A reflection upon things learnt

Over the past semester Iam amazed as to how much I have learnt in my Indigenous Culture class. Having known pretty much nothing about the cultural side of Australias first residents, I now know a whole lot. I can confidently identify the differences between different Indigenous Art movements, such as Western Desert, Arnhem land paintings and work from Torres strait Islanders. I can also say that I have diverse knowledge upon political and social reasoning within Indigenous culture. That being said, there is still a whole lot I don't know and I am keen to learn more. I think out of all the classes I have done at Uni, this is the first where I want to conitnue my learning once the semester is over. I have utmost respect for Indigenous Artists, whether they be Urban, Traditional, Torres Strait Islanders, movie directors, musicians etc. Their work is so diverse and I can't wait to see what contemporary influences will effect their practice in the future.

Thank you

An outing at the SA Museum

Today we went for a trip to the SA Museum to see the new collection of Yuendumu school doors. These doors were quite fascintating as they were created in 1983 for school doors to encourage children to go to school. They are from a remote community 250km north of Alice Springs in the town of Yuendumu. There were 30 original Doors, Nine that were on display at the Museum. They not only reveal ancient stories and beliefs, but also the scars of graffiti of exposure to the elements and the school yard.

Another thing I liked was the Tindale masks. These extrodinary masks were used by young Aboriginal men in a series of performances during 1947 preceeding their initiation. The masks combine ancient elements and modern materials and subjects. Traditional headdresses in the Pilbara region framed the face with rolls of grass wrapped in hair-string. these masks, cut from old iron are similary framed with rolls of grass wrapped in hessian. Images taken by Bridget Anderson

Torres Strait Islander Art

Today in the lecture we looked at Torres Strait Islander art. I have to say out of all the different branches of Aboriginal art, this is my favourite. There are three different types of Torres Strait Islander Art, that being, Traditional, Urban or Traditional crossed with urban.
An example of a traditional TSI artist would be James Eseli. Without understanding of any TSI artworks, my first impression was that he was a ubran contemporary artist. His work of the fighter pilot plane is acutally a traditional head piece about a traditional story/dance about the plane that crashed in WWII. Every single part of this piece is traditional, down to the fine detailing.

Urban TSI artist are ones that have moved away from TSI or are descendents from TSI and include reference to Western art theory in their work.

An example of a mixed Urban/traditional TSI artist is Ricardo Idagi whose dance machine won the Telstra new media award. This piece is a massive head piece with traditional moving parts to be worn in a traditional dance from TSI. What makes this new media is that inside the head piece is a video of the artist dancing with the headpiece on. It really is amazing to look at.

There is now a new wave of TSI artists coming out of cairns. These artists include Dennis Nora, Alick Tipoti, Ken Thaiday and Ricardo Idagi. These arists lack their cultural knowledge of their elders, and tend to explore issues of identity by referencing to traditional histories and 19th century objects.


Images can be found from : http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-12/ricardo-idagi-with-his-winning-work/2836148

Indigenous Design and Architecture

In the lecture today we had a look at the themes, designs and motifs that appear in Architecture around Australia and around the World.
One major piece we looked at was the Mosaic outside Parliment house in Canberra. This piece was designed by Michael Nelson Jagamara from Pupunya from a Sand Painting showing the tradition of the Walpiri People. It is suppose to represent the associated with particular places and of the moments of meeting and coming together.
What was something controversial about this work was that the artist did ask for the piece to be removed due to the lack of Government treatment for the Aboriginal People.
It's very odd to think that White Australians believe that to represent who they are, they need Aboriginal art to do this. It's as if White Australians identify Aboriginal art as theirs.

Later in the lecture we looked at the video about the Indigenous art museum being created in France. Here they asked many Aboriginal artists to create work for the walls, ceiling and flooring for the design of the building. I have to say that the works looked amazing!

Image from: http://www.genkin.org/cgi-bin/photo.pl/australia/canberra/au-canberra-0001

Mangjaka Arts

Went to an exhibition today at Tandanya about the Mangjaka artists. Theses are a group of artists from Fitzroy Crossing which is one of the most isolated Art Hubs in Western Australia. These works were extreamly bright and each was one unique in story and style. I like their use of contemporary themes and medium in their images as well.

You can find more information about Mangjaka artists at

http://www.mangkaja.com/ or

http://www.tandanya.com.au/ed98/mangjaka-arts/

How Aboriginies invented the idea of Contemporary art.

Today I found a really good book by Ian Mclean, the UWA Proffessor of Aboriginal Art and History. This book inlcudes many expcepts about their opinions about Indigenous Art in Australia written by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
One article I was intruiged by was called "Aboriginal Acrylics are the fictional voice of white history" by Nicholas Baume.
This article is basically saying how Aboriginal Art cannot be authentic if they are not created with traditional medium or symbols. Therefore is Tracy Moffat an Aborigianl artist? She uses a camera and hides Indigenous symbols in her work? Is Emily Kame Kyngwarreye an Aboriginal Artist? She doesn't use tradtional mediums like ochres in her work, she uses acrylics.

Another article that drew to my attention was called "Becoming an Aborigianal Artist"by Lin Onus. This article addresses the issues with tryin to bridge the gap between Urban and traditional Artists. Onus states that "Although the artists materials may change, the images and stories will remain stronge and everlasting".

Adam Hill- Message Stick

Today I watched a video from ABC's message stick about artist Adam Hill. Adam uses his artwork as a way to explore his own identity. He uses white icons in is work to represent his opinions upon society. Alot of the works he states are really just to "take the piss".

In the video we see him at his new exhibition "Assign of the Crime" which he describes as an Indigenous perspective of Australia and how it is time for a change.

When Adam was growing up, his parents didn't really talk about Aboriginal culture when Adam was growing up. Bob Hill, Adam's Father states "If you want to come to this country, you are Australian. I'm proud to be Australian and I'm proud to be an Aboriginal and I can't change that."

However, Adam states "You can't play the white fellas game ina Black fellas uniform" This could be much why Adam walks around in a suit as if he is a white business man.
This is what Adam is exploring in his work. He uses alot of lines to show his spirituality much like they were his songlines along with brightly coloured european influences.


Image from: http://www.aboriginalartdirectory.com/shop/artist/adam-hill.php "Wallaby Ted's Cousin"