At this point can I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which the Gallery stands and the community I am part of and indeed I have spent my whole life on. The land of the Wiradjuri Nation. I acknowledge Elders, significantly in this exhibition, those who have already passed on ahead, and those who have taken on this critical role today, they have left an imprint of cultural heritage within the artists who have participated and the community across this region.
This exhibition of Aboriginal Artists from the Western region of the Riverina is exquisite. Works from Wayne Krause, Ros Lockhart, Sarah Weymouth, William Ingram, Rodney Simpson, Veronica Collins, Cory McKenzie, Alan McKenzie, Sos Hawkins, and Tyneika Powell to name but a few, will seriously bowl you over in their beauty, complexity and shear size.
The works strongly reflect the distinctive geometric patterns that delineate Wiradjuri designs from other neighbouring nation or language groups. These patterns define the works of Veronica Collins and also the large scale wood carvings of Rodney Simpson.
The works are contemporary and reflect on significant stories or Song-lines (dreaming tracks) that that are significant elements in sharing the Dreamtime Creation stories and cultural history within Aboriginal peoples. The works also reflect local totems that are significant to the Wiradjuri Nation.
As I stood in the gallery in front of these works, I felt overwhelmed by the strength of the works and also the long connection to the far reaches of time. Our "Western Civilisation" grew from the Sumerians who first began to settle into urban like villages some 5,000 years ago, over time various nation states took centre stage and influenced how, where and who we are today. Aboriginal people however, have had at least a 60,000 year old relationship and understanding of this island Continent. They established complex languages that define the connection with land and in deed could be regarded as nations, complex understandings of the relationships between seasons, plants, animals, birds and insects. Complex narratives that effectively explained how each element that made up their environment connected and came into being. This is what crashed over me as a viewed each work in the exhibition, a narrative of story telling that harks back to the dreamtime.
No other culture on this planet can claim to go back so far, the complexity of the elements that make up each work, reflect the complex narratives created over time by people whose relationship with the land, nature and kinship was so interconnected, that even today we are still discovering how complex this connected knowledge was and still is.
There are some stand out pieces in this exhibition. The five large wood carvings by Rodney Simpson are significant works of art. From a distance you think its painted and as you get closer it reveals itself to be an intricate carving, telling a story from the dreamtime or something of significance to the artists heritage as a Wiradjuri man. Girrawaa (Goanna) a strong totem within the Wiradjuri language group is a common element in the works, but also of significance is the geometric patterns that build the image we see.
The work by the youth from Youth of the Streets, an installation of 100 painted spears suspended in a circle in the ante gallery, is a work to commemorate the Centenary of Griffith. Jo Southern and Alan Mckenzie developed the concept, ensuring that the Centenary had a significant contribution from our first people. The Project had strong support from the Griffith City Council Community Development Dept and coordinator Peta Dummett.
It is mind boggling beautiful as these painted spears, float, move and dance with each other in this space. This work should be purchased by Griffith City Council and I think would find a perfect home in the Foyer space of the Council. I can see them floating just above the head level of people in that space. It has the ceiling height to do this work justice. If one thought about it a mechanism could also be developed to lower so it was suspended just above floor level to give the viewer a chance to really interact with this work.
This exhibition is the result of a partnership project of Western Riverina Arts and the Griffith Regional Art Gallery, bringing together artists from across the local government areas that fall under the Western Riverina Arts region.
Saturday morning at the Griffith Regional Art Gallery can often be a very quiet experience with often only a few visitors calling to in the check the latest exhibition, today it was different, suggesting that there is greater awareness of the talent that sits within our region.
The gallery witnessed a constant stream of visitors during the morning. The opening last night, i'm told was the one of the largest gathering seen in recent years for an opening night.
It's significant that Murrumbidgee MarraMarra opens during Reconciliation Week, a week that begins with National Sorry Day focussing on the injustice of past polices that saw the forced removal of children from Aboriginal families, and the lasting grief that has left within our nation. It remembers the 1967 Referendum that finally gave Aboriginal Australians fun citizenship rights (which is weird considering they have a relationship with this land that is unbroken for 60,000 plus years). The High Court of Australia ruling in 1999 which saw the overturning of the notion of "Terra Nullius" when ruling on a land claim by Torres Strait Islander Mr Eddie Mabo for his Murray Island homeland.
Reconciliation is about rebuilding relationships between our first nation people and those who have arrived in the last 230 years, its about acknowledging the real history of colonial Australia and the treatment of Aboriginal people through those years, its about ending racism that still impacts on people today in access to employment and opportunity, and its about closing the gap and creating better health, education and social outcomes for Aboriginal people in all parts of this Nation.
This exhibition is a significant event, because it is part of that healing and it connects so strongly each viewer and artist with this land which we all share. Taking the opportunity spend time with exhibition is taking time to see our world through a new or different cultural perspective and it is a powerful and inspirational view.
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