AMALA GROOM RE: Union AMALA GROOM RE: Union

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery 17 October - 6 December 2020 Contents

Introduction 7 Sarah Gurich, Director Bathurst Regional Art Gallery

The Body Laid Bare 9 Professor Larissa Behrendt

Amala Groom - RE: Union 15 Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham

Creative Responses: Susie Anderson 21 Professor Megan Davis 23 Hannah Donnelly 26 Emily Flannery 31 Saha Jones 33 Professor John Maynard 35 Ellen van Neerven 37 Leanne Tobin 39

About the Artist 41

Image Credits 44

4 5 INTRODUCTION Sarah Gurich

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery is continuous living culture. Portrait narratives and new perspectives pleased to present RE: Union, a of a Woman (2015) and dhaagun into Groom’s work. BRAG thanks five-year survey of the work of ngiyanhigin.gu nganhundhi (The Susie Anderson, Professor Megan Wiradyuri artist Amala Groom. land owns me) (2018) locate and Davis, Hannah Donnelly, Emily connect Groom physically and Flannery, Saha Jones, Professor RE: Union features eight works spiritually to Country. John Maynard, Ellen van Neerven, that chart the artist’s rapid and Leanne Tobin. trajectory to recognition as Role play is an important tool a significant player on the in Groom’s arsenal. Does she Special thanks go to Professor contemporary Australian art know the Revolution is coming? Larissa Behrendt and Dr Daniel scene. The exhibition focuses on (2017) invites viewers to witness Mudie Cunningham for their photographic and digital works the ‘casual’ racism encountered insightful catalogue essays, and that exemplify Groom’s power by Aboriginal peoples daily, a for the support that they offer to utilise self-portraiture as a bitter pill made palatable through Amala Groom as mentors and tool for interrogating issues humour and irony. More recent champions. around identity, sovereignty, works One and the Same (2018) BRAG acknowledges the and truth-telling. and The Union (2019) use the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners bride as a visual metaphor for Early works such as Every Human from the Gunhigal Mayiny ritual and ceremonial connection. Emotion in 2 Minutes (2015) use Wiradyuri Dyilang Enterprise for raw emotion (grief, sorrow) as An ongoing focus of Groom’s their ongoing support, and Arts catalysts for connection. The practice has been collaboration, OutWest for funding support Invisibility of Blackness (2014) and for this exhibition she has to commission the creative and The Visibility of Blackness invited eight writers to respond responses published here. (2018) explore with powerful to her work through poetry Sarah Gurich simplicity the artist’s matrilineal and prose. These beautiful and Director, BRAG connection to the world’s oldest moving words weave fresh

6 7 THE BODY LAID BARE Professor Larissa Behrendt

When walking on country, it is strength of Aboriginal women. bursts through the senses even always evident that what lies on The two pieces sit together like if spoken while draped in the the surface is shaped by what lies the double-helix of a strand costuming of the early colony. underneath. You can feel when of DNA, intertwining past and Amala seems to assert and taunt: country is strong; you can sense future, heritage and legacy. In language survives; we survive; when it is unsettled. And the two deceptively simple performance, your colonial project has failed. feelings can co-exist on land with where voice brings as much of But there is another layer, an a strong, complex, contested the authority as the visual, there additional complexity that sits history. An archaeologist or is a project that seeks to assert underneath Amala’s work. It is geographer can tell you that continuation of the world’s oldest not just the Aboriginal body for each layer you dig into, living cultures while also defying on country that is imbued with more secrets are discovered, the dominant colonial culture meaning. Gender matters. more knowledge is revealed. and its constructs. These are Racism and sexism violently Experiencing Amala Groom’s sentiments that have become collide in the colonial structures body of work in RE: Union is motifs in Amala’s work – “we’re leaving Aboriginal women like walking on country that is still here”, “always was, always disempowered. Subject to sexual singing to you. Even in a dark lit will be Aboriginal land” – that and physical violence, used for self-portrait, there is connection are both acts of assertion of self manual and slave labour, stripped to heritage, country, identity and and subversion of the dominant of the rights to motherhood lineage. culture. through racist child removal The Visibility of Blackness (2014) These themes are pronounced policies, the bodies of Aboriginal and The Visibility of Blackness in Every Human Emotion in 2 women are a battleground in a (2018) are chanting, rhythmic Minutes (2015) where the chant colonial world where gender is poem-songs about the long in language is central to the as defining as race. This is the connection to country and performance. Wiradyuri identity antithesis of where Aboriginal

8 9 women sit in their own cultures over their own bodies. dhaagun bend to her will; she remains who – where their economic, social ngiyanhigin.gu nganhundhi (The she is. and spiritual influence gives Land Owns Me) (2018) is the The Union (2019) is a further them great power. Amala’s work body laid bare, with nothing but development of the strength meditates on the control exerted its power as the naked feet touch of country, colonial society’s by one and the defiance and the land. A portrait of the Queen, attempts to control women command exhibited by the other. symbol of Empire and colonial and their bodies and Aboriginal Portrait of a Woman (2015) is sovereignty is used for covering people and their land, the force a metaphor for the attempts to up the parts of her body that of personal sovereignty and control the body of Aboriginal are distinctly female, including the eternalness of Aboriginal women and the simple power her reproductive organs. There culture. The land is protagonist of being able to write that story is no sense of surrender. Instead, and companion to the nameless, yourself, to make your own marks with defiant gaze, Amala tells us faceless bride who is navigating on your body and to preventing she remains who she is, defined and struggling with the red cord others from being able to by country, not the colonial that threatens to constrain her. define who and what you are. trappings she is forced to carry. Her strength and determination It is a powerful act of personal She needs no other trappings to ensure she will find a way out of and cultural reclamation and be who she is. the binding, onto country, lifting assertion of personal sovereignty. There is a similar layered power the veil, seeing the world around her, understanding herself as she Amala understands that an in One and the Same (2018) flees / runs into her future on her Aboriginal woman on country where the trappings of the own terms. has its own significance, power church and the values of the and history. Just as land was Victorian era and placed on Throughout this body of work, claimed by the colonisers, so country and on the body. These there is a gently mocking too were women’s bodies. Both attempts to colonise – to build of the pretention of colonial were seen as conquerable; both on Aboriginal land, to make one society – the parody of the became contested ground. As ashamed of one’s body – seem Cook costuming, the portrait of land is reclaimed and ownership to have lost their supremacy. In the sovereign, the middle-class reasserted, so too a long fight donning the clothing, in showing pretention. The assertion of the has had to take place over the strength of her land and power of the colonial state is, the reclaiming of the right of through her gaze, Amala seems Amala reminds us, an absurdity: Aboriginal women to sovereignty to have conquered them. They planting a flag does not make a

10 11 country yours; wearing a crown below the surface but shapes the rights and recognitions already result, her creative expression of reflection, thought and Larissa Behrendt is the does not make you the boss political and intellectual power won by the Aboriginal and constantly reminds us that we contemplation, of looking, Distinguished Professor at the of me. of her work. Amala is from a Torres Strait Islander community. are not living in a post-colonial learning and experiencing, before University of Technology Sydney generation where, within the Her response was loud, vocal world but inhabit one where the finding her voice in visual and and at the Director of Research The coloniser is not just rebuffed colonial society they lived, there and strong – domestically and colonisation process is on-going performative mediums. and Academic Programs but eviscerated. Does She Know were different opportunities to internationally – calling out even if it is dressed up differently. Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous the Revolution is Coming? (2017) RE: Union is an exhibition that those of her grandparents and the racism, white privilege and Education and Research. She deconstructs a conversation It is also a voice that sits brings together five years of a parents. More doors are open due structural biases that continue is a Gamilaroi/Eualeyai woman imbued with middle-class values as part of the legacy of the slice of Amala’s work that has to the activism and work of the to riddle Australian society. Over and has published numerous and their undercurrent of racial rights movements of previous been shaped by her lifetime. generations that went before her. ten years on, the policies that textbooks on Indigenous legal biases. In this piece, Amala is a generations in the way it Aboriginal land, bodies and But Amala was part of a group Amala spoke out so strongly issues. Larissa is the host of shapeshifter, a type of trickster, continues to challenge the cultures are continually at risk of her peers who did not take against have led to increased Speaking Out on ABC Radio. as she transforms herself into the attitudes that still prevail today and Amala’s work holds that for granted. The Northern incarceration rates, increased #ProfLarissaBehrendt persona of an ex-Prime Minister’s in a colonial society where a mirror up to those challenges. Territory intervention, rolled out child removal rates, higher @laralavarch wife. Through a multi-directional Indigenous peoples experience But her strong voice (aural and by the Howard government in suicide rates, an increasing dialogue, we see a new set of socio-economic disparity, over- visual) is a song-poem that an 2007, was a moment of political loss of land to mining with insights from each incarnation representation in the criminal Aboriginal woman’s positioning awakening for her. As part of land degradation and water she inhabits. There is potential justice and child protection on country is an act of defiance a cynical pre-election exercise, contamination as results and no for deep impact on people who systems, land justice is elusive and an assertion of sovereignty. the policy package contained improvement in socio-economic may hear the words of their and our unique, ancient A radical act. An act of survival. punitive and discriminatory indices. own unquestioned prejudices heritage continues to be blown An act of triumph. welfare reforms, curtailed the echoing back at them. But there Amala’s activism took many up by mining companies and ability of Aboriginal communities is something important for her forms – organising youth groups, developers. She had a long Professor Larissa Behrendt to control their land and housing own people here too – don’t be meeting and seminars, taking apprenticeship, a large period October 2020 stock and brought in other strict seduced by the cocktail parties; the message to the United regulations. don’t let your politics be led by Nations, choosing to study at ego and desire for acceptance; Amala understood that the racist, university to find a way to work stay true to yourself and your ill-conceived and discriminatory from within the system to change principles. Keep your bare feet policies contained in that it. This was also a pathway to firmly on your own country as package of top down, non- finding her voice, developing you navigate the wider world. Indigenous designed rules and her critical gaze, allowing her to There is another thread that runs regulations was not only a great more sharply and deftly dissect through Amala’s work that sits injustice but a direct threat to the the world around her. As a

12 13 AMALA GROOM - RE: UNION Daniel Mudie Cunningham

Early career survey exhibitions ritual and identity politics from across media with photography are a rarity. If an artist is an Aboriginal perspective. Her often (but not always) the fortunate to receive the honour work is deeply committed to primary form, they are not of a survey exhibition from a interrogating the colonial project often categorically aligned to public gallery or museum during and its impacts on collective and Australian performance art their life time, it often occurs individual subjectivity. histories. Early histories of performance art in Australia late in life. More often than not, A conceptual artist working tend to privilege practices they occur posthumously and across multiple media forms, originating from ephemeral when the artist is deceased (the Groom’s body of work situates contexts of ‘liveness’. In contrast, other kind of ‘late’). Bathurst her within an expansive history performances made solely for the based Wiradyuri artist Amala of Australian performance art. camera and without an audience Groom is a leading voice of the Over the last two decades as are a ubiquitous contemporary current generation of early career digital video technologies have art phenomena today. Groom’s Aboriginal artists. A great deal evolved, the ‘performance video’ practice has surfaced within this of attention and momentum has become accessible and tradition and affirmed a rightful has accelerated her creative somewhat ubiquitous. Working place within Aboriginal and path, and for good reason. in film and/or video, Aboriginal non-Aboriginal performance art Curated by Bathurst Regional artists including Tracey Moffatt, contexts. Art Gallery Director Sarah Destiny Deacon, Michael Riley, Gurich, RE: Union comprises five Richard Bell, Julie Gough, r e a, The most recent work in this performance videos and three Brook Andrew and Christian survey, The Union (2019), is her photographic works that span Thompson to varying degrees most ambitious work to date. five years and are unified by incorporate performance and Drawing upon lived experiences Groom’s engagement with self- the moving image in their and Aboriginal ceremonies, The portraiture, spirituality, language, work. Given most have worked Union was commissioned for The

14 15 National 2019: New Australian as an existential counterpoint The significance of this ongoing Art at Carriageworks. A red rope to colonial obliteration. As the gesture is that, while bound representing the miwi (spirit) performance concludes, her to the time-based medium of connects a network of gum trees gaze breaks the fourth wall, performance video, it postulates in a forest near where Groom piercing the viewer and implied time as unending, an eternal lived at the time in mid-western captor. In this moment, Groom return. As the bride disappears New South Wales. Adopting meets her ‘groom’ before fleeing into the bush, she will reappear the persona of a displaced and further into the bush. A quest again and again, to reanimate this distressed bride, Groom uses the for spiritual awakening invoked ritual of constant inner discovery. umbilical like rope to navigate as the performance concludes. The retaliation against and decolonise Country in a As Coby Edgar points out in disappearance is a recurring performance that reimagines the her essay on The Union, the theme in Groom’s work. The wedding ritual as a balancing act final stage of enlightenment Invisibility of Blackness (2014) between the physical and astral in Buddhist teaching is called and its latter companion piece, body, where the ‘marriage of self’ the ‘Amala’, a state of pure The Visibility of Blackness is the primary relationship. consciousness divested of (2018) are powerful statements human trauma. At its basis then, The figure of the bride is tied affirming her Wiradyuri The Union is the artist’s most to the colonial imaginary. matrilineal heritage. The autobiographical work to date as Imposing non-Aboriginal bridal Invisibility of Blackness sees it literally embodies and calls her symbolism in this context Groom positioned against a name, Amala Groom, into being. highlights how the marriage void like black background and A bride stripped barefoot, not by contract subjugates women as facing the camera. In less than her bachelors or any such groom, a form of property exchange a minute, she gazes directly but by a higher, unshackling between men. The heterosexual at the viewer and asserts her power. conception of marriage becomes Wiradyuri lineage by evoking her another layer of colonisation Groom intends The Union to be mother, grandmother and great for women’s identities under an iterative project called Raised grandmothers spanning nine Western patriarchy. What by Wolves, whereby over time generations. Performed in English is united in The Union, are she will perform this action on as a spoken word affirmation, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Country at other significant this work ironically asserts her understandings of spiritual and locations around Australia, for identity and history using the ritual knowledge and practice a series of future video works. de facto ‘national’ language

16 17 used since European settlement. acknowledges ancestral elders, identity politics. Groom performs commodifiable in their lifetime Artbank, anybody can. Aboriginal Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham In another work, Every Human calling the past into the present, six different characters wearing or beyond: Have you seen my art in a politician’s office is Director of Programs at Emotion in 2 Minutes (2015) darkness into light. glamorous cocktail party attire Ben? Or, Have you seen my Del? therefore becomes a face value Carriageworks, where he curated Groom dons British navy regalia with champagne glass in hand. may well be white inversions of gesture of support for our First The Visibility of Blackness Amala Groom into The National Each face the camera and relay for a performance where she ‘remakes’ its predecessor the same principle in today’s Peoples, often contradicting real 2019: New Australian Art. From an actual conversation that dispenses with English, instead as a two-channel version, contemporary art market. world policy and decision making 2010-2017 he was the Head chanting in her traditional took place between Groom exercised against a backdrop where Groom doubles her In 2020, Does She Know the Curator at Artbank. ‘mother tongue’ to the Wiradyuri and the wife of a former Prime of ongoing poverty and social presence. Side by side, the two Revolution is Coming? was #DanielMudieCunningham and the Kuringgai/Cammeraygal Minister in her palatial New York injustice for our Aboriginal Grooms rupture linear time by acquired by Artbank, the @danmudcun ancestors on whose land she townhouse during a splashy communities. commingling maternal heredity: Australian Commonwealth Have you rented soiree. The work unpacks the performs. one channel moving from past to my Amala? complexities of ownership and Government artist support future and the other from future The spoken monologue of authority regarding Aboriginal program that acquires a With RE: Union, Amala Groom to past. The work commences in The Invisibility of Blackness is art and culture. With acerbic collection of work for lease. asserts her place as an important complete darkness and becomes recorded with a slight echo in wit, Groom relays a conversation For a work that problematises early career artist of her illuminated gradually before it her voice, as if the sound has where cultural capital is the ownership of Aboriginal generation. In a relatively short reverses and returns back to bounced off the walls. This exercised through the collecting art, it is ironic that Groom’s art time span, her performative black. The vocal echo heard in echoing of sound poignantly of Aboriginal art. Where the is now ‘owned’ by a collection practice has engaged with the the earlier work is intensified reflects a spectre of ancestors accumulation of assets and founded in 1980 under the Fraser histories and politics of her by Groom’s body-doubling in conversing across time, wealth is demonstrated through government for the express past and present, signalling a The Visibility of Blackness. Her performing intergenerational participation in a Western art purpose of furnishing public promising creative future. Deeply spoken word performance is communion. With each maternal market that globally trades servants’ offices with signifiers of connected to the contemporary like a round (or infinite canon) figure summoned, the lighting authentic ‘primitive’ signifiers cultural capital. Later branching Australian art world ecosystem, sung by multiple voices working design is dimmed, rendering each of Indigeneity as symbols of out to a more diverse clientele, Groom also makes an important together and apart. generation darker than the one status. Central to the narrative anyone can lease from Artbank contribution in the regions, before. As her great-great-great- An amplification of voices is the former Prime Minister’s and the point of purchase (lease) communities, and Country. great-great-great-grandmother speaking in unison characterises wife’s pride in her ownership often rests on the artwork RE: Union reunites, in her region, is named, light becomes a Does She Know the Revolution of work by Anmatyerre artist, being brand aligned with the a host of self-portraits which metaphor for race as the is Coming? (2017). This multi- Emily Kame Kngwarreye: “Have corporate politics of the party reflect a little bit of us all. sequence finishes in complete channel video was an early sign you seen my Emily?” she asks. leasing the work on a temporary darkness – a simultaneous of Groom’s artistic ambition and You can imagine countless other basis, subject to renewal and reminder of colonial erasure her skill as an inventive orator variations to this conversation artwork turnover. Prime Ministers Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham and invisibility, as much as it of contemporary Aboriginal substituting other artists made and their wives can rent from October 2020

18 19 AFTER AMALA GROOM, THE UNION, 2019 Susie Anderson

Sis, who are you I am not ready to be tied down Sis, what are you running from I’m not running I m pulling myself toward distance Sis, where are you trying to go I’m not trying Sis, why are you holding on I’m not holding on I have a firm grip of myself Sis, how are you going to get there In a dress Sis, who are you I am unknown Sis, what are you running from I am running towards the knowable Sis, where are you trying to go I am going to where I am known Sis, why are you holding on I am holding on to what I know Sis, how are you going to get there In my dress Sis, who are you I won t be defined Sis, what are you running from I won’t tell Sis, where are you trying to go This isn t what going looks like Sis, why are you holding on This is just a guideline Susie Anderson is a writer, multimedia artist and descendant of the Wergaia and Sis, how are you going to get there Wemba Wemba people from North Western Victoria. #SusieAnderson @susie.nina In this dress

20 21 DOES SHE KNOW THE REVOLUTION IS COMING? Professor Megan Davis

Amala Groom’s ‘Does she taste. For an Aboriginal person This painting is ‘authentically know the revolution is coming’ navigating the seductions of Aboriginal’ and therefore is an is a ruminative study of the international diplomacy and the extension of my own personal way Australian elites shape United Nations, a galactically authenticity. In her inimitable Indigenous Affairs in institutions sophisticated world, it is for many style, Groom shines a light in faraway lands, in places both easy to ridicule and difficult on the corrosive inference of that few Aboriginal and Torres to resist. ‘legitimacy’: This painting belongs to me, me, me me. It is all mine. Strait Islander peoples have There are many codes deployed I bought it and now I own it and access to. I know intimately the by the Australian cultural and it’s right there on the wall for all genesis of this searing, withering political and social elite in to see. I own the land, the land political commentary. I have these settings that, at least for does not own me, have you seen been a professional with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait my Emily? United Nations for two decades, Islander peoples, immediately one decade as an Aboriginal reveal the subconscious or I always struggled with this as human rights lawyer drafting conscious bias of the wealthy a young person. How strangers international law from the and most powerful on matters of would ask questions and say ‘outside’ and one decade as a Indigenous affairs. This is where things about my culture in a UN expert and employee from you hear what they really think. way that made me feel like an the ‘inside’. I have witnessed Art is one. Not only the art, as outsider: I do not see you as the serene and turgid world a tangible object on display, being Aboriginal, at least not of public diplomacy where but the way they talk about art, of course authentically. The diplomatic residences are the provenance of a painting study of our ancient cultures has salubrious, everyone’s first name and privileging of classical created knowledge that renders is ‘honourable’ and ‘Emily’ is Aboriginal art (on a hierarchy of the non-Aboriginal knowledge- the patrician codeword for elite authenticity) as social currency: holders. A bloke whose father

22 23 owned a pastoral empire, whose has seen a proliferation in at the heart of collectivism to constitutionalise the cultural conform to in this world. To avert dwarf the law of nations. I have grandfather was a perpetrator acknowledgements of country, by encouraging and heavily authority of these very ancient their eyes also when their own heard much of what Amala during the Killing Times of increasingly tokenistic and subsidising the embrace of neo- polities, the First Nations, by people scrutinise the propensity heard in soirees around the international criminal proportion, stripped of any depth, as we liberal capitalism, the market, as enshrining their Voice in the for symbolism, the proclivity globe. After the Apology, after has more Voice in Indigenous hear the invader unilaterally add a solution to that collectivism, democratic framework of the for legal incrementalism and Cathy lighting the flame, after Affairs because he can afford things to acknowledgments, like the kind of collectivism that state. We are, as a nation, their own soft incantation when the acknowledgments … after access to this knowledge. The equity and diversity, emerging reminds you each day, of the seemingly content with Zoom we ask for more than they are everything they still lament in proximity to high culture also Aboriginal leaders and now, Black dispossession. What they don’t acknowledgments in the chat prepared to give, ‘baby steps’. their elitist circles: I do not know bestows greater authority on Lives Matter; throw ‘em all in. tell you in those hallowed halls, in function, displaying the name And that is the power of Amala what else to do to help the Commonwealth Indigenous affairs #BLM means they can now talk Kathryn Hepburn’s old house, is of local First Nation, marching Groom’s political art. To hold Indigenous Australians. about ‘race’ and ‘systemic racism’ up a mirror to these things. policy, greater than a legatee of that Australia occupies a special for Black Lives Matter, with They do everything but what we and ‘institutional racism’ globally, As a young girl who first flew the protection era growing up place in the diplomatic work Always Was, Always Will Be say repair looks like. in Logan City. It elevates one to it happens everywhere, stripped as an outlier, having made no placards and Australia Post to Geneva from a housing a plane of knowing and being of all nuance and specificity. It accommodation of Indigenous endorsing traditional place commission shoe-box in Logan well above that of the urban allows the invader to be a good peoples rights within the names in postal addresses yet City with $40 in my back pocket Aboriginal, who is angry: I do ally, IG’ing black power poses at framework of the Australian state baulk at the redistribution of and $0 in my Commonwealth not understand why Indigenous rallies, without any skin in the and not addressing the original public power. Three years after bank account. There were few Australian’s are so angry. game and without any durable grievance that remains unfinished the Uluru Statement from the who had experienced what I and sustainable commitment to business; the stuff that makes Heart we still have no new rights, experienced in the world of Groom’s work as a conceptual substantive change. In recent young artists angry. no substantive recognition, no international diplomacy. And artist often singles out the most years we see the incantation Voice and Buckley’s chance of Amala gives voice to that young Professor Megan Davis is a repugnant ways the invader has Emily Kame Kngwarreye was a Always Was, Always Will Be a treaty. That is why we issued and courageous twenty year Cobble Cobble Aboriginal come to appropriate Aboriginal everywhere. They always figure cultural woman. Her extraordinary old, all those many years ago, the statement to the Australian woman from the Barrungum culture. Groom also appropriates out how to game other peoples’ oeuvre speaks to the ancient and the hundreds who have people, so they could not nation and the Balnaves Chair in their high art to demonstrate rituals and then neutralise them. ceremony and rituals of her now done the same, with this Constitutional Law, UNSW Law, neutralise the claim by hanging it the most repugnant ways they It is displayed proudly on hipster people and especially women’s sagacious commentary on a pro vice chancellor UNSW and on the wall of Parliament House. deny our culture. Performing beanies for NAIDOC week with ceremony on her Alhalkere. ossified environment that has a expert member of the United in 2017, Groom is incisive and bonus points for those products Alhalkere: code. It is always On reflection as I look back on been cultivated over centuries Expert Mechanism on the rights prescient about the pervasive made by ostensibly Aboriginal- fascinating to me that a nation, my United Nations career as to manage the friendly relations of Indigenous peoples in Geneva way in which the invader has owned companies. Stamped with three years after the Uluru a forty-year old, I can see the of nation states, yet in doing and formerly chair of the United increasingly appropriated the the approval of a government Statement from the Heart, can seduction in much that Amala so amplifies the class divisions Nations Permanent Forum on ‘struggle’: I own the land, the endorsed procurement policy, talk fluently about Emily yet ridicules. I have seen the pressure and political tensions of a Indigenous Issues in New York. land does not own me. Lockdown the state continues to strike avert their eyes when we seek our young people are under to continent whose First Nations #ProfMeganDavis @mdavisqlder

24 25 CURSES/SALVATIONS Hannah Donnelly

I stood on the top of a small mountain with my siblings what is home Off Country some things are waiting. pulling lineages across invasive species no hot showers, sometimes didn’t even know what off country was if I move inside every inheritance supposedly the geographical centre of NSW just a bucket and sweat So many stunting off country will the poison attach itself to me? poisoned with needles in the feed hiding during the fighting wouldn’t everything grow better on how much do I have to sacrifice choking the animals under a tree my brother didn’t know the river where she was from to what came before? with a human-induced habitat showed me until the time didn’t know the river where he was from home is not the river anymore degrading native vegetation was right. nobody called the cops didn’t know the river where she was from it is in loss look, out there, he points thank God, silent as the granite didn’t know the river where he was from I’m not scared of death but if he dies a red dirt road to the centre near the pools until we drove past on a bridge I’ll have nothing left still in the scars of old mines. and Dad pointed out where he slept rough, we all need water to survive. no place to hide under the waters that took him in. one of the longest rivers is dying southside and up the hill or canopy to hold the rage diverted to catchments and towns under the bridge, I punched her head in he left home to lose but I’ll still spit in the eyes of my enemies to meet critical human needs for what she did. the Macintyre took a job and start a living selling and cleanse myself with smoke. flushing houses, drowning in driveways it in. got caught by cops, lied, wagged, returned and didn’t have one I guess that’s why we make a future washing the country away. gave away my virginity on the banks. so the Galari/Lachlan bank was a good place in the living we give out more than we have the Macintyre took it in. to camouflage leave another generation just as fucked as the rest we have less than we know I could drink spirits a trail from the D’s so selfish are our homes no more natural flows. straight, scared they would come for me cover a car with green that there won’t be any rivers left in the night. he didn’t know how to build a home maybe that’s why I won’t fight for mine I grew up in northern NSW I was so angry cause he was sent away in the early days I’ll let it go, I’ll let it go, I’ll let it go a sapphire for a city in my first home. and part of him never came back. a small country town. the Macintyre took it in. some things you can’t take in. this is how home was: hungry,

Hannah Donnelley is an award-winning Aboriginal writer and producer interested in Indigenous futures, speculative fiction and responses to climate trauma. #HannahDonnelly @tidda_puffs

26 27 28 29 PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN (RESPONSE) Emily Flannery

Self to self, I am connected Not belonging to me, a part of me always Gifts given and received, Accepted, loved, acknowledged. Below the surface of my skin My responsibilities inscribed Continual, undying, succeeding the physical An unyielding tie navigating my place My grounding, my guidance, my sanctuary. Etched in my bones the memory Reassurance trickles in the soles of my feet Through my veins and into my spirit. Sole to soul with reverence. Our paths entwine, this place imprinted Through my ancestral spirit Into this earth, connected Self to self

Emily Flannery is a proud Wiradjuri woman from Forbes in the Central West of NSW. @emflann

30 31 ONE AND THE SAME Saha Jones

Eyes close. Like hands holding Or a flower folding A quality of light common to them both. The Earth Pushes upwards, bare feet are planted. Heavy with the distance of what once was… and….closed eyes say Make-way for the wind to cover my face Weaving energy into ceremony Waiting for the return of fresh air. Listen The leaves are whispering, Learning how to speak. A collection of possibilities are Singing, Caught in a tangled veil, (Underneath are blessings of Peace) Behind the facade There is an influence From beyond the past, Dark like dead water Calling out for Life, Saha Jones is a consultant, project manager, curator Waiting for the return of fresh air. and social justice advocate. #SahaJones @sahajonze

32 33 (THE LAND OWNS ME) RE: UNION – AN ABORIGINAL HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Professor John Maynard

Contemporary Aboriginal artistic Our connection to this continent British arrival on these shores expression is grounded in is unbroken. Whilst (The Land and their ingrained patrilineal cultural, historical and political Owns Me) RE: Union is a lens of the world. This study experience. The Land Owns me celebration and one of pride plays a part in revealing the by Amala Groom showcases and inspiration in our survival critically important role of our the complexities of these lived there remains an undercurrent women in our culture. experiences. of trauma that ripples through Groom’s work stirs the emotions. the work. That undercurrent Whilst it acknowledges upwards is the racism, prejudice and of 65,000 years of western oppression that Aboriginal scientific understanding of peoples have experienced since our families and communities’ 1770 and Cook planting a flag connections to country it reminds upon our soil. In the aftermath all that we were here in the time of 1788 we suffered invasion, before time began. We carry occupation, dispossession, the longest memory known to cultural destruction, assimilation and segregation. But we have humankind. Professor John Maynard is a survived it all and remain This study challenges the notion Worimi Aboriginal man from the connected to country. that our culture was static and Port Stephens region of New unchanging. In reality it is a At the very centre of this work South Wales. He is currently moving fluid thing that always is the critically important role of a Director at the Wollotuka was and always will be, adapting, Aboriginal women in traditional Institute of Aboriginal Studies at adopting and evolving right Aboriginal society. This role the University of Newcastle and through to the twenty first was denigrated, ignored and Chair of Indigenous History. century. completely overlooked by the #ProfJohnMaynard

34 35 THE VISIBILITY OF BLACKNESS: a response poem by Ellen van Neerven

GREAT GREAT GREAT hi mum I really want All the kids at school make fun of me heaps GREAT GREAT GREAT to know more about for saying I’m Black where we come from GREAT GREAT GREAT which part are you GREAT GREAT GREAT can you tell me again GREAT GREAT GREAT about our Ancestor Sir she is Ab--iginal how strong he was GREAT GREAT GREAT I didn’t know is that right? Are you? their pictures are at GREAT GREAT GREAT are you who you say? GREAT GREAT GREAT museum, art gallery GREAT GREAT GREAT train station, university come up here tell us who you are GREAT GREAT GREAT mum who were our people. What did we why do you look like GREAT GREAT GREAT you got smthin in you GREAT GREAT GREAT eat. I love you, mum GREAT GREAT GREAT Don’t cry. Don’t cry. you are not real you are real GREAT GREAT GREAT we have made it I don’t know why we are so beautiful GREAT GREAT GREAT

Ellen van Neerven (they/them) is an award-winning author, editor and educator of Mununjali (Yugambeh language group) and Dutch heritage. #EllenVanNeerven

36 37 THE LAMENT Leanne Tobin

Ebbs, flows, the rushing sea Brings a briny white-wash and clanking shackles An ominous tide spews forth a thousand foreigners Hastily with force and axe, they move among us, felling all in their wake We whisper…. a desperate query Lament for the Mother My mothers and grandmothers before me Cry the loss, the grief, the shame A singular strangled moan rising Cry my people, I am lost! You are lost! Where are you? Gone, gone, all gone! A crescendo, shrill and urgent A ‘call to arms’, a summons to rally Surge, Push Resist the divides that cut and blood the Mother Djiriyay! Cry out with strong spirit! Dungay bulbulwul gumeda Ngullawan ……We live, we remain

Leanne Tobin is an artist and playwright descended from the Boorooberongal and Wumali clans of the Dharug. #leannetobin

38 39 ABOUT THE ARTIST

Amala Groom is a Wiradyuri the Colonial Project by asserting Prize with her work The Visibility conceptual artist whose practice, the argument that colonialism is of Blackness. Groom was also as the performance of her not just disadvantageous for First the sole NSW finalist in the cultural sovereignty, is informed Peoples but is, in fact, antithetical 2020 National Aboriginal and and driven by First Nations to the human experience. On Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, epistemologies, ontologies and a deeper note, Groom intends Museum and Art Gallery of the methodologies. Her work, a form to make work that speaks to Northern Territory. the union of all peoples and to of passionate activism, presents In 2019 The Union was the the indivisibility of the human acute and incisive commentary first Aboriginal or Torres Strait experience that traverses identity, on contemporary socio-political Islander work to be acquired by culture, race, class, gender and issues. Articulated across diverse the Deutsche Bank Collection. religious worship. media, Groom’s work often Groom’s work is held in private, subverts and unsettles western Groom is a solo practitioner who national, and international iconographies to enunciate works with her family, community collections and institutional Aboriginal stories, experiences and extensive economic, collections including Artbank, and histories, and to interrogate cultural, political, legal and Blacktown City Art Collection and undermine the legacy social networks to both inform, and Casula Powerhouse Art of colonialism. Informed by lead and drive her practice. Centre. extensive archival, legislative and Groom works collaboratively In 2019 Groom was invited and first-person research, Groom’s with individuals and groups on a supported by The Australia work is socially engaged, project by project basis. Council for the Arts to exhibit speaking truth to take a stand In 2020 Groom won the The Visibility of Blackness and against hypocrisy, prejudice, Wyndham Art Prize with her attend the 25th International violence and injustice. work Copywrong and was Symposium on Electronic Art Across her practice, Groom awarded the Highly Commended (ISEA), curated by Hee-Eun Kim, proactively seeks to dismantle prize at the Kangaroo Valley Art Asia Culture Centre, Republic

40 41 of Korea. Also in 2019 The into more than 50 national Blacktown City Art Prize, The Leo Union was selected to exhibit exhibitions including most Kelly Blacktown Art Centre, NSW at the event launch for ‘Timely recently Mapping Memory, (2016) and the Parliament of New Readings: A Study on Live Art in curated by Sharni Jones, South Wales Aboriginal Art Prize, Australia’, curated by Madeleine Deutsche Bank VIP Lounge, NSW Parliament House, NSW Hodge and Sarah Rodigari, Live Sydney Contemporary, (2015, 2014 & 2013). Art Development Agency, London. Carriageworks, NSW (2019); In 2016 Groom was the first Significant institutional Moving Histories // Future Aboriginal artist to undertake commissions include The National Projections, curated by Kelly 2019: New Australian Art, curated Doley and Di Smith, Dlux Media the Creative Live Work Spaces, by Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Arts national exhibition toured City of Sydney Residency Carriageworks (2019); Does by Museums & Galleries NSW NSW. Groom has participated she know the Revolution is (2017-2019); Our Common Bond, in more than 20 residency coming? (previously known curated by Olivia Welch, May programs including Artshouse as) Have you seen my Emily?, Gallery, NSW (2019); The TV VIC; Australia Council for the , curated by Daniel Mudie curated by Adam Porter, Casula Show Arts; Bundanon Trust NSW; Cunningham, Wollongong Art Powerhouse Arts Centre (2017); Campbelltown Arts Centre NSW; , curated Gallery, NSW (2018). The Public Body .02 Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, by Talia Linz and Alexie Glass- Since 2014 Groom’s work has NSW; Lake Macquarie City Art Kantor, Artspace (2017); SWARM, been a finalist in more than Gallery NSW; Mosman Art Gallery curated by Branch Nebula, 40 prizes and awards notably NSW; and Northern Rivers Campbelltown Arts Centre (2016); winning the Incinerator Gallery and , curated by Performing Arts (NORPA) NSW. Bungaree’s Farm Award, Incinerator Art Award, Djon Mundine & John Cheeseman, art for social change, Incinerator Mosman Art Gallery (2016) Gallery, VIC (2019). Highly www.amalagroom.com Groom’s work has been curated commended awards include the #AmalaGroom @amalagroom

42 43 IMAGE CREDITS

COVER: Amala Groom, The Union, 2019 0:47 mins, edition of 5 + 1 AP. Director PAGE 32: Amala Groom, One and the This catalogue is copyright. Apart #REUnion (production still), single-channel video, of photography: Elizabeth Warning, Same 2018, Epson UltraChrome pigment from fair dealing for the purposes #AmalaGroom 4K UHD video, colour, sound, 11:11 mins, Production stills: Elizabeth Warning. on Ilford gold fibre gloss 310gsm paper, Edition of 5 + 1 AP. Commissioned by Image courtesy the artist. edition of 10 + 1 AP. Image courtesy the artist. of private study, research, criticism @amalagroom Carriageworks for The National 2019: or review as permitted under the @bathurstregionalartgallery New Australian Art, curated by Daniel PAGE 20: Amala Groom, The Union, 2019 PAGE 34: Amala Groom, dhaagun Copyright Act 1968, no part may @artsoutwest Mudie Cunningham (2019). Production (production still), single-channel video, ngiyanhigin.gu nganhundhi (The land credits: Director of Photography: Dale 4K UHD video, colour, sound, 11:11 mins, owns me) 2018, Epson UltraChrome be reproduced without permission #ArtsOutWest Collier; Costume: Kristine Townsend; Edition of 5 + 1 AP. Image courtesy the artist. pigment on Canson Photographique 100% of the publisher. Sound design: Dale Collier; Additional cotton rag, edition of 5 + 1 AP. Image audio recordings: Billy McPherson and PAGE 22: Amala Groom, Does she courtesy the artist. Published in association with Stu Hunter at The Habitat Studio, Sydney know the Revolution is coming? 2017 Artist assistant: Kristine Townsend; Artist (production still), six-channel digital PAGE 36: Amala Groom, The Visibility the exhibition development: Time Place Space NOMAD video, 09:56 mins, edition of 5 + 1 AP. of Blackness 2018 (in situ The 25th AMALA GROOM RE: Union 2018: Arts House, Melbourne. The artist Commissioned by Casula Powerhouse Symposium on Electronic Art, curated thanks Coby Edgar and the Southlands Arts Centre, Have you seen MY by Hee-Eun Kim, Asia Culture Centre, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Emerging Art Award. Image courtesy the artist. Emily? 2017 curated by Adam Porter; Republic of Korea 2019), two-channel 17 October - 6 December 2020 Bathurst Regional Art Gallery is Filming supported by CuriousWorks; synchronised 4K UHD video with sound, supported by PAGES 6, 8, 43: Amala Groom: Re: Union Videographer: Adam McPhilbin; Editor: 1:30 mins edition of 5 + 1 AP. Director of installation view, Bathurst Regional Art Elias Nohra; Hair and Make-up: Shannon photography: John A. Douglas; Artist ISBN 978-1-925008-40-1 Gallery, October 2020. Photo: David Roma. O’Reilly; Artist Assistant: Kristine assistant: Kris Townsend; Technical Townsend. Production still: Hamish Ta-mé. assistant: Raymond Zada. Documentation: Published by Bathurst Regional PAGE 14: Amala Groom, The Union, 2019 Image courtesy the artist. Art Center Nabi. Image courtesy the Art Gallery 2020 (installation view, The National 2019, New artist. Australian Art, Carriageworks), single- PAGES 28 – 29: Amala Groom, The © Bathurst Regional Art Gallery channel video, 4K UHD video, colour, Invisibility of Blackness 2014 (production PAGE 38: Amala Groom, Every Human 70-78 Keppel Street sound, 11:11 mins, Edition of 5 + 1 AP. stills), single-channel digital video with Emotion in 2 Minutes 2015 (installation Bathurst NSW 2795 Commissioned by Carriageworks for The sound, 0:47 mins, edition of 5 + 1 AP. view), single-channel digital video, National 2019: New Australian Art, curated Director of photography: Elizabeth 2:27 mins edition of 5 + 1 AP. Director 02 6333 6555 Amala Groom RE: Union is by Daniel Mudie Cunningham (2019). Warning, Production stills: Elizabeth of photography: Gotaro Eumatsu; www.bathurstart.com.au supported by Documentation Zan Wimberley. Courtesy Warning. Images courtesy the artist. Production stills: Gotaro Eumatsu. Photo: Carriageworks. David Roma. All dimensions are in centimetres, PAGE 30: Amala Groom, Portrait of a height before width before depth. PAGE 17: Amala Groom, The Invisibility Woman 2015, Epsom pigment print on PAGE 40: Amala Groom with The Visibility of Blackness 2014 (production still), Ilford Gallerie gloss 310gsm paper edition of of Blackness 2018, Bathurst Regional Art All artworks © the artist/ single-channel digital video with sound, 10 + 1 AP. Image courtesy the artist. Gallery, 2020. Photo: David Roma. Copyright Agency, 2020

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