor creator ago while recovering from an illness. She uses a spirit, asked Waa the crow to make an ingarguill naive style to paint her country, birds and or corroboree for him and many crows came. totems, Bunjil and Waa, seeking to preserve They made a great light in the sky and sang, Wathaurung stories for future generations. while Bunjil danced. This is part of an old story from the Wathaurung tribe which an old man gave me in 1983.

36 Marlene Gilson Mount Warrenheip and Eureka Wadawurrung (Wathaurung) Stockade 2013 acrylic on canvas 76 x 100 cm

The Aboriginal people played a big role on the Ballarat goldfields and at the Eureka Stockade—my ancestors the Wathaurung clan cared for the miners’ children in the bush as the battle raged. I also acknowledge the Woirung and Boonerung clans, proud native police and black trackers. They all are a part of Ballarat’s history.

37 Treahna Hamm gulpa ngawal 2013 Yorta Yorta mixed media 203 x 32 x 14 cm Treahna Hamm is celebrating thirty years as a practising Indigenous artist. She has ‘gulpa ngawul‘ means ‘deep listening’ in the exhibited internationally and her works are Yorta Yorta language and this work is a story in national and international collections. Her about strength, identity and creativity, deep works are composed with multi-layers of stories listening to the land through my ancestors, garnered from her Yorta Yorta experiences of uncles and aunties who define who I am. It living by the Murray River. She works in a wide is about coming home, and seeing, smelling, range of media, working with abstract forms as tasting, touching, and hearing my land, knowing well as traditional designs from her Indigenous I am home and belong. Dhungala, the Murray heritage. During the last decade, her dedication River, is the most important and strongest towards rejuvenating, revitalising and retelling connection to land and family, and over 2500 the oral history of Aboriginal art and culture generations of knowledge and history flows through her own life stories has contributed to organically through this country. the collective experience as a whole in Victoria.

38 Eileen Harrison Where I Come From / Wango-Nat- Kurnai Gnownji-Munga 2013 acrylic and ochre on canvas Eileen Harrison was born at Bungyanda (Lake 60 x 80 cm Tyers) in 1948. She is an accomplished artist since studying at Gippsland TAFE in Morwell I felt the need to paint these images as I and has exhibited extensively. Her work is in am always drawn back to my homeland. numerous collections, including in Queen’s Hall I do symbols and detailed patterns—they in Parliament House, Melbourne. Her life story is are imbued with cultural significance and told in the book Black Swan, published in 2011. spiritual connections with the land. The totems on the two large trees symbolise the Krowathunkooloong clan, meaning Kurnai people. The canoe tree leaves their scars as a lasting tribute to the skill and ingenuity of our men.

39 Brendan Kennedy Dindi Thanggi 2012 Tati Tati/Wadi Wadi/Mutti Mutti acrylic on canvas 75 x 100 cm Brendan Kennedy lives in Robinvale and has been painting for two years. He began painting This is about a special place along my people’s traditional ochre from his country onto bark and ancient river that runs through Tati Tati country. wooden artefacts. For the past eighteen months It shows Tirrili, the blue sky, with colours of he has worked to create twenty-five paintings the sun-setting sky and Dindi Gadini, the that reflect his view of his traditional country. river waterways of my people’s cultural and His artwork and artistic practice is based on natural landscape. I focus on the changes in continued and unbroken occupation of his landscape, and the different soil types such as traditional country, and an intimate relationship the river banks, the clay floodplain and the sand with the cultural landscape that he interacts with dunes. It also depicts culturally significant icons on a daily basis. of the river—our scarred black box trees and river redgum ring trees.

40 Brendan Kennedy Tommy Ivanhoe Tati Tati/Wadi Wadi/Mutti Mutti Cooking Emu Egg 2013 acrylic on canvas 75 x 100 cm

My painting shows my rich traditional cultural landscape that is special to my people and I use colour to show how much cultural life and spiritual beings there is in my country. Here my ancestor King Tommy Ivanhoe of the Mutti Mutti tribe is throwing an emu egg, Karringi Migi, in the air to mix the yolk up inside before putting it back in the hot coals and ashes. In the background is Yanga lake with Pathangal the pelican, my ancestor’s totem, hunting for Wiringil the goldern perch. Across the other side of the lake Karringi the emu looks for eggs that the brown wren took up into the sky and created Ngauyingi the sun. 41 Lisa Kennedy The Creation of Tasmania, Trawlwoolway Trowenna 2013 acrylic on canvas Lisa Kennedy is a descendant of a 100 x 75 cm strong Tasmanian Aboriginal Woman, Worretermoeteryenner, who was taken by I was inspired by the story of how the Sun and sealers to work for them in the seal fur trade. the Moon co-created the stars, the celestial She draws strength and identity from her bodies and the island of Trowenna. Seeds Tasmanian Aboriginal culture, which is rich in for the trees were thrown down into the sand knowledge from the sea and the stars. She grew and shell fish were thrown into the sea. As the up in Victoria and her work in community has fertility of the land and the waters increased, focused on Victorian Aboriginal culture and her the island flourished. Vena the female moon art practice is often related to the land bridge now lives in the sea half the time, after the that used to connect Tasmania to Victoria. Her iceberg she was sitting on melted. Likewise new work is building on a metaphoric journey the resources of the sea are the responsibility across Bass Strait, deepening my cultural of Tasmanian Aboriginal women in caring for connections to Tasmania. country and community. In the 1979 publication Touch the Morning, Jackson Cotton records a version of this story and attributes it to Timler. 42 Lisa Kennedy The Sacred Pool 2013 Trawlwoolway acrylic on canvas 75 x 100 cm

This painting is inspired by the environment around Corner Inlet and Wilsons Promontory where I live. I dream of times long gone by, when Koorie people lived freely with the land. The children are happy playing in their favourite environment. They can feel the cool breeze, the warmth of the sun, and the cold water on their skin. They are friends with each other and look after each other. They embody the emotional, spiritual, and cultural expressions of joy I feel as I move closer to knowing and sharing their stories. I will continue to travel backwards, forwards, and within—with a sense of adventure.

43 Ben McKeown Techno Black 1 2012 Wirangu C-type digital print edition 2 of 10 Ben McKeown engages with painting and photo 50 x 40 cm media to make works that examine broadly, identity, culture and collective histories. He is One common narrative that is a constant in my interested in the practicalities and aesthetics practice is the exploration of identity. Techno of urban spaces and design as well as identity Black is a series of images that ushers in the and cultural interactions within these spaces. new medium—digital portraits reminiscent of He has worked with a wide range of arts Warhol’s mass-produced silkscreen prints. They companies and his work is held in numerous have reference to pop culture and while the public and private collections. He is currently central portrait remains the same, each work is teaching at the Victorian College of the Arts. its own individuality. The markings are abstract He won the Deadly Art Award for the Victorian but mirror the practice of body art associated Indigenous Art Awards in 2011. with ritual. Techno references also pop culture— Techno dance, Techno pop, Techno culture.

44 Ben McKeown Techno Black 2 2012 Wirangu C-type digital print edition 2 of 10 50 x 40 cm

45 Brian McKinnon Abbonition 2012 Yamatji/Wongai acrylic on canvas 50.5 x 40.5 cm Born in Geraldton in Western Australia, Brian McKinnon’s early life was spent in a fringe camp The piece is meant to convey a reaction to the called Blood Alley. He completed a Masters brutality of past policies and legislation that degree from the Victorian College of the Arts in permitted the shooting of Aboriginals, also the 2008. He has worked as the Indigenous Project one pair of black hands counting bullets and Officer at the National Gallery of Victoria for the personal loss and the cost and grieving the last seven years. Using a range of diverse brought upon community, by these unprovoked materials, his art practice is informed and deaths in most instances. The lace, which I inspired by his memories of childhood as have used in my last series of works, conveys well as historical and contemporary politics the fragility of life and cultural connections when and events. faced with the diversity of policies and laws that seem to apply to Aboriginals in Australia.

46 Sharmane Maddigan Silenced Words 2013 Wamba Wamba/Werigia/Nari Nari/Dhudhuroa photograph 80 x 68 cm Sharmane Maddigan started painting and drawing at a very young age and art practice My artwork explores my perception of the has been a main thread through her life. Art has inner and outer world of one’s self, portraying been her first language and close companion. and mapping through art the landscape of the She has worked alongside her mother for conscious and subconscious from a cultural many years, gaining hands-on experience and a transcendental level and the many levels with many art projects. Her appreciation and in between. It explores the abstract realities of understanding of the spectrum of contemporary the physical and spiritual. It is the perception of art have been developed through participation reality and being. in large community-based art projects, ranging from community workshops to the developmental stages of the artwork for a sound and sculptural installation.

47 Gayle Maddigan Hung 2013 Wamba Wamba/Werigia/Nari Nari/Dhudhuroa charcoal on paper 231 x 113.5 cm A Master of Fine Art, Maddigan’s multidisciplinary practice spans four decades. My work is a representation of the impact of Her work, which ranges from large scale colonisation on Victorian Indigenous Australian sculptural and sound installations to painting, Tribes on a physical and meta-physical level. drawing, and photographic exhibitions, The mark making of the artwork explores layers explores cultural memory and the impact of of destruction caused by acts of genocide and colonization on Victorian Indigenous peoples. the echoing effect it has on cultural memory and the nature of identity: as self, clan, and nation. It is the movement and abstraction of layers of self between space and time.

48 Patrice Mahoney Two Worlds—Two Words 2012 Nganyaywana/Anewan tusche, spitbite, intaglio with reduction block, pigment print Patrice Mahoney moved from Armidale, New 50 x 35 cm (each) South Wales to Lake Entrance in 1997 and then in 1999 to Wonthaggi, where she has Each panel brings traditional tools, words been a community worker, artist, and leader and contemporary context into now, the now for the past thirteen years. She has been that can develop conversation and thoughts making art all her life—to express frustration, of two worlds—are they still here and how celebrate life and family and to learn and teach are they bound? These works are my voice traditional practice by continuing and sharing of frustration—how can there be basic for generations to come. She graduated from communication when two peoples are speaking Monash University in 2012. English yet two peoples are not understanding and will always have different meanings to groups, individuals, and community members?

49 Joshua Muir Temptation 2013 Yorta Yorta/Gunditjmara/Barkinji digital print on canvas 76 x 71 cm Joshua Muir is a young freelance artist whose work is reflective of a positive style with So many things float down from the heavens— influences from hip hop, street art culture, and words of advice, thoughts, feelings. Someone comics. His art is also influenced by community always wants to convince you about something. involvement and he has been involved in a I hold strong to what and who I am. I appreciate number of youth initiatives in Ballarat. He has what I have and what has been given to me by had various commissions and exhibitions and family and heritage. I am not fooled by false in 2013 he exhibited at the Koorie Heritage offers carrying traps, nor tempted to give away Trust, funded through an arts grant from the who I am and where I have come from. City of Melbourne.

50 Joshua Muir Ready for flight2013 Yorta Yorta/Gunditjmara/Barkinji digital print on canvas 50.5 x 84 cm

Young, free and ready to fly. There has to be someplace else... a place of colour. I have a vision I can’t ignore and nobody can stop, I have to fly.

51 Glenda Nicholls Throw Net 2012 Waddi Waddi/Yorta Yorta/Ngarrindjeri synthetic carpet wool string, fountain pen ink stain, emu feathers and coloured Glenda Nicholls’s childhood was spent in and quandong seeds around the Swan Hill area in fresh water country, dimensions variable watching her mother and grandmother practise traditional crafts such as feather craft and My net is a piece of art that is based on a craft traditional weaving and her father making drum that was once used as a tool by Indigenous nets. Fishing knowledge was handed down Australians. My ancestors used this craft to by elders and ancestors. Her autobiography make nets as a tool to assist them in their daily River Girl, won a Black Ink Award in 2005. Her lives. The tools, the nets, are still a craft but long net, acquired by the Koorie Heritage Trust these days the tool is now not always used in won two awards in the Victorian Indigenous Art our daily lives. Today, we use the knowledge of Awards 2012. the craft to make the tool and call it ‘art’.

52 Steaphan Paton Whiteman premonitions #2 2013 Gunai/Monero-Ngarigo video installation, digital video (3.04mins), television, acrylic paint. Steaphan Paton is an interdisciplinary artist 80 x 55 x 23 cm who grew up in Gippsland and is now based in Melbourne. His work is informed by his This self portrait with spoken word includes a interest in the environment, anthropology, and story of a premonition of Europeans coming archaeology and in preserving Aboriginal to Gippsland before they had arrived. This knowledge, traditions and stories. His practice knowledge was passed on through song to an explores tradition, race, and colonialism anthropologist by Elder Bungil Noorook. The informed through his worldview from being piece poses the question—was there someone Aboriginal Australian. Paton was highly looking back at the ships when Cook’s fleet commended for the Lin Onus Award at the first saw land at Cape Howe in Gippsland? The 2007 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards and he work is presented on a painted television set, was a finalist in the 2012 Awards. Paton has a feature of Paton’s exhibition/installation Terra been selected to be part of Melbourne Now, an nullius loungeroom. upcoming major group exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.

53 Wayne Quilliam Birth of Earth 2012 Palawa C-type digital photograph on paper edition 1 of 5 Associate Professor Wayne Quilliam is 160 x 80 cm considered as one of Australia’s most influential Indigenous photographic artists. He continues The pivotal essence to this work is the primacy to challenge perceptions of Indigenous art of the concept—the focus of the foetus is the with his unique transformative approach beginning of the journey, the shape of the body, to visualising ancient culture. His award and the texture of the art are but precursors winning career includes the Deadly Awards— to the stories that are interwoven throughout Indigenous Artist of the Year, AIMSC Business the artwork. My culture is my being; it is not of the Year, 2008 Human Rights Media Award a choice but an all-consuming part of my and the Walkley Award for photojournalism. He essence. It is an ephemeral experience that is currently a National Ambassador for the Year realises my consciousness, absorbing the of Literacy, Ambassador for the National Centre textures and patterns of the experience to of Indigenous Excellence and Ambassador for contextualise my artistic vision. Reconciliation Australia.

54 Wayne Quilliam Strength of Knowledge 2013 Palawa C-type digital photograph on paper edition 1 of 5 180 x 80 cm

The visual nature of storytelling and continuity of culture require a landscape in touch with tradition. When this landscape is interrupted, the integral passing of knowledge is polluted. A waterhole where birthing ceremonies have been conducted since time immemorial can be thrown into temporal flux if a man, white or black, drinks or views this site. To understand the strength of knowledge, viewers of this works are required to embark on a pilgrimage, allowing themselves the opportunity to engage and absorb the uniqueness of the world’s oldest surviving culture.

55 Reko Rennie Regalia (Pink) 2013 Kamilaroi acrylic and ink on linen 102 x 102 cm Reko Rennie is an interdisciplinary artist who explores his Aboriginal identity through Three hand-drawn symbols—the crown, contemporary media. He has exhibited the diamond and the Aboriginal flag—are extensively in Australia and internationally and presented as an emblematic statement about won numerous awards. His art incorporates the original royalty of Australia. The crown his association to the Kamilaroi people, using symbol is both in homage to my graffiti roots traditional geometric patterning that represents and also pays due respect to Jean-Michel his community. Through his art, Rennie Basquiat, but most importantly symbolises provokes discussion surrounding Indigenous sovereign status, reminding us that Aboriginal culture and identity in contemporary urban people are the original sovereigns of this environments. country. The diamond symbol is emblematic of my connection to the Kamilaroi/Gamilaroi people—it is similar to a family crest; it is a part of me. The hand-drawn Aboriginal flag in the form of a graffiti tag pays respect to all Aboriginal people.

56 Yhonnie Scarce Not Willing to Suffocate 2012 Kokatha/Kukunu glass, painted metal 65 x 15 x 20 cm Yhonnie Scarce was born in Woomera, South Australia. She is one of the first contemporary This work metaphorically looks at situations Australian artists to explore the political where scientific interventions have been used and aesthetic power of glass, Her work upon Aboriginal people and poses questions of explores the oppressive conditions used what might have gone on in such laboratories. to subjugate Australian Aboriginal people, It consists of glass-blown bush bananas and the ensuing effects of colonial rule on suspended from three laboratory stands. contemporary Aboriginal culture. She is Squeezed and strangled, tagged, numbered, the recipient of numerous awards, she has and classified by size and colour, Aboriginal exhibited extensively and her work is held in people were not thought of as human; the public and private collections in Australia and affected bush bananas are disfigured, broken, internationally. and bruised, representing the colonist effect on Indigenous people, culture, and traditions.

57 Peter Waples-Crowe Banksy noticed my totem Ngarigo/Wiradjuri in the valley 2013 mixed media on canvas Peter Waples-Crowe’s visual and performance 40 x 66 cm practices questions the intersection of identity, race and culture, exploring the areas of This painting explores the fluid nature of dislocation, globalisation, popular culture, contemporary Aboriginal identities. It’s a sub-cultures and Indigeneity. He uses various personal tale of my various identities and how techniques and mixed media applications they interact. It centres around Banksy’s to locate a sense of belonging and position, appropriated image of two London cops kissing juxtaposing visual and re-visioned histories and radiates out from that point, intersecting to produce critical reflection. His practice with history, popular culture, and Aboriginal also explores and expands the notion of the traditions in a playful way. It highlights the ‘Aboriginal artist’, removing it from the dominant personal struggle Aboriginal people face day cultural constraints and perceived rigid to day as their ‘identities’ interact with other categories it currently inhabits. aspects of contemporary Australia. It also critiques the notion of ‘Aboriginal Art’ as defined by the dominant art world view and works towards shifting its often limited definition. 58 Peter Waples-Crowe St Peter’s Cross 2013 Ngarigo/Wiradjuri photographic laminated print 110 x 110 cm

It is believed that Peter asked to be crucified upside down as he felt he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as Jesus. Some Catholics use this cross as a symbol of humility and it has also become associated with anti-religious imagery by inverting the Latin cross. In this artwork I am making a personal critique of Christianity, which has brought some Aboriginal people joy but in my case has brought with it loss of family, languages, cultural practices, and a way of life. The grid-like repetition in this work mimics the countless rituals of the church and the religious controlling of Aboriginal people under colonial rule.

59 60 61 VICTORIAN INDIGENOUS ART AWARDS PARTNERS AND SPONSORS

Arts Victoria is the Victorian The Art Gallery of Ballarat The City of Ballarat Government body charged holds the most significant acknowledges the with advising on and collection of visual art in Wadawurrung peoples as the implementing arts policy, regional Australia. It also traditional custodians of the developing the arts and presents a dynamic program land on which its community cultural industries across the of temporary exhibitions live. In consultation with local state and ensuring access for which showcase the work of Aboriginal and Torres Strait all Victorians. It is a division of emerging and established Islander communities, Council the Department of Premier and artists from across the has developed the City of Cabinet. Arts Victoria supports region, the state and the Ballarat Reconciliation Action the arts and cultural industries country. It offers a strong Plan to demonstrate its respect to encourage excellence, program of public programs, to Aboriginal and Torres Strait develop good ideas, build including artist and curators Islander people, to honour audiences, encourage talks and concerts, and a their descendants and to participation and improve comprehensive education advance the reconciliation facilities. Arts Victoria supports program, which includes process for all the people of Indigenous artists through regular activities involving Ballarat and has established the Victorian Indigenous Art local Indigenous artists. It was the Koorie Engagement Action Awards and the Aboriginal the first public gallery in the Group to act as an Advisory and Torres Strait Islander Arts country to collect Indigenous Committee to Council. Development Program. art, when it acquired a drawing ballarat.vic.gov.au arts.vic.gov.au by William Barak in 1932. artgalleryofballarat.com.au

62 The Copyright Agency Australian Catholic The University of Ballarat Limited, Cultural Fund University (ACU) engages the (UB) is Australia’s only provides the opportunity to Catholic Intellectual Tradition to regional, multi-sector give back to the Australian bring a distinct perspective to university. We are the third cultural community. This higher education. We explore oldest site of higher learning is achieved through the cultural, social, ethical and in Australia starting with the practical support of a wide religious issues through the School of Mines in 1870. As variety of projects designed lens of the Catholic Intellectual at January 1 2014 we will to encourage creative Tradition in our teaching, be operating as Federation development and cultural research and service. In 2009, University Australia which diversity. In 2010/2011, the Australian Catholic University is the result of an exciting Cultural Fund supported established The Centre for collaboration between the more than 125 projects Indigenous Education and University of Ballarat and with total allocations worth Research (CIER). CIER drives Monash University’s Gippsland over $3.4 million. Through the Australian Indigenous Campus. Federation University grants like these, the Cultural Peoples cultural aspect will be the only regional Fund remains committed to throughout ACU. This is university in Victoria providing Copyright Agency’s continued achieved through research higher education, technical role in enhancing the work in projects, collaboration with and vocational programs as Australia’s creative economy internal and external projects, well as significant research and in supporting innovation identified Indigenous courses, opportunities. Our purpose in the Australian creative working in partnership with all is to provide a quality tertiary industries to develop local faculties for culturally based education experience that and foreign markets for subjects, student support inspires our students to Australian works. and working with the greater succeed. The University has copyright.com.au community to enable pathways a long-standing commitment for future students. to reconciliation through the acu.edu.au provision of education and employment opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. ballarat.edu.au

63 Arts Victoria Published in 2013 by Arts Victoria and the Art Gallery Private Bag No. 1 of Ballarat South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia The views expressed in this publication are based Telephone 03 8683 3100 on information provided by third party authors. Facsimile 03 9686 6186 Arts Victoria and the Art Gallery of Ballarat do not TTY 03 9682 4864 necessarily endorse the views of a particular author. Toll free 1800 134 894 (Regional Victoria only) Artists may have chosen not to state their nation/ arts.vic.gov.au language group. Nation/language groups are provided by the artist and therefore spellings may vary. Art Gallery of Ballarat 40 Lydiard Street North © Copyright: The State of Victoria 2013 with copyright Ballarat VIC 3350 content from artists, photographers and Art Gallery of Australia Ballarat Telephone 03 5320 5858 email [email protected] This publication is copyright. No part may be artgalleryofballarat.com.au reproduced by any process except in accordance with provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. All information contained in this publication is considered Program Administration and Curatorial Team correct at the time of printing. Gordon Morrison Director ISBN: 978-0-9580239-8-6 (pbk.) Art Gallery of Ballarat Elizabeth Liddle Victorian Indigenous Art Awards 2013 Senior Arts Officer—Indigenous Art Art Gallery of Ballarat Arts Victoria 2 November – 8 December, 2013 Art Gallery of Ballarat Ben Cox Exhibitions Officer Julie Collett Registration Assistant Peter Freund Marketing and Public Programs Officer Kelly Smith Business Support Officer Brenda Wellman Exhibition Officer Collateral and catalogue design Ben Cox Photography Ben Cox except; pp. 13, 15, 17, 19, 26, 27, 28, 32, 33, 38, 44, 45, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 57, 59, courtesy the artist; p.47 Gayle Maddigan; p.48 Peter Hills Text editor Peter Freund Printing Sovereign Press, Ballarat Publicity Starling Communications starling.com.au

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