17 FEBRUARY - 26 MARCH 2016 FROM EARTH TO SPIRIT Indigenous Art from & the , NT From Earth to Spirit Indigenous art from Arnhem Land & the Tiwi Islands, NT

While culturally and linguistically distinct, the practices of mark making, painting and carving – with roots in storytelling and ceremony – are deeply embedded within Tiwi Islands and Arnhem Land cultural and spiritual traditions. As part of the oldest known living culture in the world, these artists and their ancestors have long been making artwork and imagery that expresses their profound knowledge of, and connection to, Country: its land, creation stories and ceremonies. It is through this atavistic connection that earth and spirit come together in almost every aspect of Indigenous life – universal law, ceremony, sacred sites, and in artworks that through their making become infused with ancestral power. The raw medium of natural ochres used for illustration and design, create artworks that are organic and of the everyday, as well as the ephemeral and otherworldly.

From Earth to Spirit brings together art works Arnhem Land is a vast region in the Oenpelli), Ramingining and Maningrida. from the University Collection and private northeastern corner of the Northern Milingimbi, Groote Eylandt and Ngukurr collectors including bark paintings, ochres on Earth: the land, connection to Territory, covering an area of almost that also have established art centres to canvas, works on paper, prints and carvings, Country, the body, the ceremonial 100,000 km2. The East, Central support local artists. that span more than 60 years of heritage ground, sacred sites, animals, paint and West Arnhem Lands are home and culture, a culture that has seen immense and materials: ochre, clay, bark, to different inhabitants with distinct change during that time. From mid-twentieth wood, ash, paper, stone languages, cultural practices and The Tiwi Islands are situated 80km century bark paintings, to contemporary artistic traditions. Further, the diverse north of Darwin, where Melville Island paintings in new mediums, these significant Spirit: the Ancestors, creation landscapes across Arnhem Land are and Bathurst Island are home to the works illustrate the ongoing complexity and stories, traditional law, sacred central to understanding the art and Tiwi. Sustained contact with outsiders richness of the visual and spiritual traditions sites, spirits in the land, ceremony, culture of its people; rocky escarpments only began in the 20th century, making of this part of the world. design, song, dance, knowledge to seasonal floodplains, open forests Tiwi culture and ceremonial practice

Naomi Stewart to dense jungles, freshwater lagoons highly distinct from any other Indigenous Curator - From Earth to Spirit to countless river systems leading group on the mainland. However, as towards the coast, all hold significance with their Arnhem Land neighbours, the for connection to Country. The region’s landscape in and around the islands are The University of Newcastle respects and acknowledges the Aboriginal Nations on main township is Nhulunbuy, 600km central to both everyday and spiritual whose traditional lands the university has presence, and the cultural significance and east of Darwin, though many people life. It is this cared-for country through history of the land, its Custodians and Elders, past, present and into the future. live in remote area outstations on their which ancestors travelled, created the The University and Gallery acknowledges the Pambalong clan of the Awabakal people, traditional country. Major population seasons and marked their journeys, on whose traditional land the gallery is built. centres that are also active hubs providing theTiwi people with sources of for artists are Yirrkala (just outside sustenance and artistic inspiration over We respectfully advise Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander viewers that this exhibition and catalogue feature Nhulunbuy), Gunbalanya (formerly countless generations. images and names of artists who have passed away and may contain culturally sensitive material from ancestors. Kunwinjku () bark painters Art from Arnhem Land from Gunbalanya (Oenpelli) often depict these figures on monochrome backgrounds with blocks of raw colour and a linear or cross-hatching infill technique called raark: a method of imbuing the painting with the power of Thousands of rock painting sites the beings depicted.3 The renowned scattered across Arnhem Land are Kunwinjku bark artist, Yirawala (below testament to the ancient art traditions of left), painted countless variations of his people from this area. Ochres used for clan subjects, using the raark technique painting are taken locally from the earth to great effect. and combined with water to create a paste: ochre or iron clay pigments Kuninjku painters from Maningrida and Eastern Arnhem Land, around areas produce red, yellow and white, while around Central Arnhem Land, have such as Yirrkala, is well known for a more charcoal produces black. Arnhem become known for painting figurative geometric style of painting with filled in Land is renowned for the , designs with more pronounced cross- backgrounds, a similar method and use sculpture and weaving traditions of hatching. Non-figurative designs of raark known as dhulang or miny’tji.4 its artists, who continue to use natural associated with ceremony, body design The artists of Yirrkala were among the first earth pigments as their chosen medium and sacred sites, are also common to recognise the to express their unique relationship and are used by innovative artists potential use of of illustrated oral literature with the land and its embedded stories. such as John Marwurndjul and Samuel in the form of cultural designs as a political Artworks, like paintings on the body or Namundja (below), who use raark tool and put this into practice with the rock face, serves as a vital link between to fill the entire surface of their work, Yirrkala Church Panels and the Yirrkala people and the ancestral spirits. expanding the visual resonance of their Bark Petition that recorded law and ceremonial designs beyond the frame. land ownership.5 The inhabitants of Arnhem Land share their country with a range of For Yolngu artists, clan relationship to land supernatural beings who mark the and sea are highly important in determining landscape with their presence as what is rendered in paint, with both style sacred sites. Bark paintings made in and artistic subject also determined by the stone country of Western Arnhem moiety (social or group) and the Land often include naturalistic or associated rights and responsibilities of figurative depictions of these ancestral the individual artist: and spiritual beings from the creation Everything in the Yolngu universe – Spirit Beings, period (Djang), as well as significant animals and flora that inhabit the plant and animal species, clan groups, areas of landscape.1 They include Ngalyod land and water are one of two moieties: either (omnipotent creative being, the rainbow Dhuwa or Yirritja.6 serpent), yawkyawk (female water spirit, In this way, Yolngu artists are custodians or mermaid), Namarrkon (lightning of certain creation (Wangarr) stories and spirit), and mimih spirits (shy, slender ceremonies that encompass specific figures who live in rocky escarpments. land areas, sacred sites and determine Aboriginal people in this region believe relationships to other Yolngu, Sacred they painted the very first rock art).2 Beings and the natural world. The Tiwi word jilamara roughly For Tiwi people, ochre markings applied Art from the Tiwi Islands translates as ‘design’ and refers to the during important rites also relate to intricate ochre patterning traditionally important characters from the creation applied to the bodies of dancers and period (Palaneri) whose epic tales the surface of carved poles and other underpin their understanding of past objects used during these ceremonies. and present worlds. These beings can Artists recreate these individual patterns appear in artworks in pattern, human or Major sources of inspiration for artists in their art, often using a pwoja, or animal form, and are used to relate oral of this remote region lie at the core of traditional wooden comb, to create stories about how the land, sea and Tiwi customary practice: the performance series of finely dotted lines over a dark were made, as well as explaining the of two main life cycle ceremonies ground, or by using a brush for more origins of Law and culture. and the epic creation narratives of irregular or spontaneous daubs of raw 1 Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Exhibition Education the Ancestors. Tiwi traditionally paint colour.10 This enduring relationship Kit, 2004, unpaginated. their bodies and objects for ceremony between the application of ochre 2 ibid. using natural earth pigments or ochres to the body’s surface or ceremonial 3 Wally Caruana, ‘Patterns of Power: Arnhem Land and its surrounds,’ Aboriginal Art, 1993, Thames and Hudson: and this practice is a foundation for ground and the layering of paint onto London, 27. contemporary artmaking in the Tiwi the surface of art objects is shared and 4 ibid 25. Islands, where ochres are the medium celebrated across many Aboriginal and 5 Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, http://www. used on carvings, as well as for Torres Strait Islander communities. yirrkala.com/buku-art-centre/about/history 6 Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation http://www.dhimurru.com. modern paintings, textiles and works au/yolngu-culture.html on paper to illustrate history, culture 7 Margie West, ‘It belongs to no one else’: the dynamic art of and personal stories. the Tiwi, unpaginated. 8 ibid. The annual Kulama ceremony, once 9 Judith Ryan, Timothy Cook, The Blake Prize 2011 primarily an initiation ceremony for Three main art centres have supported 10 Jilamara Arts and Crafts, http://www.site.jilamara.com men and women, now also functions 11 Anita Angel, Ngaruwanajirri: helping one another, Tiwi artists over the past few decades: exhibition catalogue, Charles Darwin University, 10 August – to promote health and new growth on Melville Island, Jilamara Arts & Craft 7 October 2011 or regeneration.7 Its association with centre at Milikapiti and Munupi Art centre IMAGES: various cycles of the natural and human at , as well as Tiwi Design on FRONT and INSIDE LEFT: (top) Bob Bilinyara Nabegeyo, world can be seen in the ways artists Bathurst Island. The University Collection Kangaroo and Mimi Spirit, natural earth pigments on render circular forms when depicting also holds a large number of works by Eucalyptus bark (detail), donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Dr Milton Roxanas this subject. artists from the Ngaruwanajirri art centre, BACK: Freda Warlapinni, Body Painting 2001, lithograph founded in 1994 at INSIDE TOP LEFT: (bottom) Yirawala, Ubarr Ceremony Pukumani is the funerary rite performed (formerly Nguiu) on Bathurst Island as an 1958, natural earth pigments on Eucalyptus bark (detail), by Tiwi, involving a series of ceremonies art focused skills development program donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Dr Milton Roxanas after a person’s death that culminates for Tiwi adults with special needs. INSIDE TOP RIGHT: (top) Tom Djumburpur, Turtles, natural in the erection of tutini (grave posts) earth pigments on Eucalyptus bark (detail), donated through around the burial site.8 These poles, the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Dr Ngaruwanajirri (‘helping one another’) Milton Roxanas; (bottom) Samuel Namundja, Gungurra now also made as artworks for is a collective of artists and creative 2005, etching (detail) public viewing, represent the body individuals whose work has flourished INSIDE BOTTOM LEFT: Raelene Kerinauia, Kayimwagakimi of the deceased and/or an ancestral Jilamara 2002, natural ochres on bark (detail), donated over the past two decades and carved a through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program being associated with the mortuary unique place in the Tiwi art landscape.11 by Dr Milton Roxanas ritual. Painting for Pukumani or about While many artists prefer to use classical INSIDE BOTTOM RIGHT: (top left) Timothy Cook, Kulama 2010, woodblock print on Japanese rice paper; (middle Pukumani, is a long-respected practice Tiwi styles and subjects, others, such as left) Alfonso Puatjimi, Town 2013, natural ochres on paper; in Tiwi culture, thought to encapsulate Alfonso Puautjimi (right), draw inspiration (middle right) Lillian Kerinaiua, Untitled, natural ochres on paper the ‘poetics of mourning, while from other aspects of everyday life such 9 REVERSE FOLD OUT: Lorna Kantilla, Untitled 2013, pen, ink maintaining vital cultural knowledge.’ as cars, bicycles and street scenes. and watercolour on Arches paper