Acknowledgements The Director, SASA Gallery, would like to acknowledge the contribution to the development of the 2015 exhibition program by the SASA Gallery Programming The curators Mary Knights and Claire Wildish warmly thank Committee; Professor Mads Gaardboe, Head, AAD; the artists Roma Butler, Ivy Laidlaw, Jennifer Mitchell, Professor Susannah Radstone, Dean, Research & Research Tjawina Roberts and Mrs Woods; the minyma tjuta involved Education, DIVEASS, and Professor Denise Meredyth, in the Minyma Kutjara Arts Project; and Nici Cumpston Pro-Vice Chancellor, DIVEASS, UniSA. Kapi Ungkupayi is and the Tarnanthi Festival team at the Art Gallery of South supported by TARNANTHI | Festival of Contemporary Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, presented by the Art Gallery of South Australia in partnership with BHP This exhibition was supported by many people. We would Billiton and supported by the Government of South like to thank everyone who contributed particularly Belle Australia. Davidson, Linda Eddy, Edward (EJ) Jones, Rene Nelson, Yvonne Lewis, Naomi Davidson, Inyika O’Toole, Delissa Curators: Dr Mary Knights, Director SASA Gallery and Claire Ryder, and the Irrunytju tjitji. Also we thank: Robyn Finlay, Wildish, Manager, Minyma Kutjara Arts Project. Suzanne Bryce, Ingrid Levi, Tara Russell, Danni Sturevski; Artists: Roma Butler, Ivy Laidlaw, Jennifer Mitchell, Tjawina Jane Avery & Papulankutja Artists; Claire Freer, Michelle Roberts and Mrs Woods. Young & the Tjanpi Desert Weavers; the Ng Media team; Editor and writer: Mary Knights Roz Lipscombe, WA Dept of Culture & the Arts; Luke and Catalogue design: Keith Giles Neil at the Irrunytju Store; the Mai Wirru transport team; Project management: Robyn Finlay, Keith Giles, Mary and the never ending support of the Irrunytju Council and Knights, Claire Wildish Community. SASA Gallery staff: On behalf on the artists, Nici Cumpston and myself I warmly Mary Knights, Director, SASA Gallery, AAD, UniSA thank and congratulate Claire Wildish who has worked at Keith Giles, Curatorial Manager, SASA Gallery, AAD, UniSA Irrunytju for the last four years as Manager of the Minyma Julian Tremayne, Installation Consultant Kutjara Arts Project and worked closely with minyma tjuta SASA Gallery Research/Education team: Lauren Albineri, to develop Kapi Ungkupayi. Jordon Gower, Ursula Halpin, Derek Sargent and Saskia Scott. The SASA Gallery supports a program of exhibitions focusing on innovative, experimental and performative Images: contemporary art and design. With the support of the Front: The Toyota, Roma Butler, Ivy Laidlaw, Tjawina Division of Education, Art and Social Sciences, the SASA Roberts, Jennifer Mitchell, 2015 Gallery has been developed as a leading contemporary art Back: Kapi Ungkupayi, Roma Butler, 2013 space and as an active site of teaching and learning. The Insert: Self-portrait, Roma Butler, 2015 SASA Gallery showcases South Australian artists, designers, architects, writers and curators associated with the School Published by the SASA Gallery, UniSA of Art, Architecture and Design, UniSA in a national and GPO Box 2471, Adelaide SA 5001 international context. September 2015 ISBN: 978-0-9873951-8-4 Printed by Finsbury Press © curators, artists & SASA Gallery Kapi Ungkupayi/He gave us water 22 September - 23 October 2015 SASA GALLERY Kapi Ungkupayi indicate that well before the current funding cuts remote Mary Knights Indigenous communities had been scored and ranked, without consultation, against very narrow criteria. That People are here for a reason, living out here on the lands, document listed 192 communities including Tjuntjuntjara, they have to look after their country. They’re not asking for Patjarr and Kiwirrkurra – well-known centres of artistic lots, they just want to live out here, teach their kids. Why do excellence – in ‘Category C’ as unviable; and Irrunytju they want to close the communities? They should close the (Wingellina) was listed as marginally more worthy of gap, not the communities... If they are talking about closing support in ‘Category B’.3 the communities and moving us away from here, they are going to destroy our culture, and the land, they are going Irrunytju is a small community with a population that to push people away, and all of the companies are going to fluctuates between 80 and 120 people. It grew at the site come here, take over and just start mining. They just of an abandoned mining camp and was incorporated in thinking about money… 1976 with the support of government funds as a part of …You wouldn’t like it if we tell you to move. It is not a life- the Homeland Movement. It is located at the edge of the style choice. We’re here for a reason. The people are here Gibson Desert near the tri-state border, within the for a reason – to look after their land and their culture and Ngaanyatjarra Lands. Comprising of an area of they want to keep that strong.1 approximately 188,000 sq. km., most of Ngaanyatjarra − Chris Reid, Chair, Irrunytju Council, Wingellina Protest Lands were handed back to the original owners on 29 Speech, 29 April 2015 June 2005. It was the largest successful native title claim in Australian history.4 The Indigenous peoples in this part of Senior Pitjantjatjara artists Roma Butler, Ivy Laidlaw, Jennifer the Australia have continuously occupied of their land for Mitchell, Tjawina Roberts and Mrs Woods have presented thousands of years and are the custodians of the world’s this exhibition in order to tell a new tjukurpa and as a oldest surviving cultures. On 29 April 2015, less than five protest against funding cuts that threaten the existence of years after that historic native title hand-back, the whole remote Indigenous communities in Western Australia. community of Irrunytju and people from nearby communities and outstations, came together to stage a In response to the Federal Government’s decision in 2014 protest march against the cuts and threatened closures that to withdraw funding and devolve responsibility for essential could force them off their own land.5 services to the states, WA Premier Colin Barnett declared that his government would not pick up the on-going costs, The contribution that Irrunytju has made to Australian art, accepted a final one-off payment of $90 million, and culture and our national identity is phenomenal. Irrunyjtu warned of the immanent closure of between 100 and 150 artwork is held in almost every major private and public art of the 254 remote Indigenous communities in his state. collection in Australia. It has gained considerable Approximately 12,000 people live in these communities.2 international interest, including the high-profile 2006 Without essential services – water, power, sewerage and commission at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris and, as is basic infrastructure – the capacity for anangu to live on well-documented, was celebrated and savaged during the their own country, self-determine priorities and future boom and bust of the global art market almost a decade directions, maintain traditional languages and keep the ago. This exhibition, which has been developed by the spiritual, cultural and economic connections with their relatively new Minyma Kutjara Arts Project managed by ancestral homelands strong, will be undermined. Claire Wildish, reveals the resilience and commitment of the artists in this small remote community. There is great uncertainty across the desert about who will be affected. Details of a leaked Federal Government Kapi Ungkupayi is a contemporary tjukurpa. It recounts a document titled ‘Priority Investment Communities - WA’ true story about a journey made in January 2013 by the five drafted in 2010 and published by the ABC in March 2015 senior Pitjantjatjara artists from Irrunytju and nearby Papulangkutja. On a Friday morning at the height of a willy-willy that blew the youngest girl far away. They were Summer, Roma, Ivy, Jennifer, Tjawina and Mrs Woods drove reunited when the elder sister was sent by her family on out-bush to collect punu to carve artefacts. They drove an epic quest journey to find her little sister and bring her along familiar tracks out past Karratha Creek towards home. As the two girls walked through the desert and learnt Urunturu. The sky was clear azure blue and it was about their culture, social skills and how to survive they blisteringly hot. made many landmarks that are still visible today. The rock- hole at Irrunytju was created when the sisters were sitting The flat sandy country around Irrunytju is sparsely covered indiscreetly opposite each other on two hills making hair- with spinifex and encircled by the low, worn-down string skirts in preparation for women’s business. When Wingellina Hills and the Tomkinson Ranges. Driving through a stranger walked past and started laughing at them they this country you are likely to pass a couple of camels flung their wana at her, hitting the ground so hard that the sauntering along the track, a meandering dry creek bed surface of the earth broke. edged with old river gums, a burnt out car, a lone eagle rising on hot thermals, and perhaps an emu or dingo. While the women were on familiar country inscribed by tjukurpa and shaped by tjuritja, they were acutely aware After a while, Ivy’s old Toyota overheated. They refilled of their vulnerability. Using survival skills they set-up camp, the radiator using most of their water and as the engine rested in the shade of the tree beside the car during the spluttered they drove along slowly until it shuddered and hottest part of the day, and in the cool evenings made stopped near a lone corkwood tree. They left the car to cool smooth depressions in the sand and lay under the stars, down and carrying axes and crowbars walked to the dry sharing blankets and keeping their dogs close to keep warm. creek to dig up the punu. In the late afternoon they piled They started a huge grass fire in a vain attempt to alert back into the car to go home, but it would not start.