International Indigenous Art in Motion , 2005

Rebecca BELMORE, The Named and the Unnamed, 2002, photograph by Howard Ursuliak Baz Luhrmann’s dysfunctional settings of time and place. of damaged young romance in truly audiences alike with its visceral depiction and seduce Indigenous and non-Indigenous Festival, it continues to challenge, confront the Caméra d’ storm. Winning numerous awards, including the national and international film world by feature, maker of singularly distinctive vision, his first he has lived the majority of his life. A film- reside to the north of Alice Springs where central Australia, whose customary lands Warwick Thornton ‘melancholic and post-apocalyptic air’. taonga in the nearby prison. incarcerated living souls of M control, up for sale, and haunted by the work these homelands were held in private moonscape. At the time of shooting the century and has since generated a damaged of mining which began in the late 19th unhappy with the deleterious impact appear to invoke the spirits of the ancestors, traditional lands. Bubbling mineral springs Tai Tokerau, corporeal landscape vignettes of the living, breathing, Groundswell shifting and ever-changing. kaleidoscopically-dazzling patterns, ever- East and West – heralded by digitised, four striking, feminine winds – karanga hum even in the silence as she performs the wahine fluttering fingertips of the sensual M of the powhiri of the site has been invested with a , her , followed by the appearance of Samson and Delilah terra firma N moko (2005) is an intimate series of orth Island – welcoming ceremony. The O r at the 2009 Cannes Film Australia and make-up immaculate, of is a Kaytej man from R eihana writes that the N it was not. gawha Springs in R (2009), took eihana’s father’s ori confined N orth, South, ori

February, 2011 peoples Gurindji/Malgnin/Mudpurra Brenda L Croft Our day will come. Blak, Brown and Red standpoints box White cube/Black 1901, 1967, 1971, 1988, 2007, 2011... colonial spaces? 1492, 1788, 1840, 1862, washed looping recollections, smiling faces, re-investing in a utopian vision of white- for Indigenous people) but off the edges, just pushed to the margins (white spaces be written out of our shared histories – not H figure is one of redemption and sacrifice. and scarified, clawed-up torso, Thornton’s taped-up cowboy boots, sweat-stained hat while they last! from the work. of popcorn – F will be able to collect a limited-edition cup and literal flavour: for a limited time viewers Thornton invests it with a sharp satirical edge Laconic in his desire to discuss the work, Dream(ing) or nightmare, or both? ing sensation of windmill... or wind turbine? the ubiquitous blowfly buzz, the open spaces – the chirruping of native birds, heightened by the unnerving sounds of wide brilliant harshness of the broken heartland, in space above a mirrored waterhole in the and crossbones. Thornton’s figure revolves – with the unexpected addition of a skull Christ-like figure – dead centre, if you like with himself placed innermost as the central he has created a vision in three dimensions, being the cultural revolutionary that he is, creating work specifically for the white cube; Stranded ow many more years will we continue to is Thornton’s first foray into into foray first Thornton’s is R

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11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Endnotes

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Home /5- ca/~pjohnson/six.html reading: www.humanities.mcmaster. joined theFiveNations.Further In 1712,theTuscarora Nation andtheUnitedNations. government later asthebasisofUnitedStates Its organisationalstructure wasused of theearliestformsdemocracy. wasone as asystemofgovernment female eldersfrom eachNation,and a counciloffiftychiefselectedby with The Confederacygoverned of Peace,orIroquois Confederacy. collectively foundedTheLeague Seneca, CayugaandOneida,which Nations: theMohawk,Onondaga, or tribes Indian powerful five artist/21 2010, www.bos17.com/biennale/ biography, 17th Biennale of Sydney, html mnstatehistory/thedakotaconflict. mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/ see ‘TheUS-DakotaWar’, www. Indigenous orFirstNationspeople. to relation in Canada in case ‘rations’. on back communities affected in people Aboriginal placed effectively which Scheme, Management Income enforced the of part as introduced was Card Basics The of theFederalLiberalGovernment. The Intervention, under the aegis the NTEmergencyResponse,aka was suspendedin2007toenable movement. rights land national domination andthestartof European to resistance Aboriginal as anunofficial anthemdepicting big thingsgrow’, iswidelyregarded Carmody’s song,‘From littlethings, and Indigenous musician/activist Kev and reformed in2009.PaulKelly the early 1970s, disbanded in 1983 AboriginalFlag.html www.aiatsis.gov.au/fastfacts/ Day March inAdelaide,1971. First flown on the 1970s’. early the of movement rights land the during people and nationalidentityforAboriginal flag, ‘created asasymbolofunity in Adelaide, designed the Aboriginal man from centralAustralia,living waving’, I love it, but leave me out of the flag 2007. MarkSeymour, ‘Australia. Sydney MorningHerald an upside-downkindofpatriotism’, for flag the Pryor, ‘Flying Lisa at viewed be can opinions Further Adelaide in1966. to family her with emigrated inWalesBorn in1961,Gillard Radio National,26January, 2011. immigrants. Australia’s first boat people or illegal that itistheofficial celebrationof their supporters.Asatiricalviewis and people Indigenous for Day became knownasInvasion/Survival day The country. the of visage a nation’, presenting a white-washed national slogan was ‘Celebration of bicentennial, an event for which the Day,Australia’s was Australia as www.maungarongo.com/page Further informationonthisperiod, ‘Aboriginal’ iswritteninthelower Six Six artist’s the reading: Further The Cold ChiselformedinAdelaide Prime MinisterJuliaGillard, ABC 26 January, 1988,knownannually N R ations originally comprised comprised originally ations acial Discrimination Act Act Discrimination acial The Age , 24 January, 2010. N ational Aborigines , 6January,

list of works This project through hasbeenassistedbytheAustralian Government theAustralia CouncilfortheArts,itsartfundingand advisorybody. Investment Fund2011 Definition Films,commissionedbyAdelaideFilmFestival the kindsupportofAFTRS,PanavisionAustraliaand courtesy theartist,produced byScarlettPictures with stills compositingandgrade:Jeremy Saunders digital colourist:Trish Cahill;compositer:BenBlick-Hodge; sounddesigner:LiamEgan; designer: SamWilde; producer: FionaPakes;editor: DavidGross; production 3D digitalvideo,sound,11:06minutes Stranded Kaytej languagegroup 1970,AliceSprings,Australia born Warwick THORNTON courtesy theartistandAR video, 13:30minutes Te PoOMatariki courtesy theartistandAR eight channeldigitalvideoinstallation,sound,30:00minutes Groundswell Ng 1964,Auckland,Aotearoa/ born Lisa REIHANA courtesy theartist film(digitaltransfer),sound,20:00minutes 16mm This IsNotDying Te UriRooiandTe Parawhau/ 1973,Aotearoa/ born Nova PAUL National GalleryofCanada,Ottawa.Purchased 2006 four channeldigitalvideoinstallation,sound,13:05minutes TwoRow II Six NationsMowhawkTurtle Clan 1953,Buffalo,born NewYork, USA Alan MICHELSON courtesy theartist four channeldigitalvideoinstallation,sound,11:25minutes Rattle Hunkpapa, LakotaSioux 1959,Yorkton,born Saskatchewan,Canada Dana CLAXTON and theMorrisHelenBelkinFoundation,2005 Council fortheArtsAcquisitionAssistanceProgram Purchased withthefinancialsupportofCanada The UniversityofBritishColumbia Collection oftheMorrisandHelenBelkinArtGallery, video installation,38:25minutes The NamedandtheUnnamed Anishinaabe-Canadian 1960,Upsala,Ontario,Canada born Rebecca BELMORE Puhi: Ng , 2003 , 2011 , 2005 , 2002

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exhibition partners. partners. exhibition and sponsors its acknowledges gratefully Museum Samstag The Genevieve Grieves and r e a, with their outdoor projections at Port Adelaide. Paul, Lisa vision of the artists: As always, this project would be nothing without the spirit, strength and who hasbeenajoytomentor. to and support, institutions’ respective Ash-Milby, andMeganTamati-Quennell DavidGarneau andalsofortheir Very special thanks to curatorial advisory colleagues and friends Kathleen generous supportandencouragement ofalltheirstaff. Adelaide FilmFestivalforinvitingmetocuratethisproject, andforthe appreciation and thanks to the Samstag Museum of Art and 2011 BigPond many individuals, organisations and institutions. I particularly extend my Stop(the)Gap an Aboriginalvisitor, as me livingandworkinginyourcountry. having for respects my come; to descendants their and ancestors their of thecountryinwhichthisprojectpeople, isbeingheld,theKaurna I wish to acknowledge and pay my respects to the traditional custodians Curator’s acknowledgments motion in art Indigenous making for artists participating and (Aotearoa/ Tamati-Quennell Megan curator, the to Brenda L Croft;gratitude internationaland curatorial advisors Kathleenacknowledgement Ash-Milby (USA),special very our to KatrinaSedgwickandAdeleHann, and mostimportantlyweextend thanks particular with Festival, Film Adelaide BigPond partner, 2011 our of appreciation grateful expresses Art of Museum Samstag The Printing: FiveStarPrint Graphic Design:SandraElmsDesign LaraMerrington Helpmann AcademyIntern: Curatorial Assistant:SarahWall Samstag Administrator:JaneWicks Coordinator: ScholarshipsandCommunication:RachaelElliott Curator: ExhibitionsandCollection:EmmaEpstein Samstag MuseumofArtDirector: EricaGreen ISBN 978-0-9807175-4-9 in anyformwhatsoeverwithoutsuchpermission. publisher. the from by anyprocess, electronic orotherwise,withoutpermission inwriting under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced permitted as Except copyright. is publication This reserved. rights All Copyright ©theartists,authorandUniversityofSouthAustralia W E T GPO Box2471, AdelaideSA5001 University ofSouthAustralia Published bytheAnne&Gordon SamstagMuseumofArt Curator: Brenda LCroft A SamstagMuseumofArtand2011 BigPondAdelaideFilmFestivalProject 24 February–21 April2011 Stop(the)Gap: InternationalIndigenousartinmotion unisa.edu.au/samstagmuseum unisa.edu.au/samstagmuseum [email protected] 08 83020870 R eihana and Warwick Thornton – you are all would not have been possible without the support of of support the without possible been have not would

R N ebecca Belmore, Dana Claxton, Alan Michelson, either may information be stored electronically electronically stored be information may either possible by their enthusiastic participation. enthusiastic their by possible

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Cover image: Warwick Thornton, Stranded (detail), 2011, film still, commissioned by Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund 2011, © the artist

Stop(the)Gap: International Indigenous art in motion , 2005

Rites of passage. Driving slowly down the coastal esplanade, parallel to a glorious stretch of seaside

in Adelaide’s north-west, on a classical antipodean summer’s day, I am gripped with a sense of unease II TwoRow and rising irritation. It’s the country’s biggest public holiday: Australia Day, 26 January, 2011.

Sell-abrasion of our nations by Brenda L Croft Alan MIC H ELS ON ,

Say it loud, say it proud, bung another snag on the barbie, skol another beer, bowl another ball at the In Stop(the)Gap, individual artists’ works roses are stripped bare by Belmore’s teeth Michelson’s monumental four-channel the name intimates, to be a dividing line stumps. HOWZAT! Everywhere I turn, my eyeballs are beset by the colours of another country – the vary visually and in content and media, as she summons the names of her sisters. work, TwoRow II (2005), wends its way between neighbours whose conflicts endure red, the white, and the true blue. Flags are flying from every second car, cruisin’ for a nationalistic but all address issues of human rights, The documentation is rough and hand-held, through southern Ontario, Canada. in spite of all treaties. bruisin’; embroidered on hats, printed on bikinis, shirts and swimmers; in temporary tattoos adorning as far removed from the slickness of a CSI/ the continuing impact of colonialism, and Following the Grand River, it takes the Nova Paul is of Te Uri Ro Roi and Te a multitude of faces and arms of young and old; snapping breezily from every public and many SVU/Law & Order episode as can be, and, cultural identity in a contemporary world. viewer on a panoramic expedition of the Parawhau/Ng Puhi descent. Her signature private flagpoles (since when did people start planting flagpoles in their front yards?). The faces are sadly, far more real. Belmore’s performative contrast between the Six Nations Reserve The emphasis is on both avant-garde film works use three-colour separation, overwhelmingly white, their gait relaxed and confident. The expectation is that all of us are willing to ritual is a cleansing reclamation of victims and non-Native townships situated on moving-image work – as opposed to still an early cinematic optical printing process be co-opted into this annual backslapping, colonial, self-righteous ritual. who continue to be denied equal justice. opposite sides of the river. The title and imagery or mainstream/traditional Western which creates mysterious, visually-layered I’m a big advocate of the Australian flag. We love it.2 palette refer to the purple and white Two film constructs which are effectively Dana Claxton is from the Hunkpapa prismatic images where colour and light Row Wampum, a traditional belt woven Cars (and a few motorcycles) of every shape, shade and decade drive by, reddened arms resting lazily showcased through existing festivals, and Lakota Sioux nation, and her family reserve play tricks with the viewer’s sense of reality, of wampum (clam shell beads), created on open windows, drivers smugly showin’ off... but for whom, and what purpose? And why do performative practice – as many of the is Wood Mountain, Canada. She was memory and time. She has said of her I feel like I am in the Deep South of the US of A, and that the Aussie-Aussie-Aussie-oi-oi-oi standard born in the mid-western plains region of in 1613 to document a treaty between work: ‘Like water that follows well-worn artists are multi-disciplinary in their practice. , 2003 is an inversion of the 19th century US Confederate Battle Flag? Both ensigns refer to the ‘Southern Saskatchewan, Canada, which adjoins the the Haudenosaunee and Dutch colonists paths along a river, channels of colour trace

Cross’, although in the case of the Confederate flag the cross referenced is the Cross of St Andrew, Rebecca Belmore, of Anishinaabe- US border states of Montana and North in Haudenosaunee territory (now upstate Rattle around significant places to my family.’ whereas ‘our’ Southern Cross can only be viewed in the celestial skies of the southern hemisphere. Canadian heritage, was born in Upsala, Dakota, the latter being a reference to New York). Its design consists of two rows This Is Not Dying (2010) emanates from daily Maybe my unease is linked to how these innocuous symbols of stars and nationalistic colours have Ontario, and lives and works in Vancouver, Claxton’s heritage. Many of the artist’s of purple beads representing the parallel, life around the artist’s marae (communal been increasingly appropriated for perversely patriotic purposes, and used like weapons. British Columbia, Canada. The official ancestors, including her great-great- peaceful courses of two distinct vessels – or sacred place), Maungarongo11, near 3 Canadian representative at the 2005 Venice grandparents and venerated leader Sitting Haudenosaunee canoe and European sailing

Australia. If you don’t love it, leave. Dana CLAXT ON , Biennale, Belmore’s oeuvre as a multi- Bull/Tatanka Iyotaka (1830 –1890), were ship – alternating with three rows of white Whangarei, the northern-most city on the With a sense of relief, I spy the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags hanging from the second disciplinary artist combines moving and forced from their traditional lands to the beads signifying harmony and alliance. North Island of Aotearoa. Everyday gestures floor of an ocean-front balcony, a defiant riposte to the (for now) restrained public gatherings on digital imagery, as well as performative and South by unceasing colonial injustices, – such as sun-bathing, fixing motorbikes, Michelson has translated the two rows into or setting tables for a meal – and familiar beaches, parks and lawns all over the country, a mood that will slowly but surely take a turn for the new media, grounded upon her experience including the mass execution of nearly 40 moving panoramic video footage of the spaces and places to her family and worse as the day lengthens, night starts to fall and more grog is consumed. Ironic, isn’t it, how some as a contemporary First Nations woman. Dakota men – the largest one-day execution sectors of the community are encouraged to drink in public places, while others are condemned? two riverbanks; depicting both Native and community become ‘other’ places and The Named and the Unnamed (2002) is an in American history – in Mankato, Minnesota, non-Native vantage points, the footage spaces of liminality and luminosity, filtered The red, black and gold of the Aboriginal flag4 first flew almost 40 years previously here in Adelaide, the installation incorporating her performance on 26 December, 1862. This massacre is shot with four cameras from a dinner by ethereal immersion in red, green and blue City of Churches, childhood home of our flame-haired Prime Minister as well as revered Aussie icons Vigil, conducted in downtown eastside occurred during the US-Dakota War (also cruise boat. The viewer’s gaze is torn, filters. Here, the past, present and future ebb such as Cold Chisel and Paul Kelly, one of Australia’s most cherished singer-songwriters, whose songs Vancouver as a testimony to the increasing known as the Sioux or Dakota Uprising) 5 simultaneously drawn from left to right and and flow on the screen. The film is entwined have become integrally linked to many aspects of national identity and history, both white and black. numbers of vanished First Nations women. which resulted from repeated breaches of 8 right to left, following the hypnotic flow of the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux (1851). , 2010 with a soundtrack by kaum tua (revered Over several decades, more than 500 So, why the title of this international Indigenous exhibition project: Stop(the)Gap: International the journeys which are moving in opposite M ori elder) and renowned popular aboriginal 7 women have disappeared Claxton describes Rattle (2003) as being ‘a Indigenous art in motion? Stop(the)Gap reflects on the role of vernacular such as ‘stop the gap/ directions. This ocular disjunction is performer Ben Tawhiti, whose slide and steel mind the gap/close the gap’ and its specific reference to contemporaneous Indigenous culture across Canada. The province of British visual prayer attempting to create infinity... accompanied by a four-channel soundtrack, guitar virtuosity acts as a call-and-response [m]uch like a palindrome’; in it, her intent is and politics; part of the general lexicon, the phrase is wielded about as political rhetoric and Columbia has the highest concentration, three channels of which document the 9 to the filmed imagery. Enamoured with commonly misconstrued. particularly from the inner city and along ‘to bring spirit into the gallery space’. The This Is Not Dying non-Native cruise: disembodied voices of colour and the significance of small acts visual and aural quadraphonic sequence On 2 July 2009, the Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, issued a press release Highway 16 (also known as The Highway passengers, tinkling cutlery, engine noises, of traditional horsehair and beaded rattles, to say who we are and how we determine outlining the Federal Government’s determination to ‘close the gap’ of inequity that has been of Tears) in northern B.C. Largely ignored and snatches of canned music vie with shaken in real time and streamed in slow ourselves, Paul’s lyrical works resist measured ever-widening between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Australia since the first impact by the authorities in what many consider natural sounds such as the rolling rumble N ova PAUL, motion, is mesmerising, melding ancient time. The moving images are like woven of colonisation in the late 18th century. This initiative was allegedly created to build upon the former an officially sanctioned lack of care based of advancing thunder. Central to the ceremony and contemporary technology in vignettes of textiles, layers of gauze, screen conservative government’s 2007 parting gift to Indigenous people in remote Top End communities: on the women’s race, low socio-economic audio, however, is the conflict and contrast a 21st century prayer or song cycle. Framed and screening, separating the senses, visual the Northern Territory Emergency Response, otherwise known as The Intervention. status, and supposed expendability, many between the cruise captain’s amplified by projections of customary beadwork, and memorial, and conjuring with light. women have been found murdered, some narration and the voices of Six Nations In the Intervention, government authorities – the army, in some cases – forcibly entered Indigenous the endless resonance of sound and sight Lisa Reihana, of Ng Puhi: Ng ti Hine, the victims of serial killer(s). elders who are speaking about the same communities to impose restrictions upon the inhabitants. These restrictions included the quarantining entices the viewer to enter into a trance-like Ng i Tu descent, is one of Aotearoa/New of welfare payments, and the compulsory introduction of a Basics Card6 which enabled recipients to geography in both English and Cayuga The Named and the Unnamed is Belmore’s meditation. Zealand’s most renowned contemporary purchase items deemed ‘essential’ from the local store. For many people, the card was considered nothing (a Haudenosaunee language). offering to the silenced ones, invoking their artists. Her works have been consistently but a return to the days of rations and apartheid-like regulations, particularly considering the fact that Alan Michelson is a New York City-based names, scrawled up her arms like tattoos 10 Cultural conflict is evident in the represented in international biennials and the Racial Discrimination Act of 1975 was temporarily suspended in order for these measures to occur. Mohawk member of Six Nations of the or scarification marks, their lives, their loved Grand River (Haudenosaunee or Iroquois). visual opposites of the filmed journey , 2010 exhibitions since the early 1990s. Reihana How does this recidivist action relate to international Indigenous experience, and what role do visual ones left behind. Globes of light twinkle His works address place, memory, and the – the Native side of the riverbank appears references personal and public historical artists have to play in response? like stars in the night sky, one for each North American landscape in profound, untouched; the other built upon, scarred archives, and melds these influences into Indigenous communities around the globe share colonial histories relating to dispossession, injustice, of the women from the downtown area. poetic, multimedia installations. Michelson by deforestation and development, with sophisticated, exquisitely-rendered digital

inequity and misrepresentation. Even in the 21st century, contemporary Indigenous art continues The harsh summer light of the gritty urban has articulated his fascination with rivers as trailers parked along the edges of the now- Po O Matariki Te and moving images. In Te Po O Matariki to be negatively configured through the historical contexts of Western art; its complex diversities and setting contrasts with the torn, frayed fabric natural borders, reflecting on the ongoing polluted river – contamination denied by (2010), silent film and glamorous days of issues are distilled through Western perspectives of ‘authenticity’, ‘authority’, and ‘tradition’. Through of Belmore’s red dress, nailed again and colonial impact upon local landscapes and the self-laudatory non-Native boat captain yore are entwined with traditional karanga, these practices, the capacity of contemporary Indigenous communities to engage globally, across again to wooden posts like a crucifixion. waterways as well as the ecosystems and in his monologic commentary. Michelson the welcome call-and-response by M ori

disciplines and ever-shifting borders, is misconstrued and ignored, arguably intentionally. Water cleanses, refreshes, reflects like tears; communities they support. reveals the Grand River, as majestic as Lisa R EI H A N A, women to those entering the marae, as part