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Hidden Midden uncovering truth Gold Coast Indigenous Artist Camp South Stradbroke Island 2019 Hidden Midden uncovering truth Gold Coast Indigenous Artist Camp South Stradbroke Island 2019 Hidden Midden uncovering truth Gold Coast Indigenous Artist Camp South Stradbroke Island 2019 We acknowledge and pay respects to the traditional saltwater people of Moondarewa (Yugambeh Language) and Durungjili (Jandai Language) and all of their descendants both past and present. On sandy dunes and salty shores, they held ceremonies with stories, songs and dances. They shared abundant feasts with clans, near and far. The Middens remind us of the past; the oldest continuous living culture in the world is thriving. 2 HIDDEN MIDDEN UNCOVERING TRUTH LEAD ARTIST Gordon Hookey | Visual Artist TEACHING ARTISTS Laurie Nilsen | Visual Artist Rick Roser | Artist | Artefact Maker Bianca Beetson | Visual Artist MENTOR ARTISTS Alicia Jones | Performance Artist | Visual Artist Libby Harward | Visual Artist FEATURED ARTISTS Felicia Agale | Visual Artist Colin Appo | Visual Artist | Cultural Keeper Lystra Bisschop | Editor | Writer | Photographer Alara Cameron | Visual Artist Sonja Carmichael | Quandamooka Weaver Mark Cora | Visual Artist | Cultural Keeper Sylvia Nakachi | Weaver | Photographer | Visual Artist | Writer Dominique Normand | Canadian Metis Visual Artist Will Probert | Photographer | Writer Rebecca Ray | Curator | Visual Artist Ronda Sharpe | Weaver | Visual Artist The South Stradbroke Island Indigenous Artist Camp is a City of Gold Coast initiative and is delivered by the Arts and Culture team. As a key action of the Culture Strategy 2023, the Artist Camp values and supports the elevation and promotion of local Indigenous artists. Photo by Jo-Anne Driessens GOLD COAST INDIGENOUS ARTIST CAMP SOUTH STRADBROKE ISLAND 2019 3 Photo by Jo-Anne Driessens Photo by Dominique Normand Photo by Dominique Normand GORDON HOOKEY “ART, TO ME, DOESN’T SIT ALONE. IT’S ACCUMULATIVE. NOT ONLY EACH ARTIST’S ARTWORK ACCUMULATES, BUT THE BODIES OF WORK, THE GROUPS OF PEOPLE, THE MOVEMENTS ... THE ART WORLD AS A WHOLE.” My brief was to take participants out of their comfort zone. This was encaustic. There was no obligation to do what I asked, it may not have fit challenging because I wanted the artists to feel relaxed. I was a bit the notion of who the artist wanted to be, but experiment, play and see uncomfortable with being a “teacher” and being categorised as a what happens. “lead artist”. Really, I’m an artist, I want to be like everyone else and engage on that level. I don’t want to be authoritarian with a rank or a Everyone was given a visual diary, it was part of the structure and a captain’s hat. In our way, when you do well you bring people with you. basic tool. Primarily, it’s just an example of how I work. Visual diaries can You make space for people. Right from the start, I said that I was there capture concepts at any time, and if you don’t write them down when to learn too, from the participants. And I challenged them to learn more you have them, you’ll lose them. I’ve filled whole books with pictures from me, than I did from them. and words (for clarification), and many of mine never materialised as a painting or a work of art, but it’s a bit of history. I never thought they I’d been on artist camps before but not in this capacity. To take the were of value, but when I look back at it, they were a witness of the time. participants out of their comfort zone, the only way I could do it was to In a nostalgic kind of way, many of them connect to a particular art. expose them to mediums they hadn’t used before, like oil paintings, Over the years, it shows your technique, how refined you are. and oil, wax and encaustic. I went to camp without any preconceptions. To see what unfolds in that environment with the participants and their Making art is an act of playing. The participants did that from the personalities because every artist is different. I wanted people to be who moment they got there. I gave the artists small morsels and if they’re they are and didn’t want to put pressure on them. The environment was taken by it, that encouragement should be enough to invest into it conducive for that, where people could just “be”. themselves. I provided the means for them to realise their own concepts and ideas. I got to know people and made some deep connections. I facilitated and prepared four workshops: visual diaries and professional We’re connected to the other artists from the previous camps, as well. practice; banner making with word-play; oil painting; and oil, wax and Now we are all part of that greater story. 4 HIDDEN MIDDEN UNCOVERING TRUTH Photo by Jo-Anne Driessens GOLD COAST INDIGENOUS ARTIST CAMP SOUTH STRADBROKE ISLAND 2019 5 Photo by Jo-Anne Driessens Photo by Dominique Normand Photo by Jo-Anne Driessens LAURIE NILSEN “SOMETIMES YOU’RE NOT ACTUALLY PRODUCING ART, YOU’RE SITTING AROUND TALKING ART AND TALKING ISSUES, AND THAT’S ALL PART OF THE PROCESS.” The act of sharing information is such a natural thing for Native people because those people could be their best teacher in the next few years. (from all around the world). It’s just a part of our cultures, that you share. Everyone’s art practice is different. You have to have some sort of idea Collaborative art, where individual artists work cooperatively, is of what you want to do. I’ll do preliminary sketches and develop my something I did early in my career. Holding things really close to your ideas. No one is as prolific with their journals as Gordy (Gordon Hookey). chest isn’t our way, what are you trying to hide? Ideas have been flogged Sometimes I’d have to hunt for ideas but most of the projects I’d have for thousands of years, except for multimedia stuff. It’s a bit hard to do some sort of story, like the willy wagtail, gather all that information, and a collaboration with someone if they’re holding back. Once they realise that’ll prompt ideas in giving the client what they want. Clients usually you’re giving, their attitude changes. When you’re both sharing and want little elements like that and I’m used to working that way because giving, the ideas flow easily and quickly. of my commercial art background. To learn a new technique is another string in an artist’s bow, and working The Midden is like the Artist Camp, when you brush everything back, collaboratively was part of my Concreation workshop. I taught that it reveals things. I got a lot out of camp, lots of things I’ve probably technique about concrete sculptures. It’s like carving sandstone but we taken for granted, like talking and having fresh conversations. Having an get a chance to do it while it’s soft, an imitation sandstone. The artists international artist there (Dominique Normand), was just another layer. It’s need to work together quickly because the concrete won’t wait, it’ll go interesting talking about her work, family, and culture. That’s what happens off. I passed that formula on, I learnt it from someone. It’s just another on the Artist Camp after the workshops and you’re sitting around the table, medium and that’s what the Artist Camp is about, experimentation and even over dinner, you’re talking about some of the things that happened getting ideas off other artists. It’s our love for art that we want to do that. during the day. I really enjoyed the week there, especially because I’d been Don’t treat me like I’m the big lecturer at the front of the class. idle for a while, it got me motivated. It kick-started me again. I encourage artists to introduce themselves to everyone around them 6 HIDDEN MIDDEN UNCOVERING TRUTH Collaboration with Laurie Nilsen Concreation ochre-stylised bollard, 2019 Concrete, coloured oxide Photo by Ronda Sharpe GOLD COAST INDIGENOUS ARTIST CAMP SOUTH STRADBROKE ISLAND 2019 7 Photo by Dominique Normand Photo by Jo-Anne Driessens Photo by Lystra Bisschop RICK ROSER “IT’S IMPORTANT TO ACTUALLY PRODUCE OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE TODAY IN A PHYSICAL WAY, A PROVABLE WAY, A DEMONSTRABLE WAY.” My guiding principle is you’ve got to practice these traditions to say net weaving. People learn by being set loose. If they’re interested in that we had survived. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, a lot of our culture was being something, when you show it to them, demonstrate how it’s done, revitalised. Before then a lot of the elders, particularly in the urban areas, they’ll have a go at it themselves. were political leaders (activists and protesters) and not so much cultural leaders because we were seriously fighting for survival. We weren’t Usually I only specialise in traditional methods and materials, and recognised as humans until the ‘67 referendum. After that, a lot of initially, I was going to make a driftwood raft and bark net, but this time things happened about our language, tribal boundaries, land claims, I chose to do a cross-cultural thing. In my mind, the evolution of our and the continuance of cultural traditions. watercraft (post-invasion to include new materials) deserved recognition too. Growing up on a creek in the ‘60s meant that every handy kid, or It was great to be invited to take part in the Artist Camp, as a anyone with a big brother had a tin canoe.

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