The Art Project
By Day 4 the Garma Festival had gathered about 67 of the 80
artists it needs to complete the collaborative 80-panel etching
called the Art Project.
The partially completed work, measuring 2 metres by 1.5 metres,
was displayed for all attendees to view until rain forced
the organisers to temporarily cover it. Artists spent the
day sitting under the shade cloth working on their panels
and talking to festival participants, even after gentle rain
started falling. The atmosphere under the Art Project shade
cloth was relaxed enough to provide a welcoming alternative
to some of the festival’s serious forums, but informative
enough to satisfy the cultural exchange that Garma inspires.
When finished, this beautiful and complex work will consist
of 80 individual, finely-wrought panels etched by different
indigenous artists, all members of ANKAAA. The project organisers
invite any indigenous artist attending the festival to etch
a panel in a design of his or her own choosing. By the fourth
day of the festival, designs included etchings of water lilies,
dolphins, stars, and more abstract designs representing land
features and sand hills. Styles ranged from graphic representation
through to the cross hatching and X-ray styles of Arnhem Land
and the densely patterned fabric-like designs of the Tiwi
Islands.
Superimposed over the entire 80 panels are two painted boomerangs.
Galarrwuy Yunupingu, chairman of the YYF, today took two of
the panels, one for himself to etch and the other for his
daughter to etch.
When finished, 10 copies of the total artwork will be printed
for the Yothu Yindi Foundation. In addition, each artist will
be sent a copy of their own panel, and asked if they would
like to approve it for sale. If they agree, they will be sent
10 copies. The YYF will keep five copies and five copies will
be available for general sale.
Please contact the Yothu Yindi Foundation if you are interested
in buying a print of one of these panels.
NT Arts Policy discussion –
general forum
The purpose of this forum was to discuss the indigenous arts
policy launched on Garma Day 1 by Clare Martin, the NT’s
chief minister. Today, Chris Capper, director of Arts NT,
provided an opportunity for Australian arts administrators
and interested observers to become more familiar with the
policy.
Among the strategies outlined by Capper were the following:
- The first area targeted by the NT Government’s
fund will be performing arts, with a scoping study undertaken
over the next 12 months
- NT government
will allocate some funds to educating artists about the art
market. Designed to combat short-term thinking that has
sometimes seen artists sell works when they require funds,
rather than when market forces are most favourable.
- NT government
intends to establish a $150,000 grants pool for indigenous
artists
- NT government
intends to continue to contribute funds to Garma
- NT government will compile export plans to assist
the Territory’s indigenous artists sell to overseas markets
- NT government will establish a new film office
- NT government
will boost staff numbers in NT Arts
Key, and mostly unanswered, questions to
emerge from Capper’s presentation debate were:
- How should the Territory’s government
measure the success of an arts policy aimed at almost one
third of the total Territory population?
- How should existing arts organisations –
such as community arts centres and their coordinating bodies
– be strengthened?
- How to ensure the sustainability of arts funding?
- How to avoid the commodification of the arts?
- How to protect the integrity and authenticity of indigenous
art production? (Partly through Trade Practices legislation
regulated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission,
which can prevent non-indigenous artists passing their products
off as indigenous works.)
- How to help indigenous artists think in terms of large-scale
production, particularly when it comes to capital-intensive
performing arts?
- How to ensure that potentially profitable arts, such as visual
arts, are not prioritised at the expense of performing arts?
- Why indigenous people were not extensively involved in the
drafting of the indigenous arts policy?
Participants in the forum:
Chris Capper, Director, Arts NT
Professor Jon Altman from the Centre for Aboriginal Economic
Policy Research at the ANU. (Professor Altman made his paper,
on which the NT’s new arts policy was based, available
to participants of the forum. Those interested in this subject
should approach him for a copy.)
Peter Young, Department of Communications, Information Technology
and the Arts
Derek Farrell, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission,
NT
Andrish St Clare, an artist working with the indigenous performing
arts community in Darwin.
Monday night bungul
Dancers from Numbulwar
began the dancing tonight after a delay of misty rain at the
Garma site. The Macassan dances of the Yirritja moiety, common
across the top of Northern Territory and Western Australia
brought the crowd out again with the young dancers providing
much enjoyment for the crowds that braved the damp weather.
The dancing symbolised Macassan praus on their annual visit
to North Australia, travelling across the coastline and arriving
near Numbulwar. Upon arrival the dancers took up the role
of Macassans paddling to shore in canoes and then an exchange
of gifts was initiated with women wiping one hand down their
forearm in a motion of giving.
The youngest dancer,
Ananis Nundirrbala (5 years) again mesmerised the crowd with
his prowess and stature. He moved from one side of the dancing
area to the other challenging other groups to get up and join
the dancing. His performances was continually encouraged by
crowds forming around the edges wherever he went and he was
rewarded by older women who came out to give him money for
his efforts.
The final dances for
the night were by the Gumatj and Rirratjingu clans who joined
as a Yothu - Yindi group to perform. They danced Ganbulapula
(ancestor) as he travelled through Gumatj country to Gulkula
the Garma site, digging for yams and being observed by Ngerrk
the white cockatoo. Witiyana, a well known Rirritjingu performer
instructed and led a large group of young children while at
the invitation of Galarrwuy Yunupingu from the Gumatj clan,
a number of secondary students from Brisbane danced with the
young men. The last dance of the night signified the ending
of the day with the settling of early evening fog on cobwebs
in the trees.
Yidaki Masterclass
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Garma, live and
direct
Those who woke up early this morning were
treated to a short performance by Yothu Yindi and young traditional
dancers. The performance was part of a live satelitte broadcast
for the Channel 9 TODAY show anchored by Steve Liebman.
Galleries,
Collectors, Curators
A discussion about the role of private and public galleries,
and auction houses.
Questions to emerge from this forum: What makes some works
more expensive than others? How to make sense of pricing that
treats indigenous artists painting from the same country and
same tradition quite differently? How to counter the activities
of “carpet baggers” (who make approaches to artists
independently of the art centres) and ‘back yarders”
(artists who sell directly to tourists in order to make a
quick buck)? Should art magazines be encouraged by curators/dealers
to compile league tables of “hot artists” in order
to boost the reputations of artists? Or does that cause burn
out as artists struggle to keep up with demand?
Participants in the forum:
Freddie Timms, ANKAA
Robert Bleakley (formerly of Sotheby’s, now a collector
of indigenous art)
Brenda Croft, National Gallery of Australia
John Mundine, art curator
GrantPirrie Gallery representatives
Knowledge Centres
Forum
Galiwin’ku:
Gandhuwuy Garrawurra, Director, introduced the Galiwin’ku
Knowledge Centre by signing an ancestral consecration for
Yolngu knowledge. He told the story of the history of recording
of songs and names, and a diagram of the three stages of Yolngu
knowledge as they are represented by different ceremonial
areas: garma, dhuni, and ngaarra. He showed pictures of different
ways bodies are painted for ceremonies to represent stages
in the development of knowledge of a Birrkili Yolngu. Jessica
deLargy Healy, PhD student spoke of her work helping the knowledge
centre develop, and then Neparrnga Gumbula talked about his
work as liaison officer for the centre. He presented a recording
of his father, Djawa, singing the song of the white cockatoo,
and demonstrated the links between the knowledge centre database
and the ongoing living Yolngu culture, by renewing the connection
by singing again the same manikay while Djalu accompanied
him on the yidaki.
Wadeye:
Frank Dumoo, Benedict Tchinburur, Malhima Long, Jeanie Jongmin,
Bernadine Kungul, Melissa Kungul, Mark Crocombe, Maree Klesch,
Allan Marett, and Rex Munar gave the first ever presentation
about the Wadeye Knowledge . The Centre comes out of a long
effort by Wadeye people to keep their languages and cultures
strong, and they have been working to put songs, dances, photos,
stories and knowledge about country and traditional foods
all in the computer so that young people can build on what
the elders have put together. They also talked about their
dictionary of five languages, and gave a living demonstration
of the names for different bush foods in four of those languages.
Lys Ford and Maree Klesch from Batchelor Institute have been
helping with the dictionary development., and the Northern
Territory Library and information Service have been helping
to set up the knowledge centre.
Photo: Mark Crocombe. People using the brand new knowledge
centre facilities at Wadeye.
After lunch, there were presentations by Linda Barwick, on
the PARADISEC project for digitisation of cultural materials,
Peter Toner spoke on returning recordings of traditional songs
to the communities they came from, and Michael Christie spoke
on a new research project designed to make databases easy
to use by Aboriginal knowledge owners in the ongoing work
of bringing up new generations of young people srong in the
knowledge of their languages and culture.
Visit from Nhulunbuy Primary School
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