Arts Backbone
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Arts Backbone Volume 4 Issue 2: July 2004 EMPOWERING INDIGENOUS ART CENTRES Hello every body; to all those art centres in Arnhemland, Kimberley, Northern Territory and the Islands and to all the people in those southern areas. I will give you the background about ANKAAA. ANKAAA has recently got stronger and has sure things are done the right way. They become an industry for all art centres. To should work together and look after each me it is really important. To me it is a big other and spend the money the right way. one, not just a dream. It was really a plan for those people who are putting their input, In Yolngu way we used to make lettersticks not only on their art but also for those old to pass on information to other tribes so the people. They are the ones we are looking other tribes knew that Dreaming stories at and bringing their wishes and dreams were passing through, and sharing names to become a reality for young artists; to and culture to other tribes. Now we are teach them about leadership in their area, doing the same thing, using voice instead following the footsteps of their grandfathers, of letterstick, our voice now, sending it fathers, brothers, sisters, aunties and all interstate so everyone is learning from us. those people. Those people who never went to college, that is really important for those This is a message to those ANKAAA art people who cannot read English. centres. We need to get together with white and black and work together. Let us We have our own manuscript in our own work together, it is really important to me country and in our own land. That message because I need to see all those art centres is coming from our own image and our own in your region surviving and looking good. country. We can survive with our own arts 2004 ANKAAA © We are governing ourselves under the name and with our own patterns and stories given Djambawa Marawali, ANKAAA Chairperson of ANKAAA. ANKAAA is a name that the to us from our ancestors. Those ancestors ‘We have our own manuscript in our government needs to listen to. ANKAAA were travelling through the country. That is own country and in our own land. is the voice of the artists in the art centre the message. Today we imagine a treaty for That message is coming from our coming up and showing the needs of their our own country and for our own lifestyle, own image and our own country. ‘ own art centres. This is really important to putting our energy into our work. Work is me. So let’s work together, live together a very Western way of living, turning up at We are looking through an economic way of and stand strong. Thank you. the right time on the right day, but our time building these arts, it is really important, we is different, every day we go hunting, fi shing are not just doing it for money but we are Djambawa Marawili and collecting food. That was our day, doing it to let people know that this country ANKAAA Chairperson teaching the kids, maybe resting and then has its stories and songs and names. Today going on to do other things and going to other we are using Yolngu (Aboriginal) names as In this issue areas. Those patterns, designs and stories are well as English names, it is really important still there. We had those stories and we have to me. ANKAAA makes me feel really • Nyumi at Sydney Biennale still got those stories and our people never strong because I can see I am doing it for forgot that country, our sacred country, areas all Aboriginal people and I am sharing my • Milky Way - where we caught lots of food. knowledge and how I see. I am an artist; Buku Larnggay Mulka I know the stories from my father and my Today in this world in 2004 and fi ve and grandfather. • Telstra Art Awards, August 2004 six we are sharing a lot with our own So let’s get together, white and black, let’s community, to our own colour and to the • Feature Artists: Lofty Bardayal OA work together, let’s live together, let’s learn white residents of Australia. We are sharing & Don Nakadilinj a lot because I think it is really important together, making those arts good so that those arts will lead us somewhere else so making our art in an economic way of • Feature Art Centre: sharing. It is really important to me. We we can become independent. We have got Bula’bula Arts, Ramingining, NT would like to see our art centres built up to keep strong and speak for our own art for our young people who are coming up, centres, (where we come from), speak for so they can become artists. It is really our own rights. It is our art and we represent • Upcoming Exhibitions important we are bringing our young all those art centres and we need to do it for July - September 2004 people up into a state that we know they our own community, because ANKAAA can survive with our own art and our own is representing us to government and the • Balgo 4-04 stories from our forefathers and our fathers. government is looking to ANKAAA to make Page 2 Volume 4 Issue 2 MILKY WAY NEWS & REVIEWS NAMINAPU MAYMURU-WHITE WARLAYIRTI ARTISTS AT SYDNEY BIENNALE Framed Art Gallery Darwin In early June, as we were all set to depart An important bark painting exhibition Balgo for the much anticipated trip to the from Buku Larnggay Mulka, was held at Biennale of Sydney in which Elizabeth Framed Art Gallery in Darwin in June. The Nyumi had been selected to exhibit, a exhibition featured senior artist Naminapu report on the Tanami Track south to Alice Maymaru - White. Naminapu’s fathers Springs revealed the road to be impassable Narritjin and Nanyin were the greats of the due to unseasonable heavy rains in the days dawning era and of all those artists from leading up to our departure! Yirrkala who have won prizes, Naminapu is the only one to have won two major A major re-scheduling of fl ights was needed awards including NATSIAA. in order to get to Sydney via Broome and Perth. Accompanying Nyumi on Elizabeth Nyumi with her work at the Biennale of What is unique about this exhibition is that this journey was Eubena Nampitjin and Sydney. Image courtesy Warlayirti Artists © 2004 the designs transmitted by her father and Wumali Joan Nagomara the Vice-Chair of his brother on bark, which she refi ned and After a much needed rest back at the Warlayirti Artists as well as both art centre distilled to realise in print form are now apartment that day, we returned to the MCA coordinators. While the weather was cold returning to their original media. In the for the offi cial opening of the Biennale of and wet in Balgo, the sun was shining in course of that journey something seems to the Sydney. Nyumi as well as Eubena and Sydney on our arrival. have happened so that the designs are more Wumali were the face of Warlayirti Artists concentrated and graphic than they were and enjoyed the role of representing the art There were a number of offi cial events to but just as strongly based on their timeless centre and interacting with the local and attend during our stay in Sydney; the fi rst origins. So we have something new and international crowd as they converged on was the media preview at the Museum of fresh but incredibly well provenanced in the display of Nyumi’s paintings. Contemporary Art (MCA) where Isabel cultural and art historical terms that not Carlos, the curator of the Biennale greeted only shimmers with surface beauty but has us. She guided Nyumi and entourage to The inclusion of Nyumi in the Biennale of Sydney this year is a signifi cant achievement an elegant structure within that allows no the gallery space on the third fl oor where compromise. Nyumi’s paintings glistened in the natural and recognizes her work as contemporary light beaming through the window. The art that can hang alongside international Will Stubbs Art Co-ordinator works selected for the Biennale provided contemporary artists. Nyumi is the fi rst Buku Larnggay Mulka a mini-retrospective of her work over the artist from Warlayirti Artists to be selected previous fi ve years, highlighting a major for the Biennale and one of only a handful shift in Nyumi’s style and the ever-present of Indigenous Australian artists to have been development of her painting over this period. included in the Biennale of Sydney. Nyumi has been a dedicated artist over the last 15 Nyumi, a naturally passionate and charismatic years and in the last 5 years has attracted woman, comfortably engaged with the media the attention of international collectors and and photographers as she talked confi dently curators. Nyumi is celebrating her fourth about her work and what the paintings depict. solo exhibition in August this year at Raft She enjoyed revisiting her paintings and was Artspace in Darwin where her most recent instantly able to identify who the art centre paintings can be viewed. coordinator was at Warlayirti Artists when Stephen Williamson she had painted each work. Manager Warlayirti Artists TIWI ART NETWORK INCORPORATED In 2004 the Tiwi Art Network has become an Aboriginal Corporation and recently elected its own board consisting of four representatives from each of the three art centres.