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R Cultural warning: Aboriginal and Strait Torres Islander people should please be aware that this document maypeople contain who images have sincepassed or names away. of PART 1: Batik 1: PART A celebration of 70 years of art of years making 70 of A celebration ERNABELLA ARTS NO AR ERNABELLA ARTS: A CELEBRATION OF 70 YEARS OF ARTISTS MAKING PART 1: BATIK | Learning at the Gallery | Art Gallery of South 2 artgallery.sa.gov.au/learning

who own and control their business, are leaders in batik techniques and many other art forms. Their work can now be found in all Australian state and national collections as well as many overseas galleries. From its early beginning as a craft room, Ernabella Arts has firmly established a renowned reputationfor fine art, innovation and excellence. The Ernabella artists, image: attributed to Yipati Riley Munti, Pitjantjatjara people, SouthAustralia, born 1966, Pukatja (Ernabella), ,Ernabella Arts Inc., Australia, est. 1948, length of fabric, Ernabella, c.1982, SouthAustralia, batik on cotton, x 102.0 cm; 212.0 Gift of the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation Art 2012, Gallery of South Australia, , © the artist and Ernabella Arts.

or tool. , the, Pitjantjatjara tjanting ‘the Ernabella walka’ Milpatjuanyi . Opinions differ over the origins Ernabella of technique, a method creating of fluid, non- Tjukurpa image (cover): Imiyari (Yilpi) Adamson, Pitjantjatjara people, South Australia,2008, Ernabella, born Pukatja 1954, South (Ernabella), Australia, silk South batik, Australia, cm; 188.0 South x 110.0 Australian Length© Imiyari of fabric, Government (Yilpi) Grant Adamson and 2008, Ernabella Art Arts. Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, batik tulis geometric patterning using the artists have developed a widely-celebrated batik practice incorporating Ernabella walka and largely using the Japan to study batik. On their return the women shared their skills with artists in Pukatja as well as neighbouring communities. Over more than thirty years the Ernabella Yipati and Kuyata Jillian attended Davey (1946–1992) the Batik Research Institute in Jogjakarta, Indonesia to develop their skills. Later, other Ernabella artists visited In 1971 Ernabella artistsIn 1971 were introduced to batik by a visiting American artist who had studied in Indonesia. threeIn 1975, artists, Nyukana Daisy Baker (1943–2016), in the drawings children of at the Ernabella school in the 1940s and 1950s. practice story of telling in the sand, have been drawn. Conversely others see its origins in decorative designs based on flowers, leaves and the Pukatja landscape first developed or walka; connections to patternmaking practiced almost exclusively Ernabella by artists for the first fifty years of the art centre’s operation. Significantly, walkaavoids depictionsof sacred ancestral law that became known as anapalayaku walka (Ernabella’s design). Walka, translated as meaningful marks, was a distinctive curved design or fleece from the nearby sheep station. This hand-spunwool was then used to create hand-loomed woven fabrics and hand-pulled and knotted floor rugs with a unique pattern across an impressive range media of for seven decades. The earliest work focused on wool products, using the raw expanded, men have also joined and the ‘craft room’ has become known as an art centre. The Ernabella artists have been developing their art practice 1937, anda women’s ‘craft room’ was1937, formed in 1948. Over the years the women’s artmaking practice has permanent settlement on the A_nangu Pitjantjatjarapermanent settlement on the A_nangu Yankunytjatjara Lands. The Presbyterian Board of Missions established the Ernabella Mission at Pukatja in Pukatja, a community largelyof Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara language speakers, was the first at the eastern end the of in the far north west South of Australia, the centre is celebrating years70 continuous of operation in 2018. Established Ernabella in 1948, Arts is Australia’s oldest Indigenous art centre. Located in the Pukatja Community HISTORY ERNABELLA ARTS: A CELEBRATION OF 70 YEARS OF ARTISTS MAKING PART 1: BATIK | Learning at the Gallery | Art Gallery of South Australia 3 artgallery.sa.gov.au/learning techniques, on the one Tjunkaya Tapaya Tjunkaya were largely walka batik tulis lends itself to a collaborative and Tjukurpa batik p batik on silk, 140.00 x 140.00 cm; Ed and printing and Tjukurpa tja tjap but unifiedby thecentrality of stories about creation beings to both cultures. experiment with painting whilst still maintaining a batik practice. The works created in the workshop are some theof earliest examples Ernabella by artists the of depiction both of cloth. They also represent a period for Tjunkaya Tapaya in which her depictions of representational. The collaborative nature the of 2005 workshop drew andon the ancient spiritual traditions both of A_nangu culturesJavanese expression. shared the and of medium The process creating of process, due particularly to the multi-layered waxing and dyeing techniques. During the workshop layers of mark-making were created alternate by artists using a combination of each layer in response to the work the of previous hand. The result being a unique cross-cultural dialogue marked on cloth, speaking to vastly different cultures and traditions Yogyakarta, hand and Sue Tweddell Fund for South Australian Contemporary Art 2006, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, © Ernabella Arts. image detail: Ernabella Arts Inc., Australia, est. 1948, BrahamSari Tirta Batik Studio, Indonesia, est. Creation, 1985, 2005, Ernabella and , th , a in a piti, batik tulis print the of 13 batik tjap print footprints of and tjap kampurarpa tjap tells a mother of named , depictions ancestral of law Ernabella in collaboration with Brahma Tirta Sari – Tjurkupa or bush tomatoes. The figureof Kutungu

Tjukurpa . The , produced senior by Ernabella artist Tjunkaya ‘those tjitji tjuta (children) are feeling homesick, they want don’t to keep travelling. Kutungu tries and tries to get those kids to keep going but they sit down come and along. won’t She says “Pitja! Pitja!” (Come! Come!), but come they and won’t so she leaves them the kampurarpa and she travels on alone without them.’ and stories, into their work. The women had begun to in the history Ernabella of Arts. By 2005 several men had joined the Art Centre and artists had begun to incorporate the story Kutungu of and her children: in the quote below. The 2005 workshop occurred at a transitional moment kampurarpa is visible in the work carrying the a shallow dish on her head. The artist Tjunkaya describes Kutungu, who whilst travelling with her manychildren on foot over a long distance, gathered large amounts of fluid mark-making created using the tjanting tool. These figurative depictions quite clearly represent the Kutungu Tjukurpa iconography, representing women carrying digging sticks, signals this asa women’s story about travel and movement across country. Overlaid on these designs are The A_nangu story in the work is visible across multipleThe A_nangu layers waxing of and dyeing. A of theof soul. Visible in the work is a century Kawung design, a repeated geometric motif with parallel rows ellipses of and intersecting curved lines. representing the mind, Manikmoyo, representing spirit and representing Semar, intuition. The story speaks to the need to balance these three elements to reach harmony of Mahabarata,of a teaching central to Hindu philosophy. The central characters that inhabit this story are Togok, Tapaya, in collaborationTapaya, with the visiting artists, speaks and one Javanese.to two creation stories, one A_nangu The Javanesestory depicted is part the of creation story Josephine Mick, Imiyari (Yilpi) Adamson and Niningka Lewis. Creation The Aboriginal artists involved in this workshop included Tjunkaya Alison Tapaya, Milyika Carroll, Renita Stanley, a core group Ernabella of batik artists to technique printing of repeated often geometric motifs on cloth using a series handcrafted of metal stamps. from Brahma Tirta Sari, a Central Javanese batik studio in Yogyakarta. Artists Agus Ismoyo, Nia Fliam, and Dwi Raharjo travelled from Yogyakarta for the workshop, introducing The cross-cultural batik exchange continued in 2005 during a three-week batik workshop in Ernabella with artists CREATION ERNABELLA ARTS: A CELEBRATION OF 70 YEARS OF ARTISTS MAKING PART 1: BATIK | Learning at the Gallery | Art Gallery of South Australia 4 artgallery.sa.gov.au/learning

image: Ernabella Arts Inc., Australia, est. 1948, Renita (Nyalapantja)Stanley, Pitjantjatjara people, South Australia, born Pukatja 1962, (Ernabella), South Australia, Josephine Mick, PitjantjatjaraSouth people, Australia, born Pukatja 1955, (Ernabella), South Australia,of fabric, length 2005, Ernabella, South Australia, silk batik, cm; 240.0 x 110.0 Ed andSue Tweddell Fund for South Australian Contemporary Art 2006, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, © the artists and Ernabella Arts. batik. How do you Creation and consider which marks Creation is made using by multiple layers waxing of ? What do you think these symbols represent? is a collaboration between two cultures. depicts two stories ancestral of creation, one Creation with a melted candle onto a large sheet Once paper. of dry, apply diluted acrylic paint over your wax designs. many ‘histories’ are represented in your group? Design a set symbol/s of or geometric patterns representing your individual stories and histories. Draw your design Creation Working in a group create a collaborative work. How Consider what each layer might represent, perhaps a different generation, person significant personal or or family events in your life. batik and dyeing. Draw various aspects your of design onto separate sheets tracing of paper and overlap them. Create a design that depicts symbols that represent the traditions passed down in your family. The collaborative two stories and the narrative elements they share. Making Creation similarities the Discuss differences and between these Creation and one Javanese. What characteristicsA_nangu do they share? What symbols or patterns do you recognise in particularly on the ways the artist has line, used colour, pattern and shape. created Ernabella by artists, including a 2008 batik work Tjunkaya by Discuss Tapaya. the differences and similarities between these two works focusing tulis technique. In the Gallery you will also see other batik works think the artists made the marks you selected? Identify which areas the of work have been created using the tjap technique and those marks made using the batik Before visiting the Gallery, watch some videos on batik techniques (see resource list). Use a viewfinder to isolate a section the of the Brahma Tirta Sari studio. What did you notice that made you come to your conclusions? Look carefully at may be the work Ernabella of artist Tjunkaya Tapaya and which marks may be the work the of artists from Responding RESPONDING MAKING AND ERNABELLA ARTS: A CELEBRATION OF 70 YEARS OF ARTISTS MAKING PART 1: BATIK | Learning at the Gallery | Art Gallery of South Australia 5 artgallery.sa.gov.au/learning

handle. – the name for a style of ) or in contemporary times a bush tomatoes. bamboo – the Pitjantjatjara word for the – – a technique batik of production milpa – the Pitjantjatjara word for sacred – a pen-like tool used to apply liquid – a 13th century– a 13th Javanese design utilised illustrating aspects the of narrative. This ephemeral mode storytelling of is practiced exclusively by women and young girls, but most often tells stories that can be observed all. by Tjanting hot wax to material in the production batik of (in which molten waxis poured (into) and then used to decorate the surface the of cloth) in often fluid non-geometric Traditionallydesigns. the tool consisted a copper of wax-container with small pipe spout and Tjukurpa ancestral law. Batik tulis created using the canting tool to create fluid, most often non-geometric, design on cloth. Ernabella walka distinctive curvilinear mark-making originating in Pukatja or the Ernabella Mission, as it was once known. Significantly these designs are secular and avoid any depiction sacred of ancestral law. Kampurarpa Kawung in batiktjap production that consists parallel of rows ellipsesof and intersecting curved lines. Milpatjuanyi practice story-telling of in the sand using a strong short stick ( piece wire. of The storyteller seated on the ground uses one hand to rhythmically beat the earth with the stick and the other to create images in the sand – a technique batik of production created by – a term in both the Pitjantjatjara and – a technique wax-resistant of dyeing originating a series handcrafted of metal stamps. Batik tjap printing repeated, often geometric, motifs on cloth using Batik from Indonesia. people. However the term is most commonly used to refer to Aboriginal people from theCentral and Western Deserts. A _n aYankunytjatjara languages which directly n translated means g u GLOSSARY Courtesy the artist and Ernabella Arts. image: Tjunkaya Tapaya, Pitjantjatjara people, South Australia, Antalya, born1947, , length of fabric, 2008, Ernabella, South Australia, silk batik, cm; 185.0 South x 110.0 Australian Government Grant 2008, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, ERNABELLA ARTS: A CELEBRATION OF 70 YEARS OF ARTISTS MAKING PART 1: BATIK | Learning at the Gallery | Art Gallery of South Australia 6 artgallery.sa.gov.au/learning

art s Batik tjap Demonstration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzjCnoCb6w4 Batik Demonstration Tulis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vdty5czQ-o WEBSITES ArtsErnabella http://www.ernabellaarts.com.au/ De http://desart.com.au/ National Museum Australia, of Ernabella Arts Collection http://www.nma.gov.au/collections/highlights/ ernabella-arts-collection National Gallery Victoria, of Across the Desert exhibition https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/across-the- desert/ Australian Batik Museum – Processes https://australianmuseum.net.au/the-batik-process Australian Museum – Batik: The Forbidden Designs of Java https://australianmuseum.net.au/batik-the-forbidden- designs-of-java VIDEOS Hannah Kothe from Ernabella Arts Inc and Learning at the Gallery. , National Gallery Victoria, of

Raiki Wara: long Cloth from Aboriginal This resource has been developed in collaboration​ Warka irititja numu kuwari kutu – Work from , National Gallery Victoria, of 2008. Across the Desert Aboriginal Batik from Central , Ernabella Arts Incorporated, 1998. Arts Australia Ed. Partos, L. the past and present: a celebration fifty of yearsof Ernabella Australia and the Torres Strait 1998. Ryan, J. BOOKS Ryan, J and Healy, R. RESOURCES