NAIDOC Art Exhibition National Aboriginal & Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) 4 – 22 July 2016 (Weekdays Only)

Songlines: stories of the living narrative of our nation South32 building, 108 St Georges Terrace, Perth

Government of Western Australia Department of Corrective Services Protect, Rehabilitate & Serve As part of this year’s NAIDOC week, the Department is displaying art works created by Aboriginal people in custody. This visual arts event is a strategic focus and allows the Department to prioritise partnerships and support the creation and sharing of arts with the greater Western Australian community. Through this exhibition of art works, the Department Commissioner’s affirms, values and recognises Aboriginal pride, dignity and culture. Developing and Introduction sustaining positive relationships between the broader Australian community and Aboriginal people is at the heart of NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across showing respect and acknowledging Australia each July to celebrate the history, achievements of those in custody. culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Department‘s approach to offender arts and rehabilitation is to ensure For the Department of Corrective coordinated and strategic delivery of arts Services (the Department), NAIDOC is programs and initiatives. an important opportunity to contribute to our vision for reconciliation, to support I am pleased that this year’s NAIDOC initiatives that improve Aboriginal Week art exhibition is associated with the engagement in programs and to launch of the Department’s Partnerships showcase achievements made throughout with Purpose: Arts and Rehabilitation. the year in rehabilitating and reintegrating This document will set the Department’s Aboriginal people in custody. It is part arts course into the future. of the process of implementing the Department’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) by embedding initiatives, programs and processes that are culturally appropriate, inclusive and responsive to Aboriginal people. James McMahon DSC DSM Nearly 40 percent of all adult prisoners, and approximately three quarters of Commissioner youth detainees in Western Australia are Department of Corrective Services Aboriginal. It is therefore of fundamental importance to ensure that arts programs are competent to engage with the diverse Aboriginal cultures that exist in Western Australia.

Front Cover – Artist statement: This painting is depicting the place where many goannas live and breed among rocks in Australia; rocks are a safe haven for goannas to bring their young into the world; rocks protect the young babies from large predatory birds and snakes, foxes, dingoes, etc. Songlines: stories of the living narrative Facility. There are a variety of subject of our nation exhibition matters and levels of skill, ranging from For over a century, images and objects traditional Indigenous subjects to first made by were attempts by artists. Prisoners and young studied in terms of their anthropological people in detention choose to create art and ethnographic value and information, for a range of different reasons. It can be and not generally understood as art. as a means of self-expression to promote wellbeing; as a way to connect with country The second half of the twentieth century and culture; as a way of learning new saw a marked change in the way concepts; as a way to give something back Aboriginal art was presented, collected and to family; and as a way to manage complex understood. The specialised ethnographic thoughts and emotions. approach of looking at artifacts was replaced by genuine recognition that Visitors to the exhibition will experience Aboriginal art is not only important and an astonishing diversity, ranging from unique in the art of modern Australia, but works that are representative of current constitutes a different and unique way of contemporary art practice to works which looking at imagining self, comment on the reinterpret and reclaim traditional modes landscape and the spaces between. and imagery in new and exciting ways. Songlines are one of the many aspects Creature Songs of Aboriginal culture that artists draw on This part of the exhibition shows the use of for inspiration. Songlines are the creation imagery of creatures to explain a songline story lines that cross the country and in relation to a place, custom or spiritual put all geographical and sacred sites practice. Typically the creature is significant into place in Aboriginal culture. For in terms of totemic association with the Aboriginal contemporary artists they are individual, customary practice, behaviour or both an inspiration and important cultural experience. It can leave tracks to important knowledge. Aboriginal teachings explain locations or sites explaining the journey how the creation ancestors travelled across and be an integral part of the cultural the country creating the landscape, the significance of a place or part of a lived creatures and the law under which human experience. The creatures can embody the society is to be lived. The journeys of powers of ancestral beings, be protectors of these ancestors across the country make sites and customary practice. In these works up a songline. The broad themes of this the creature can also have associations exhibition reflected in the art works are with elements such as fire and water. Its landscape, creatures, people and spirituality. behavioural traits are integral to the story being told. You will see that the artists in this exhibition come from a diversity of cultural/language Spirituality of Song groups including: Noongar; Ngaanyatjarra; Aboriginal culture can be understood as Yamitji; Bardi; and various other groups in containing layers of meaning. People are the Kimberley. They have produced this stepped through the knowledge of their body of work in the months leading up to culture to increasingly more detailed and the 2016 NAIDOC Week and the works intricate levels of knowledge. When they are responses by the artists to the week’s are painting they can simultaneously theme of Songlines: The living narrative of address multiple layers, making a reference our nation. to the landscape or ceremonial ground This exhibition features art works from to the larger meaning of songlines. The Banksia Hill Detention Centre, Boronia art works in this section show the artists’ Pre-release Centre for Women, Acacia interpretation of some of the songline Prison, West Kimberley Regional Prison, meanings for them. Their statements point Albany Regional Prison, Eastern Goldfields to the importance of the story to them. Regional Prison and Wandoo Reintegration The Place cultural story of their people. These art The wellbeing of Aboriginal people is works reflect stories about a way of life, the connected to the wellbeing of the land. In stolen generation, hardship, discrimination Aboriginal culture ancestral sacred stories and ambition. They are about connecting are often passed on as songlines. People the past, with spirits, tradition and law. might specialise in chapters or sections of This exhibition is a beginning of our learning a songline which tells the entire creation about some of the stories provided by story that relates to a particular tract of Aboriginal people in the Department’s land. People on neighbouring land will have care. What the artists have included in the next chapters of what happened to this exhibition are works that depict land, the ancestors as they crossed over to their surface and movement, atmosphere, colour own part of the country. Continuing to sing and light of places, experiences and totems. songlines and pass on the stories nourishes They share experiences and history, and re- and refreshes the land. The works in this tell stories of creation, reiterate and remind section show direct experience of a place or of a continuing presence of Aboriginal an associated event which is significant to a peoples’ connection to the land; and their group or an individual. movements through the land. Vision of Country Art practice in the In contemporary Aboriginal painting corrections environment landmarks are often referenced. Some Engaging in the arts can change how we might refer to the hills or the rocky country see ourselves, and how we see the world. or sand hills. There are references both to This impact can be amplified in corrective the geographic nature of the landscape settings. The arts take place in education where the ceremonial site is located, as classes, drama productions, creative writing, well as the metaphysical ceremony that painting, sculpture, textiles and exhibitions belongs to that landscape. In these works of works. Arts projects provide safe spaces the artists show their personal experience for offenders to have positive experiences of a landscape or their interpretation of and make independent individual choices. a story related to a landscape. The works Arts in the corrective setting also provides often show pathways and some are similar a vehicle to address the reasons behind to the Carrolup style of work. Carrolup criminal behaviour which can be a factor was the site of a large camp for Aboriginal contributing to repeat offending. In Australians established by the office of the the Department’s approach to the arts, WA Protector of Aborigines soon after the priority is given to the development of introduction of the Aborigines Act 1905. existing partnerships and creating new The area was reclassified from a mission to ones to deliver arts programs focused on native settlement in 1915 and is renowned rehabilitation and reintegration outcomes. for a distinctive style of art by the residents of the late 1940s. A number of the artists in this exhibition are known for their art practice outside of Importance of people and the corrective setting and are influencing lived experience the work of fellow prisoners in our In Aboriginal teachings, the kinship lineage facilities. Whilst the focus of the arts in the of the ancestral people from country, or Department is on correctional outcomes, custodians, have responsibility for that it is explicitly acknowledged that there songline. It is their duty to uphold the is intrinsic value in art for individuals obligations of passing the song on in and the community. Given the deeply perfect form to the next generation. In the personal nature of the arts experience, ceremonial processes within Aboriginal it is acknowledged that it affects people culture each generation is taught the in many ways, beyond the focus of the totality of their culture over a series of Department’s approach. stages of knowledge. Through these songlines people gradually learn the entire 15. Bumble Bee 25. Kimberley

NAIDOC on Fire 3 Country 32. Jetta Dream Art Exhibition Noongar 60 x 75cm acrylic Noongar National Aboriginal & Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) on stretched canvas 38 x 57cm acrylic 61 x 77cm acrylic on on canvas board West Kimberley stretched canvas Regional Prison Boronia Pre-Release Albany Regional Prison 4 – 22 July 2016 Centre for Women Price: $750 Price: $500 Price: $600 Artist statement: 1. Mina Mina 9. The Spirit’s Country 16. Bumble Bee Artist statement: I have called my This story is about two cousins striving to Ngaanyatjarra Wongatha on Fire 1 songlines poster “Kimberley Country” chase their dream. Going through the pain showing the sacred country where my 67 x 101 cm acrylic on 50 x 50cm acrylic on of training the body and mind to deal with Noongar ancestors roamed the land many, many unstretched canvas stretched canvas the pressures of being Indigenous both 48 x 38cm acrylic on years ago. I learned about this through with great ability to change their lives, be Acacia Prison Eastern Goldfields canvas board ceremony and from stories which were successful and fulfil the dream. So even Regional Prison Price: $500 Boronia Pre-Release told to me and many others of my people today, if you ever get the chance to see Price: $200 Centre for Women over the years. This knowledge is about the them play together or against each other, dreamtime and includes the they are still chasing each other as they Artist statement: As the Spirits travel over Price: $600 we eat like kangaroo, emu, goanna, snakes have as kids on the football park. Getting Artist statement: This is where my this big country of ours, the Goanna is their and many more. It is also about where the away from the hardship of growing up as grandfather and grandmother walked protector, although the Snake is trying to paintings on the walls of caves and where a kid in Bunbury. Dealing with the process through the sandhills. The black lines capture the Spirits. 17. Bumble Bee the sacred waterholes are on the land and of Racism and Discrimination of being represent the sandhill country area. They the sea. As they travel over the desert and the seas on Fire 2 Proud Black kids, wearing their flag on used to look for water, and water was their sleeves. always there. They used to dig at a place looking for ways to get their freedom the Noongar Snake is constantly chasing them, so without 26. Bardi Country called Mina Mina. 48 x 38cm acrylic on the protection of the Goanna the Spirits will Bardi Area 33. Motherland canvas board be caught and locked away. Language Group 60 x 80cm acrylic on 2. Patjarr Boronia Pre-Release This dreamtime is the Songline of the Spirits 60 x 75cm acrylic stretched canvas Ngaanyatjarra Centre for Women on stretched canvas seeking freedom to roam the country as Acacia Prison 93 x 68 cm acrylic they wish. It is a cycle which continues to go Price: $600 West Kimberley on canvas board round, the Spirits wishing freedom, can only Regional Prison Price: $650 travel with the Goanna as the protector and Acacia Prison N.F.S. Artist statement: the Snake chasing to capture. 18. Snake and Eggs The hands are the place that creates $500 Price: The connection of the Goanna and Spirits are Yamitji Artist statement: My songlines poster love of my motherland, from south is about my country the Bardi tribe in Artist statement: Patjarr is a place where my culture in the way it protects my land, my 122 x 91cm acrylic on west of W.A. my mother was born. All the swirls of black sacred sites, my elderly and my ancestors. the Kimberley, and it includes spiritual, stretched canvas ceremonies, my ancestors’ stories and spirit and white lines are hills between sand 34. Grass Tree dunes, where the water snake has gone Banksia Hill to pass on to future generations. 10. Five Turtles in Detention Centre Landscape through our land. The mother land where the Deep Water 27. Bubble Springs Noongar my mother was born is where my heart is. Noongar Price: $300 Kimberley Area 61 x 76cm acrylic on 3. White Snake 64 x 74cm acrylic on Language Group stretched canvas canvas board, framed I was looking through Noongar Artist statement: 75 x 60cm acrylic on Albany Regional Prison Boronia Pre-Release art books and I saw a painting that inspired stretched canvas Price: $500 102 x 76cm acrylic on Centre for Women me. I made a similar design but mine is stretched canvas quite different. West Kimberley Price: $800 Banksia Hill Regional Prison 35. Down South Detention Centre Artist statement: My grandfather is a 19. Two Goannas Price: $750 Noongar N.F.S. Yamitji man from Beagle Bay country. He is Yamitji 45 x 100cm acrylic a water person and his totem is the turtle. on stretched canvas When I started painting I found I was a 39 x 49cm acrylic Artist statement: Artist statement: The artist chose the on canvas board colours in the centre circle to represent water person too – I just painted what I felt, When I was a child my grandfather taught Artist statement: Wandoo water and Earth. He chose white for and it felt right painting turtles and other Boronia Pre-Release me some stories about land and culture. Summer swimming Reintegration the snake and the blue outside dots to water creatures. Centre for Women Before he passed away he showed me down south with Facility some paintings at the Art Gallery. represent the ocean. Price: $550 the family. Price: $190 11. Goannas Amongst Artist statement: Bungarras are a 4. Fishing with Pop The Rocks traditional food for any Aboriginal tribes in 28. Jue Jue 36. Home (Songlines) 60 x 60 cm acrylic on Noongar Western Australia. Goannas and Perenties 60 x 80cm acrylic on are the English name and through the Kimberley Area MDF board 80 x 60cm acrylic on stretched canvas stretched canvas different tribes the Aboriginals have Language Group Acacia Prison different names. Women are the hunters Acacia Prison Price: $200 Albany Regional Prison 60 x 75cm acrylic for the bungarra. on stretched canvas Price: $900 Price: $500 20. Three Skinks West Kimberley Regional Prison Artist statement: This painting is Yamitji Artist statement: In this piece I tried to depicting the place where many goannas $900 25 x 35cm acrylic Artist statement: Price: 37. Hunting Days recreate a memory of fishing with my live and breed among rocks in Australia; on canvas board Jue Jue (Songlines) represent many grandfather. He took me up north to rocks are a safe haven for goannas to bring Noongar Darwin and we went to a spot to fish that Boronia Pre-Release songs in different meanings, cultural and 70 x 55cm acrylic on their young into the world; rocks protect in ceremonies. he had used many times before. I tried the young babies from large predatory Centre for Women stretched canvas to create the sense of travel with the birds and snakes, foxes, dingoes, etc. reddish brown path which is surrounded Price: $350 29. Songlines Albany Regional Prison by mangroves then more dense tropical Noongar Price: $500 plants. Finishing up at a place that looks 12. Marlu Dreaming 21. One Goanna out of place in the surroundings. Wongatha 60 x 80cm acrylic Yamitji on stretched canvas 46 x 40cm acrylic on Artist statement: 39 x 49cm Acrylic Albany 5. Kangaroo, Turtle, stretched canvas on canvas board Hunting Days as a kid with my Uncles Lizard and Emu designs Regional Prison and grandfather was great learning and Eastern Goldfields Boronia Pre-Release Price: $500 understanding about culture, survival and Noongar Regional Prison Centre for Women growing up becoming a man. But I always 122 x 96cm acrylic on Price: $250 Price: $350 Artist statement: Songlines are about remember that hunting is a fast game. You stretched canvas Artist statement: As the Marlu travels around connecting with our past. Connecting have to always be ready and in the right Bungarras are a Banksia Hill this big country of ours, he is majestic in the Artist statement: with our spirits and with holding our position to take your shot. If you’re not traditional food for any Aboriginal tribes in Detention Centre way he bounces from one field to another, traditions and our laws. So we tap ready, you adjust your scope, take a breath, Western Australia. Each tribe has its own constantly leaving tracks of his travels. our sticks, play our didge, chant our take aim and wait until you hear, “Shoot, N.F.S. name for the animals and traditionally the songs and dance our feet to keep Shoot, Shoot Da Bastard” by old Grandpa. The Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people women hunt for the bungarra. Artist statement: The artist chose animals this connection going, passed down are constantly on the search for him, to generation to generation lest we forget. that had relevance to him and the country provide for them. Their food, their fur, the he is from. 22. One Dolphin 38. Black Boy Marlu is a big provider for the people of Grass Trees this land. Yamitji 30. Annabelle Baby In Basket Noongar 6. Five Turtles As the colours of the earth, land, people and 25 x 35 cm Pitjantjatjara in the Outback the Marlu are displayed, this creates songline Acrylic on 76 x 61cm acrylic and Noongar directly linked to my belief, my dreaming. canvas board 91 x 61cm acrylic on canvas collage on stretched canvas stretched canvas 68 x 50cm acrylic on The songline of our culture is that we catch Boronia Pre-Release canvas board the Marlu by following their tracks and by Artist statement: Centre for Women Acacia Prison Albany Regional Prison I like to paint dolphins Boronia Pre-Release waiting by the waterholes. $200 Price: $500 Price: $500 because they give me Price: Centre for Women The songline of my cultural connections a feeling of peace Artist statement: Price: $800 with the Marlu is displaying our customs and harmony. and sharing our stories of long ago. Black Boy Grass Tree is the story of how Artist statement: My grandfather is a Artist statement: The film, Rabbit Proof the white man used metaphors to name Yamitji man from Beagle Bay country. 23. Aboriginality Fence is an amazing true story of Molly, the landscape at the time of colonisation. 13. Protector of Through Daisy and Gracie, who were taken to He is a water person and his totem is the the Waterholes Who is the Black Boy silhouetted on the hill turtle. When I started painting I found Multiculturalism the Moore River settlement, a home for when both Black Boy and Grass Tree are Yamitji I was a water person too. I just painted 121 x 91cm acrylic on half-caste children. The main point of the standing together? How are they separated what I felt, and it felt right painting turtles 40 x 60cm acrylic stretched canvas story I wanted to reflect on was how Molly, now when it is no longer politically correct and other water creatures. on MDF board walking with Annabelle, her little one, back to refer to them as Black Boy? Now we call Acacia Prison to Jigalong, has wowed and inspired me in Acacia Prison them Black Boys and the white man refers Price: $1500 so many ways. Molly was a fighter, a strong 7. Turtle Dreaming to them as Grass Trees and the modern Price: $450 Martu woman, who loved her country so storyline of us Aboriginal people becomes Balladong/Bibilmun much, and the love she had for her country Artist statement: The snake (Wagul) is the more mixed, more mysterious and harder to 40 x 30cm acrylic on was endless. Thank you Molly for an name. Who now is the Black Boy looking at protector of all the water ways around our amazing story. MDF board beautiful state of Western Australia. All the 24. Country Talking the viewer? Acacia Prison black fellas respect the Wagul and don’t 91 x 61 cm disrespect the water anywhere around 31. Songline Price: $450 Acrylic on Western Australia. Spirit of the stretched canvas Fitzroy River Interested in the work? 14. Arch Enemies Acacia Prison Derby For further information about Artist statement: Turtle Dreaming laying Snake and Goanna N.F.S. 50 x 70cm acrylic the works please contact eggs in sand and moving back to the water. Noongar on stretched canvas Stuart Peel, acting Arts 80 x 60cm acrylic on West Kimberley Coordinator in the Department 8. Rainbow Snake stretched canvas Regional Prison Artist statement: I am country, call me of Corrective Services, on Yamitji Albany Regional Prison Price: $750 Australia. I was designed to help my 6250 9221 or at stuart.peel@ 50 x 70cm acrylic on Price: $500 people become the first people of my Artist statement: The snake represents the stretched canvas massive land. I provided my people with dreamtime of the mighty Fitzroy River area correctiveservices.wa.gov.au. Banksia Hill Artist statement: The goanna and the food and materials to make tools to hunt. from my country and the spirit of the old Most of the work is available for Detention Centre snake have been rivals throughout history. I communicated with my skies and winds man represents people that danced and The snake is one source of food for the sang alongside my country from many, sale. Works for sale are owned Price: $150 to make sounds for my people to learn of goanna. The goanna will kill the snake my seasons. I helped my people to learn of many years ago. by prisoners, and proceeds on sight, to eat, and also to protect her Artist statement: The artist didn’t really my waterhole to drink on their travels. I, as of sales are returned to them have a story with this painting. He wanted eggs and young baby goannas. The battle country grew to love my people after they to paint a snake and likes bright colours between a goanna and a snake is very showed their gratitude of my showing them with a small commission to the and that is how he chose the background. fierce, and almost always results in the their way over my lands. They showed their Department to cover the cost death of one or the other. This painting respect by allowing country to be what it is depicts a mother goanna ripping the head meant to be, first peoples’ country. of material. off a snake to protect her area, and also to feed on the snake.