Arts Yarn Up - Autumn 2012

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Autumn 2012 • ISSN 1442 5351

KEEPING CULTURE STRONG

Editorial

Photo: Stu Spence.

‘I am honoured to have served as Chair, in the footsteps of a long line of decision-makers since the 1970s who shaped the national landscape for Indigenous arts.’

SHAPING THE FUTURE TO KEEP CULTURE STRONG
To all arts workers, practitioners and cultural keepers – I wish you a positive future and hope that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board and Division continue the great legacy of providing support, career paths and acknowledgments of all our creative endeavours. Sadly, my term as Chair has now expired. I hope that I have left something that future Board members, staff and the Australia Council, and the Federal Government, can aspire to continue. One important achievement to note is the inherited legacy, from all previous Chairs and Board members, that has delivered a fair and accountable funding process since the Board’s inception in 1973. Our country is much the richer when we see the significant role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts rightfully claim in the Australian landscape. One of my passions has been the elevation and profiling of the role of our Law and Cultural Bosses. They have assisted all of us in our identity, our wellbeing, our spirituality and our place within Australia. Their empowerment is vital to our future concrete existence – if we fail to recognise and understand this, we are lost. The old assimilation policies will have won over our culture, resulting in the loss of the pure form of our ancient existence forever. Our art, in whatever medium or form, has its Dreaming, its roots and its spirit wrapped in our essence of being Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. We must remain united, strong, and carry forward into the future the quality and soul of who we are. We do this through the arts, including law and culture, for the betterment and enrichment of ourselves, our inheritance, our future and our country. To those non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who engage with, work with, and support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and practitioners in administrative, creative and reconciliatory roles – I thank you on behalf of all our people. Your support, contribution and guidance assist us all collectively to be so much richer. Your genuine love of our country and its ancient cultures – along with your own diversity, history, origins and cultures – makes our country a greater place in which to live. With my wife Tania, I send a big thank you to everyone who has supported me, believed in me and trusted me. I look forward to bumping into you somewhere throughout Australia as I assist Mary G with her luggage in continuous journeys. I am honoured to have served as Chair, in the footsteps of a long line of decision-makers since the 1970s who shaped the national landscape for Indigenous arts. I know that we in turn have shaped the future landscape for the next generation. I hope our identity, cultures, languages, dances and ceremonies will not be neglected like the ancient rock arts of the Pilbara. I am excited for the next generation of leadership for the Board. In closing, I would like to thank our entire arts community for their vision, passion and commitment to keeping culture strong. Dr Mark Bin Bakar Chair, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board

The Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body. For comments or submissions to Arts Yarn Up: The editor, Arts Yarn Up Australia Council for the Arts, 372 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills, NSW 2010, email [email protected] or phone 02 9215 9000. © Australia Council 2012 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, all rights are expressly reserved. ISSN 1442-5351. The Australia Council respects Indigenous communities and culture. Readers should be aware that this publication may contain images or references to members of the Indigenous community who have passed away. Cover: Warren H Williams. Photo: Karen Steains.

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Autumn 2012

11th Festival of Pacific Arts: Traditional meets contemporary
Thousands of artists and performers will gather in the Solomon Islands from 1-14 July 2012 for the Pacific’s largest, most colourful and dynamic cultural event: the Festival of Pacific Arts (FOPA).

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eld every four years since its inception in 1972, FOPA brings together 2,500 performers, artists and cultural practitioners from 27 countries and territories across the Pacific region. FOPA offers Indigenous peoples the opportunity to share customary practices in dance, music, food and crafts. The festival bridges the gap between traditional and contemporary cultural expression, while revitalising and reflecting on traditional arts and culture. FOPA 2012 will be the largest event ever hosted in the Solomon Islands, which received the festival flag during the 10th festival, hosted by American Samoa in 2008. The 2012 program includes traditional and contemporary visual and performing art: music, dance, oratory and storytelling, theatre, film, handicrafts, literature, tattooing, fire walking, culinary arts, fashion, photography and traditional healing. Australia will send a 76-strong delegation to FOPA 2012, to be held in the Solomon Islands’ capital Honiara. The curatorial team behind the Australian delegation is Queensland Theatre Company’s Wesley Enoch; visual artist and ProppaNow co-founder, Vernon Ah Kee; independent choreographer Marilyn Miller; and creative director of the Queensland State Library’s kuril dhagun Indigenous Knowledge Centre, Nadine MacDonald Dowd. FOPA 2012’s theme, ‘Culture in Harmony with Nature’, recognises both the traditional link between Indigenous cultures and the natural world, and the modern day threats posed by climate change, natural disasters and rising sea levels. ‘FOPA is a hugely significant event for Indigenous peoples both here and throughout the region,’ said Vernon Ah Kee. ‘It’s more than an artistic and cultural exchange between individuals: it’s a social and political exchange between peoples. ‘The Australian delegation will be strong and diverse. The nature of the festival lends itself to performance but we are taking a strong delegation that also includes visual artists, writers, singers and musicians.’

The interaction between delegations, as they explore links and differences between traditional and contemporary culture, may be the highlight of FOPA 2012. ‘We value our traditional culture but we’re not limited by it. Australia is a first-world country and most of us live technological lives – our art demonstrates that reality alongside our traditional roots,’ said Vernon. This year FOPA will reach a much wider audience than ever before, thanks to an innovative online strategy including digital storytelling. Fellow member of the curatorial team, Nadine McDonald-Dowd, said that the Australian delegation is using technology to open up FOPA to online audiences. ‘We have a team creating digital stories so that people who can’t be in Honiara can still participate in the festival,’ she said. ‘A dedicated blogger will also travel with us, uploading podcasts, interviews and images from FOPA to www.fopa.australiacouncil.gov.au.’ Nadine said highlights of the Australian delegation include ‘great new dancers and choreographers who are pushing into new areas and combining traditional dance with contemporary styles’. FOPA was conceived at a 1969 Conference of the Pacific Community with the aim of supporting the maintenance of traditional practices. FOPA’s aims have broadened to include building solidarity and pride across the region, and bridging the gap between traditional and contemporary cultural expression. Vernon believes FOPA should receive much greater recognition. ‘This is our region and we need to engage more, not just between nations but within nations, including significant communities from around the Pacific, living in Australia.’
Images of two of the 76-member Australian delegation to FOPA 2012. Above left: The Chooky Dancers from Elcho Island. Photo: courtesy of Joshua Bond. Above right: Sharon Phineasa. Photo: Amily Phimeasa.
www.festival-paciļ¬c-arts.org.sb

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Autumn 2012

Red Ochre Award for Warren H Williams
A life in music acknowledged.
he Australia Council’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board is proud to present this year’s Red Ochre Award to Western Aranda country music singer and songwriter Warren H Williams for his outstanding contribution to the music industry. After learning of his award Warren was ‘in disbelief’. He said it was incredible to be considered in the company of big names like Jimmy Chi, Bob Maza and Uncle Jimmy Little. ‘Now I feel like I’m right in the middle of the country music scene – I’m inside looking out,’ Warren says. ‘It’s a great achievement to receive this award. I hope it helps make it easier for the younger people from the bush to follow in my footsteps.’ Warren has been a professional musician for the past 20 years but says his whole life has been all about music. His first musical experiences were with his parents living in the Ntaria community (formerly Hermannsburg) in the Northern Territory, where the whole family would sing. ‘We used to go to a sing-song in the Palm Valley in the Finke River Bed with the community, and mum and dad would sing for the tourists. I must have been about four or five years old,’ Warren said. Warren’s father was his biggest inspiration when it came to his music, and he feels a lingering sadness from his dad’s passing in 2010. In the late 60s and early 70s, his dad was in a band called the Western Aranda Band, with some of the local men. They would tour through the communities and influenced many others to form their own community bands. Warren was only six years old when he started learning the guitar and, with his dad’s encouragement, learnt all the band’s instruments. Later, if some of the members of his dad’s band didn’t turn up, Warren would step in and play the missing instruments. To date, Warren has released eight albums. His latest offering is a move away from country music to a language album Winanjjara, or ‘song man’ in Warumungu language. It was recorded with the song men of Tennant Creek and sung in two of his maternal ancestor’s languages: Warumungu and Western Aranda. The project saw him work with family members from Tennant Creek. His first solo album, Western Wind, was released in 1995. It was followed by Country Friends and Me (1996), Where My Heart Is (2001), Places in Between (2002), Be Like Home (2005), Looking Out (2009) and Urna Marra (2011). Many of his songs are about his Western Aranda country, west of Alice Springs in Central Australia. ‘I love my country, because that’s where I’m from and who I am. I feel really, really free when I’m on country,’ said Warren. And it loves him back. His favourite song is ‘Western Wind’, from his first album of the same name. It’s the first song he ever wrote. ‘When I finished that song, I thought, “I can actually write a song”. It was my first attempt because I’d played music all

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the time and had a lot of tunes. Then someone said “why don’t you put words to your instrumentals?” So I went out bush and was sitting at home and the country inspired me to write about it,’ Warren said. Now he writes easily because he’s always playing music. He will write a whole album in a day and each song will sound different, creating a natural ebb and flow that’s so vital for a story and an album. The best environment is usually at home, with the whole family around, or sometimes on the road where he sees new things all the time. The turning point for Warren’s success came when he sang country music singer-songwriter John Williamson’s ‘Raining On The Rock’. ‘Suddenly it took me from just being an Aboriginal in a community to being a singer who people know and now recognise.’ He met John while broadcasting remotely at Ntaria, through the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) in Alice Springs. At the time he used to play all the

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Autumn 2012

THE RED OCHRE AWARD
The annual Red Ochre Award pays tribute to Indigenous artists for outstanding, lifelong contributions to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts at home and abroad.

Red Ochre Winners 1993-2011
2011 2010 2009 2008 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 Archie Roach Michael Leslie Gawirrin Gumana Doris Pilkington Garimara Tom E. Lewis Seaman Dan John Bulunbulun Jimmy Little Dorothy Peters Banduk Marika Mervyn Bishop Justine Saunders Bob Maza Jimmy Chi Maureen Watson Rita Mills Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri Eva Johnson

‘I love my country, because that’s where I’m from and who I am. I feel really, really free when I’m on country.’
country music artists from mixed-track cassette tapes. Graham Archer, a fellow worker from CAAMA, asked him if he’d like to cover John’s song ‘Raining On The Rock’. Warren’s first reaction was to reject the offer but, as he sang it, he started to identify with the track. ‘It was written about my country. The rock is black people’s country.’ The relationship with John was formed, and the pair remains the only act to receive a standing ovation at the Tamworth Country Music Festival awards. Their duet became an anthem for reconciliation across Australia. After that, Warren’s career took off and some of his best experiences were on tour. In the late 90s he borrowed his dad’s 4WD champagne-coloured Pajero, attached a trailer, and took his three cousins on a round trip from Alice Springs to Cape York, via Cairns, Doomadgee, Arakoon, Bamaga and Hopevale. He didn’t think the little car would make it, with a split petrol tank held together by a belt for most of the trip home. ‘People accepted us up that way. They really enjoyed us playing music for them. It was just so good to be on the road and meeting so many people.’ He says he didn’t realise he had so many followers until a US tour to St Louis and Springfield in 2000. ‘It was amazing that the American people were so interested in me and my culture,’ he said. With his Red Ochre prize money, Warren plans to go to the country music capital of Nashville (USA) to create an album. He hopes to meet some of the people who have inspired his music—people such as Ronnie Milsap, Dolly Parton and George Strait—and connect with industry friends he has met over the years. ‘Country music is about singing about home or a place,’ Warren said. ‘It’s not about loss or losing anything as some people say. It’s about gaining your love for a place.’
Above: Warren H Williams. Photo: Karen Steains.

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Autumn 2012

Dreaming Award for Nakkiah Lui
Young playwright to work with mentor on new script.

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merging playwright Nakkiah Lui has been awarded the inaugural Dreaming Award by the Australia Council’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board. A 25-year-old Gamilaroi and Torres Strait Islander woman who grew up in the Sydney suburb of Mount Druitt, Nakkiah Lui exudes enthusiasm about her work and future career. ‘I’m really excited about receiving the Dreaming Award – especially in its first year,’ Nakkiah said. The award comes with a prize of $20,000, which Nakkiah will use to create a major body of work with her mentor – director and dramaturg Andrea James. Nakkiah is currently a resident playwright at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney. The award will allow her to continue her work with Belvoir and to write a new play that will have a professionally-read staging in 2013. Nakkiah fell into being a playwright. She was involved in theatre from a young age as an actor and always preferred to write her own scripts. Nakkiah sees playwriting as storytelling and pursued it even when she went overseas as an International Baccalaureate student at the United World College on Vancouver Island in Canada. ‘I wrote my first play there because I wanted to share my culture with this international community,’ she said.

That first show was called Proud. It was influenced by Leah Purcell’s Box the Pony, and Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman’s 7 Stages of Grieving. Nakkiah draws heavily from her own life and community in Sydney’s Mount Druitt, which has a large Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. She says they all know each other and she’s met many of the locals through her parents’ work with a local community organisation. Nakkiah is also studying law and working part-time in the legal field. At Belvoir, she aims to explore the role of an Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer’s conflicts while working in the police force. ‘I read The Tall Man by Chloe Hooper and was interested in the character of the Aboriginal Liaison Officer in that book. It’s sad – the scope of that tragedy. I’m going to look at how deep these tragedies go and focus on the personal relationships of the people involved.’ Nakkiah says the prize money will give her the resources to do the required research. Her dream is to be able to work full-time as a writer, and to stage her plays overseas. She hopes to follow in the footsteps of Lachlan Philpott and Belvoir’s playwright-in-residence Tommy Murphy. ‘They are both really successful playwrights and beautiful writers,’ said Nakkiah. ‘To be able to have the career and the time to write, not just in Australia … I’d love to be able to do that.’
Above: Nakkiah Lui with Andrea James. Photo: Karen Steains.

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Autumn 2012

Seashells sing Jenny’s stories
The bold Murri woman Jenny Fraser is set to challenge audiences again with her latest unusual storytelling project, Midden.

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idden will celebrate unsung heroes and previously unspoken events in a non-linear documentary. Jenny will use shells, along with screen-based and performance elements to enhance, reframe and remix stories, and create new ways of engaging audiences. Much of Jenny’s work as a screen-based visual artist, writer and curator defies categorisation. She’s been described as a ‘digital native working in fluid screen technologies’ and an ‘activist working to emancipate through sovereignty in the arts’. She says her work is threefold: a screen-based, curating and writing practice. Her Indigenous online gallery cyberTribe, formed in 1999, was the first of its kind. It exhibits cutting-edge and politically important artworks from Indigenous artists around the world. Jenny continues to strive to affront and question the absurd, and she said she works best when challenged with an idea for an exhibition. Jenny’s family hails from Mununjali/Yugambeh lands in Queensland. She is developing Midden with the support of a two-year Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board Fellowship.

Above: Jenny Fraser. Photo: courtesy of the artist.

Digital immersion in Gurrumul
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu’s new installation takes his work to an American audience, thanks to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board Fellowship.
he idea of being at a concert without the musician, or experiencing a place that you’ve never been to, brings excitement to the retiringly shy singer Gurrumul. Especially when audiences of his new digital installation will be able to hear the ocean and its smells, and experience the land and the community of the remote Elcho Island. ‘It’ll be incredible for people to experience more than just seeing and listening to my concerts,’ he said. The curious digital project started when a friend saw a beautiful space in New York and imagined it filled with Gurrumul’s voice. Gurrumul, along with the team at Skinnyfish Music and managers and friends Mark Grose and Michael Hohnen, developed the concept of an experiential event. The concept gives audiences total immersion into Gurrumul’s work, life and culture, and is likely to be in 3D. ‘We hope people will just walk in and say, “Wow, this is so unlike what we thought Indigenous culture was about,”‘ Mark said. ‘Here is the oldest living culture in the world and the oldest songs and stories in the world presented in a cutting-edge format.’ The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board Fellowship is worth $45,000 per year, over two years.

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Above: Gurrumul. Photo Adrian Cook.
See back page for more information on Australia Council Fellowships.

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Autumn 2012

Passionate mentor welcomes all styles
Murri woman Jessie Lloyd is a composer and musician who heads up the Victorian based Songlines Music Aboriginal Corporation. Nancia Guivarra reports.

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essie Lloyd provides mentoring, professional development and other support for Victorian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians. ‘Melbourne is a hub for music and things are new and fresh. There are a lot of gigs and proactive artists and community events within the Indigenous music industry. I wanted to get into the thick of it,’ says Jessie. Jessie was snapped up by Songlines thanks to her eight years developing Aboriginal music in Perth, her experience as a singer and songwriter in the acoustic three-piece band Djiva, and her role as promoter in the NITV television series Chocolate Martini. ‘I think Indigenous music is important because it gives the community a voice. It’s something everybody can relate to, have ownership of and identify with for ourselves, our events, social functions and festivals,’ she says. Jessie loves her role of supporting new artists through workshops and gigs and performance skills training. She believes that the future is about embracing Indigenous music as an Australian culture. ‘We’re not competing with mainstream. We don’t want

to be treated differently. It’s about getting the rights and recognition we deserve from sheer hard work, talent and skill. That’s what makes a successful music artist, Indigenous or not,’ she said. Jessie Lloyd received an Australia Council Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Arts grant (New Work) to record an eight-track album of contemporary original songs.
Above left: Jessie Lloyd. Photo: James Henry Photography.

Dave Arden’s second time solo
Gunditjmara man Dave Arden is producing his second solo album, Remember You.

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ave Arden, musical director and performer with The Black Arm Band, has been a professional musician since the 1980s. Back then, he was in a trio called the Altogethers, along with Red Ochre award-winning musician Archie Roach and the late, great Ruby Hunter. He has since performed with illustrious artists such as Bart Willoughby, Tiddas and Paul Kelly. His career began when he was given the EP From My Eyes by No Fixed Address. He loved it so much that he taught himself to play it all. Dave played guitar on Archie Roach’s ‘Took the Children Away’ on the album Charcoal Lane. At that time they recorded on quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape, cutting and splicing things together. Dave spent 20 years learning how to record in ‘his trade’ with Archie and Ruby. ‘Our motto was what we did in the lounge room or campfire we took into the studio,’ said Dave. Record producers did not initially have the same approach, but Dave said they ended up teaching the producers to do it their way. The new album will be about ‘country, aunties, uncles, mums, fathers and communities, injustices, human rights and love songs’. It includes ‘Freedom Calls’, a duet that Dave wrote, and which lured in co-singer Paul Kelly.

Dave says determination and dreams got him from a commission flat in Collingwood to where he is today. ‘I’ve always loved music; now music loves me.’ David Arden received an Australia Council Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Arts grant (Presentation & Promotion) to record, engineer and master an album of eight new, original songs.
Above: Dave Arden. Photo: courtesy of the artist.

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Autumn 2012

HEY, WHICH WAY?

Queensland to Virginia: parallel lives
An overseas residency inspired Waanyi woman Judy Watson’s exploration of the experiences of African slaves and Indigenous Australians.

new suite of etchings, experimental beds, marks Judy Watson’s residency at the University of Virginia (UVa) in the United States, a centre that specialises in showcasing Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. The university’s Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection comprises over 1,700 objects including paintings on bark and canvas, works on paper, sculpture and ceremonial artifacts. It is the only museum in the United States devoted to the exhibition and study of Australian Aboriginal art. ‘Our mission is to advance knowledge and understanding of Australia’s Indigenous people and their art and culture worldwide,’ explained Margaret Smith, director of the collection. ‘We work with living artists, international scholars and arts professionals to provide a wide range of learning experiences to the university community and the public through exhibition, research and educational programs.’ In 2011, the Kluge-Ruhe Collection acquired Judy Watson’s heron island suite, a set of 20 etchings exploring climate change on the Great Barrier Reef. Judy was also invited to give talks and participate in symposiums and discussions at the UVa. Her new work was inspired by a previous visit to the UVa, where Judy had seen an exhibition of American president Thomas Jefferson’s architectural drawings of his ‘Academical Village’. ‘I was interested straight away in using those drawings in a body of work. I also wanted to incorporate some research I’d collected on the enslaved people of Virginia,’ Judy said. Sally Hemings was one of Thomas Jefferson’s slaves. It was alleged that she and Jefferson had a relationship, and a number of children. ‘Apparently some visitors to Monticello, an historic landmark in Virginia, remarked on how some of the child slaves waiting on the table looked like Jefferson. There is now DNA evidence that connects the Jefferson line to these African American families.’

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The title experimental beds refers to the experimental vegetable gardens at Monticello (where Jefferson cultivated plants from around the world), and the sexual liaisons between white men and enslaved black women in plantations and houses throughout Virginia. Her prints use the bones of Jefferson’s architectural drawings and historic material found at the slave quarters at Monticello. Having an Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal background, Judy says she could relate to the experience of the enslaved black women and children. ‘Many members of my family worked on cattle stations in north-western Queensland where there were a lot of mixed-race children as a result of sexual liaisons between white pastoralists and Aboriginal women. I was interested in the idea of cultural dominance. I think I’d always been aware of the parallels between the African American experience and our own. ‘In my late teens I was studying African American and Native American literature at college and could see there were correlations in the power structures we experienced. Aboriginal people working on cattle properties were enslaved people. There are similarities in the treatment of men and women in my matrilineal Aboriginal family’s history and how they tried to escape from that situation.’ The UVa’s artist residency program began in 2011, with featured artists including Gamiliroi man Reko Rennie, and Ricky Maynard, from Big River and Ben Lomond. Reko’s residency resulted in him painting the gallery walls with his unique stencil patterns and iconic pink kangaroos, and a collaboration with Native American artist Frank Buffalo Hyde. Ricky delivered lectures, taught photography and large-format classes. He also lent artist proofs of his work Portrait of a Distant Land and Returning to Places That Name Us to the Kluge-Ruhe collection.
Above left: experimental beds 5, experimental beds 2. Photos: Carl Warner. Above right: Judy Watson’s workshop at the University of Virginia. Photo: courtesy of grahame galleries + editions.

Visit the Kluge-Ruhe collection at www.virginia.edu/kluge-ruhe/ Arts Yarn Up

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Autumn 2012

BLACK CHAT

Lucy Simpson
Director, Gaawaa Miyay

Rarriwuy Hick
Dancer, actor, choreographer

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nterprising 30-year-old Lucy Simpson and her company Gaawaa Miyay are the new face of contemporary Indigenous design.

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Based in Sydney, the Yuwaalaraay woman of the Walgett and Angledool areas of northwest New South Wales is inspired by family, identity and country. If I had to describe my mob in three words, they would be ... funny, musical, sincere. I am happiest when … I’m with family. The ultimate song to dance to is ... ‘Mission Ration Blues’ by Archie Roach. It’s not cool or fashionable, but I love … wearing trackies. My greatest fear is … losing a loved one. Knowing what I know now, if I had to go back and choose a non-arts related career, I would be … a sprinter or netballer. I’m always being asked … Walgett or Narrandera Simpsons? My most torturous/challenging creative work was … preparing for my first trade show. My greatest arts achievement so far is … a three-way tie between designing the ‘Welcome to Cadigal-Wangal country’ signage for Marrickville Council in Sydney, exhibiting my textiles at the London Design Festival, and singing with my sisters in our band Freshwater for the Prince of Jordan. The artists I most admire ... are the pioneers of Aboriginal art and design that for generations have made it possible for us to do what we do today. My hero in real life is … my Mum.
Above: Lucy Simpson. Photo: courtesy of the artist.

orn in Sydney, Rarriwuy Hick is a Yolngu woman from north-east Arnhem Land who combines urban and traditional influences in her work. Rarriwuy has performed with Bangarra, of which her mother, Janet Munyarryun, was a founding member. She was a lead actor in Wrong Skin and teaches at NAISDA. If I had to describe my mob in three words ... Yolngu people are strong in culture, very humble, and very generous in sharing our culture with the world. My mother always told me … to keep doing what I love. If dancing and acting makes me happy, then that’s what I should keep working hard to achieve. I am happiest when … I’m out bush in Arnhem Land with my family and dancing. A book that changed my life is … I like to read fantasy books. It helps me keep my imagination alive. The ultimate song to dance to is ... Traditional songs are great, but when you want to have a little fun I love to shake with my sisters to ‘Wipe Out’ by the Beach Boys. It’s not cool or fashionable, but I love … eating cheese and honey together.  My greatest fear is … spiders. Knowing what I know now, if I had to go back and choose a non-arts related career, I would be … a school teacher. My hero in real life is … my fiancé and my family.

Above: Rarriwuy Hick. Photo: Grant Sparkes-Carroll.
http://gaawaamiyay.com/ Arts Yarn Up

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Autumn 2012

SPECIAL FEATURE

Creating the 21 century

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As a moment in time, the founding of the Tent Embassy in 1972 was pivotal. Michael Anderson, Billy Craigie, Tony Coorey, Bertie Williams – and their beach umbrella – created an event that delineates the starting line for a period of Indigenous history that is explosive: not only politically, but culturally and artistically. Arts Yarn Up explores Indigenous art through the past 40 years, through the eyes of some of our leading voices in dance, literature, music, theatre and visual arts.

We review the highlights of four decades and beyond, acknowledging just some of the legends who blazed the trails and broke down the barriers. We cover a selection of the promising and exciting Indigenous artists making work today, understanding that for every artist named there are many more who need to be recognised. And we gaze into the future, thinking big, dreaming provocatively, about creating the 21st century.

Left to right: Bob Maza, Bindi Williams, Aileen Corpus (front) and Gary Foley in 1973 in ABCTV’s Basically Black, based on a Nimrod Theatre production. Photo: ABCTV.

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Autumn 2012

Special Feature: Creating the 21st century

Art connects and creates our culture into
The 21st century is a future of limitless possiblities and potential.

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ur sense of identity, belonging and place in the world is creating the 21st century as we live our art, culture, language, heritage, our relationship to our lands and seas, and our law. In the 20th century, the dominant colonial society constructed its cultural narrative to diminish and alienate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. A culture of propaganda effectively rendered social control over the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Colonial dominance made Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders the ‘Other’ in their own country. Government policies over the 20th and 21st centuries reflected rhetoric changing from protection and assimilation to self-determination, reconciliation, shared responsibility and closing the gap. Since Federation in 1901, with the introduction of the White Australia policy, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were removed from their homelands onto government and church controlled missions and reserves. The infamous Aborigines Acts were established by state governments. These laws controlled every aspect of Aboriginal people’s lives. Children were removed from their families, movement was restricted, and languages and cultural ceremonies banned. Decades later in 2008, the Federal Government would follow international trends and issue an Apology to the ‘Stolen Generations’, those children removed from their families and communities. During the 1960s, Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders protested against inequality, injustice, desecration and dispossession of land, and protectionist policies. The 1938 Day of Mourning was established by the Australian Aborigines Progressive Association to oppose the NSW Aborigines Protection Board. The monthly newspaper Australian Abo Call highlighted the issues. The Yirrkala Bark petitions asserted the Yolngu people’s ownership of lands in accordance with their law. FCAATSI, the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, was formed in 1958 and campaigned for constitutional change, resulting in the 1967 constitutional referendum. The 1960s also witnessed the Cummeragunga walk off, and the Pilbara, Palm Island and Gurindji strike actions. People then took their campaign to the United Nations, highlighting Australia’s denial of human rights. As we reflect on 40 years of art and culture, the words of the poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal resonate: ‘Let no-one say the past is dead, the past is all about us and within.’ Artists such as Oodgeroo Noonuccal, who campaigned for the 1967 referendum, called for recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at a time when they were considered little more than native fauna and flora. Kevin Gilbert wrote The Cherry Pickers in 1968, the first play chronicling the lives of itinerant cherry pickers on the fringes of white society. Painter Albert Namatjira, unveiled through his beautiful watercolour paintings the magnificence of his country in central Australia. Opera tenor Harold Blair graced the Sydney Opera House in Dalgerie in 1973 while campaigning for rights.

The 1970s saw the rise of political action. Many Aboriginal people returned to their home estates as part of the outstation movement. The decision of the Northern Territory Supreme Court to grant mining company Nabalco the right to mine on Aboriginal land on the Gove Peninsula spurred a new wave of political action. In the early 1970s, Aboriginal people established their own community-controlled services. In Redfern, we saw the emergence of Aboriginal health and legal and services, preschools and the Black Theatre. In Queensland, the Aborigines Act banned cultural practice and censored reading matter, mail, recreation, and sexual relationships. In many cases, wages were quarantined by state governments, resulting decades later in the ‘Stolen Wages’ campaigns. There were achievements in the mainstream in sport and politics, but there was also a growing demand for the recognition of human rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in their own lands. The Federal Government of the day instituted a policy of self-determination and we saw the establishment of the Land Councils to represent our people and negotiate land issues. In 1972, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was set up on the lawns of Parliament House. The heady days of the 1970s,

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the 21st century
however this disappeared under pressure from mining and pastoralist interests. The 1988 Long March responded with a protest against the Bicentennial, the biggest assembly of Indigenous Australians from every corner of the country. Gary Foley later wrote: ‘Prominent among those critical ... were Indigenous artists and performers who developed a strategy of challenging the powerful cultural mythology of what the Bicentennial represented. (Through the concert) Building Bridges, which was designed to communicate to white Australia an alternative understanding and vision for the future …This moment clearly showed that Black Australians were able to culturally subvert the underlying themes of the Bicentennial. Simply by surviving and resisting both the original invasion and 200 years of attempts to eliminate them through programs of assimilation1.’ Artists reflected these times through theatre, music, dance, writing and visual arts. We witnessed a cultural renaissance with the prolific rise of artists and artistic works. The beginnings of the 1990s were auspicious with the High Court of Australia establishing native title in the Mabo Case, ending the legal fiction that Australia was terra nullius, or empty land, when the British arrived in 1788. The assertion by Torres Strait Islander Eddie Mabo of his continuing culture resulted in successive challenges in the High Court from the Wik and Thayorre peoples. In some of those cases, art explained the integral linkages between art, culture, language, heritage, land and sea rights, and the connection to law that determined how people derived their rights in Aboriginal society. Richard Walley, as Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board from 1992-1996, said: ‘Art has always been integral to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s lives, as an expression of our spiritual connection with the land and sea, and as a ceremonial and educational tool of lore and Dreaming ... Diversity abounds through our arts and cultures, with every community realising their own distinctive interpretations. Arts often powerfully reflect our political, legal, historical and cultural concerns, with many artists bringing issues of dispossession to non-Indigenous audiences – from land rights to Aboriginal Deaths in Custody to the Stolen Generations. Art has therefore played a vital role to our survival since colonisation, allowing us to affirm and assert our individual and collective identities.’ In the 21st century, artists are creating the present in recognition of the past and imagining a future of endless possibilities. This journey is our shared experience of living through these times. It is an experience and reality that connects everyone to each other, nationally and internationally.
Above: Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours local sand into Vincent Lingiarri's hands and hands the Wave Hill station back to the Gurindji people (1975). Photo: Mervyn Bishop. Courtesy of the Australian Government.
1 Gary Foley, 2005 http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/essays/collision.html

with the National Black Theatre and the Tent Embassy, placed the oppression of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people firmly on the national and international agenda. In 1974 the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission under Justice Woodward acknowledged Aboriginal people’s linkages to their land. In 1975 the White Australia policy ended and the Racial Discrimination Act was instituted. This Act was suspended decades later in the Northern Territory, under an Intervention that now controls Aboriginal people’s lives once again. The Koowarta case challenged the constitutional validity of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 and the discriminatory acts of the Queensland Government which the High Court upheld in its 1982 decision. In 1976, the Commonwealth Land Rights Act was implemented in the Northern Territory, giving statutory recognition to the Northern Land Council, and the Pitjantjatjara Land Council was formed. In the 1980s we witnessed the consolidation of decades of rights advocacy into institutions with the Land Rights Acts in New South Wales and South Australia, and the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. In 1988, following the Barunga Statement, the Federal Government opened discussions for a potential Treaty,

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Autumn 2012

Creating the 21st century: Dance

Dance voices
Dancers on their art: past, present and future
Fundamental to culture
The Indigenous sections for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games’ Opening and Closing Ceremonies were a significant expression of the strength and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures today. Djakapurra Munyarryun, women of the central desert, Torres Strait Islanders, Yolngu from North-East Arnhem Land, Koorie kids of NSW, and Bangarra dancers came together for an Indigenous contemporary theatrical presentation that resonated with people everywhere. The next generation of Indigenous dancers, choreographers and designers is very exciting. I have commissioned new works for Bangarra by artists such as Frances Rings, Elma Kris, Daniel Riley McKinley and Jacob Nash, so we are seeing a new generation of Indigenous storytellers. I hope to see traditional dance continued and practiced as a fundamental, natural part of culture within community. — Stephen Page
Photo: courtesy of Bangarra.

More support, more opportunities Over the past 40 years we’ve seen Torres Strait Islanders, especially Elders, accept that contemporary dance and traditional dance can both represent our people. That is a huge step forward. For performing artists such as myself, who want to utilise our technical training and incorporate movements that are foreign to a lot of our people, it is a blessing to know that the people you are representing are proud to say that you are one of them. The support that has been given to Indigenous dance today is the reason there has been progress. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander independent artists and groups now have more opportunities. This has built a sense of confidence and hope among our mob. In the future, I hope to see Indigenous arts organisations given the authority to penalise any artist who knowingly breaks cultural protocol. Many cultural groups, tribes and clans are misrepresented when some artists perform outside of their communities. Such protocols should be mandatory. — Rita Pryce
Photo: Lovegreen Photography.

Combining innovation and tradition The emergence of the Black Theatre movement in Redfern, Sydney, was crucial to the growth and visibility of Indigenous dance in Australia. Without it NAISDA, Redfern Dance Theatre and companies like AIDT and Bangarra would not exist, as we know them. I in turn wouldn’t have examples to lead the way and a platform to contribute to the diversity of Indigenous dance. Looking ahead, I hope to see meaningful discourse between Elders and contemporary practitioners facilitated in a more tangible way than just a book of rules and protocols. We need more financial investment and active forums so that we can discuss possible breaches, and why these may be crucial to the growth of the contemporary form. Innovation and tradition need not be enemies. Understanding comes with time and investment, not just a blanket cure all. — Vicky Van Hout
Photo: courtesy of Vicki Van Hout.

Tell our stories When I started at NAISDA in 1989, we used to imagine what it would be like to dance with the Australian Ballet. I ended up doing that twice, first in 2001 in Bangarra’s Rites of Spring, and then in 2002 as a soloist in Spartacus. Since those days we’ve grown. It’s good to see more Indigenous dancers coming up. I’d like to see Indigenous dance companies with training schools established in each state. This would help retain young dancers who get homesick when they have to leave their country. It would also help us tell stories from our own country, something I want to do a lot more of. — Albert David
Photo: courtesy of the artist.

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Autumn 2012

Speak out, step up
By Michael Leslie

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am one of the five founding students of the National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA) dance college (the others were Wayne Nicholls, Dorothea Randall, Cheryle Stone and Daryl Williams). In 1977 myself and four other NAISDA dancers, including Roslyn Watson, and other Aboriginal Australians, were invited to participate in the Second World Black and African Arts and Cultural Festival in Lagos, Nigeria. There were black dancers from all parts of the world, including New York, the West Indies and Cuba. Our presence and talent at the festival made people aware that there were contemporary dancers in Australia. We were only students and yet we were performing as professionals and representing Aboriginal Australia at an international level. Consequently, NAISDA students continued to travel and perform overseas, in Tahiti, New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea, and at the Festival of Pacific Arts and other festivals abroad. In 1981 I was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship, which enabled me to study at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Centre in New York. I graduated in 1983. The late Wayne Nicholls went on to London and danced with the West Indian dance company Mass Movers. Then there was a steady flow of other dancers in the 80s and 90s who attended both the Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham schools in New York. There was also an influx of international practitioners who contributed to the training of Aboriginal dancers at NAISDA, and then came the Aboriginal Dance Theatre Redfern, the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre and the Bangarra Dance Theatre. Ballerina Roslyn Watson went on to study at the Dance Theatre in Harlem, New York. On her return Roslyn danced with the Dance Company (NSW), now the Sydney Dance Company, as well as with the Queensland Ballet and the Australian Dance Theatre. The thousands of young Aboriginal people over the years who have attended NAISDA have all done so with passion, and the aspiration to be professional dancers. They studied in order to enrich their life and invest in their future as well as the future of Aboriginal Australia and their communities. The current trend is that students entering NAISDA are aged 17 and over. This is far too late for such a competitive industry. The dance talent identification programs conducted by NAISDA and Bangarra, which target our most gifted youth in primary schools, should have happened years ago. This early training will equip our youth with the necessary skills, confidence, discipline and hunger they need. We need to lift both our training and our professional standards. At present the training and skills obtained are not transferable enough to allow our youth to be employed by white mainstream dance companies or with international companies. Our training for our youth is second-class. 

Not enough of our many independent choreographers are given the opportunity to choreograph or create for Bangarra – Aboriginal Australia’s premier dance company – or for mainstream or international companies. Bangarra’s responsibility in investing in future choreographers needed to be addressed in the 90s. If it had been, then now, in the 21st century, we would have choreographers working nationally and internationally. Aboriginal peoples and their culture are Australia’s greatest cultural asset. The performing arts is an area in which Aboriginal people can, and do, make an important cultural contribution to Australia. To facilitate this there needs to be a continued investment in the training of Aboriginal youth at the elite level. Where, though, is the political voice in dance? Aboriginal people are political people. Politics shape our lives more than non-Aboriginal people, but where is the empathy and social conscience in our arts leaders? I have been privileged to be among the trailblazers in dance and now, in 2012, I should be celebrating the opportunities and international exposure of our young dancers. But sadly this is not the case. Our Aboriginal Australian dancers should be known as some of the best dancers in the world. I am proud of all I have been part of and achieved on a personal level, but I am disappointed about what has not happened for our people in developing opportunities and world-class training. Michael Leslie was honoured for his lifelong contribution with the 2010 Red Ochre Award. He was named the 2011 International Unsung Hero at the 23rd International Association of Blacks in Dance, Los Angeles. He set up the Michael Leslie Foundation for the Performing Arts.
Above: Michael Leslie. Photo: courtesy of Rio Tinto.

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Creating the 21st century: Literature

Literature voices
Writers talk about literature: past, present and future
Diverse voices exposed The emergence of new narratives in Indigenous literature is exciting — Vivienne Cleven and Anita Heiss are two writers in particular who have perfected a modern version of the Indigenous woman and man. There are still many diverse voices underexposed. That talented Indigenous writers are exposing them, and bringing those worlds to life, is a true gift for Australian and international readers. I’m looking forward to younger writers coming through in the next few years, and continuing to be surprised by the fresh perspectives of what it means for our written characters to be ‘Australian’ today. — Tara June Winch
Photo: courtesy of Rolex.

Centuries of stories Over the last 40 years we saw a phenomenal growth and interest in Indigenous literature. We already come from the stories of our world, but we had great important writers such as our Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Jack Davis, Ruby Langford, Paddy Roe, Bill Neidjie, Kevin Gilbert and many more who inspired and led us. They made us see how it was possible to use our own imagination, thoughts, voices, character and style in saying who we are and what we want to think about in our writings. What of the next century? We already have many centuries of stories to tell. We battle everyday to care for the spirits of our land and all the stories of laws greater than all of us. Many of our people battle everyday just to stay alive. Even if we all took up the pen and wrote a thousand books each about our world, I am still not sure how long it would take to cure our souls. — Alexis Wright
Photo: courtesy of the artist.

Endangered languages revival The original stage version of Bran Nue Dae is a highlight of the past 40 years. Partly because it introduced many Aboriginal people to a wider audience and gave a jumpstart to their careers, but especially because it had such positive energy and broke away from stereotypes of what Aboriginal narratives might be. The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature is another highlight. Writers are continuing to move away from merely confirming the expectations and conventions of the Indigenous ‘niche’: the combination of energy and craft this requires results in the English language’s possibilities for expression being enlarged. Another exciting possibility is in the area of Indigenous language ‘revitalisation’, and how ‘endangered’ languages and stories can help rebuild community and also provide – paradoxically – new ways of expressing and thinking about contemporary Aboriginal identity. Then there is the cross-fertilisation between different art forms in which Indigenous people are now working. I’d like to see regional language and narratives becoming part of mainstream literature, and shared from regional Indigenous communities. — Kim Scott
Photo: Michael Wearne.

Challenge the establishment I turn the big ‘40’ this year. When I was born in 1972, there was only a handful of published Indigenous authors and their books weren’t in my school library. We’ve come a long way since then. A milestone was the ripple effect caused by Rabbit Proof Fence and the worldwide attention that Aunty Doris’ story captured! I’m connected to the Indigenous Literacy Project that is a branch of the Fred Hollows Foundation. The work that is being done by this dedicated team is producing the next wave of Indigenous authors. Anita Heiss is going leaps and bounds and my sister Nicole Watson’s debut, award-winning novel, The Boundary, is damn fine writing! I’d like to see the beautiful independent bookstores have sections devoted to Indigenous literature. Writing in itself is a gamble and a hustle. You’ve got to have a thick skin! I’d like to see more blackfellas form their own writing groups and in guerrilla-style challenge the publishing establishment! — Samuel Wagan Watson
Photo: courtesy of the artist.

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Autumn 2012

Celebrate Indigenous literature
By Anita Heiss

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ooking back over the past 40 years, there is much to be celebrated in what we have achieved in storytelling through literature. Considering that dancing, singing, performing and painting have been part of our cultural practices since the beginning of time, it is a phenomenal achievement to know that we have around 5,000 published Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers in Australia today. Some significant milestones over the past four decades have included the establishment of communitybased publishing houses like IAD Press (early 1970s), Magabala Books (1984), Keeira Press (1996) and Black Ink (2001). It’s also important to note the role our national newspaper the Koori Mail has provided for the last 25 years, in terms of publishing poetry. An entire stable of writers has been ‘discovered’ by one main initiative known as the David Unaipon Award established in 1988 through the University of Queensland Press. The award acknowledges the work of the writer and inventor who appears on our $50 note, but it has also provided a breeding ground for some of our most successful authors. Past winners like Larissa Behrendt, John Muk Muk Burke, Doris Pilkington and Samuel Wagan Watson, have gone on to win other awards and publish more books. Those who have placed Indigenous voices and writing into the mainstream should be applauded and recognised for not only raising the profile of their own works, but drawing attention to Indigenous writing generally. Significant and influential writers of mention are Kim Scott and Alexis Wright, who have both taken out the Miles Franklin Award, the country’s most prestigious gong for literature. In 2001, Scott was a joint winner for his novel Benang. In 2007, Wright took out the award for her epic novel Carpentaria. And in 2011, Scott won his second award for That Deadman Dance. In the same year we had the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Children’s Fiction presented to Boori Monty Pryor, who also became the country’s first Australian Children’s Laureate. Most recently we have seen the profile of Indigenous literature grow, with the marrying of the art form with education, and resources designed to get our stories and storytellers into Australian classrooms. In 2008, the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature was launched (with the assistance of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board). It showcased 81 authors, from the first published work in English by Bennelong in 1796, through to the award-winning author Tara June Winch in 2007. In 2011, 14 Indigenous authors were introduced into classrooms around the country via novels about land, family, identity and law, as part of the Oxford University Press Yarning Strong series.

At a professional level our mob still needs more development. We have very few established writers working in schools and communities running creative writing workshops. We have a very short list of skilled Indigenous people reviewing our writing for journals and newspapers. We have few Indigenous people working at every level of publishing: editors, managers, publicists and publishers! Over the next 40 years I hope to see some growth in our industry skills and greater diversity in our writing. We already have a very strong poetry, autobiography, biography and children’s list, and a growing pool of novelists. But we don’t have many writing genre fiction (be it choclit, crime, romance, fantasy). In 2011 we saw the release of our first-ever graphic novel Ubby’s Underdogs by Brenton E McKenna, but we need more. As peoples previously reliant largely on an oral tradition to pass on our stories, we have come a long way quickly. We have learned to adjust to the various mediums needed to get our stories, histories, messages out to as many and as varied an audience as possible. We too, are publishing e-books! With all these achievements happening in a small window of time in our history, I am confident, and very excited, about what the future holds. To keep up to date with what we’re doing, and how and where, check out BlackWords: an information rich website and database showcasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writing to the world. Dr Anita Heiss is from the Wiradjuri Nation. Her latest book is ‘Am I Black Enough For You?’.
Above: Dr Anita Heiss. Photo: Amanda James.

www.austlit.edu.au/specialistDatasets/BlackWords Arts Yarn Up

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Autumn 2012

Creating the 21st century: Music

Music voices
Musicians talk about music: past, present and future
Folk leads way It’s very difficult for Aboriginal people to get the recognition we deserve, to compete in the mainstream, but things are slowly getting better. The folk scene is probably the most prolific genre for our people and that has opened a lot of doors. Over the past 10 years we’ve seen every folk festival establish an Indigenous stage. The NITV music show also offers a platform. But there’s still a way to go. I hope that more Indigenous artists get record deals with major companies. One genre that still presents barriers to our people is country music. Our people support country music like no-one else, but we don’t get a lot of recognition. If you ask me for my highlight in Indigenous music over the past 40 years, there are many, but I keep coming back to one album: Wrong Side of the Road by No Fixed Address.— Dale Huddleston
Photo: Rawshorty.

Foundation for future I feel that musicians are the voice of the Aboriginal nation. Demonstrations have died down and Aboriginal music has become the voice, saying it in a more melodic way. We used painting, dance and music to communicate with people speaking other dialects. When you see a painting, there’s a dance to go with it. In the last 40 years we’ve come back to that way of communicating. Most of our stories have a moral … of respect, how to survive, how to find food if you’re hungry. When I listen to Gurrumul, he’s a link to people singing their language. He has a style of singing the old way but he’s modified it and uses Western instruments. I feel that for the future a foundation for Indigenous songwriters and performers needs to be set up. I also want to see the Australian Government recognise and enforce our intellectual property rights through the Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property law. — Joe Geia
Photo: Daybreak Films.

Sounds of the West The great thing about the 40 years since the Tent Embassy is the Indigenous music soundtrack that punctuates our recent history. It’s not just about the song, but about where you were when you heard it. Being Noongar and Gitja, I feel really connected to music from the West Coast. The Pigram Brothers are incredibly important. So is Lorrae Coffin. People like her give other musicians hope. At a national level, Uncle Jimmy Little, Archie Roach, Yothu Yindi and so many others are influential and inspirational for me. Ruby Hunter was an amazing performer and very generous offstage with her support and advice to other female artists. The most exciting trend now is the cross-form practice where musicians are involved in other forms of art. You might not hear our music on commercial radio, but you are hearing it in theatres, with orchestras and in films. In the future, I’d love to see our aspiring emerging musicians recognised as great musicians who happen to be Indigenous. — Gina Williams
Photo: courtesy of the artist.

On strong path Indigenous music is an extension of the strong connection we have to country, community and family. Our music has come a long way in 40 years, thanks to the persistence and strength of people like Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter and Kev Carmody. Uncle Jimmy Little, Auriel Andrews, Vic Simms, to name a few, all made that path really strong so that we could follow it. Being involved in The Black Arm Band is a phenomenal experience: to be singing one day on a basketball court in Papunya, then performing at the Sydney Opera House, then travelling to London. That shows the strength of our songlines. There is so much to choose from now – hip hop, folk, reggae – we’re all on that strong path. In the 21st century, the whitewash of the mainstream needs to end so that Indigenous music takes its rightful place in the music lands of Australia. — Lou Bennett
Photo: R. Stewart.

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Ancient stories live in our music
By Alice Haines

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ver the last 40 years, policies forced upon a once free people have imposed themselves on both our lives and the music that represents us. Forty years ago the Aboriginal Tent Embassy protest placed our people in the media forefront when it came to fighting for our rights. Today we are fighting for what is left of our traditional music – which needs to be formally listed as ‘endangered’ – while we witness our contemporary music expand across many music genres. Aboriginal radio stations have become a vehicle for exposing our awesome talents to our people around the country. Appearing in the mainstream media was merely a dream for our people before Jimmy Little graced himself on mainstream TV and radio. Auriel Andrews was not far behind and soon we had many more. Bob Randall’s early 1970s song ‘My Brown Skin Baby They Take Him Away’ became imbedded into the psyche of many households, while Anungu harmonies blessed the desert with the Ernabella Choir’s beautiful Pitjantjatjara language. Bart Willoughby’s band No Fixed Address, with singers such as Joe Geia, gatecrashed the mainstream music industry in the early 80s, followed by an awesome era of Aboriginal music that many still hang on to. Kuckles, Coloured Stone, the Warumpi Band, Scrap Metal, the Mills Sisters, Areyonga Desert Tigers, Blekbala Mujik and so many more became the essence of contemporary Indigenous music culture and lifestyle. Bart Willoughby’s band Mixed Relations dominated the mainstream music arena for a couple of years. Then Kev Carmody, Archie Roach and Tiddas took us further, ensuring that Indigenous acoustic soul became our blues genre. Grassroots legends such as Roger Knox wooed literally thousands each performance. Harry Williams, Vic Simms, Bobby McLeod, Black Lace and so many more were amongst our impressive multi-genre creations of country and rock. Yothu Yindi then exploded into the charts with ‘Treaty’, blowing the whole industry away in awe of traditional harmonies and rhythms pumped out with our political cries. Those who didn’t know what a Treaty was soon learnt that this meant our ‘freedom’ from an oppression being enforced upon us. Christine Anu’s version of ‘My Island Home’ placed our Indigenous women on the map, as well as highlighting the richness of culture from the Torres Straits. The populisation of Indigenous music became an immediate exploitation arena resulting in mainstream control. A strategic assimilation of our voice became a template for mainstream music. However, Indigenous music has maintained some traditional cultural aspects that have survived into contemporary music. This surviving aspect is storytelling. Many of our traditional stories are held in songs and many of our music artists continue this tradition by telling stories from their country.

Other music aspects that have survived from our cultural traditions are ‘traditional harmony’ and even ‘traditional rhythms’ which have merged themselves into contemporary formats, allowing the ‘Blackfella’ sound we are naturally accustomed to. We need more Indigenous producers in this country. Many signed artists are provided with non-Indigenous producers who often lack comprehension of traditional rhythms and elements. Wrong choices of time signatures can squash a traditional rhythm’s existence if the producer is not aware of the rhythmic notations begging for breath. There is something special when the producer of an album captures the essence of what an Indigenous artist is trying to express. In the case of Christine Anu’s Stylin’ Up album, David Bridie managed, sensitively yet boldly, to capture the existence of the traditional harmony and rhythms of the Torres Strait in a contemporary mainstream music format. In the light of the recent successes of Frank Yamma, Troy Cassar Daley, Seaman Dan, Gurrumul Yunupingu, Emma Donovan, Cassie Donovan, Last Kinection and Jessica Mauboy, we can safely say that Indigenous music is going to be around for a long time to come. Musicians such as Buddy Knox and Dale Huddleston, and impressive newbies such as Tjimba Possum Burns, ensure that if music can survive from the ancient times with some cultural elements intact, then if supported it will survive the decades ahead, ensuring that the core of our culture, our songlines, will continue on as our cultural celebration of survival. Alice Haines performed in the band Mixed Relations, in the original stage production of ‘Bran Nue Dae’ and extensively around Australia and overseas. Alice has produced music for the past 10 years.
Above: Alice Haines. Photo: courtesy of Alice Haines.

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Autumn 2012

Creating the 21st century: Theatre

Theatre voices
Theatre artists talk about theatre: past, present and future
Drive by talent While our work remains firmly driven by politics and grounded by culture, language and story, Indigenous theatre has steadfastly tapped away at the edges of mainstream theatre styles and forced the medium to virtually reinvent itself to harbour our expansive dreamings. Aboriginal artists have provoked and enhanced the broader Australian theatre industry. Our cultural and artistic influence is global. Aboriginal theatre makers need physical places to create work. Land. Ceremonial grounds. Theatres. It’s good to have Aboriginal theatre companies, but we also need state-of-the-art theatre venues to make our work in. We are still beholden to many non-Aboriginal gatekeepers who hold the key to the success of our work. Every theatre organisation has a responsibility to develop and present Aboriginal people and a culture that is driven by talent and self-determination. — Andrea James
Photo: Helen White.

Tell diverse stories I want to see more of our stories on stage and on the screen. There is a hunger for Aboriginal stories. And while there are many magnificent stories to tell, of people who have led fascinating and challenging lives, I think it’s limiting if we only do stories about real people and events: ‘documentary theatre’. The parallels are in literature – we need well-researched non-fiction but we also need great fiction, which has a wider reach. I’m being provocative, but if we only tell stories that romanticise Aboriginal characters, this is another form of the noble savage construct. Many Aboriginal people live in cities, are highly urbanised – indeed ‘middle class’ – so we need to be telling more of those stories. They are no less Aboriginal, and no less complex or fascinating. We will mature as to what we think an Aboriginal story is. Also, while our own backyard is always the most important audience, let’s expand to a global audience. — Jane Harrison
Photo: courtesy of Currency Press.

Honesty, power, spirit To me one of the biggest highlights of the past 40 years is the groundbreaking theatre show Basically Black in the early 1970s. This production was political, bold and non-forgiving. I’m excited by the variety of theatre that Indigenous artists are creating and the way we are truly developing our own style of theatre. I love that our work melds all performance styles from movement, music, song, dance and storytelling. I hope to see more mainstream productions happening and filling our theatre spaces in Australia and worldwide. I hope to see more Indigenous theatre here in the Top End and our differences and uniqueness celebrated in our work and stories that we continue to create with such honesty, power and spirit.— Ben Graetz
Photo: courtesy of Ben Graetz.

Recognise enormous potential Our sector has been growing over many years. There is now a groundswell of work and as an industry we have matured. There is enormous potential for our performing artists through cultural tourism and enterprise, partnerships with varying arts companies and cross-arts practices, as well as the national and international touring circuit. I would like to see a huge shift in audience development across all sectors. For the performing arts to be more effectively targeted, we must build capacity and growth through multi-arts collaborations. When Australians pay to see our works on the stage and applaud without questioning the guilt or relying on raw emotion to get an effect, I know we will have turned the tide. Our industry needs to look at sustainable practices and our own communities need to recognise the social and cultural benefits, and to personally come and support our artists and purchase tickets, like we do at the very well-paid football season. — Rhoda Roberts
Photo: courtesy of Rhoda Roberts.

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Autumn 2012

Black Theatre then and now
By Liza-Mare Syron
he 40th anniversary of the National Black Theatre was celebrated in January 2012 at Carriageworks, as part of the 36th Sydney Festival. More of a vision than an actual working theatre company, the National Black Theatre spawned landmark playwrights such as Kevin Gilbert, Robert Merritt and Jack Davis and the careers of remarkable actors such as Bob Maza, Lillian Crombie and Justine Saunders, as well as cultural activists Gary Foley and director Brian Syron. I was 14 years old when I saw my uncle, Brian Syron, playing Sweet William in The Cake Man at Bondi Pavillion in 1977. Seeing that play at such a young age was a defining experience, as it must have also been for my contemporaries who are also mostly either descendants of these champions, or who grew up inspired and influenced by the courage, the generosity, and the resilience of the many mentioned above. We are inseparable from this past. Forty years on, we now own these narratives. And 40 years from now they will belong to our descendants. How then might they present these stories? Theatre was the preferred medium during the early 70s for portraying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experience. English and American theatre canons heavily influenced those times (and to some extent still do), and were perceived as the measure of ‘good’ theatre. Now, however, Aboriginal theatre sits at the threshold of change. We still draw from our own continuous cultural inheritance and practices, but these days Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander theatre and performance practitioners are quietly developing innovative ways of producing productions relevant to our times. In shows like Posts in the Paddock, a co-production between Moogahlin Performing Arts and My Darling Patricia; Bully Beef Stew by Sonny Dallas Law, Colin Kinchela and Bjorn Stewart at PACT; To Soothe the Dying Pillow by Andrea James at Performance Space; and to some extent I am Eora by Wesley Enoch; audiences now experience not only a performance (which includes music, theatre, and dance) but also visual representations of that narrative through the use of installation and/or video components. The ability to tell stories (in some cases old stories) in new ways is something consistent to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural expression. And although these are new technologies, these elements of production are used in ways similar to how culture was expressed and enacted historically in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies. Then, culture and knowledge were expressed and enacted concurrently through the mediums of performance, painting, and dance. The future of any culture or society depends on its ability to adapt and change, and not simply to conform to the practices of dominant traditions. In saying this, however, I fully understand why Black Theatre practitioners of the past used the popular theatre canons

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of the day to present their stories. After all, it was radical enough to challenge the prevailing narratives of Australia’s history. It would have been doubly difficult to also introduce new performance approaches at that time. And although performance practices today are still very much perceived as having been developed by Western and European theatre makers like Peter Brook, Eugenio Barba, and to some extent Jerzy Grotowski, they did look to the diversity of cultural practices from across the globe in search of new approaches. We also need to look further afield than what is customary. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander theatre in Australia is well placed to succeed in the future. It has not only a unique cultural heritage that practitioners can draw from and develop into new techniques and approaches to making theatre and performance, but practitioners also seem willing to embrace some of the new and emerging theatre and performance influences globally. We need not duplicate the practices of the past but look to recreate them in the context of all our experiences, including the pre-colonial and the postmodern. The future may remain hidden. We view brief glimpses of what is possible through curtains not yet fully raised. And yet this is a good thing as it gives us something to look forward to over the next 40 years, and that is the continual unveiling of new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander forms of production. Liza-Mare Syron is a descendant from the Birripi people of Tuncurry, northern NSW. She is currently the Senior Aboriginal Cultural Development Officer at Arts NSW.
Above: Liza-Mare Syron. Photo: courtesy of Liza-Mare Syron.

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Creating the 21st century: Visual arts

Visual arts voices
Visual artists talk about art: past, present and future
Blood-red moon I am really inspired by nature. I think for me a visual highlight was the blood-red moon in June 2011 – it was just so amazingly surreal. The Marina Abramovic retrospective at MOMA in New York was a wonderful show of a deserving artist. I like that an artist can be as recognised as she is and be alive to experience it. The Artist is Present was so simple, just her in a chair looking into the eyes of an audience member. What it revealed to me is just how distant we are from each other as a human family and how we collectively yearn on some level to be embraced and acknowledged. — Christian Thompson
Photo: Andrew McLeod.

Our art a force The highlight of the past 40 years is the appearance of Indigenous art as a force in Australia – full stop. We can go and see artworks in the regions, the cities and overseas. I like the fact that there is so much variety today. Indigenous artists are coming from all sorts of levels, with all sorts of ideas and practices. There is a good mix of pasts and futures to pump up our present realities of Australia. In the 21st century, I hope that more of us can make a living at it.— Destiny Deacon
Photo: Nadine Saacks.

Still going strong I started painting in the 1980s, so I’ve been working for nearly 40 years. I really want to continue working for a long time, 50 or 60 years. Sometimes I’m busy with other things, but I always get in and paint. I’ve been around a long time and I know what it’s like. It’s been really great. It’s a hard job but I did some really good work. I can help solve problems. I speak to many people and I like going to Sydney and Melbourne. I make myself a good name, for me, Bobby, and try to make it better for my children in the future. I looked at it and I thought about it and the young people are doing good work, but I’d like to see more happen. I like to see it continue because that’s the only way for each other. Four of my children are artists. That makes me proud. My son Jeremiah wants to be an artist like me. I’m teaching him and my nephew. — Bobby West Tjupurrula
Photo: Papunya Tula Artists.

Bennett spoke to me In 1999, I saw History and Memory in the Art of Gordon Bennett at the Museum of Brisbane. It was the first art exhibition I ever attended and it changed my life forever, Bennett’s paintings spoke to me. Not long after, I discovered Tracey Moffatt’s Scarred for Life (1994) photographic series which looked at issues associated with the human condition, including race, gender, and sexuality. Both these artists opened up a whole new world of possibilities and showed me that art did not just have to be a beautiful picture but could also comment on the political, social and cultural. Bennett and Moffatt opened many doors and their stance has helped artists in this country stand on a level playing field with their international contemporaries. What I hope to see over the course of this century is for all art made by Aboriginal people to be seen as contemporary art. — Tony Albert
Photo: courtesy of the artist.

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Past milestones and big future
By Hetti Perkins

here have been so many milestones in the past 40 years for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, but I think two key achievements have helped advance the visual arts. One is the formation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board. In terms of self-determination, this is one of our major achievements. The second is the growth of urban-based artist cooperatives such as Boomalli in Sydney, as well as the growing number of art centres in regional and remote areas. Both of these areas of artistic endeavour have helped to build on the political precedent set by movements such as the Tent Embassy. We’ve also been privileged to see so many talented and groundbreaking artists paving the way over the past four decades. Lin Onus was particularly influential, not just because he was a highly-regarded artist, but also for his very important role as an arts administrator championing artists’ rights. There have been so many others who have also played a vital role; people like Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, one of the Papunya Tula artists – he was a quiet achiever and worked without much fanfare in a career that spanned 30 years. The incorporation of the Papunya Tula Artists Cooperative in 1972 was another indication of the benefits of self-determination.   Yvonne Koolmatrie is another influential artist who revitalised the cultural traditions of her people both nationally and internationally, representing Australia at major events such as the Venice Biennale, along with Judy Watson and Emily Kam Ngwarray. They were joined on the international circuit by people like Rover Thomas and Trevor Nickolls, who exhibited at the 1990 Biennale. One of the many other inspiring artists is Destiny Deacon. Her achievements are a standout for me, not just for her international renown, but because she has been a real mentor and has encouraged people like

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Christian Thompson, who is now studying for his doctorate at Oxford University. Then of course there’s John Mawurndjul – who recently had a European retrospective, which is not bad for a bark painter! That’s something else that has changed over the last 40 years – artists such as Destiny and John, who have such different approaches, are now having their work shown side-by-side as Indigenous art. We’ve come a long way, but I think if we are going to continue to grow we need to find more opportunities for our people to participate on the arts administration side of the fence, in all of the art forms. We need places for up-and-coming curators or conservators or scriptwriters or set designers. We need more behind-the-scenes people, and I think in this regard we’ve got a ways to go. First and foremost, we need our own cultural centre, as the appreciation here for our art and culture is not as deep or pervasive as it could be. My dream for the 21st century would be to have a very large, flagship national cultural institution that is properly supported like the large museums in Europe and America. A big bucks, big deal, big-noting institution – that’s what we need to be able to do justice to the body of work that is out there. It’s long overdue and we deserve the political will and support for that. It’s not only the obvious thing to do, it’s also the right thing to do. Eastern Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman Hetti Perkins was the Senior Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (1998–2011), as well as the curator for major Indigenous art exhibitions internationally. She is currently resident curator at Bangarra Dance Theatre.
Above: Hetti Perkins with Water Brain (Rusty Peters). Photo: Susie Hagon, courtesy Jirrawun Arts.

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Journeys through Indigenous music
Five music professionals talk about their all-time favourite black songs.
Grant Burns, Chief Executive Officer, Abmusic, Perth Took the Children Away Archie Roach The song is so powerful it renders the audience speechless every time Archie performs it. A Change is Gonna Come Ruby Hunter The song has the most incredible introduction that displays how unique and powerful her voice was. Dancing in the Moonlight Coloured Stone I remember seeing Bunna Lawrie perform this song live playing guitar and didge at the same time! Alex Doomadgee, Music Coordinator, Gadigal Music, Sydney Blackfella/Whitefella Warumpi Band Without doubt the greatest Aboriginal rock song and protest song of all time!  We Have Survived No Fixed Address This song is associated with every land rights rally, march and protest that has ever taken place. Black Boy Coloured Stone The first video clip from one of our iconic Aboriginal bands, plus the words are empowering and meaningful.  Jessie Lloyd, Artistic Director, Songlines Music Aboriginal Corporation, Melbourne Afterglow Jimmy Chi This song is one of the most beautiful love songs ever from one of the original Bran Nue Dae cast. Gubberdee King Kadu This is a wonderful narrative style song from the Torres Straits, beautifully told and sung. Moodjebing Djiva A moving story about a forgotten Aboriginal reserve in West Australia, with great movement and dynamics. Michael Smith, CAAMA Music, Alice Springs Coolibah Frank Yamma My favourite: the story, the emotion and the phrasing all come together to evoke an emotional response. Blackfella/Whitefella Warumpi Band This song is so funky and gets stuck in my head. Sometimes I wake up singing the chorus. An anthem. Prisoner Lajamanu Teenage Band The feel of this song is totally Central Australian! It has all of the core elements of ‘desert reggae’. Robert Lee, Station Manager, Radio Goolarri, Broome Alien Nation Archie Roach The lyrics leave it up to your imagination and how you feel at the time you hear it. I feel he is singing about my past sometimes. Me and My Hot Bottle of Wine Fitzroy Xpress This track is a great love song. If you’re from this area you will understand the lyrics are a bit tongue-in-cheek. Last Train Christine Anu This was the first of Christine’s tracks that I think made her noticeable on the music front. It’s still very catchy.

Arts Yarn Up: 50 must listen Indigenous songs
To celebrate the achievements of Indigenous musicians, Arts Yarn Up has compiled ‘50 Must Listen Black Songs’ – you’ll find the bookmark in this edition. Of course, the list is by no means definitive, so let us know if you have any other favourites. Happy listening.

MUST LISTEN
BLACK SONGS
Took The Children Away Archie Roach Truck Drivin’ Woman Auriel Andrew My Brown Skin Baby They Take Him Away Bob Randall Are You With Me Out There! Brotha Black Underlying Message Busby Marou Last Regret Casey Donovan My Island Home Christine Anu Black Boy Coloured Stone Your Love is Like a Song Dan Sultan Gumbayngirr Lady Emma Donovan You Better Run Footprince Everybody’s Talking Frank Yamma Bapa Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu Blues Down Under Georgia Lee Redfern Girl Glenn Skuthorpe Running Back Jessica Mauboy Nothing I Would Rather Be Jimmy Chi Yorta Yorta Man Jimmy Little Yil Lull Joe Geia Thou Shalt Not Steal Kev Carmody From Little Things Big Things Grow Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly Geygi King Kadu Vision Lajamanu Teenage Band

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50 MUST LISTEN BLACK SONGS

An-Barra Clan Letterstick Band Blackfellas Local Knowledge Malabar Mansion Mac Silva Frangipani Land Mills Sisters Aboriginal Woman Mixed Relations Brisbane Blacks Mop & the Dropouts We Have Survived No Fixed Address Music Makes Me Happy Oka My Blood My People Patrick Mau Black Baptism Radical Son Koori Rose Roger Knox Down City Streets Ruby Hunter Swept Away Shellie Morris Balooraman The Last Kinection Joseph The Medics Nowhere Else But Here The Pigram Brothers Inside My Kitchen Tiddas Hunters and Gatherers Tjimba and the Yung Warriors They Don’t Make ‘Em Like That Anymore Troy Casser-Daley Genocide Us Mob Stranger In My Country Vic Simms Raining On The Rock Warren H Williams and John Williamson Blackfella/Whitefella Warumpi Band That’s How I Go For You Wilma Reading Face My Music Wire MC Treaty Yothu Yindi Simplified Zennith

www.australiacouncil.gov.au/top50Indigenoussongs Arts Yarn Up

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Vale Dr Jimmy Little AO
Jimmy had fond memories of his upbringing at Cummeragunja Mission and Wallaga Lake in New South Wales. He met his wife Marjorie Peters in Redfern and married in 1958. He is survived by his daughter, Frances Peters Little, and grandson, James Henry Little. A pioneer of the music industry for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Jimmy released his first single ‘Mysteries of Life’ in 1956, aged 18. He was singer with the All-Coloured Revue, a touring band in the 1960s, and his first hit single, the gospel song ‘Royal Telephone’, came in 1963—a time when few Aboriginal performers took the spotlight. Jimmy was very proud of his identity as an Aboriginal man, advocating a gentle but persistent approach to Aboriginal rights and reconciliation. His songs have always supported this sentiment, from his 1958 recording of ‘Give the Coloured Boy a Chance’, to his 1995 album Yorta Yorta Man. Recording 34 albums in total, other notable tracks included ‘Danny Boy’ (1959) and ‘Baby Blue’ (1974). In the 1980s he took a break from his music to teach at Eora College – Sydney Institute TAFE – and focus on acting. He performed in the play Black Cockatoos (1998), in artist Tracey Moffat’s short film Night Cries (1989) and director Wim Wenders’ film Until the End of the World (1991). In 1999, his music career made a triumphant return with the hugely successful album Messenger (1999). He was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, and received a Deadly Award for ‘Male Artist of the Year’ and ‘Best Album’ that year. In 2004 he received the Order of Australia Medal for his music achievements and work towards reconciliation, and became one of Australia’s National Living Treasures, an accolade awarded to people who have made outstanding contributions to Australian society in any field. In 2011, he received the Ted Albert Award for his lifetime contribution to the Australian music industry. Jimmy suffered kidney failure in 2002 and received a kidney transplant in 2004—the same year he won the Red Ochre Award. ‘Unfortunately, I didn’t get check-ups often enough or soon enough to realise the possibility that my kidneys could fail. When my doctor told me I had kidney failure, it was like being hit by a bolt of lightning,’ Jimmy said in 2002. His medication brought on diabetes and health became Jimmy’s primary focus. He established the Jimmy Little Foundation to promote healthy living to Aboriginal children and raise awareness of diabetes around Australia. Jimmy was also an ambassador for Indigenous literacy. We are all more enriched having had him in our lives and extend our sincere sympathies to his family, friends and associates. A memorial service and celebration concert was held for Uncle Jimmy at the Sydney Opera House on 3 May 2012.
Above: Jimmy Little. Photo: John Ogden.

‘I just want people to remember me as a nice person who was fair-minded and had a bit of talent that [he] put to good use.’ – Jimmy Little, ABC Talking Heads Program Transcript, 2005 On 2 April 2012, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians lost an artist of immeasurable talent whose six-decade musical career made him a role model, elder and father figure. His passing is a great loss for all Australians. Jimmy, fondly known as ‘Uncle Jimmy’, was a legendary musician, statesman and true gentleman. From topping the music charts with songs like ‘Royal Telephone’ in the 1960s, to working with Aboriginal health and literacy in the last decade of his life, Jimmy was a highly visible advocate for Aboriginal culture and identity. ‘[My parents] taught me well about the value of life, freedom, love, respect – all those basic things that we need. As vaudevillians, I loved them. It was part of my dream to follow in the footsteps of Mum and Dad. I’m so proud that I was able to do that.’ – Jimmy Little, ABC Talking Heads Program Transcript, 2005 Jimmy Little was born James Oswald Little, the eldest of seven children, at Cummeragunja Mission on the Murray River in Victoria. He was a Yorta Yorta (mother Frances) and Yuin Man (father James Little Snr); the son of travelling musicians who began his musical career aged 13.

Jimmy Little Foundation: www.jlf.org.au Arts Yarn Up

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Autumn 2012

The two of us
Actor Jack Charles and Rachael Maza, artistic director of Ilbijerri Theatre Company, have known of each other since the early 1970s. As the daughter of Torres Strait Islander actor Bob Maza, Rachael saw many of Jack’s early performances. In 2010, they came together to produce Jack Charles v the Crown, the one-man show of Jack’s colourful life, with the Ilbijerri Theatre Company. Redback if he had it, even if it meant he had nothing left in his pocket. Uncle Jack was appearing in the theatre sporadically. I saw him in the occasional production like the play Dead Heart by Nick Parsons. One thing that stood out – when I did see him perform – was that voice. It always caught me off guard – that this huge resonant voice could come out of that tiny little body! I was certainly aware of his reputation of not always being reliable because of his habit. You figured that when you did bump into him and he’d rub you for a 20 or whatever, that he’s probably off to get a hit or something. When I saw Bastardy, I was absolutely bowled over at his incredible courage to be so candid and so generous in telling his story. It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen. He was able to give us an insight into a world we would never have the opportunity of going into. Only days later I was blubbering to him: ‘Omigod, you are amazing. That was an incredible documentary!’ And he wanted to give all the credit to Amiel [the director]. I boldy threw him the idea that we should do a stage show. His response was so unflinching, so absolute, that I was bowled over. Jack Charles is the most professional consummate actor/writer I’ve ever seen. He never lets his ego get in the way. He’s constantly generous and he trusts and has confidence in you. The week before the first show at the Melbourne International Arts Festival in 2010, it was still being written and rewritten. I was having a nervous breakdown! Uncle Jack never once chucked a ‘tanty’ or got

RACHAEL’S STORY
I don’t remember a specific time I met Uncle Jack because he’s always been there. Growing up as a little kid in those early theatre days, Jack was just there. I have quite a vivid memory of him and that’s because it was so shocking. These two whitefellas came out on stage, they each had on an old stage soldier’s uniform like they’d come off an 18th century boat. They came out holding him under his armpits and a young Jack Charles was absolutely naked. I just remembered ‘Omigod, he’s absolutely starkers!’ I think I was six or seven years old. I’ve since learned that was called the Cradle of Hercules and it was at the Opera House and Uncle Jack was playing Bennelong. He’s always been there and he’s always popped up throughout my life. He was always walking around Fitzroy. He’s this kind of mysterious character. I didn’t know him intimately, but I’d know him and slip him a Redback or something. My impression is always of how charming he is – wouldn’t hurt a fly. Always got the time of day to have a conversation. He’d lend you the money for that

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down in the dumps. Yet he was the only person on the stage to face the audience and potentially get egg on his face. Then I realised – here’s a man who’s lived this life. This is just a play. He’s seen much worse than just a play. No one’s dying. No one’s going to die. Ilbijerri developed the play Coranderrk, which Jack also performed in, at the same time as Jack Charles v the Crown. While researching Coranderrk, we delved into the life of Jack’s great-great-grandfather, John Charles. We were surprised to see his personal family story falling into place as we worked on both shows. We’re telling Jack’s story at the same time he is discovering his own story. It’s the super highlight of my career to be able to have a moment like this, to see the work that we’ve created with Jack Charles v the Crown. None of that would have happened if Jack didn’t want to tread the boards at the age of 69. Australia wants and needs to hear Uncle Jack’s story.

JACK’S STORY
My umbilical cord was cut at the Royal Women’s Hospital, Grattan Street, Carlton on 9 September 1943. Naturally, under the assimilations policy, and as a ‘half-caste’, I was snitched from my mother’s breast, made a ‘ward of the state’ and placed into a babies home in Brunswick. When I reached the age of two, I was placed into the Salvation Army Box Hill Boys’ Home, opposite the big water tower on the corner of Elgar and Canterbury Roads. I spent my formative years living there as the one and only person of Aboriginal heritage.

When I turned 14, I was fostered out to a family in nearby Blackburn and directed by the Aboriginal Protection Board to work as an apprentice glass beveller. When I qualified, I visited Fitzroy and Collingwood in search of family and other Aboriginals. After that, my life seemed to take many a wrong turn along a crooked road and I ended up lost in a criminal world of crime, drink and jail time. Bastardy, the documentary about my life, gives a noholds-barred account of my struggles. The documentary was done to educate white Australia, through one stolen person’s miserable existence—mine. It was done in the national interest and with an aching need to display to the nation that I was totally powerless against the strong pull of a heroin addiction. I’ve not received any payments; I wasn’t interested in that. Suffice to say, I received a total cathartic healing and awareness of sorts and consequently am richer by far from the experience. I enjoyed giving of myself and my circumstances, to the enquiring minds of the young documentary-maker and his student mate Amiel Courtin-Wilson. When my good friend Rachael Maza saw Bastardy on the ABC, she quickly rang to seek my interest in developing a stage version. We had long months collaborating with my dramaturg mate John Romeril, and gave birth to Jack Charles v the Crown. The show gave my profile a rise nationally and among those in the great struggle to stem the tide consuming all our communities. Since we premiered the show in 2010 in Melbourne, my life has changed markedly. My profile has risen to the stratosphere and beyond. Working with Rachael has been a great journey. I let her into my world of the images of my great-greatgrandfather John Charles, obtained from the Koorie Heritage Trust archives, and along came the script for the show Coranderrk. When the cast travelled to meet the family and descendants at Healesville, I got to know more about John Charles, the Dja Dja Wurrung man from the Bendigo region of central Victoria. It makes me feel more complete to have found out this information while I’ve been working at Ilbijerri. Rachael’s been doing absolute wonders maintaining connections to country—in theatre and life. I place my good fortunes and future prospects firmly at the feet of Bob Maza’s daughter, Rachael, and the mob at Ilbijerri Theatre. I acknowledge and respect Rachael’s wisdom, guidance and forbearance in this ongoing journey and will always be indebted to her for a friendship well-forged. Rachael has thankfully worked with me at an extremely senior pace and her mind is ever watchful when Indigenous issues arise which could enhance my performances. Rachael has even got me onto the lattes. I was a cup of tea man before I joined the latte set. I can’t start rehearsing nowadays unless I’ve my take away latte! Rachael, Ilbijerri and myself make a formidable trifecta.
Above left: Jack Charles and Rachael Maza. Photo: David Johns.
www.ilbijerri.com.au

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Australia Council grant closing dates for 2012
New Work The closing dates for grants that support the creation of new artworks by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander artists for public presentation are 16 July and 19 November 2012. Presentation and Promotion The closing date for grants to present and promote Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander artists and their work to audiences in Australia and overseas close on 16 July and 19 November 2012. Skills and Arts Development Applications for grants that support excellence in the arts by providing professional development opportunities for artists close on 16 July and 19 November 2012. Indigenous Arts Workers Program The closing date for grants that provide funding for an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander arts organisation to employ an Indigenous arts worker is 16 July 2012. Fellowships The closing date for Fellowships for visual arts and literature projects is 19 November 2012. National Indigenous Arts Infrastructure Program – Building category The closing date for outstanding Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Arts organisations in the Building category (three years funding) is 16 July 2012. Red Ochre Award This award recognises an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander artist for a lifetime of achievement in the arts. Nominations close 19 November 2012. Dreaming Award This award is for young and emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander artists aged 18-26 years. Applications close 19 November 2012. Cité Residency The closing date for a three-month residency for an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander artist, commencing in mid 2013 at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, is 16 July 2012. Kluge-Ruhe Residency The closing date for a two-month residency for an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander artist, commencing in early 2013 at the University of Virginia, Kluge-Ruhe, is 16 July 2012. For further information contact ATSIA’s Program Team on 02 9215 9067, email [email protected], or visit www.australiacouncil.gov.au/grants.

ROUND UP
ATSIA Board Fellowships
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board Fellowship grants provide established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists with financial support to develop a major creative project or program. Fellowship grants are available as follows: 2012: Available for visual arts and literature projects only. 2013: Available for music and theatre projects only. 2014: Available for dance and hybrid and cross-arts projects. 2015: Available for arts administration and visual arts. For more information visit: www.australiacouncil.gov.au/atsia/fellowships or call a member of the ATSIA team.

Gamilaroi man Reko Rennie was the 2009 recipient of the three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Photo: Bindi Cole.

MUST LISTEN S
BLACK SONG
Took The Children Away Archie Roach Auriel Andrew Truck Drivin’ Woman My Brown Skin Baby They Take Him Away Bob Randall There! Are You With Me Out Brotha Black Busby Marou Underlying Message n Last Regret Casey Donova e Anu My Island Home Christin Stone Black Boy Coloured Dan Sultan Your Love is Like a Song Donovan Gumbayngirr Lady Emma ce You Better Run Footprin Frank Yamma Everybody’s Talking Gurrumul Yunupingu G ff

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50 must listen black songs inside this edition of Arts Yarn Up

Australia Council for the Arts 372 Elizabeth Street Surry Hills NSW 2010 PO Box 788 Strawberry Hills 2012 T 02 9215 9000 • Toll-free 1800 226 912 • TTY 1800 555 677 • F 02 9215 9111 [email protected] • www.australiacouncil.gov.au

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