This painting depicts the birth of life, breaking throughout the warmth of eternity, bringing the beginning of the Dreaming Boodja, a place mankind calls earth. It is placed among the galaxy to guide the Nyoongar people through their journey of life and dreaming. Shane Pickett, 2007

National Gallery of Australia | Audio Tour | National Indigenous Art Triennial 07

Shane PICKETT, On the Horizon of the Dreaming Boodja 2005

This is Kuru Ala. These are creeks and rock holes everywhere, and many trees. There is puli (rocks) and apu (rocky hills). This is Minyma Tjuta Tjukurrpa (Seven Sisters Creation Story). This area is close to Tjuntjuntjarra [in Western Australia, near the South Australian border]. Maringka Baker, 2007

Maringka BAKER, Kuru Ala 2007 Maringka BAKER Maringka BAKER

Yawkyawk is a word in the Kunwinjku/kunwok language of Western Arnhem Land meaning ‘young woman’ and ‘young woman spirit being’. The different groups of Kunwinjku people (one of the Eastern dialect groups call themselves Kuninjku) each have Yawkyawk mythologies, which relate to speciﬁc locations in clan estates. These mythologies are represented in bark paintings and sculptures of Yawkyawk beings. There are also a few examples of rock art images of these beings. The female water spirits Yawkyawk or Ngalkunburriyaymi are perhaps the most enigmatic of mythological themes. Sometimes compared to the European notion of mermaids, they exist as spiritual beings living in freshwater streams and rock pools, particularly those in the stone country. The spirit Yawkyawk is usually described and depicted with the tail of a ﬁsh. This the Kuninjku people sometimes call the ngalberddjenj which literally means ‘the young woman who has a tail like a ﬁsh’. They have long hair, which is associated with trailing blooms of green algae (called man-bak in Kuninjku). At times they leave their aquatic homes to walk about on dry land, particularly at night. Aboriginal people believe that in the beginning most animals were humans. During the time of the creation of landscapes and plants and animals, these ancestral heroes in human form transmutated into their animal forms via a series of various signiﬁcant events now recorded as oral mythologies. The creation ancestor Yawkyawk travelled the country in human form and changed into the form of Ngalkunburriyaymi as a result of various ancestral adventures. Today the Kuninjku believe that Ngalkunburriyaymi are alive and well and living in freshwater sites in a number of sacred locations. Some features of a respective country are equated with body parts of Yawkyawk. For example a bend in a river or creek may be said to be the tail of the Yawkyawk, a billabong may be the head of the Yawkyawk, and so on. Thus different groups can be linked together by means of a shared mythology featured in the landscape, which crosscuts clan and language group boundaries. Felicity Green (ed.), Togart Contemporary Art Award (NT) 2007, exhibition catalogue, Darwin: Toga Group, 2007, p.20.

Anniebell MARRNGAMARRNGA, Yawkyawk 2007

The manager’s wife was a nursing sister and once a week she would inspect the houses on the mission to make sure that our homes were clean and tidy, which they were. She wanted to know how mum’s ﬂoors were so white seeing that we had no electricity to use an electric ﬂoor scrubber. That’s when mum showed her a piece of sandstone, by which she was very surprised! Elaine Russell, 2004

Elaine RUSSELL, Inspecting our houses 2004

Colour blinded exempliﬁes the way we work together, when we work together. Destiny thinks her thoughts and Virginia thinks hers. Neither of us recalls a time we’ve talked much about making work together, or discussed ideas or methods except while doing it and even then only brieﬂy. In this case Destiny proposed doing something with sodium lights that Virginia had used before, though not in joint works. Destiny wanted to take black-and-white photos and Virginia suggested using orthochromatic ﬁlm because of the way it reads and reduces colour. Destiny dreamt up and took the photos and proposed and directed most of the scenarios for the video, which Virginia shot and edited. Destiny had the idea for the snow dome and Virginia made it work. That’s the mechanics of it. But the other things that go into it result from what we’ve each been separately thinking, doing and reading; our awareness of current events and our personal histories in contact with each other and anyone else we’re working with; materials, media and the occasion or opportunity for making and showing work. The empty space in the installation is as important to us as the objects in it. When anyone walks into the space they’re absorbed into it and, visually at least, become part of the work, instead of getting in the way of it. It was exciting when a serious and respectable-looking older woman standing with her friend in Colour blinded in Paris clapped her hands and laughed and asked in French, ‘Are we alive or dead?’ Part of the point of the lights is always the same: the somewhat sinister thrill of the change they make to whatever and whoever is in their range, and the way they illustrate that how you look at things – literally the light you see them in – affects what you see. Destiny Deacon and Virginia Fraser, 2007

Destiny DEACON, Good golly miss dolly, Colour Blinded 2005

Christine CHRISTOPHERSEN, The past, the present, the future 2006, painting, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 200.0 (h) x 248.0 (w) cm, Collection of the National Gallery of Australia, purchased 2007

Christine CHRISTOPHERSEN, The past, the present, the future 2006

Brown, from rural Victoria, began painting native animals when he was a teenager living rough and homeless. He depicts his beloved animals in idyllic bush settings, in an idiosyncratic style, having been encouraged to develop his art through adult art classes at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. His paintings of native fauna can be considered as metaphors for his people, as in Dreamtime kangaroo and bird 2006.

Trevor 'Turbo' BROWN, Koala and babies 2005

Yirrikapayi (male crocodile) was once a man who lived around [Cape] Fourcroy [Bathurst Island]. They been spear him. He crawled into the water and turned into a crocodile. Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, 2007

Jean Baptiste APUATIMI, Yirrikapayi 2007

The weaving technique used in Yabby is shared by Indigenous nations of the southern and south-eastern regions, particularly along the river systems that meander across state borders and clan lines. The technique was transposed to Arnhem Land in the early 20th century by missionaries, who encouraged Aboriginal women to practice craft and create objects for sale through the tourist market of the time, in spite of the ancient weaving traditions of communities in the Top End. Treahna Hamm is one of a number of artists who over the past decade or so have researched customary techniques and been responsible for cultural revival and regeneration. This work was the result of a dream. In Indigenous culture, teachings are very different from the concept of mainstream teachings. Many aspects of life are interpreted with listening to the land and to elders through stories that are then reinterpreted into our own lives. The work gives substance to my identity and that of my cultural teachings. Treahna Hamm, 2007

Treahna HAMM, Yabby 2006

Kanpi Tjukurpa (Dreaming story from Kanpi). This place is called Katatjita. It’s a rock hole underground. It’s like a big underground cave inside. There is one woman sitting inside, she’s from the Tjukurpa (Creation Time). Her name is Malilu. She’s frightened and hiding in the cave. The man was trying to sleep with her but she said wanti (no). The man speared her many times and she ﬂed to the safety of the cave. Jimmy Baker, 2007

Jimmy BAKER, Katatjita 2006

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Richard BELL, Psalm singing 2007

John MAWURNDJUL, Mardayin design at Dilebang 2006, painting, bark painting, natural earth pigments on stringybark, 200.0 (h) x 47.0 (w) cm, Collection of the National Gallery of Australia, © John Mawurndjul, courtesy Maningrida Arts & Culture

John MAWURNDJUL, Mardayin design at Dilebang 2006

The eight panels depict the Great Sandy Desert near Well 33 in Western Australia. Jan Billycan is a maparn (medicine woman) from this country. She can see ‘inside’ the human body, and is a renowned traditional healer. This is evident in her landscapes, as the visceral nature of her work is reminiscent of the internal organs of the human body. A living waterhole becomes a liver or kidney, while the tali (sand dunes) are stretched across the canvas like the human ribcage. The body is just an extension of the land. Billycan knows these things on a deep metaphysical level and does not like to discuss her talents. However, it is important for kardiya (whitefellas) to be aware of this in order to understand the signiﬁcance of Billycan’s work. Jan Billycan, 2006

Jan (Djan NANUNDIE) BILLYCAN, All the Jila 2006

This painting is drawing direct reference from the hand-coloured lithograph produced by Louis Auguste de Sainson...De Sainson was the appointed draughtsman on the Astrolabe commanded by Dumont d’Urville. The lithograph itself was printed in 1833. The image depicts the area within King George Sound, south-west Western Australia, probably Middleton Beach. In the foreground, members from d’Urville’s expedition load water onto one of the ship’s longboats via a long ﬂexible hose. Interaction between the crew and the Minang people is obvious and positive with several individuals helping to load water.1 This historical image is a rare snapshot of some of the ﬁrst interactions between Europeans and the Minang people. It shows the exchange of ideas however different they are. It is the point where new ways of thinking are discovered. Physics provides a detailed equation using pressure, depth, atmospheric pressure, density of water and acceleration of gravity to explain how a siphon works. Hydrology (the science of water on earth) gives us detailed theories and explanation of river formation, one of which I have placed within the painting. To me the work provides optimism through the way in which the French interact with the Minang people, but it also symbolises the beginning of change in ideas and, ultimately, beliefs. Christopher Pease, 2005 1. Alternative names: Minung, Meenung, Mirnong, Mean-anger, Minnal Yungar (lit. ‘southern men’), Meenung (name given by Ko:reng), Mount Barker tribe.

Christopher PEASE, New Water Dreaming 2005

I started this series of drawings with my ‘heroes’. A portrait of my grandfather, Mick Miller. He was larger than life and held a special role in society. Grandfathers are already fully evolved when you meet them. Their personality is not evolving or growing, it’s set in stone…Different to the father–son relationship. Grandfathers have an immediate fondness toward their grandchildren. They are also very much heroes to everyone in the family. I thought it was natural to want to portray them on a large scale, to make them large drawings. If I made a video of my grandfather I would want it to be projected really big… I’ve done a few self-portraits in pastels to try it in the past, but other than that. not many. It’s really just like any self-portrait – I just do whatever strikes me at the time. I have license to make any comment that strikes me. They also say more about me than any other work because they are unavoidably me. When I am making them I don’t have to worry about making the subject look good, or portray myself as big, brave, sexy or handsome, because I don’t need to. There is more to say in being honest and conveying a sense of an Aboriginal experience in each of my self portraits. Now I have the opportunity to make more self portraits which offers the opportunity to ﬁnd out more about myself… …the other part of the drawing is of my grandfather Mick Miller. All of my other portraits of my grandfather have been of him as a young man, taken from museum photographic records. Whereas here he is drawn as I remember him, a 70-year-old man. In the corner a tag reads ‘Waanyi Man, Lawn Hill, Palm Island’. He was a Waanyi man sent to Palm Island, where he met my grandmother, who was born there. I was pleased to do this work as it’s me and my grandfather. I am very comfortable in recreating our relationship, but I’m also adding a new dialogue. Here I’m posed in museum style with a front and side proﬁle, which is poetic as it’s like the standard museum photographs of my grandfather…I’ve also rendered myself in a different way from any other portrait I’ve done. Here I’ve used thick broad strokes to marks that look like cuts on skin. This is commenting on my grandfather’s life as a young man and the tough life of that generation living in north Queensland. I wouldn’t have taken this approach in creating another person’s portrait. Vernon Ah Kee, interview by Bruce McLean, Artlines, no.2–2007, pp.14–15.

Vernon AH KEE, mythread 2007

Audio guide to thirty works from the National Indigenous Art Triennial 07: culture warriors shown at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 14 July – 16 October 2006

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