Dec 1, 2015

Balnhdhurr - A Lasting Impression 

The print space celebrated twenty years of onsite production at the art centre this year and to commemorate this remarkable achievement I curated a retrospective exhibition of archived prints that launched at the Tarnanthi Festival in Adelaide in October.
This is much to say about this ! But it will have to wait until I find some time - until then here is a couple of photos of the exhibition ....





Aug 10, 2015

well , we just survived another Garma Festival and Gapan Gallery ...
just
some people may still not be talking to me for taking them to cape arnhem on the worlds bumpiest ride and then making them work like slaves for a week to enjoy the festival .... but they will forgive me one day ...
here is a big shout out to Zoe, Bronwyn, Donald, Heath, Andrea, Trina, Denise, Neil and of course, the forever organised wonderful Aimee for all of their phenomenal help before, during and after Garma. Without you guys, and the staff at Buku,  I would not be able to show off the beautiful prints made his year ... so thank you thank you thank you and thanks also for the laughs, dinners, BRF and your intolerance... i miss you all already ...
here is a just few pics of the massive time we have just had ...
Iggy and me walking on the hot salt plains after collecting 
mud mussels, cape arnhem
tropical crayfish caught especially for Zoe's bday
this is what the Gapan site looked like about 3 weeks ago - a lot of 
trees down post cyclone nathan - so a lot of clearing needed 
we got it to looking like this, but not without the annual gapan fight

 
before and after
hee hee

 we got up some ladders and hung some lights .... Donald got out the chainsaw , the boys moved trees
 until it looked like this





mawang and dindirrk labelling the art ...
we did a talk, some people come
 then it was all Garma festival activities, dancing, eating, listening and walking 
around ... the boys disappeared from 8am until 10pm and had a wonderful time...

campsite
 portrait of garma feet - it was good to get home on Monday night and 
have a really long hot shower ..... and wine .....
I will post some images of the prints next blog ....

Jun 4, 2015

last weekend we went here
which is to say we went here
This is Madarrpa country, a place called Baratjula.
The place the amazing women Nongirrnga Marawili, paints.  

 ' Baratjula is a Madarrpa clan estate adjacent to Cape Shield where the artist visited by canoe with her father and his many wives as a young girl. Her father’s name was Mundukul and this is also the name of the serpent (also known as Water Python, Burrut’tji or Liasis Fuscus) which lives deep beneath the sea here.
Her paintings show the deep water and the ‘curse’ or oath that the snake spits into the sky in the form of lightning from this place.
At the base of the image a rock sits firm in the Madarrpa land against which this sea crashes. '

(copyright of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka) 

We drove from Yirrkala on Saturday afternoon, two trophy loads of mostly kids, Yalpi, Rerrkirrwanga, us and Henry Skerritt, a visitor from the usa.
Not many people visit Baratjula, in fact after the cyclones we weren't sure we would even make it. We turned off at Djarrakpi and then spilt again on the road until we passed a homeland with houses, an airstrip but no residents and found a overgrown road to the beach.
On the map above the airstrip is in the top left hand corner. We followed that down towards the beach and drove up over the sand dunes and down onto the beach.
We stopped as the sun went down. In the rock pools we got oysters and huge blue crabs.


Rerrkirrwanga with her crabs ... 
Two Jabiru wading in the low tide
me in the sunset 
We got to Baratjula in the dark - the drive up the beach was something else - through and over rocks and up into the jungle again through a road that wasn't really a road and back on the beach again and over the rocks again until we got to the spot. We camped the night - made a fire, slept under the stars and listened out for Buffulo snorting in the dark.
In the morning we went to the very point, the very rocks that Nongirrnga paints - Baratjula. For her it had been a long time since her last visit. (In fact very few people go to this beach - many Yolngu we have spoken to have never been)
She was so happy to be there - it was a privilege to be with her as she sat on the ancient rocks that hold so much of her clan's sacred stories and knowledge, knowing that she had experiences here that were pre-contact.
everyone went hunting.



not me, I am just posing with a spear - and not Kade and Henry either - well, they tried at least but all the stingray was speared by Yalpi and his young son Djilil.

so we had stingray for lunch - so delicious !

Iggy and Charles - the best of friends - played all day 
looking like seventies crime fighters. 
we drove home - got bogged about 16 times per trophy - stopped to collect turtle eggs and made it back to Yirrkala by evening. It was the best weekend I have had in ages. Maybe EVER. amazing.
Mawang, Djilil and Iggy on the sand tune (between boggings)
Iggy and Rerrkirrwanga digging out the eggs 

May 27, 2015

Kade went to London to meet the Queen ... actually to meet Prince Charles... well, actually to attend an opening at The British Museum with Wukun Wanambi and Ishmael Marika. It just so happened that Prince Charles opened the exhibition so he did get to met him. ha! He said he was a 'lovely chap' (very British of him!) Prince Charles did manage to charm everyone there and Wukun got his photo in the newspaper having a chuckle with him.
Wukun and Ishamel sang and played yidaki for the opening night 
kade worn a cravat and drank warm pints of beer to fit in ...
jolly good show