Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2018 The hidden language of art: symbol and allusion

River stories: the art of Australian waters

Amanda Peacock

20/21 June 2018

Lecture summary:

Rivers were the superhighways of colonisation, continental arteries promising access to a living heart. They have also been a focal point for Indigenous knowledge, culture and social life for millennia. Rivers form geopolitical divisions, provide transport, abundance of resources and have been the location of encounter and resistance. Art, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, can reveal Australian histories that have been forgotten or that we have collectively avoided knowing; and can provide a way for us to better see and understand our shared histories, present and future.

Slide list:

1. , 2. Aboriginal fish traps made from rocks, Darling River, NSW, 1938, photograph, State Library of Victoria 3. The Old Mill, Morley’s Creek, , 1907, sepia photograph, National Museum of Australia & Charles Gabriel, The Gundagai flour mill surrounded by water during a flood in 1900, 1900, National Library of Australia 4. Charles Bayliss, Group of local Aboriginal people, Chowilla Station, Lower Murray River, South Australia, 1886, albumen photograph, Art Gallery of New South Wales 5. Yarri (Yarra), c1852, brass breastplate and chain, Gundagai and District Historical Museum 6. General chart of Terra Australis or Australia: from the surveys of Captains Flinders and King, R.N. with additions from Lieuts. Jeffreys and Roe, also from Adml. D'Entrecasteaux, Capts Baudin and Freycinent..to the year 1829;…Commanders Wickham and Stokes, 1843, 1843, National Library of Australia [3 slides] 7. Melchisedech Thevenot, Terre Australe decouuerte l'an 1644, ink on paper, National Library of Australia 8. James Cook and Richard Pickersgill, A plan of Sting-ray Bay on the Et. Coast of New Holland, 1770, manuscript map, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales 9. Johann Lhotsky, Captain Cook's tablet at Cape Solander, Botany Bay, 1839, lithograph, National Library of Australia 10. William Bradley, Botany Bay. Sirius & Convoy going in… 21 Janry 1788, watercolour, State Library of NSW 11. George Raper, Chart of Port Jackson New South Wales, 1788, map mounted on linen & William Bradley, Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, 1788, watercolour, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales 12. Judy Watson, ngarunga nangama, calm water dream, 2016, public art commission, 200 George St, Sydney 13. The Great River or the Desired Blessing, 1827, Published in T. J. Maslen, The Friend of Australia, London: Hurst, Chance, & Co, 1830 14. ‘The Inland Rivers as known in 1828 & 1830’, in Cumpston, J. H. L. Charles Sturt - His Life and Journeys of Exploration, Melbourne: Georgian House, 1951 15. Eugene von Guérard, Stoneleigh, Beaufort near Ararat, Victoria, 1866, oil on canvas, State Library of NSW 16. Robert Dale, Panoramic view of King George's Sound, part of the colony of Swan River, 1832, engraving, colour aquatint and watercolour, National Library of Australia [3 slides] 17. Joseph Lycett, Aborigines hunting kangaroos, c1820, & Aborigines using fire to hunt kangaroos, c1820, watercolours, National Library of Australia 18. Eugene Von Guérard, Sydney Heads, 1865, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of New South Wales 19. Tommy McRae, Family spearing fish, c1885, ink on paper, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

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20. Tommy McRae, Untitled (Aboriginals spearing turtle, swan and fish), 1890 & Spearing turtle, fish and swan from canoes (detail), c1891, pen and ink on paper, National Gallery of Australia 21. Charles Bayliss, Junction of Darling and Murray Rivers, 1886, photograph, Art Gallery of New South Wales 22. Tommy McRae, Spearing fish, turtle and swans, c1860, National Museum of Australia & Spearing fish and swans from canoes, c1891, pen and ink on paper, National Gallery of Victoria 23. ST Gill, Night fishing, 1865, National Museum of Australia, National Library of Australia 24. Mr. Blandowski's encampment on the Lower Murray, 1858, wood engraving & Unknown artist, The Ladies want to cross a stream; In mid-stream, 1883, wood engraving on paper, State Library of Victoria 25. Roy Kennedy, Days of harmony on my Mission in days gone by, 1998, etching, Art Gallery of New South Wales & Billboy Charles with brothers Keith and Roy Kennedy, Hillston, 1938, Courtesy Roy Kennedy 26. Warangesda Mission, 1883, etching, published in the Illustrated Sydney News & Women and children at Warangesda Mission, 1880-1890, photograph, Howard Family Collection 27. Roy Kennedy, How soon they forget 2001, etching, AGNSW & photographs of Mission 28. Roy Kennedy, Mission boy dreams, 2006, etching, Art Gallery of New South Wales 29. Roy Kennedy, Movement on the Murrumbidgee, 2003, etching on paper, 19.0 x 45.5 cm, private collection 30. Kerry & Co, A River Steamer on the Darling, 1884-1917, gelatin silver photograph, sepia toned, Art Gallery of New South Wales & Navigational chart of the Darling River, 1870-1890, Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences 31. Installation of Roy Kennedy’s work, Murruwaygu: following in the footsteps of our ancestors, Art Gallery of New South Wales 28 Nov 2015 – 21 Feb 2016 32. Ian Abdulla, Watching my aunty and my mother cooking fish, 1999, acrylic on paper, private collection & Swimming before school, 1995, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, Art Gallery of New South Wales 33. Riverland: Yvonne Koolmatrie, 2017, installation view Eel traps 1990–2015, Art Gallery of South Australia 34. George French Angas, Portraits of the Aboriginal inhabitants, (detail), 1846-47, lithograph, National Library of Australia & Yvonne Koolmatrie, Mat, c1990, spiny-headed sedge, Australian National Maritime Museum 35. Yvonne Koolmatrie, Echidna, 2010, black rapier sedge (Lepidosperma canescens) and echidna quills, Art Gallery of New South Wales & Biplane, 2006, spiny-headed sedge (Cyperus gymnocaulos), Queensland Art Gallery 36. Jonathan Jones, untitled (illuminated tree) 2012, wood, natural pigment, fluorescent tubes and fittings, electrical cable, installation view, AGSA, Parallel Collisions: 2012 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art 37. Jonathan Jones, untitled (Murray–Darling river hang) 2012, with untitled (marriny) 2012, red gum, installation view Art Gallery of South Australia, Parallel Collisions: 2012 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art [3 slides] 38. George French Angas, Bathurst, country, c1868, hand coloured lithograph on paper, Gift of Mr George Holman 1945, Art Gallery of South Australia 39. Eugene von Guérard, View of the Murray River, South Australia, Meru country, 1866-68, published by Hamel and Ferguson, Melbourne, colour lithograph on paper, Art Gallery of South Australia 40. J. W. Giles, after George French Angas, Scene on the Coorong, near Lake Albert, Ngarrindjeri country, South Australia, hand coloured lithograph on paper, Art Gallery of South Australia 41. Boorun's Canoe, 2012, a Gunaikurnai cultural arts project, book, short film and photography exhibition, Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre at the Melbourne Museum, and Latrobe Regional Gallery, June - July 2014 42. Rachel Piercy, Gathang guuyang II, 2012, digital print, courtesy of the artist

References:

Carter, Paul. The road to Botany Bay: an essay in spatial history, London; Boston: Faber and Faber, 1987.

Gammage, Bill. The biggest estate on earth: how Aborigines made Australia, Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2011.

Gibson, Ross, 26 views of the starburst world: William Dawes at Sydney Cove, 1788-91, Crawley, W.A.: UWA Publishing, 2012.

Pascoe, Bruce. Dark Emu: Black Seeds – Agriculture or Accident?, Broome, W.A. Magabala Books, 2014.

For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/hidden-language/