SOVEREIGNTY EDUCATION KIT Australian Centre for Contemporary Art 1 2 CONTENTS Introduction How to use this kit Welcome to Country The Sovereignty Education Kit has been developed Curatorial introduction by ACCA Education to assist and extend upon Historical figures learning alongside the exhibition. The writing is pitched at a senior secondary level, Exhibition Themes & Artists with the intention teachers can use and adapt the information to suit their needs. Celebrating cultural identity and resistance Language and signs in contemporary society The information provided can inform further research The interconnectedness of Country, people and place or studies. Another resource with links to Victorian Matriarchal culture and wisdom and VCE Curricula has been provided, with examples The aesthetics of sovereignty and activism of learning activities to be used in the classroom. Support Material Glossary IMAGES FRONT COVER & LEFT: Further Reading References Kent Morris, Boonwurrung (St. Kilda) Rainbow Lorikeet, 2016. Courtesy the artist and Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne Installation view, Sovereignty, ACCA, 2016. Photo: Andrew Curtis Acknowledgements 3 4 WELCOME TO COUNTRY CURATORIAL INTRODUCTION Usually an exhibition at ACCA begins with an opening “Sovereignty itself is an inalienable, innate and and practices; the importance of matriarchal culture celebration. In the case of Sovereignty a traditional intimate right; its expression can be found buried and wisdom; the dynamic relations between activism Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony was within artistic works, gently emerging from inherited and aesthetics; and a playfulness with language and performed. ACCA is located in the Yalukit Willam practices, or boldly spelled out in new artistic forms signs in contemporary society. place of the Boon Wurrung peoples. A Welcome to adorned with confident lines, camouflage, electric Country and Smoking Ceremony is performed by the lights and bling.” Sovereignty provides an opportunity to engage traditional owners of the land to welcome visitors with critical historical and contemporary issues and to communicate that they are welcome and are - Paola Balla, Co-Curator in Australian society. The exhibition takes place free to use the water and food present on Country, against a backdrop of cultural, political and historical but must also respect the Country and care for its Sovereignty is an exhibition focusing upon debates related to questions of colonialism and children. There are three symbolic native plants contemporary art of First Nations peoples of South decolonisation, constitutional recognition, sovereignty placed on a fire, because the leaves are green they East Australia, alongside keynote historical works, to and treaty. create a lot of very fragrant smoke which cleanses explore culturally and linguistically diverse narratives the visitors. of self-determination, identity, sovereignty and - Paola Balla & Max Delany, Co-Curators resistance. Watch Arweet Carolyn Briggs from the Boon Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander audiences are Wurrung Foundation discuss here Taking the example of Ngurungaeta (Elder) and warned that the exhibition contains images and Wurundjeri leader William Barak (c.1824–1903) as a voices of people who have passed away. model – in particular Barak’s role as an artist, activist, leader, diplomat and translator – the exhibition presents the vibrant and diverse visual art and culture of the continuous and distinct nations, language IMAGE: groups and communities of Victoria’s sovereign, Indigenous peoples. Installation view, Sovereignty, ACCA, 2016. Photo: Andrew Curtis Bringing together new commissions, recent and historical works by over thirty artists, Sovereignty is structured around a set of practices and relationships in which art and society, community and family, history and politics are inextricably connected. A diverse range of discursive and thematic contexts are elaborated: the celebration and assertion of cultural identity and resistance; the significance and inter-connectedness of Country, people and place; the renewal and re-inscription of cultural languages 5 ARTISTS & FLOOORPLAN GALLERY 4 GALLERY 3 GALLERY 2 FOYER GALLERY 1 6 1. 8. 14. Jessica Bennett 19. 26. William Barak Amiel Courtin-Wilson Destiny Deacon and Virginia Born 1998, Wagga Wagga, Brian Martin Warriors of the Aboriginal Born 1824, Melbourne (Director) Fraser New South Wales Born 1972, Sydney Resistance (WAR) Woiworung/Wurundjeri Born 1979, Melbourne Ngunnawal Muruwari/Bundjalung/ Established 2014 Died 1903, Melbourne Lives and works in Melbourne Destiny Deacon Lives and works in Albury Kamilaroi Melbourne members include: Ngurungaeta (Elder) of the Born 1957, Maryborough, Lives and works in Melbourne Wurundjeri-willam clan Jack Charles (Actor) Queensland Nakia Cadd Gabi Briggs Born 1943, Cummeragunja, Ku Ku/Erub/Mer Born 1997, Melbourne 20. Born 1990, Armidale, New 2. Victoria Lives and works in Melbourne Gunditjmara/ Yorta Yorta/Dja Bronwyn Razem South Wales Bill Onus Yorta Yorta Dja Wurrung/Bunitj Born 1953, Warrnambool, Himberrong, Anaiwan and Born 1906, Cummeragunja, Lives and works in Melbourne Virginia Fraser Lives and works in Melbourne Victoria Gumbangier New South Wales Born Melbourne Kirrae Wurrong/Gunditjmara Lives and works in Melbourne Yorta Yorta 9. Lives and works in Melbourne Liam Dunstan Lives and works in Geelong, Died 1968, Melbourne Trevor ‘Turbo’ Brown Born 1998, Portland, Victoria Victoria Meriki Onus Born 1967, Mildura, Victoria 15. Gunditjmara Born 1987, Naarm/Melbourne 3. Latje Latje Clinton Nain Lives and works in Portland 21. Brayakaloong, Yigar and Marlene Gilson (Aunty) Lives and works in Melbourne Born 1971, Melbourne Yhonnie Scarce Tjapwurrung Born 1944, Warrnambool, Meriam-Mir/Ku-Ku Lily Graham Born 1973, Woomera, South Lives and works in Melbourne Victoria 10. Lives and works in Melbourne Born 1996, Hobart Australia Wadawurrung/Wathaurong Briggs [Adam Briggs] Tasmania Kokatha/Nukunu Arika Waulu Lives and works in Gordon, Born 1980, Shepparton, 16. Lives and works in Melbourne Lives and works in Melbourne Born 1985, Naarm/Melbourne Victoria Victoria Jim Berg Brayakaloong, Yigar and Yorta Yorta Born 1938, Melbourne Ajuka Julin-Turner 22. Tjapwurrung 4. Lives and works in Melbourne Gunditjmara Elder Born 1995, Frankston, Victoria Lucy Williams-Connelly Lives and works in Melbourne Steaphan Paton Lives and works in Melbourne Ngarringjeri Born 1940 Narrandera, New Born 1985, Mildura, Australia 11. Lives and works in Melbourne South Wales Dtarneen Onus-Williams Gunai/Monero Mandy Nicholson 17. Waradgerie Born 1993, Gunditj country Lives and works in Melbourne Born 1975, Healesville, Victoria Vicki Couzens Patricia McKean Lives and works in Swan Hill, Yigar, Yorta Yorta, Wakka Wurundjeri-willam Born 1960, Warrnambool, Born 1998, Warrnambool, Victoria Wakka, Bindal and Dja Dja 5. Lives and works in Melbourne Victoria Victoria Wurrung Steven Rhall Kirrae Wurrong/Gunditjmara Gunditjmara/Kirrae Wurrong 23. Lives and works in Melbourne Born 1974 on Wautherung 12. Lives and works in the Stoney Lives and works in Maree Clarke Country Kent Morris Rises near Colac, Victoria Warrnambool, Victoria Born 1961, Swan Hill, Victoria 27. Taungurung Born 1964, Melbourne Mutti Mutti/Yorta Yorta/ Megan Cope Lives and works in Melbourne Barkindji 18. Chamika Sadler BoonWurrung Born 1982, Brisbane Lives and works in Melbourne Korin Gamadji Institute Born 1997, Kingaroy, Lives and works in Melbourne Quandamooka 6. Queensland Lives and works in Melbourne Bruce McGuinness 13. Lillian Arnold-Rendell Waka Waka/Quandamooka 24. Born 1939, Cootamundra, Brook Andrew Born 1996, Wodonga, Victoria Lives and works in Melbourne Glenda Nicholls 28. New South Wales Born 1970, Sydney Darug/Kamilaroi Born 1954, Swan Hill, Victoria Reko Rennie Wiradjuri Wiradjuri Lives and works in Seymour Tallara Sinclair Waddi Waddi/Yorta Yorta and Born 1974, Melbourne Died 2003, Melbourne Lives and works in Melbourne and Melbourne Born 1997, Shepparton, Ngarrindjeri Kamilaroi Victoria Lives and works in Wood Lives and works in Melbourne 7. Olajuwon Bamblett Yorta Yorta Wood, Victoria Peter Waples-Crowe Born 1998 Lives and works in Born 1965, Sydney Yorta Yorta/Warlpiri Shepparton 25. Ngarigo Lives and works in Lisa Bellear Lives and works in Melbourne Shepparton, Victoria Born 1961, Melbourne Minjungbul/Goernpil/ Noonuccal Died 2006, Melbourne 7 HISTORICAL FIGURES WILLIAM BARAK consequences for his people.2 In 1875, upon the death of his ngurungaeta cousin Simon Wonga, Barak Born 1824, Melbourne himself became Ngurungaeta. Woiworung/Wurundjeri Died 1903, Melbourne Artist Ngurungaeta (Elder) of the Wurundjeri-willam clan Barak created artworks and artefacts prolifically Early Life throughout his lifetime, including drawings, paintings and objects. He developed a distinctive graphic William Barak was born into the Wurundjeri clan style and his images were almost exclusively of the Woiworung in 1824 in Brushy Creek, now representative of the ceremonial activities of his known as Croydon. He received a basic education people. He was also a master shield maker, and a at George Langhorne’s Yarra Mission School in carved shield and club he crafted are included in the Narrm, now called Melbourne, before joining the exhibition Sovereignty. Native Police as a trooper and tracker at the age of nineteen.1 It was at this point that he changed Barak’s painting included in Sovereignty is an his name from the original Beruk (meaning ‘white important surviving