Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning 10am - 4pm Thursday 1 May, 2014

Schedule

TIME Activity Venue 10.00- 0.30 Arrival and morning tea Bendigo Art Gallery Reception and Gallery Café 10.30-11.30 Introduction to indigenous art in Bendigo Art Bendigo Art Gallery Gallery collection: Helen Attrill 11.30-12.15 Tour of De Anima: Brook Andrew The Cinemas New Bendigo Art Project with Bridget Crone, Freelance Curator and Gallery spaces Curator of the Cinemas Project 12.15-1.15 Presentation by Kathryn Hendy-Ekers VAC auditorium AusVELS Cross Curricular perspectives for Years 7- 10 1.15-1.30 AITSL and the teacher role – Helen Attrill VAC auditorium 1.40-2.30 Lunch Gallery Café 2.30-3.20 Stories of success: Marcus Patching, Teaching & Bendigo Art Gallery Learning Coordinator, Bendigo Senior Secondary College 3.20-3.30 Evaluation form completion and prize draw Bendigo Art Gallery 3.30-4.00 Networking, optional viewing of Genius and Bendigo Art Gallery Ambition: The Royal Academy of Arts, London /VAC 1768-1918

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning

Introduction The new rehang of Bendigo Art Gallery’s permanent collection after the completion of the multi-million dollar extension has provided an ideal opportunity to showcase the breadth of the gallery’s Australian artworks. Whilst it has been the first time in many years in which a chronological display has become possible, with rooms devoted to art from the 19th century, mid-20th century Modernism, 1990s and 21st century, the Howard Nathan Gallery (the first room) and the entrance to the gallery are currently dominated by paintings and sculptures by indigenous artists solely. Although most of the artworks in this room are created by major artists working in remote or desert regions, such as and Rusty Peters, by contrast, a valuable inclusion is the long term loan of a major painting by the Brisbane based Postmodern artist Gordon Bennett. Bennett’s Home Décor (Algebra) Ocean 1998, on loan from the Paul Guest Collection is a masterpiece of 1990s Appropriation, Postmodernism and Postcolonialism.

Indigenous art in the Bendigo Art Gallery collection is not restricted to painting, however. Throughout the new contemporary spaces, a large suite of contemporary photographs by artist Michael Cook and the special exhibition De Anima: Brook Andrew (until 1 June), featuring film and multi-media are excellent examples of art by indigenous artists who work across photography, film, and multi-media.

Until late May, teachers and students are privileged to be able to view so many significant indigenous artworks firsthand, to learn about the themes, influences and ideas and to draw comparison and contrast across media, periods and cultural contexts.

Michael Cook 1968 The Mission #10 2011 inkjet print on archival Hahnemuhule cotton paper The Gift of Grace and Alec Craig Bendigo Victoria 2012

2

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning

AITSL: National Professional Standards for Teachers Focus Areas 1.4 and 2.4

• The rights of the world’s Indigenous Peoples to control the education of their children are now more fully recognised under international law

• These expectations have been codified into the National Professional Standards for Teachers as Focus Areas 1.4 and 2.4:

• < Focus Area 1.4: Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students

• < Focus Area 2.4: Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-

Focus Area 1.4: Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students

There has been much discussion about ‘closing the gap’ in educational achievement between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous students and so special emphasis was placed in the Standards on teachers being able to account for their skills and knowledge in this area. The first Standard that refers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander matters is Focus Area 1.4. The expectation of this Focus Area is described according to the four identified levels of teacher professional knowledge, namely Graduate, Proficient, Highly Accomplished, and Lead, and is concerned with strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. The descriptors for each level are (AITSL, 2011b, p.9):

Focus Area 2.4: Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous Australians

Focus Area 2.4 is also described according to four levels and focuses on teacher skills and knowledge associated with understanding and respecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous Australians. This is arguably a more complicated Focus Area to measure and address because it is predicated in the personal understanding of, and respect for, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies held by each teacher and how this translates into their professional practice in promoting reconciliation. It states (AITSL, 2011b, p. 11) that:

• At Graduate Level that a teacher can:

• · Demonstrate broad knowledge of, understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages.

• Ø At Proficient Level that a teacher can:

• · Provide opportunities for students to develop understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages.

3

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning

• Ø At Highly Accomplished Level that a teacher can:

• · Support colleagues with providing opportunities for students to develop understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and Languages.

• Ø At Lead Level that a teacher can:

• · Lead initiatives to assist colleagues with opportunities for students to develop understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages.

ACARA: National Australian Curriculum

• The Australian Curriculum also means that all young Australians can learn about the histories and cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, of their contribution to Australia, and of the consequences of colonial settlement for Indigenous communities, past and present.

• For Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders, the Australian Curriculum promotes the importance of pursuing excellence within education settings which respect and promote their cultural identity.

On Professional Development

• Reflecting what is also known from the literature, there was consensus that professional development in this Focus Area would need to:

• Ø Be explicitly anti-racist

• Ø Provide opportunity for understanding of the international Indigenous rights framework

• Ø Offer clear interpretations of the links between international undertakings, national policies, systemic policies, local policies, and practice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education in schools

• Ø Include opportunity for understanding the history between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous Australians

• Ø Include intercultural or cross-cultural skills development involving the development of, or changing of, teachers’ personal attitudes, expectations and understandings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures

• Ø Include strategies to create inclusive / intercultural classrooms or schools, and

• Ø Link issues relating to the preservation and maintenance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity and lifeways, including languages and traditional practices to contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aspirations and practices.

4

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning

Appendix A: Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Articles of Relevance to Education)

Article 14

• 2. Indigenous individuals, particularly children, have the right to all levels and forms of education of the State without discrimination.

• Article 15

• 1. Indigenous peoples have the right to the dignity and diversity of their cultures, traditions, histories, and aspirations which shall be appropriately reflected in education and public information.

• 2. States shall take effective measures, in consultation and cooperation with the Indigenous peoples concerned, to combat prejudice and eliminate discrimination and to promote tolerance, understanding and good relations among Indigenous peoples and all other segments of society.

Abridged from: Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership Consultation Regarding: Improving Teaching in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education: National Professional Standards for Teachers Standards Focus Areas 1.4 and 2.4: 9 September 2012 http://www.aitsl.edu.au/verve/_resources/MONASH_STUDY_FINAL_REPORT_09092012.pdf

Michael Cook Australia 1968 The Mission #5 2011 inkjet print on archival Hahnemuhule cotton paper The Gift of Grace and Alec Craig Bendigo Victoria 2012

5

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning

Selected indigenous artworks in Bendigo Art Gallery collection

Gladdy Kemarre Australia c1950

Anwekety (Bush plum) 2010 acrylic on linen

Born in 1937, Gladdy Kemarre lives at the outstation of Camel Camp, Utopia. She grew up learning how to paint body designs along with her sisters. Her career in painting began in the late 70s when the Utopia Women's Batik Group was formed. Like many other Utopian women artists, she then progressed to using acrylics in the 1980s.

She paints her Dreaming, the Bush Plum; this has been her most singular motif that she has practised for around forty years. Anwekety or ‘bush plum’ is a Dreaming story given to the artist by her grandmother. The bush plum is a type of with needle-like leaves and small round edible berries. The women collect the fruit into coolamons, to be eaten fresh, dried or mixed into a paste. The story of the bush plum is crucial to Alywarre and women’s ceremonies, and is intricately intertwined with songlines of the whole country. It is a story not only of physical nourishment, but also of spiritual sustenance, being closely connected to the sacredness of Ahalpere Country.

Ningura Napurrula Australia c1938–2013

Untitled 2001 acrylic on canvas

Ningura Napurrula was born at Watulka, in the central desert region. She married senior artist Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi (c1928–1998) and together they moved to community in the 1960s. She commenced painting with the Artists’ Cooperative in 1996. Ningura's paintings depict mythological events of her female ancestors, the sacred sites that they passed and the bush tucker that they collected. The designs are associated with the rockhole sites of Palturunya and Wirrulnga, east of the Kiwirrkura Community (Mt. Webb ) in Western Australia . The concentric circles represent rockholes and the arcs represent rock outcrops near the site. The lines coming from the rockholes represent water. The U shapes represent women camped at the site.

The lines around the edge and bordering the centre section of the work represent windbreaks; the U shapes are Tali or sand hills and also represent Women's Dreaming and body paint.

The roundels in the centre of the work represent the meeting place for a women’s ceremony. This is sand hill country; the women usually have their ceremonies in the middle of the sand hills so that men cannot see them. The long red shapes represent digging sticks.

6

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning

Emily Kame Kngwarreye Australia c1910–1996

Kame Colour II 1995 acrylic on canvas

Stories of the Dreaming and the ceremonial world of women (Awelye), which reflect ideas about the land and the individual’s responsibility to it, are the primary focus of Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s work. Born in Alhalkere, Kngwarreye worked for many years at pastoral stations. For the last 20 years of her life, the artist was based at Utopia Cattle Station, located north-east of . Within this community she occupied a position as leader of women’s ceremony. Alhalkere is Kngwarreye’s Country name. It is also an important Yam Dreaming site; her name Kame, meaning yam seed is derived from this area.

Kngwarreye began to paint in the early 1980s, it was not until 1989 that she first used acrylic on canvas, the medium that would allow her to explore and develop her artistic voice. The confident and expressive brushstrokes covering the surface of this canvas are concentrated in certain areas. The resulting configurations represent the Kame (yam flower) but can also represent the underground roots of the vegetable. The painting of lines on a black ground can also be seen as referencing body paint on her dark skin colour as body painting is part of women’s ceremony for the women of Utopia.

Whole lot, that’s whole lot, Awelye (my Dreaming), Arlatyeye (pencil yam), Arkerrthe (mountain devil lizard), Ntange (grass seed), Tingu (Dreamtime pup), Ankerre (emu), Intekwe (favourite food of emus, a small plant), Atnwerle (green bean), and Kame (yam seed). That’s what I paint, whole lot. Emily Kame Kngwarreye, interview with Rodney Gooch, trans.

Materials and Techniques 1. Compare the differences in Kngwarreye’s approaches to layering paint to artists painting in the western tradition. For example, what colour does she use as the ground and why? Kngwarreye paints with the canvas flat on the ground in an open environment rather than a closed studio. Compare her approach to that of other painters. Discuss how an artist’s working environment may be an influence on their use of materials and techniques

Communication of Ideas and Meaning 1. What does Kngwarreye communicate about her country? What are the swirling lines symbolic of? Explain her choice of warm colours and a black ground. Explain the significance of Awelye and the yam flower and why she chose to paint these symbols in many of her paintings.

Historical/ Cultural Contexts 1. How does Kngwarreye’s culture as indigenous woman working in Utopia influence the style of her painting? 2. What is Kngwarreye communicating about her own identity; what is significant to her?

7

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning

Elements of Design/ Aesthetic Qualities 1. Explain Kngwarreye’s use of line, colour and contrast; what aesthetic qualities have been created through this combination of elements and principles of design?

Rusty Peters Australia c1935

Katy Yard 2006 ochre and acrylic on linen

Rusty Peters is a senior Gija man of Juwurru skin. His bush name Dirrji refers to dingo pups looking out of a hole at the sunrise. Rusty Peters’ work portrays an assured and personal view of the Kimberley landscape. He often depicts the creation ancestors in the Turkey Creek minimalist style, but the intricate curves which map the country, dark caves and rivers are particular to his practice.

Paddy Bedford Australia 1922–2007

Yoowangeny – Mud Springs 2005 natural earth pigments and synthetic binder on linen

Bedford was a senior law man of the Gija people of the Kimberly region of Western Australia. His paintings relate the narratives of his mother’s and father’s country, combining the Dreaming stories of the cockatoo, bush turkey and emu with the topography of the land he regularly traversed as a stockman, including rivers, roads, rocks and waterholes.

Dorothy Napangardi Australia c1950s–2013

Mina Mina salt lakes 2011 acrylic on linen

Dorothy Napangardi was a senior artist from the Mina Mina area of the Tanami Desert, near the border of the and Western Australia. She was born in bush area near Mina Mina, remote Warlpiri country to the far north-west of Alice Springs, on the border of Pintupi land. She moved to Alice Springs and started painting in 1987. Her painting style then changed dramatically ten years later after she revisited her homeland of Lake MacKay. Since 1987 she was based in Alice Springs, when she took up painting using the conventional dot style of the desert artists. Her work has evolved to the distinctive style for which she has won recognition and accolades, using intricate and repetitive dotted lines. Napangardi uses a pared back colour palette of predominantly white dots on a black background, sometimes with delicate use of yellow, red and orange to suggest underlying layers of sand.

8

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning

Her works tell her Dreaming story of the journey of her ancestors to Jankinyi, a women’s ceremonial site. The women gathered to collect ceremonial digging sticks and performed ceremonies on their journey, with their tracks matching those of the salt lines formed in the desert. Mina Mina is a large dry claypan area with two soakages. When water soaks through the earth and dries, a residue salt crust is left on the uplifted edges of dry earth, which is shown by Napangardi in her paintings.

Her monochromatic linear paintings can be seen as representing two different depictions of her Dreaming, the salt lake of Mina, Mina, part of Lake MacKay. On the one hand, the movement of line can be seen as depicting lines made by women whilst involved in ceremonial dance. Another interpretation is that the dots are the balls of salt that appear as a mosaic like pattern across the dunes of the large lake.

About the Mina Mina region: Far to the west of the remote Indigenous community of , in the distant reaches of the Tanami Desert, lies one of the most important ceremonial sites for the women of the Warlpiri. Mina Mina is a sacred landscape made up of two large clay-pans guarded by a feathery sentinel of Desert oaks, where, in the Jukurrpa (Dreamtime) a series of karlangu (digging sticks) emerged from the ground near Mina Mina. Taking up these sticks, a large group of ancestral women began a heroic journey north to Jayinki and then eastward through Alcoota country. Marching in joyous exultation, their paths shaped the landscape, permeating it with the spirit of their songs. According to the Warlpiri, the spindly Desert oaks at Mina Mina are an embodiment of these first digging sticks and of the ancestral women who brandished them.

Garry Namponan Australia 1960

Ku 2012 natural ochres with acrylic binder on milkwood

Garry Namponan was born at the Presbyterian mission at Aurukun, on the western coast of Cape York Peninsula. His clan is Apalech and his language groups are Wik-Alkan on his Father’s side and Wik-Ngathan on his Mother’s side. His traditional homelands are south of Aurukun: Aayk, Kirk River and Cape Keer-Weer, which is the location of his family home. Namponan works across a range of media including sculpture, printmaking, book illustration and painting.

Garry studied art at the Bachelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, Northern Territory in the early 1980s and is one of the leading carvers of the Wik and Kugu Art and Craft Centre at Aurukun, West Cape York. Working across a range of media, including sculpture, printmaking, book illustration and painting, Garry is a recognised carver of the wood and ochre painted ceremonial sculptures unique to the Wik language-speaking peoples.

The Ku is a camp dog. They are frequent in the West Cape York region where Garry Namponan and Roderick Yunkaporta reside. They are often seen looking for food or shade

9

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning and are considered family members by the locals. Sometimes they are considered to have a spiritual quality similar to Dingo dreaming. Artists from this region often like to imbue their Ku sculptures with personality and expression.

Roderick Yunkaporta Australia 1948

Ku 2012 natural ochres and charcoal with acrylic binder on milkwood

Roderick Yunkaporta was born in the Presbyterian Mission of Aurukun and was separated from his family and raised in the dormitories. When he was a young man Roderick worked in labouring jobs around the State. He learnt the traditional carving techniques from watching his elders carve ceremonial objects. He began carving himself in the 1990s and has exhibited his milkwood carved animals both locally and in Europe and North America.

Carving has always been a part of Roderick’s life, learning the traditional ways by watching the elders make carvings for ceremonies. Roderick first started making his own carvings in the early 1990’s and was one of the artists selected to work with Urban Art Project “Old Way – New Way” project, reworking the traditional ceremonial sculptures in bronze and aluminium.

Artist’s statement “I was out there with the old people when they carving. I sat there with old people and took notice. I see all the old people to carving for the dance festival. Ready for the festival. They start teaching me. And painting it the proper way. The right paints on the carving. They told me to sit down I sit down with those old people. Don’t just carve anything that doesn’t belong to you. Do your own dogs or brolga my totem. And I start learn you know bit by bit each day everyday. Then I knew what to do what to carve what paints ochre. Use white paints. They even taught those other boys too.”

Peter Nabarlambarl Australia 1930–2001

Namarnkol (Barramundi) 1999 ochres on paper

Peter Nabarlambarl was born in his home country on the upper Mann River of the Arnhem Land Plateau where he stayed until he was a young man. Then he moved to Maranboy where he obtained work as a stockman, working cattle and worked on droving runs as far as Alice Springs and Mount Isa.

He was taught to paint on bark by his father and grandfather, and his parallel line style is very like that seen on traditional rock art seen for Kakadu to Maningrida. Transferring this style to paper, he painted on 100% cotton paper.

10

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning

His themes encompass animals such as the barramundi, dingoes, kangaroo, Emu, Gingana [rainbow serpent], Catfish, turtle, goanna, and Arnwak tree [edible fruit] Sugarbag man, Sugarbag woman, saltwater fishing, marrimarniyi country, and more.

Minnie PWERLE Australia 1922–2006

Awelye Atnwengerrp 2003 acrylic on canvas

Born on Utopia Station, 250km north-east of Alice Springs, Pwerle’s country was Atnwengerrp and her languages Anmatyerre and Alyawarr. Like many Indigenous artists Pwerle only began painting on canvas in 1999, when she was already in her late 80s. During the last years of her life she became a prolific and highly respected artist and produced many large-scale canvases.

This painting depicts Pwerle’s traditional painting subject – women’s body paint design. The colours and lines represent the forms of women’s body paint which would traditionally be applied to the torso during ceremonial dancing. This subject matter formed part of Pwerle’s family story; she often painted the same story, each time with slight variations.

Michael Cook Australia 1968

The Mission #1–10 2011 inkjet print on archival Hahnemuhule cotton paper

Michael Cook was born in Brisbane in 1968; he is a Bidjara man of south-west Queensland, where he continues to live on the Sunshine Coast. His background is as a commercial freelance photographer. Cook has been an exhibiting artist for only a few years, – his first solo show was in 2010 – but in a short period of time he has been recognised for his unique perspective and visual storytelling ability. His awards include 2008 and 2011 Deadly Awards for Visual Artist of the Year, and 2011 People’s Choice Award in the Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards.

Cook uses photographic suites to convey narratives about relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. His earlier works (also 10-photograph suites) Undiscovered 2010 and Broken Dreams 2010, were acquired by the National Gallery of Australia, and are currently on display as part of their major National Indigenous Art Triennial, Undisclosed. Within his dreamlike images he uses his imagination to restage elements of Australian history and colonisation from an indigenous perspective.

The Mission depicts the story of the journey of a young Aboriginal woman from her homeland to life on a mission, and the changes that she experiences during this transition. Cook uses appropriation to make the background appear like an early sepia toned postcard, like someone would send if they were travelling or on a journey. This makes the viewer at

11

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning first feel familiar and comfortable. However, on closer inspection, for example on #8, labelling of of the subject is visible. This corresponds with the age that the character and many young Aboriginal mothers were when they were sent to missions.

“Cook combines these portraits of change with the hazy familiarity and the familial significance of the postcard. Here Cook pierces the Australian psyche, wielding our shared cultural memory as a darkly satirical weapon. Ronda, 16 years is scrawled in nostalgic shorthand across The Mission #8 – an evocation of both a comfortable familial documentation, as well as the bureaucratic process that lead to young aboriginal mothers losing their children to the stolen generation. This is Cook splitting and doubling our comfortable sepia narratives of early Australia.” Shae Nagorcka Michael Cook: On the weakness of monumental things, Dianne Tanzer Gallery + Projects 2012

“Recently, there has been a popular political push to ‘close the gap’ and have Aboriginal people recognised and treated as equally human in today’s Australia. Cook goes one step further, creating an alternate space where Aboriginal people are not just equal but are the norm. Cook goes two steps further, creating an alternate space where Aboriginal people are not just equal, nor have they simply become the norm; rather, they are the only—and, by doing so, Cook draws discussions of colonisation out from the murky waters of race relations. Still, crucial to Cook, his works are ambiguous enough to allow the viewer the central role of interpreter; he has provided a sumptuous storyboard and a hypothetical framework, but the full story is left for the viewer to complete.” Bruce McLean, 2012

Through the use of design and techniques, Cook prompts the viewer to consider whether we really know what went on in much of Australian history especially with regards to the colonial treatment of indigenous people. In Postmodern style, he uses traditional styles of European portraiture and costume to question the overlaying of European culture into Australia.

Michael Cook Brisbane 1968 The Mission #1 2011 Inkjet print on archival Hahnemuhule cotton paper

12

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning

About Missions

"Missions were compounds established by the churches as a sanctuary to 'protect' the Indigenous peoples of Australia from the mistreatment that the European settlers were perpetrating on them. They were institutions that arguably had a detrimental influence on the very people they were supposed to protect. The Aborigines Protection Board controlled these missions.

Reserves differed from missions in that reserves were established by the Government. Ultimately though, they had the same purpose. Religious bodies sometimes set up schools, churches and dormitories on reserves and missions also. It may be surprising to note that there were only ten actual missions in New South Wales.

"In 1883 the Aborigines Protection Board was established to manage reserves and control the lives of the estimated 9 000 Aboriginal people in New South Wales at that time. During these early years, no legislation existed to sanction the actions of the Board, the churches, or private landholders in their attempts to centralise Aboriginal people onto missions and reserves and begin the removal of children from Aboriginal families.

By 1939 there were over 180 reserves in New South Wales. In most cases they were small with housing consisting of humpies made from iron roofing. There were two kinds. 'Managed Reserves', also called stations, were usually staffed by a teacher-manager and education of a sort, rations and housing were provided. 'Unmanaged Reserves' provided rations but no housing or education and were under the control of the police.

While a few revocations of reserves were made in the 1930s and 1940s, it was not until the 1954-64 period that there was another wave of revocations. This seems to relate to the policy of assimilation and involved the removal of Aboriginals from traditional reserves to 'new' reserves set aside in nearby towns. At the same time the large areas of land formerly held were revoked. This occurred in most country towns in New South Wales and approximately 28 reserves were revoked in this period in such places as Balranald, Grenfell, Gulargambone, Guyra, Inverell, Kyogle, Manilla, Nowra, Picton and Wellington."

Thinee, Kristy and Bradford, Tracy Connecting Kin - Guide to Records: A guide to help people separated from their families search for their records. First edition printed September 1998 New South Wales Department of Community Services http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/DOCSWR/_assets/main/documents/connectkin_guide. pdf http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/fhu/missionsNSW.html

Focus Questions Influences/ Style 1. Cook is one of many Australian indigenous photographic artists who explore portraiture in series. Research the work of Mervyn Bishop, Michael Riley, Fiona Foley, Tracey Moffatt or Destiny Deacon and compare their approaches.

13

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning

2. Cook’s style is both Postmodern and Postcolonial. Explain how he combines historical traditions of portraiture with contemporary references to raise issues about colonisation of Australia and its treatment of indigenous people.

Materials and Techniques 1. Discuss the digital editing tools Cook may have used to create a translucent effect.

Communication of Ideas and Meaning 1. What is Cook communicating about the journey Ronda may have gone through in the missions?

Historical/ Cultural Contexts 1. As a contemporary indigenous Australian artist, how has he used new technology to communicate ideas about Colonisation? What elements are European and which elements show his indigenous culture? 2. What is Cook communicating about his own identity and about what it has meant to be indigenous in Australia both in the past and now?

Elements of Design/ Aesthetic Qualities 1. Explain Cook’s choice of a central focal point and portrait format. Does this mimic any other photographic convention? 2. What is the effect of the soft gradation of tone and neutral colour scheme?

Gordon Bennett Australia 1955

Home Décor (algebra) ocean 1998 Acrylic on linen On loan, Paul Guest Collection

Gordon Bennett is an artist of Anglo-Celtic and Aboriginal ancestry. He was born in Queensland and spent his early years in Victoria before returning to Queensland and attending high school in Brisbane. He grew up around negative images of indigenous people and left school early to pursue various trades. He learnt of his own indigenous ancestry in his teens. He eventually studied art at the Queensland College of Art, Brisbane at the age of 31 in the late 1980s. Studying in the postmodern era prompted him to learn about the history of art and major art figures, many of which he appropriated in his subsequent artworks. Home Décor (algebra) ocean reflects an escalation of the quoting of many artists and iconic artworks. In this artwork he includes a renowned Colonial engraving of Captain Cook’s discovery of Australia, depicting indigenous people as savages compared to the ordered white settlers. In fact this painting is an appropriation of one of his paintings Possession Island 1991 which appropriates the original Captain Cook taking possession of the Australian continent on behalf of the British Crown AD 1770 a wood engraving from the Illustrated Post, December 25, created in 1865. In Possession Island Bennett includes a prominent, clothed indigenous figure into the landscape, wearing the indigenous colours of red and yellow.

14

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning

Samuel Calvert, engraver English 1828–1913 John Gilfillan (after) English 1793–1864 Captain Cook taking possession of the Australian continent on behalf of the British Crown AD 1770 wood engraving from the Illustrated Melbourne Post, December 25, 1865 State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

In Home Décor (algebra) ocean Bennett includes motifs from major artists such as Jackson Pollock and Piet Mondrian, but also introduces the controversial artwork by Australian Margaret Preston. Preston, a non-indigenous artist appropriated the patterning used by indigenous artists in her Modernist prints of the 1950s. He also includes Christian symbology and homage to one of his favourite artists, Jean-Michel Basquiat. Despite the busy composition, the use of the grid keeps the image balanced with indigenous figure forming a central focal point. This painting, at 182.5 x 365.0 cm must be viewed first-hand to be fully appreciated and to read the symbols.

Bennett questions the representation of the history of Australia and the history of art through his referencing, quoting and recontextualising of other artworks. For some time in the 2000s, Bennett, perhaps not wishing to be pigeonholed as an indigenous artist only, adopted the name John Citizen.

Focus Questions Influences/ Style Answers to many of these questions can be found by researching the National Gallery of Victoria’s Gordon Bennett Education Kit: http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/gordonbennett/education/01.html 1. Explain how Bennett identified with artists such as Adrian Piper and Colin McCahon.

15

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning

2. Discuss how Bennett’s childhood and education had an influence on the subject matter he chose to communicate in Home Décor (algebra) ocean. 3. Explain how he adopted styles of Postmodernism and Postcolonialism learnt at art school into his art.

Materials and Techniques 1. Discuss the different painting styles and techniques Bennett has adopted from various artists, for example splattering paint in the Abstract Expressionist style of Jackson Pollock in Home Décor (algebra) ocean.

Communication of Ideas and Meaning 1. What ideas about Australian history is Bennett communicating in Home Décor (algebra) ocean? 2. What is Bennett drawing attention to by appropriating the work of Margaret Preston? 3. Research his use of the grid. Explain how he has used the grid in Home Décor (algebra) ocean.

Historical/ Cultural Contexts 1. Bennett grew up in the 1950s and 60s. Discuss how he felt about growing up in a predominantly Euro-Australian environment. 2. Explain how Bennett’s mother’s experience of being raised on an Aboriginal mission has influenced his feelings about his own identity. 3. As a lighter skinned indigenous man, how did Bennett’s discovery of his own indigenous identity change the way he responded to public opinions of indigenous people at the time.

Elements of Design/ Aesthetic Qualities 1. Analyse the use of balance in Home Décor (algebra) ocean. How does Bennett combine the use of symmetrical balance with the inclusion use many images to create a unified whole? 2. Discuss the different colour schemes used in Home Décor (algebra) ocean 3. How is line used as both an element of design and for symbolic representation in Home Décor (algebra) ocean?

16

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning

Suggested References

General Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership Consultation Regarding: Improving Teaching in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education: National Professional Standards for Teachers Standards Focus Areas 1.4 and 2.4: 9 September 2012 http://www.aitsl.edu.au/verve/_resources/MONASH_STUDY_FINAL_REPORT_09092012.pdf Extensive 77 page document

Mellor, Doreen; Janke, Terri Valuing Art, Respecting Culture Protocols for working with the Australian Indigenous Visual Arts and Craft Sector Published by National Association for the Visual Arts, Ltd 2001 http://www.reconciliation.org.au/raphub/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Respect-Valuing- art-respecting-culture-National-Association-of-the-Visual-Arts1.pdf Has excellent case studies in Copyright and Moral Rights

Affirmations of Identity Board of Studies NSW GPO Box 5300 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia. 2007 http://ab-ed.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/files/affirmations-of-identity-gallery-and- artists.pdf extensive 99 page Education Resource contains excellent glossaries, suggested use of terms pertaining to Australian indigenous culture and units of work specific to NSW curriculum.

Artist related Emily Kame Kngwarreye National Gallery of Australia Emily Kame Kngwarreye Alhalkere — Paintings from Utopia http://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/kngwarreye/teachers.htm

National Museum of Australia Includes timeline and short film on the artist’s practice http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/utopia_the_genius_of_emily_kame_kngwarreye/emily _kame_kngwarreye

Dorothy Napangardi Museums and Art Galleries of Northern Territory http://natsiaadigitisation.nt.gov.au/docs/index.php?typ=artwork&p1=ABART-1688 Good discussion of painting similar to Mina Mina salt lakes 2012.

Nicholls, Christine Not even fame is better than family June 29, 2013

17

Bendigo Art Gallery Indigenous Contexts Professional Learning http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/not-even-fame-is-better-than-family- 20130628-2p2np.html

Gladdy Kemarre http://www.utopianaboriginalart.com.au/artists/gladdy_kemarre.php http://www.indigenart.com.au/Dynamic/display_ex.asp?id=397

Gordon Bennett McLean, I., Gordon Bennett's Home Decor : the joker in the pack, Law Text Culture, 4(1), 1998, 287-307. Available at: http://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol4/iss1/18

Michael Cook McLean , Bruce Undisclosed: 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial National Gallery of Australia 2012 http://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/unDisclosed/Default.cfm?MnuID=ARTISTS&GALID=37462&vie wID=3

Garry Namponan Arunkun artists brochure http://www.andrew-baker.com/Aurukun%20Artists_Ach-umpan.pdf

Paddy Bedford Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition Education Kit http://asset.artmuseum.uq.edu.au/docs/PB-Educational-Kit.pdf

18