Long way home: Koori artists renew their heritage at Selling Yarns

As part of my research within the ARC Linkage Project, Indigenous Knowledge and Science Education, I have been working with the Indigenous artists of Boolarng Nangamai¹ and Kari Yalla² studios from the south coast of NSW. With some support from our project, nine artists travelled to Darwin for the Selling Yarns conference in August 2006 to share knowledge of artistic practice and enterprise strategies. The conference led to numerous individual and community linkages, and the Makers Forum especially facilitated connections between the northern, central and southern Indigenous communities.

It was an exciting time for the artists. Mabel Dungay, Auntie May, took her first plane trip and most of the others had not been to the Northern Territory before. Mabel and other fibre artists from Boolarng Nangamai, Phyllis Stewart and Steve Russell are developing their visual language through a range of techniques across a variety of media. Their creativity which is based on innovation and tradition has produced a range of interesting works from coiled and twined baskets to small, whimsical fibre sculptures and even a large mural. Phyllis Stewart recently sold a major work to the National Maritime Museum of Australia depicting her family stories, a kind of social history of the south coast inspired by enduring family relationships. Informed by south-east fibre traditions, the artists follow their own trajectories but they are always open to new ideas.

At the workshops, the Koori artists were able to build on the historical links in fibre practice which exist between their traditions and those of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, particularly in basket making. It is well known that coiling was the method used traditionally by the south-east people to make their baskets³, however the Koories were interested in the adaptations of this method. The distinctive styles on display were of great interest where artists from certain communities could be collectively identified as well as each artist having individual designs. What about ownership of methods and designs? The southerners found the work of the Central Australian 'Tjanpi' weavers particularly appealing since they incorporated coiling as the main technique for their eclectic mix of media such as grasses and wool. They openly shared their ideas and practice with the Koories who nevertheless continued to doubt that they were permitted to use the similar designs. However, the 'Tjanpi' weavers were adamant: "It's open for everyone."

In Darwin the small group workshops gave many opportunities for people from different regions to share knowledge. The Koori artists had chosen their workshops carefully. Most opted for the possum skin cloak-making, fully aware that this was part of their own cultural heritage. Others chose the fibre and yarn workshops confident in their own skills and ready to absorb new ideas. All of the artists enthusiastically welcomed 'first time' experiences such as the preparation and use of natural dyes for pandanus, a resource that they were using in different ways on the south coast. Bonnie Brennan and Debbie Callaghan, known for their paintings, sought out a knitting expert. Spurred on by the Alice Springs Beannie Festival tradition, they produced their first beanies!

At the beginning of the possum skin workshop, the artists probably did not fully anticipate the strong feelings which the experience would evoke or the overall significance of their involvement in cloak-making. It became clear that there was much more to it than skills acquisition, as each artist worked over ideas for a design to transfer to possum skin. In her introduction, Vicki Couzens emphasised that the designs on modern cloaks were both contemporary and traditional, clarifying that the traditional practice of drawing on skins now incorporates modern themes. On the display cloak, artists had drawn a range of ideas and events including a scene from a country show, as well as more traditional representations of country along the Murray River where they had grown up. The workshop proceeded as the artists burnt their designs onto individual skins based on their preliminary sketches. Russell Ping's geometric representation of the houses and street of his childhood reproduced easily. Steve Russell's fluid lines tracing the contours of Botany Bay and the Georges River adapted well to the skin and Cheryl Davison and Don Atkinson combined their designs, in which Bogong Moths from the mountains melded with the turtles in the sea. Altogether the designs demonstrated the artists' knowledge and heritage allowing them to reconnect with a practice so strongly associated with their country in south-eastern Australia. They worked carefully for hours, yarning about people and places.

Although deeply grounded in modern living, the cloaks are inextricably part of a very old way of life. Perhaps it was the association with past and present, ancient and modern, as well as its inherent natural beauty that gave the cloak an aura reminiscent of a ceremonial object. When Cheryl Davison and her daughter Tamsin stepped into a voluminous possum skin cloak, they drew all attention. It was an impressive sight and everyone paused for a moment, while they stood smiling with only their heads in view. The moment extended as Cheryl told us the story of a sick woman who was once healed through the power of a cloak. Although the cloaks were well known to their ancestors, the associated cultural knowledge is now generally fragmented. However, as the artists subsequently took turns wrapping themselves in the garment it was obviously a very powerful and positive emotional experience for them to connect with their living culture in this way. There will certainly be a resurgence of these feelings when the new cloak comes 'on tour' to their studios in the future.

It was a long journey for the Koori artists which brought their traditional art practices home to them. There were many positive outcomes from the workshops and conference opening up another world of artistic ideas and business practice. Throughout the conference the Koories powerfully demonstrated their enduring relationships to country and family that continue to be elaborated in personal and professional ways. While there may be some irony in the fact that they traveled so far to experience the traditional culture of their own people in the possum skin and fibre workshops, it was empowering for the artists to link with other Indigenous people who have taken the ideas in different directions. This represents a vital cultural activity of a very significant kind.

Daphne Nash
November 2007

Daphne Nash is a PhD candidate at the Research School of Humanities, Australian National University.

Footnotes

1. Boolarng Nangamai Aboriginal Art and Culture Studio, Gerringong, NSW
2. Kari Yalla Contemporary Aboriginal Arts and Crafts, Far South Coast, NSW
3. L. Allen and L. Hamby 2005 Links to the south. In Twined Together, edited by L. Hamby. Gunbalanya, NT: Injalak Arts and Crafts: 60