Barbara Weir

Born in 1945 at what was formerly Bundy River Station in the region of Utopia, approx. 240km northeast of Alice Spirngs. Anmatyerre / Alyawerre speaker from Atnwengerrp. Her mother (well known Utopia artist ) is Aboriginal and her father Irish. Being of mixed heritage, she was hidden from the Native Welfare Patrol from age two, and ‘grown up’ by her aunt, the late artist until the age of nine, when she was taken by Native Welfare whilst out collecting water. Her family believed that she had been killed.

She was taken to St. Mary’s School in , where she was told that her mother was dead and was forced to forget her mother tongue and speak only English. She was then fostered out to various families and schools in Alice Springs, Victoria, Queensland and Darwin. During these years she lost contact with her family but was determined to return to Utopia. During her time in Darwin, a chance meeting with a man from Utopia led to her rediscovering her family in the late 1969’s. Her first meeting on her return to Utopia was with her cousin, Utopia artist , and hence she was reunited with her mother, aunt and other family members. Having been unable to speak her language, she had forgotten Anmatyerre / Alyawerre, but by the late 1980’s had relearnt both languages. She was instrumental in a major land rights claim in 1974, which was successful. In 1985 she was honoured for her work by being made the first woman President of Urapuntja Council.

Due to return to her homeland and her unique relationship with Emily Kame Knwgwarreye (who was to become one of Australia’s best known Aboriginal artists), Barbara became interested in painting. In 1994 she, with other Aboriginal women, travelled to Indonesia to learn more about the art of batik. The Utopia women began producing batik designs on silk in 1977, and subsequently made the move onto canvas in the late 1980’s.

www.clement-gallery.com Page 1

On her return from Indonesia she began developing her own style, and her canvases became much sought after. In her own words, she says everything in her painting “is about my mother’s country”.

This area of land, Atnwengerrp, is considered to be special in local Aboriginal lore, being an important creation site. Her dreamings include grass seed (an important food source, used for making damper), bush berry, and wild flowers, which she paints using an explosive mixture of Aboriginal spirituality and modern white culture. Women’s ceremonies, or Awelye as they are known in , also play an important theme in her work. Her magnificent series of paintings ‘My Mother’s Country are derived, she says, from a song her maternal grandfather used to sing to her, of the creation of the land and the spirit ancestors that lived there, which she remembered during the entire time that she was separated from her family. These works are notable for their extraordinary use of fine dotwork, simultaneously used to represent the grass seed dreaming and to cover up the more secret-sacred aspects of land and law, such as waterholes, body paint, songlines, women and their implements, such as coolamons and digging sticks, and spirits. This story also takes other forms, such as in her ‘Mother’s Country, Sunrise/Sunset’ and ‘The creation of My Mother’s Country’ series, which she began in 2001 after further ceremonies at her homeland of Utopia. In the ‘Creation’ series, she has utilised traditional materials such as ochre, ash from fire ceremonies, dirt and sand, and has made the radical move (for an Aboriginal Desert artist) into the medium of oil paint. Her most famous works, however, are the ‘Grass Seed Dreaming’ series. Painted to preserve a traditional women’s bush tucker dreaming for future generations of Utopia women (Barbara has six children and is a grandmother and great-grandmother), the ‘Grass Seed Dreaming’ has proved to be extremely popular, especially after they were shown at an exhibition in the heart of Sydney during the 2000 Olympic Games. These lyrical works depict a native grass swaying and moving in the wind, showing signs (invisible to the untrained, non-indigenous eye) of animals (bush tucker such as lizards and bush turkey) moving within its depths. Like all Aboriginal art, any supposed Western ‘meaning’ of this work is multi-dimensional. At Utopia, this grass’ seed is an important traditional food source, It is collected by an ant, which only eats part of it, leaving the rest in a pile by its nest. Women then search for this ants nest and gather the leftover part of the seeds. They then grind them into flour to make a damper, which is, in Barbara’s words, “similar to a biscuit”.

Rabbits and cattle from the nearby cattle stations are threatening the existence of this plant, and Barbara therefore finds it doubly important to record this dreaming for future generations.

Barbara has travelled throughout Europe, America and Asia with her exhibitions, has received many commissions for her work and has been involved in over sixty exhibitions in Australia and overseas. Her work is held in many private and public collections, and she has held solo shows in Brisebane, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Zurich.

www.clement-gallery.com Page 2

Grass Seed

In the Utopia region, there are many varieties of grasses to be found. One such type is found in the Spinifex sand plains and sandhills that produce a seed that is collected, crushed and made into a paste to produce bread that the people eat.

This grass can grow up to 15 cm high and is reddish in colour. It is found throughout the year, but is particularly abundant after a fall of rain. Due to the grazing of cattle and rabbits the grass is not as plentiful and seeds are harder to collect.

In years gone, the Aboriginal people collected these seeds in a most unusual way. Due to the seeds ripening at different stages, many would fall to the ground and be covered by sand and lost from view. The Aboriginal people would look for the nesting site of a particular ant. This ant, collected the seeds and ate a certain portion and then discarded the nest, where it was collected, cleaned and then ground into a thick paste.

These seeds were an important source of food for the Aboriginal people and were collected by the women of the community. The practice of making this bread is not in much use today, due to the introduction of ready-made bread.

This grass is important to Barbara. for this grass seed has been passed down to her by her ancestors.

Exhibitions:

2005 Utopia Revealed, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle

2004 Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne Hogarth Gallery, Group Exhibition, Sydney

2003 “Light Over Utopia” Japingka Gallery, Fremantle Allison Kelly Gallery, Melbourne; Glen Eira City Council Gallery, Melbourne. Participate to the “20th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award”, Darwin Combined exhibition, DACOU Gallery in Adelaide

2002 Combined exhibitions with and Teresa Pwerle, Germany, France and Denmark ‘A Blue Night’, Charity auction of prints (done with Martin King, Printmaker from the Australian Print Workshop) for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, Crown Palladium, Melbourne Charity Auction, Brisbane Combined exhibition, ‘The Australian Aboriginal Art Exhibition’ (‘Nangara’), Shimonseiki, Japan Combined exhibition, ‘Minnie Pwerle and Barbara Weir’, Alison Kelly Gallery, Melbourne Combined exhibition, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, W.A

www.clement-gallery.com Page 3

2001 Combined exhibition, ‘The Australian Aboriginal Art Museum’ (‘Nangara’), Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Japan Solo exhibition, Santa Fe, U.S.A Combined exhibition, ‘The Australian Aboriginal Art Exhibition’, (‘Nangara’), Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art, Japan Solo exhibition, Chapman Gallery, Canberra

2000 “Women’s Business”, Chicago, USA Combined exhibition at Mary Place Gallery – Sydney DACOU in association with AMP – an official sponsor of The Sydney 200 Olympic Games, hosted an exhibition of mixed Utopia art in Sydney Combined exhibition, Gordes, Vaucluse, France Combined exhibition, Tandanya Cultural Institute, Adelaide Combined exhibition, Quadrivium Gallery, Sydney NSW Solo exhibition, Gallery Savah, Sydney, NSW Solo exhibition, “Gathering the Past”, Redback Art Gallery, Brisbane Combined exhibition, “An Affair to Remember”, ArtSauce, Singapore

1999 Solo exhibition, “Dreamworks”, Gallery Savah, Sydney Combined exhibition, North Shore Fine Art, Sydney Combined exhibition, Gallery Savah, Sydney Solo exhibition, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne Selected entrant in the 16 th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Award Combined exhibition “Caring for Country” Tandanya Cultural Institute, Adelaide Combined exhibition, “Utopia V”, Quadrivium Gallery, Sydney Combined exhibition, “Bush Garden”, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, W.A

1998 Combined exhibition, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne Selected entrant for the 15 th National Aboriginal and Torres Torres Strait Islander Award for 1998 Combined exhibition, SCEGGS Redlands, Sydney Solo exhibition, Chapman Gallery, Canberra Combined exhibition, “Utopia IV”, Quadrivium Gallery, Sydney ARTEXPO New York in association with Mandurah Ltd., New York Combined exhibition, “Women Painters of the Desert”, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane Adelaide Festival Theatre, Adelaide

1997 Combined exhibition, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane ‘Shimmer’, Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia, Melbourne Solo exhibition, Barry Stern Gallery, Sydney Selected entrant in the 14 th National Aboriginal and Torres Torres Strait Islander Award for 1997 Combined exhibition, Quadrivium Gallery Combined exhibition, “Ten Years On”, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne Solo exhibition, DACOU Gallery, Adelaide Combined exhibition, ‘Utopia Art and Sculpture’, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne Combined exhibition, Hogarth Gallery, Sydney Participation in “Dreamings of the Desert” Artist in Residence Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Combined exhibition, Quadrivium Gallery, Sydney www.clement-gallery.com Page 4

1996 Solo exhibition, Fire works Gallery, Brisbane Combined exhibition, Quadrivium Gallery, Sydney Combined exhibition, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne Solo exhibition, Gallery Woo Mang and Partners, Paris, France Combined exhibition, ‘Framed’, Darwin

1995 Combined exhibition, Davis Avenue Gallery, Melbourne Combined exhibition, DACOU Gallery in Adelaide

Collections:

Musée La Grange, Switzerland National Gallery of Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide The Art Gallery of Queensland, Brisbane National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Queensland College of Art Griffith University University of Adelaide AMP Collection Macquarie Bank Collection Holmes a court collection Ebes Collection-Workum, The Netherlands Artbank, Sydney Numerous private collections

www.clement-gallery.com Page 5