She was like the lizard that fell into the water and became a crocodile works with land through photographs that are cut, reassembled, and sutured into collaged forms. The seams have been left open; the ruptures are central to each work. Observing the sutured landscapes becomes a meditation on responsibility and on the uneasy coexistence of care, complicity, and inherited harm. The collages return the act of looking back onto the viewer, presenting their scars. To engage with them is to confront one’s position within ongoing colonial systems and to acknowledge the violences that remain embedded in the land and in the systems that have fractured its sovereignty. To look to the land is to feel the weight of what has been done to it and to those who belong to it, while recognising how it continues to nourish, restore, and strengthen. Looking demands attentiveness and accountability, insisting on the ethical and relational dimensions of vision itself. The images collaged throughout She was like the lizard that fell into the water and became a crocodile combine photographs taken by the artist on unceded Country in south-western Victoria over the past decade —across the lands of the Wauthaurong, Bunurong, Wadawurrung, and Gunditjmara —with archival material sourced from the State Library of Victoria of the same areas. The archival images, produced exclusively by white colonial settler photographers, documented and mapped the land, creating visual records that both precede and actively participate in the colonial inscription of place. By bringing these materials into dialogue, the work creates a confrontation between lived Indigenous presence and the extractive logic of the colonial archive.A series of ten photographic collages 2O.5 X 15CM EACHfirst nations art, aboriginal australian art, gunditjmara culture, djabwurrung culture, indigenous knowledge systems, indigenous sovereignty, cultural reclamation, cultural memory, storytelling, contemporary indigenous identity, aboriginal women, womanhood, motherhood, indigenous feminism, spirituality, first nations, photography

Daniel Boyd’s practice often investigates complex or contrasting forces, such as the primitive and the modern, this world and the next, and traditional techniques fused with contemporary methods. He completed a Bachelor of Arts at the Australian National University School of Art and in 2012 he was artist-in-residence at the Natural History Museum in London. There he reflected on the Museums collection’s historic images concerning the First Fleet’s arrival in Australia and their tendency to obscure the original identity of any indigenous subjects. It was during this residency he researched and made the Up In Smoke Tour series of work that concerns this omission and the lives of Indigenous Australians following the bleak realities of colonialism. Using archival resin glue and watercolour on photocopied images to recast and reimagine dot-paintings, Boyd masks attempts to identify the image or narrative of his works. He reinterprets Aboriginal and Australian-European history through recasting artworks and icons and altering the familiar interpretation of materials, here using Museum specimen boxes that previously contained the bones of Aboriginal people.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, cultural identity, daniel boyd, painting, assemblage

James Tylor’s practice examines racial and cultural identity in Australian contemporary society and social history. He explores Australian cultural representation through his multi-racial heritage comprising Aboriginal, English, and Maori Australian ancestry. This interest is informed using these media in that era to document Indigenous Australian and Maori culture. Tylor reminds us of what has been removed from the view of the Australian landscape, and reflects on the limitations of the romantic landscape tradition itself - the tensions between Australian and Indigenous histories.Digital print on Hahnemühle paperstonnington contemporary art collection, landscape, cultural identity, first peoples, post colonialism, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, mixed media, photography, james tylor

James Tylor’s practice examines racial and cultural identity in Australian contemporary society and social history. He explores Australian cultural representation through his multi-racial heritage comprising Aboriginal, English, and Maori Australian ancestry. This interest is informed using these media in that era to document Indigenous Australian and Maori culture. Tylor reminds us of what has been removed from the view of the Australian landscape, and reflects on the limitations of the romantic landscape tradition itself - the tensions between Australian and Indigenous histories.Digital print on Hahnemühle paperstonnington contemporary art collection, landscape, cultural identity, first peoples, post colonialism, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, james tylor, mixed media, photography

James Tylor’s practice examines racial and cultural identity in Australian contemporary society and social history. He explores Australian cultural representation through his multi-racial heritage comprising Aboriginal, English, and Maori Australian ancestry. This interest is informed using these media in that era to document Indigenous Australian and Maori culture. Tylor reminds us of what has been removed from the view of the Australian landscape, and reflects on the limitations of the romantic landscape tradition itself - the tensions between Australian and Indigenous histories. Digital print on Hahnemühle paperstonnington contemporary art collection, landscape, cultural identity, first peoples, post colonialism, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, mixed media, photography, james tylor

James Tylor’s practice examines racial and cultural identity in Australian contemporary society and social history. He explores Australian cultural representation through his multi-racial heritage comprising Aboriginal, English, and Maori Australian ancestry. This interest is informed using these media in that era to document Indigenous Australian and Maori culture. Tylor reminds us of what has been removed from the view of the Australian landscape, and reflects on the limitations of the romantic landscape tradition itself - the tensions between Australian and Indigenous histories.Digital print on Hahnemühle paperstonnington contemporary art collection, landscape, cultural identity, first peoples, post colonialism, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, mixed media, photography, james tylor

James Tylor’s practice examines racial and cultural identity in Australian contemporary society and social history. He explores Australian cultural representation through his multi-racial heritage comprising Aboriginal, English, and Maori Australian ancestry. This interest is informed using these media in that era to document Indigenous Australian and Maori culture. Tylor reminds us of what has been removed from the view of the Australian landscape, and reflects on the limitations of the romantic landscape tradition itself - the tensions between Australian and Indigenous histories.Digital print on Hahnemühle paperstonnington contemporary art collection, landscape, cultural identity, first peoples, post colonialism, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, james tylor, mixed media, photography

James Tylor’s practice examines racial and cultural identity in Australian contemporary society and social history. He explores Australian cultural representation through his multi-racial heritage comprising Aboriginal, English, and Maori Australian ancestry. This interest is informed using these media in that era to document Indigenous Australian and Maori culture. Tylor reminds us of what has been removed from the view of the Australian landscape, and reflects on the limitations of the romantic landscape tradition itself - the tensions between Australian and Indigenous histories. Digital print on Hahnemühle paperstonnington contemporary art collection, landscape, cultural identity, first peoples, post colonialism, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, mixed media, photography, james tylor

James Tylor’s practice examines racial and cultural identity in Australian contemporary society and social history. He explores Australian cultural representation through his multi-racial heritage comprising Aboriginal, English, and Maori Australian ancestry. This interest is informed using these media in that era to document Indigenous Australian and Maori culture. Tylor reminds us of what has been removed from the view of the Australian landscape, and reflects on the limitations of the romantic landscape tradition itself - the tensions between Australian and Indigenous histories.Digital print on Hahnemühle paperstonnington contemporary art collection, landscape, cultural identity, post colonialism, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, mixed media, photography, james tylor

1. Rock-art of the Western Desert and Pilbara: Pigment dates provide new perspectives on the role of art in the Australian arid zone Jo McDonald (Australian National University) and Peter Veth (Australian National University) Systematic analysis of engraved and painted art from the Western Desert and Pilbara has allowed us to develop a spatial model for discernable style provinces. Clear chains of stylistic connection can be demonstrated from the Pilbara coast to the desert interior with distinct and stylistically unique rock-art bodies. Graphic systems appear to link people over short, as well as vast, distances, and some of these style networks appear to have operated for very long periods of time. What are the social dynamics that could produce unique style provinces, as well as shared graphic vocabularies, over 1000 kilometres? Here we consider language boundaries within and between style provinces, and report on the first dates for pigment rock-art from the Australian arid zone and reflect on how these dates from the recent past help address questions of stylistic variability through space and time. 2. Painting and repainting in the west Kimberley Sue O?Connor, Anthony Barham (Australian National University) and Donny Woolagoodja (Mowanjum Community, Derby) We take a fresh look at the practice of repainting, or retouching, rockart, with particular reference to the Kimberley region of Western Australia. We discuss the practice of repainting in the context of the debate arising from the 1987 Ngarinyin Cultural Continuity Project, which involved the repainting of rock-shelters in the Gibb River region of the western Kimberley. The ?repainting debate? is reviewed here in the context of contemporary art production in west Kimberley Indigenous communities, such as Mowanjum. At Mowanjum the past two decades have witnessed an artistic explosion in the form of paintings on canvas and board that incorporate Wandjina and other images inspired by those traditionally depicted on panels in rock-shelters. Wandjina also represents the key motif around which community desires to return to Country are articulated, around which Country is curated and maintained, and through which the younger generations now engage with their traditional lands and reach out to wider international communities. We suggest that painting in the new media represents a continuation or transference of traditional practice. Stories about the travels, battles and engagements of Wandjina and other Dreaming events are now retold and experienced in the communities with reference to the paintings, an activity that is central to maintaining and reinvigorating connection between identity and place. The transposition of painting activity from sites within Country to the new ?out-of-Country? settlements represents a social counterbalance to the social dislocation that arose from separation from traditional places and forced geographic moves out-of-Country to government and mission settlements in the twentieth century. 3. Port Keats painting: Revolution and continuity Graeme K Ward (AIATSIS) and Mark Crocombe (Thamarrurr Regional Council) The role of the poet and collector of ?mythologies?, Roland Robinson, in prompting the production of commercial bark-painting at Port Keats (Wadeye), appears to have been accepted uncritically - though not usually acknowledged - by collectors and curators. Here we attempt to trace the history of painting in the Daly?Fitzmaurice region to contextualise Robinson?s contribution, and to evaluate it from both the perspective of available literature and of accounts of contemporary painters and Traditional Owners in the Port Keats area. It is possible that the intervention that Robinson might have considered revolutionary was more likely a continuation of previously well established cultural practice, the commercial development of which was both an Indigenous ?adjustment? to changing socio-cultural circumstances, and a quiet statement of maintenance of identity by strong individuals adapting and attempting to continue their cultural traditions. 4. Negotiating form in Kuninjku bark-paintings Luke Taylor (AIATSIS) Here I examine social processes involved in the manipulation of painted forms of bark-paintings among Kuninjku artists living near Maningrida in Arnhem Land. Young artists are taught to paint through apprenticeships that involve exchange of skills in producing form within extended family groups. Through apprenticeship processes we can also see how personal innovations are shared among family and become more regionally located. Lately there have been moves by senior artists to establish separate out-stations and to train their wives and daughters to paint. At a stylistic level the art now creates a greater sense of family autonomy and yet the subjects link the artists back in to much broader social networks. 5. Making art and making culture in far western New South Wales Lorraine Gibson This contribution is based on my ethnographic fieldwork. It concerns the intertwining aspects of the two concepts of art and culture and shows how Aboriginal people in Wilcannia in far western New South Wales draw on these concepts to assert and create a distinctive cultural identity for themselves. Focusing largely on the work of one particular artist, I demonstrate the ways in which culture (as this is considered) is affectively experienced and articulated as something that one ?comes into contact with? through the practice of art-making. I discuss the social and cultural role that art-making, and art talk play in considering, mediating and resolving issues to do with cultural subjectivity, authority and identity. I propose that in thinking about the content of the art and in making the art, past and present matters of interest, of difficulty and of pleasure are remembered, considered, resolved and mediated. Culture (as this is considered by Wilcannia Aboriginal people) is also made anew; it comes about through the practice of artmaking and in displaying and talking about the art work. Culture as an objectified, tangible entity is moreover writ large and made visible through art in ways that are valued by artists and other community members. The intersections between Aboriginal peoples, anthropologists, museum collections and published literature, and the network of relations between, are also shown to have interesting synergies that play themselves out in the production of art and culture. 6. Black on White: Or varying shades of grey? Indigenous Australian photo-media artists and the ?making of? Aboriginality Marianne Riphagen (Radboud University, The Netherlands) In 2005 the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne presented the Indigenous photo-media exhibition Black on White. Promising to explore Indigenous perspectives on non-Aboriginality, its catalogue set forth two questions: how do Aboriginal artists see the people and culture that surrounds them? Do they see non-Aboriginal Australians as other? However, art works produced for this exhibition rejected curatorial constructions of Black and White, instead presenting viewers with more complex and ambivalent notions of Aboriginality and non-Aboriginality. This paper revisits the Black on White exhibition as an intercultural event and argues that Indigenous art practitioners, because of their participation in a process to signify what it means to be Aboriginal, have developed new forms of Aboriginality. 7. Culture production Rembarrnga way: Innovation and tradition in Lena Yarinkura?s and Bob Burruwal?s metal sculptures Christiane Keller (University of Westerna Australia) Contemporary Indigenous artists are challenged to produce art for sale and at the same time to protect their cultural heritage. Here I investigate how Rembarrnga sculptors extend already established sculptural practices and the role innovation plays within these developments, and I analyse how Rembarrnga artists imprint their cultural and social values on sculptures made in an essentially Western medium, that of metal-casting. The metal sculptures made by Lena Yarinkura and her husband Bob Burruwal, two prolific Rembarrnga artists from north-central Arnhem Land, can be seen as an extension of their earlier sculptural work. In the development of metal sculptures, the artists shifted their artistic practice in two ways: they transformed sculptural forms from an earlier ceremonial context and from earlier functional fibre objects. Using Fred Myers?s concept of culture production, I investigate Rembarrnga ways of culture-making. 8. 'How did we do anything without it?': Indigenous art and craft micro-enterprise use and perception of new media technology.maps, colour photographs, b&w photographswest kimberley, rock art, kuninjku, photo media, lena yarinkura, bob burruwal, new media technology

Josh MUIR (1991-05 February 2022) Yorta Yorta/Gunditjmara/Barkinjl Born Ballarat, Victoria Muir's art draws on hip-hop and street art culture and often depicts the history of indigenous people and European settlers. He spent a lot of time in his teens researching and enjoying public art, especially graffiti. Inspired by the commitment of graffers he was inspired by the concepts they illustrate. He started expressing his own ideas with pen and pad and once the basic concept down and it was tangible and could be converted that to canvas or walls. Muir experimented with spray and stencil work a lot in his teens and later branched out into acrylic paints, paint pens, and digital forms of Art. In 2016 Josh Muir's work 'Still Here', projected onto the front wall of the National Gallery of Victoria was critically acclaimed. At that time he stated: "‘I am a proud Yorta Yorta/ Gunditjmara man, born and living in Ballarat, Victoria. I hold my culture strong to my heart – it gives me a voice and a great sense of my identity. When I look around, I see empires built on Aboriginal land. I cannot physically change or shift this, though I can make the most of my culture in a contemporary setting and use my art projects to address current issues of reconciliation." In 2016 Josh Muir was awarded the second recipient of HMS Trust’s Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship at University of Melbourne, based at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). The Fellowship was created to enable Indigenous artists to undertake significant projects of their choice. He was also a Telstra National Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander Youth Art Award winner. The Koorie Heritage Trust, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and Federation University Australia all own his work. Digital output on stretched canvas.josh muir, artist, artwork, aboriginal, hutchinson indigenous fellowship

Josh MUIR (1991- ) Yorta Yorta/Gunditjmara/Barkinjl Muir's art draws on hip-hop and street art culture and often depicts the history of indigenous people and European settlers. He spent a lot of time in his teens researching and enjoying public art, especially graffiti. Inspired by the commitment of graffers he was inspired by the concepts they illustrate. He started expressing his own ideas with pen and pad and once the basic concept down and it was tangible and could be converted that to canvas or walls. Muir experimented with spray and stencil work a lot in his teens and later branched out into acrylic paints, paint pens, and digital forms of Art. In 2016 Josh Muir's work 'Still Here', projected onto the front wall of the National Gallery of Victoria was critically acclaimed. At that time he stated: "‘I am a proud Yorta Yorta/ Gunditjmara man, born and living in Ballarat, Victoria. I hold my culture strong to my heart – it gives me a voice and a great sense of my identity. When I look around, I see empires built on aboriginal land. I cannot physically change or shift this, though I can make the most of my culture in a contemporary setting and use my art projects to address current issues of reconciliation." In 2016 Josh Muir was awarded the second recipient of HMS Trust’s Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship at University of Melbourne, based at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). The Fellowship was created to enable Indigenous artists to undertake significant projects of their choice.A computer generated artwork on stretched canvas.josh muir, artist, artwork, aboriginal, hutchinson indigenous fellowship

Josh MUIR (1991- ) Yorta Yorta/Gunditjmara Muir's art draws on hip-hop and street art culture and often depicts the history of indigenous people and European settlers. He spent a lot of time in his teens researching and enjoying public art, especially graffiti. Inspired by the commitment of graffers he was inspired by the concepts they illustrate. He started expressing his own ideas with pen and pad and once the basic concept down and it was tangible and could be converted that to canvas or walls. Muir experimented with spray and stencil work a lot in his teens and later branched out into acrylic paints, paint pens, and digital forms of Art. In 2016 Josh Muir's work 'Still Here', projected onto the front wall of the National Gallery of Victoria was critically acclaimed. At that time he stated: "‘I am a proud Yorta Yorta/ Gunditjmara man, born and living in Ballarat, Victoria. I hold my culture strong to my heart – it gives me a voice and a great sense of my identity. When I look around, I see empires built on aboriginal land. I cannot physically change or shift this, though I can make the most of my culture in a contemporary setting and use my art projects to address current issues of reconciliation." In 2016 Josh Muir was awarded the second recipient of HMS Trust’s Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship at University of Melbourne, based at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). The Fellowship was created to enable Indigenous artists to undertake significant projects of their choice.Digital print on stretched canvas.josh muir, artist, artwork, aboriginal, hutchinson indigenous fellowship

Josh MUIR (1991- 2022) Yorta Yorta/Gunditjmara/Barkinjl Muir's art draws on hip-hop and street art culture and often depicts the history of indigenous people and European settlers. He spent a lot of time in his teens researching and enjoying public art, especially graffiti. Inspired by the commitment of graffers he was inspired by the concepts they illustrate. He started expressing his own ideas with pen and pad and once the basic concept down and it was tangible and could be converted that to canvas or walls. Muir experimented with spray and stencil work a lot in his teens and later branched out into acrylic paints, paint pens, and digital forms of Art. In 2016 Josh Muir's work 'Still Here', projected onto the front wall of the National Gallery of Victoria was critically acclaimed. At that time he stated: "‘I am a proud Yorta Yorta/ Gunditjmara man, born and living in Ballarat, Victoria. I hold my culture strong to my heart – it gives me a voice and a great sense of my identity. When I look around, I see empires built on aboriginal land. I cannot physically change or shift this, though I can make the most of my culture in a contemporary setting and use my art projects to address current issues of reconciliation." In 2016 Josh Muir was awarded the second recipient of HMS Trust’s Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship at University of Melbourne, based at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). The Fellowship was created to enable Indigenous artists to undertake significant projects of their choice. Computer generated image on canvas.josh muir, aboriginal, artwork, artist, hutchinson indigenous fellowship

Josh MUIR (14 August 1991- 05 February 2022 ) Yorta Yorta/Gunditjmara/Barkinjl Muir's art draws on hip-hop and street art culture and often depicts the history of indigenous people and European settlers. He spent a lot of time in his teens researching and enjoying public art, especially graffiti. Inspired by the commitment of graffers he was inspired by the concepts they illustrate. He started expressing his own ideas with pen and pad and once the basic concept down and it was tangible and could be converted that to canvas or walls. Muir experimented with spray and stencil work a lot in his teens and later branched out into acrylic paints, paint pens, and digital forms of Art. iN 2014 Josh Muir was THE Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience'S (AIMe) Program Manager Assistant at Federation University Australia in Ballarat.Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience Z In 2016 Josh Muir's work 'Still Here', projected onto the front wall of the National Gallery of Victoria was critically acclaimed. At that time he stated: "‘I am a proud Yorta Yorta/ Gunditjmara man, born and living in Ballarat, Victoria. I hold my culture strong to my heart – it gives me a voice and a great sense of my identity. When I look around, I see empires built on aboriginal land. I cannot physically change or shift this, though I can make the most of my culture in a contemporary setting and use my art projects to address current issues of reconciliation." In 2016 Josh Muir was awarded the second recipient of HMS Trust’s Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship at University of Melbourne, based at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). The Fellowship was created to enable Indigenous artists to undertake significant projects of their choice.Signed lower right "jmuir"josh muir, artwork, artist, aboriginal, hutchinson indigenous fellowship

Josh MUIR (1991- ) Yorta Yorta/Gunditjmara Muir's art draws on hip-hop and street art culture and often depicts the history of indigenous people and European settlers. He spent a lot of time in his teens researching and enjoying public art, especially graffiti. Inspired by the commitment of graffers he was inspired by the concepts they illustrate. He started expressing his own ideas with pen and pad and once the basic concept down and it was tangible and could be converted that to canvas or walls. Muir experimented with spray and stencil work a lot in his teens and later branched out into acrylic paints, paint pens, and digital forms of Art. In 2016 Josh Muir's work 'Still Here', projected onto the front wall of the National Gallery of Victoria was critically acclaimed. At that time he stated: "‘I am a proud Yorta Yorta/ Gunditjmara man, born and living in Ballarat, Victoria. I hold my culture strong to my heart – it gives me a voice and a great sense of my identity. When I look around, I see empires built on aboriginal land. I cannot physically change or shift this, though I can make the most of my culture in a contemporary setting and use my art projects to address current issues of reconciliation." In 2016 Josh Muir was awarded the second recipient of HMS Trust’s Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship at University of Melbourne, based at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). The Fellowship was created to enable Indigenous artists to undertake significant projects of their choice.josh muir, artist, artwork, aboriginal, hutchinson indigenous fellowship

Michael Cook's Fake series is a visual essay in speculative history. Cook flips the conventional colonial narratives in his images that are tremendously playful at first glance but, on reflection, are deep interrogations of Australia's colonial history and its ongoing impacts on its First Peoples. Michael Cook is a Brisbane-based photomedia artist of Bidjara heritage. Cook’s photographs re-stage colonial-focused histories and re-imagine the contemporary reality of indigenous populations. Touching on the discriminatory nature of society, his images muddle racial and social roles, painting a picture of a societal structure reversed. stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, photography, cultural identity, michael cook, post colonialism

Artist and choreographer Amrita Hepi uses visual and verbal homophones to explore identity, memory, and structural spaces. The title of this work Aisle, Isle (I'll) plays on three words that sound identical but carry different meanings: a walkway (aisle), an island (isle), and a contraction of intent (I'll). Framed through this linguistic play, Aisle Isle (I'll) depicts the artist and her younger sister as a conceptual doppelgänger. Operating as a ‘human homophone,’ her sister’s presence is simultaneously familiar yet distinctly independent. Together they inhabit a stylised, fictionalised vignette captured against the tropical backdrop of their shared birthplace, Townsville. stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, photography, amrita hepi, sisters, homophone, doppelgänger, fictional, townsville, memory, cultural identity

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu is a senior Yolngu artist based in Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land. Yunupingu’s paintings and drawings are highly idiosyncratic because she often depicts personal observations, or merely ‘things she likes’. This is distinctive from many of those of her Yolngu peers who adhere to a stricter approach to the telling of ancestral stories such as dreaming narratives expressed through clan designs. This marks Yunupingu as one of the most striking and experimental visual artists in the region. This series of Djorra works come from a 2015 exhibition titled Lawarra Maypa, a Macassan term for ‘pages and pages’. They are exemplary of Yunupingu’s experimental approach, and of the prolific nature of her practice. The works are executed in materials found lying around the print workshop of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre where Yunupingu works, and include paper from a photoshoot, print paper, permanent markers, white pipe clay (a naturally occurring ochre in North East Arnhem Land), and gadayka (stringy bark) hollowed out by termites to form a larrakitj or ceremonial pole. The key motifs of Lawarra Maypa are Yunupingu and her sisters (the figures depicted in dresses) and laranni (bush apple trees). These are combined with mayilimiriw, linear and circular patterns and other non-sacred marks that are used to cover up sacred stories from uninitiated viewers.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, work on paper, nyapanyapa yunupingu, djorra, sisters, laranni, cultural identity

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu is a senior Yolngu artist based in Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land. Yunupingu’s paintings and drawings are highly idiosyncratic because she often depicts personal observations, or merely ‘things she likes’. This is distinctive from many of those of her Yolngu peers who adhere to a stricter approach to the telling of ancestral stories such as dreaming narratives expressed through clan designs. This marks Yunupingu as one of the most striking and experimental visual artists in the region. This series of Djorra works come from a 2015 exhibition titled Lawarra Maypa, a Macassan term for ‘pages and pages’. They are exemplary of Yunupingu’s experimental approach, and of the prolific nature of her practice. The works are executed in materials found lying around the print workshop of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre where Yunupingu works, and include paper from a photoshoot, print paper, permanent markers, white pipe clay (a naturally occurring ochre in North East Arnhem Land), and gadayka (stringy bark) hollowed out by termites to form a larrakitj or ceremonial pole. The key motifs of Lawarra Maypa are Yunupingu and her sisters (the figures depicted in dresses) and laranni (bush apple trees). These are combined with mayilimiriw, linear and circular patterns and other non-sacred marks that are used to cover up sacred stories from uninitiated viewers.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, work on paper, nyapanyapa yunupingu, djorra, sisters, laranni, cultural identity

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu is a senior Yolngu artist based in Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land. Yunupingu’s paintings and drawings are highly idiosyncratic because she often depicts personal observations, or merely ‘things she likes’. This is distinctive from many of those of her Yolngu peers who adhere to a stricter approach to the telling of ancestral stories such as dreaming narratives expressed through clan designs. This marks Yunupingu as one of the most striking and experimental visual artists in the region. This series of Djorra works come from a 2015 exhibition titled Lawarra Maypa, a Macassan term for ‘pages and pages’. They are exemplary of Yunupingu’s experimental approach, and of the prolific nature of her practice. The works are executed in materials found lying around the print workshop of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre where Yunupingu works, and include paper from a photoshoot, print paper, permanent markers, white pipe clay (a naturally occurring ochre in North East Arnhem Land), and gadayka (stringy bark) hollowed out by termites to form a larrakitj or ceremonial pole. The key motifs of Lawarra Maypa are Yunupingu and her sisters (the figures depicted in dresses) and laranni (bush apple trees). These are combined with mayilimiriw, linear and circular patterns and other non-sacred marks that are used to cover up sacred stories from uninitiated viewers.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, work on paper, nyapanyapa yunupingu, djorra, sisters, laranni, cultural identity

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu is a senior Yolngu artist based in Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land. Yunupingu’s paintings and drawings are highly idiosyncratic because she often depicts personal observations, or merely ‘things she likes’. This is distinctive from many of those of her Yolngu peers who adhere to a stricter approach to the telling of ancestral stories such as dreaming narratives expressed through clan designs. This marks Yunupingu as one of the most striking and experimental visual artists in the region. This series of Djorra works come from a 2015 exhibition titled Lawarra Maypa, a Macassan term for ‘pages and pages’. They are exemplary of Yunupingu’s experimental approach, and of the prolific nature of her practice. The works are executed in materials found lying around the print workshop of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre where Yunupingu works, and include paper from a photoshoot, print paper, permanent markers, white pipe clay (a naturally occurring ochre in North East Arnhem Land), and gadayka (stringy bark) hollowed out by termites to form a larrakitj or ceremonial pole. The key motifs of Lawarra Maypa are Yunupingu and her sisters (the figures depicted in dresses) and laranni (bush apple trees). These are combined with mayilimiriw, linear and circular patterns and other non-sacred marks that are used to cover up sacred stories from uninitiated viewers.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, work on paper, nyapanyapa yunupingu, djorra, sisters, laranni, cultural identity

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu is a senior Yolngu artist based in Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land. Yunupingu’s paintings and drawings are highly idiosyncratic because she often depicts personal observations, or merely ‘things she likes’. This is distinctive from many of those of her Yolngu peers who adhere to a stricter approach to the telling of ancestral stories such as dreaming narratives expressed through clan designs. This marks Yunupingu as one of the most striking and experimental visual artists in the region. This series of Djorra works come from a 2015 exhibition titled Lawarra Maypa, a Macassan term for ‘pages and pages’. They are exemplary of Yunupingu’s experimental approach, and of the prolific nature of her practice. The works are executed in materials found lying around the print workshop of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre where Yunupingu works, and include paper from a photoshoot, print paper, permanent markers, white pipe clay (a naturally occurring ochre in North East Arnhem Land), and gadayka (stringy bark) hollowed out by termites to form a larrakitj or ceremonial pole. The key motifs of Lawarra Maypa are Yunupingu and her sisters (the figures depicted in dresses) and laranni (bush apple trees). These are combined with mayilimiriw, linear and circular patterns and other non-sacred marks that are used to cover up sacred stories from uninitiated viewers.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, work on paper, nyapanyapa yunupingu, djorra, sisters, laranni, cultural identity

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu is a senior Yolngu artist based in Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land. Yunupingu’s paintings and drawings are highly idiosyncratic because she often depicts personal observations, or merely ‘things she likes’. This is distinctive from many of those of her Yolngu peers who adhere to a stricter approach to the telling of ancestral stories such as dreaming narratives expressed through clan designs. This marks Yunupingu as one of the most striking and experimental visual artists in the region. This series of Djorra works come from a 2015 exhibition titled Lawarra Maypa, a Macassan term for ‘pages and pages’. They are exemplary of Yunupingu’s experimental approach, and of the prolific nature of her practice. The works are executed in materials found lying around the print workshop of Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre where Yunupingu works, and include paper from a photoshoot, print paper, permanent markers, white pipe clay (a naturally occurring ochre in North East Arnhem Land), and gadayka (stringy bark) hollowed out by termites to form a larrakitj or ceremonial pole. The key motifs of Lawarra Maypa are Yunupingu and her sisters (the figures depicted in dresses) and laranni (bush apple trees). These are combined with mayilimiriw, linear and circular patterns and other non-sacred marks that are used to cover up sacred stories from uninitiated viewers.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, work on paper, nyapanyapa yunupingu, djorra, sisters, laranni, cultural identity

Nonggirrnga Marawili is a Madarrpa elder whose work is recognisable for its highly sophisticated use of line, crosshatched motifs and designs from both her ancestral clans as well as observations of the everyday. Marawili’s organic patterns reflect an ingrained and innate understanding of her culture, history and environment. Often imposing, her works are consistently innovative, confidently executed, and highly refined. Mundukul, or Lightning Snake, painted in natural ochres on bark, can be understood as ‘lightning being sworn across the landscape by the serpent, who resides in the same water as the rock which is driving sea spray into the air. The ‘nets’ of diamond shaped lines echo the classic miny’tji, clan designs of the saltwater estate of Yathikpa. In 2015 Marawili was awarded the Telstra Bark Painting Award at the prestigious Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, painting, nonggirrnga marawili, cultural identity, history, natural environment

Nawurapu Wunungmurra is the eldest son of the late Yaggarriny Wunungmurra, the first Aboriginal artist to have his copyright recognised in an Australian court. From an early age he was trained by his father and assisted him with this painting. Later, as his own spiritual authority increased, he painted in his own right. This pole depicts the sea at Garraparra, a coastal headland and bay area within Mungurru, or Blue Mud Bay. Garraparra has been rendered by the wavy design for Yirritja (deep saltwater) that has many states and connects with the sacred waters coming from the land estates by currents and tidal flow. Garraparra marks the spot of a sacred burial area for the Dhalwangu clan to which Wunungmurra belongs. Sacred songs and dance narrate the heroic adventures of two ancestral hunters who left the shores of Garraparra hunting for turtle. On their journey they passed sacred places and ancestral totems before they came to grief when their canoe capsized. The hunters’ bodies washed back to the shores of Garraparra with the currents and the tides, as the Wangupini, cloud rising from the north, followed with its rain and wind. In the songs, the terns (Gitkit) reel in the breeze around these statuesque clouds on the horizon, and this stylised rendition of clouds seen at the top of this work is the latest motif in Wunungmurra’s ouvre.Ceremonial hollow log poles Arnhem Land, Northern Territory The people of Central and Eastern Arnhem Land refer to themselves collectively as Yolngu, meaning human beings. The Yolngu traditionally use logs naturally hollowed out by termites in a funerary and ceremonial functions, principally as an ossuary. In an Australian contemporary art context however hollow log sculptures are purely memorial in function and made explicitly for public display. In Arnhem Land hollow logs are known as larrakitj; hollow logs known by other names are used in burial practices by a number of Aboriginal peoples in the north of Australia. The logs can also represent the deceased person, as the designs applied are the same as those painted on the body during the burial rites. All Yolngu clans belong to a moiety, one of two complementary halves of society: Dhuwa and Yirritja. All such affiliations play a part in Aboriginal artists' inherited right to paint an established set of designs belonging to their social group; this inheritance is, in fact, the artist's copyright over imagery.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, painting, nawurapu wunungmurra, garraparra, coastal, yirritja, saltwater, sacred burial, cultural heritage, cultural identity

Gunybi Ganambarr has built a reputation for his innovative techniques, incising and shaping barks and adding materials to traditional art forms. He attributes his confidence in using new materials to his twelve year stint as a part of a building team in remote homelands. Ganambarr primarily lives in his mother’s community at Gangan, which lies north-west of Blue Mud Bay in eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. Ganambarr has absorbed the minutiae and spirituality of place; his paintings can be read as meditations on the specific tracts of land for which he is entitled to speak; in this case, a sacred expanse of water behind the Gangan outstation where this work was produced, referred to as Gulutji. Ganambarr’s designs recount the ancestral formation of the land, the beings that reside within its borders and
the seasonal events that nourish its ecosystem. His work exemplifies the confidence and cultural assertion of a new, experimental Yolngu art, while remaining firmly influenced by elders and senior artists. Ceremonial hollow log poles Arnhem Land, Northern Territory The people of Central and Eastern Arnhem Land refer to themselves collectively as Yolngu, meaning human beings. The Yolngu traditionally use logs naturally hollowed out by termites in a funerary and ceremonial functions, principally as an ossuary. In an Australian contemporary art context however hollow log sculptures are purely memorial in function and made explicitly for public display. In Arnhem Land hollow logs are known as larrakitj; hollow logs known by other names are used in burial practices by a number of Aboriginal peoples in the north of Australia. The logs can also represent the deceased person, as the designs applied are the same as those painted on the body during the burial rites. All Yolngu clans belong to a moiety, one of two complementary halves of society: Dhuwa and Yirritja. All such affiliations play a part in Aboriginal artists' inherited right to paint an established set of designs belonging to their social group; this inheritance is, in fact, the artist's copyright over imagery. stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, painting, gunybi ganambarr, natural environment, cultural heritage, cultural identity, cultural knowledge, landscape

An esteemed elder and matriarch in her community, Loongkoonan was born around 1910 at Mount Anderson Station, Western Australia. Her artwork concerns - repeatedly and with uninterrupted focus - Nyikina country. These are the lands abutting the lower stretches of Mardoowarra, the majestic waterway that in 1837 would be renamed by European colonists the Fitzroy River. The First Peoples inhabitants of these lands call themselves Yimardoowarra—the people of the river—reflecting not just their habitation of this place, but their belonging to this country. During her travels across country, Loongkoonan collected bush tucker, plants used for medicinal purposes and spinifex wax in the wet season. More than a botanical reference, her ‘bush tucker’ renderings are composed as metaphors for a complex mapping of extensive, accumulated cultural knowledge. Loongkoonan explained, "Footwalking is the only proper way to learn about country, and remember it. That is how I got to know all of the bush tucker and medicine. … In my paintings I show all types of bush tucker – good tucker that we lived off in the bush. I paint Nyikina country the same way eagles see country when they are high up in the sky." It is this idiosyncratic representation of her country in aerial perspective that contributes to Loongkoonan’s individuality and significance as an artist. The landscape is depicted as a complex composition with multiple simultaneous viewpoints. These colourful, directly painted works are innovative, joyous and without apparent precedent. Loongkoonan began painting at the age of 95. Her work is held in a number of prominent Australian collections and was featured in the 2016 Adelaide Biennale.stonnington contemporary art collection, first peoples, first nations, indigenous, aboriginal torres strait islander, painting, loongkoonan, cultural identity, landscape, nyikina, bush tucker, cultural knowledge