August 12 - September 27
The artistic landscape of 11 different language areas of the Barkly region was showcased in an exhibition at the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute Tandanya in Adelaide, South Australia, this year.
The six-week exhibition offered a visual conduit to assist an audience down south to understand the regional story in all its complexity and diversity.
|
 |
Picture: Junior Jupurrula Frank with one of his artefacts
The long road to Tandanya
An extraordinary journey came full circle for a group of artists from the Barkly region who were invited to showcase their work at the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute Tandanya back in August this year.
Tying in with Tandanya’s 20th Anniversary celebrations for 2009, the two-year exhibition in the making, Artists of the Barkly, was officially launched on Wednesday, August 12.
The seeds for an exhibition were planted way back in December 2007 when a group of 10 Aboriginal women artists from Julalikari Arts in Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, sat down with staff and management from Tandanya at the institute’s premises on Grenfell Street in Adelaide, South Australia.
Representing five different language groups from the Barkly region, the women were on a professional development and arts industry study tour of public and private galleries, cultural institutions, Indigenous art collections and art schools.
Despite being somewhat bewildered by the sight of people openly drinking alcohol on footpath tables, embarrassed by the immodesty of Adelaide summer attire, and homesick for their country, the women absorbed an enormous amount of arts business information and cultural understanding.
From there discussions between Tandanya and Barkly Regional Arts, which represents artists and art centres throughout the Barkly, began in earnest last year. “Artists in the area were eager to join with Tandanya to help celebrate its 20 years of arts engagement and support for Aboriginal people. They also saw an opportunity to tell their story through their most effective medium, the arts,” said Alan Murn, Barkly Regional Arts CEO.
In mounting this exhibition, both Barkly Regional Arts and Tandanya were mindful to represent the artistic landscape of around 11 different language areas of the Barkly honestly and transparently.
Selection for the exhibition, which finished on September 27, 2009, was not about artistic excellence alone. “We presented a collection that represents long and short-term art centre support, larger communities with established arts networks, artists who have accessed arts skills training, or artists from small remote outstations who might simply be a couple of families painting together,” said Mr Murn.
The works are concerned with country, culture, family, kinship, language, bush tucker, animals and community life. These are the important messages from the region. As Junior (Jupurrula) Frank from Nyinkka Nyunyu Arts, Tennant Creek, NT, explained: “Us Aboriginal people, we respect our country and our trees. When I go out and cut tress I respect that tree and I respect that country. When I make it into a boomerang or coolamon or something I put time and effort into it. We’ve got respect for everything we do and everything takes time and effort and patience.”
Mr Murn added that the exhibition, which was opened by Dr Brenda Croft, senior lecturer at the Unaipon School at the University of South Australia, is about telling the regional story and offering a visual conduit to assist their audience ‘down south’ to understand.
“We gotta help them whitefellas understand,” saidAnnie Grant, Julalikari Arts, Tennant Creek , NT.
The journey to Tandanya has been long, according to Mr Murn. “But the truly remarkable facet of the journey is that a group of Aboriginal artists have worked together across the traditional language and cultural complexities to proudly bring their collective story of reconciliation and diversity,” he said.
Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute can be contacted on (08) 8224 3200 or visit their website www.tandanya.com.au
Words by Ktima Heathcote
Copyright Barkly Regional Arts 2010
| 
