EARLY DAYS BUSH FAMILY - Museums & Galleries Queensland · EARLY DAYS BUSH FAMILY Ngaanyatjarra...

K U R U A L A L A - E Y E S O P E N : L O O K I N G & D I S C U S S I N G

EARLY DAYS BUSH FAMILY

Ngaanyatjarra artists collaborated to create a series of life-sized fibre sculptures that represent an Anangu family living a nomadic lifestyle in the bush. The artwork depicts a husband and his two wives with their brood of well fed children sleeping peacefully and securely by the fire protected by grass windbreaks. A faithful pack of hunting dogs is in attendance and bush foods fill the women’s piti (wooden dishes). There is a majesty and contentment to this classical family arrangement which is essentially a generic family portrait - a portrait of the artists’ relatives and ancestors.

As the sculptures of the main figures neared completion it was recognised that they resembled the Ancestral Beings, Eagle Man and his two wives, Cockatoo Lady and Crow Lady. So while on one level the work depicts a peaceful family scene on another level it alludes to a Tjukurpa story about the consequences of behaviour acted out through jealousy. The family portrait expands to encompass both ancestors and Ancestral Beings and a network of relationships informed by the Tjukurpa.

EARLY DAYS BUSH FAMILY 2008

Artists from Ngaanyatjarra communities of Papulankutja, Warakurna, Jameson and Irrunytju: Jean Burke, Mamie Butler, Judith Chambers, Nora Davidson, Anne Dixon, Carol Golding, Diane Golding, Narelle Holland, Ivy Hopkins, Elaine Lane, Jean Lane, Yvonne Lewis, Thelma Maclean, Anawari Mitchell, Angaliya Mitchell, Jennifer Mitchell, Rene Nelson, Anna Porter, Eunice Porter, Ruby Reid, Winnie Woods, Molly Yates. Technical assistance from Jo Foster and Thisbe Purich

Grass, raffia, jute string, hair string, acrylic wool, emu feathers, cockatoo feathers, human hair, stone, wood, twigs, leaves, ininti seed, wire mesh, kiti (spinifex resin)

EARLY DAYS BUSH FAMILY Ngaanyatjarra Artists from WA

A family tree. They are friendly people. They are my ancestors. ARTIST STATEMENT

We were thinking about the Eagle man and his two wives, Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo Lady and Crow Lady, and all their children when we made this work. We were thinking back to the early days when people used to live in the bush and raised a lot of children. A man would have two wives and a lot of children and they would travel from rockhole to rockhole, far and wide. Families would move around and the girls would collect bush food and the boys would learn how to hunt with their fathers. They always had dogs with them to help them hunt for meat.

The family are together here. Their windbreak is all around them. Their fire is in the centre. They have got to make sure they are nice and warm, because they had no blankets back then. Everybody is warm and comfortable and resting after a long day and a good feed. The children are all laying down having a rest, looking after one another. The big brothers are looking after their younger brothers and the big girls are looking after their younger sisters.

This is a big family tree. It is one big family tree. Today their spirit is still in the country. We feel that spirit when we walk around, when we go hunting and when we go to the rockholes. We see and think about how the people lived in the early days with their families. They are friendly people. They are my ancestors.

as told by Narelle Holland LOOKING & DISCUSSING ACTIVITIES

FOR JUNIORS Find the father and the two mothers. Count the sleeping children and the dogs. Find the yuu (windbreak), the waru (fire) and all the things used to collect and prepare food. Locate the different foods in the piti (wooden dishes) and imagine how they taste.

Imagine being one of the sleeping children lying next to the campfire and describe what you can see, smell and hear. Tell a story about your home and your family and the day you have had. What did you do? Where did you go? Who were you with? What did you eat? FOR SENIORS Imagine this work is a family photo. Suggest when and where it would have been taken and describe the impression of family life it evokes. Locate and name the figures with dual identities and discuss the relationship between ancestors and Ancestral Beings as depicted in this work. Identify the elements of the work which hint at the Tjukurpa narrative. Consider this work as a portrait of nomadic life, a portrait of a family and a story about jealousy and clarify how these different elements have been communicated.

[NB The story of Eagle Man and his two wives is retold in the KURU ALALA Eyes Open catalogue]


TJITJI TJUTA

Ngaanyatjarra artists from Blackstone, Jameson and Warakurna, and Pitjantjatjarra artists from Kalka and Pipalyatjara collaborated to make a work based on the Tjitji Tjuta tjukurpa story. They have represented the story through a flat wall piece, constructed from coiled grass, coupled with a series of small brightly coloured grass figures representing the children of the Ancestral woman, Kutungu.

Kutungu is forced to abandon her many children who set up camp for themselves. Her first born, twin boys, take on leadership of the community, as older brothers should, and subsequently become ngankari tjitji (healing children). The work depicts the boys’ camp at Ukata and the girls’ camp at Kanpininy. The 3D and 2D components of this piece reference each other in uniquely Anangu ways drawing on the symbols used in acrylic paintings.

TJITJI TJUTA (Many Children) 2008-9

Artists from Pitjantjatjara communities of Kalka and Pipalyatjara: Tjulkiwa Atira Atira, Nola Brumby, Frances Connelly, Yaritji Connelly, Yangi Yangi Fox, Anngampa Martin, Molly Miller. Artists from Ngaanyatjarra communities of Papulankutja, Jameson and Warakurna: Jean Burke, Mamie Butler, Nora Davidson, Janet Forbes, Jean Lane, Thelma McLean, Anawari Mitchell, Sonya Mitchell, Eunice Porter, Mary Smith. Technical assistance from Jo Foster and Mel Daar

Grass, raffia, acrylic wool, emu feathers, twigs, aviary mesh

TJITJI TJUTA Ngaanyatjarra Artists from WA & Pitjantjatjara artists from SA

Ma nyinamaya nguranka! Tjitji tjuta, nyura nyinama ngurangka!

Stay here my children! Stay here in your camp! ARTIST STATEMENT

This story is about Kutungu’s children. Kutungu and her husband travelled a long way through country and had many, many children. First Kutungu had twin boys and after she had many more children, boys and girls. Eventually the children were tired of travelling so far and the twin boys decided to stay behind and make their own camp. All the boys made camp at Ukata and all the girls made camp at Kanpininy. These two places are both children’s places. Kutungu’s sons became ngangkari (healers) and Ukata place is a healing place. Today sick people can go to Ukata and lay on the rocks and they will be healed. Kutungu’s sons and daughters are still there to this very day. This is Tjukurpa. They live there and never leave. Their spirit lives on. This is a true story.

as told by Yangi Yangi Fox

LOOKING & DISCUSSING ACTIVITIES

FOR JUNIORS Find the piti (wooden dishes) full of food and the tjungari (grinding stone). Find the waterholes and the walking tracks. Locate the boys’ camp, Ukata and the girls’ camp, Kanpininy. Find the twin boys, the healing rocks and the wiltja.

Imagine following the walking tracks and describe the experience. Imagine sitting on the rock and describe the view. Imagine being the figure offering food. What is in the dish and where did you get it? Imagine being one of the twin boys and describe the experience of hunting for rabbit. Imagine being the other twin boy and tell about looking after your brothers and sisters. Imagine a conversation between the girls sitting around the waterhole. What might they talk about?

In a group start a circle story about camp-life at Ukata and Kanpininy where each person in turn adds a sentence to the story. Make sure to include all the brothers and sisters in the story.

FOR SENIORS Distinguish the boy’s camp from the girl’s camp. How can you tell which is which? Describe the visual impact of this work. Consider the colours, shapes and forms. Identify which elements of this work are figurative and which are abstract. Find the different symbols and decipher what they represent. Suggest where else symbols like these might be found.

Discuss the relationship between the 2D and 3D elements of this work. Consider the difference between symbols and symbolism.


MINYMA KUTJARA

Pitjantjatjara women from Ernabella and Amata worked on a specific episode of the Minyma Kutjara tjukurpa story that represents the exploits of two Ancestral sisters who kidnap a man that has been spying on them. The sisters conspire to sneak up on the stranger, knock him out and take him back to their camp where they hold him captive in a giant sand dish. Brandishing wana (digging sticks), balancing piti (wooden bowls) on their heads and accompanied by their faithful dog they create a formidable and powerful presence.

There are many stories about these two sisters that link together to form an epic tale of their Ancestral journey across vast distances, engaging in ceremony and creating the landscape through their activities. This part of the story is significant to the women of Ernabella as it recounts the sisters’ travels through the country near to their home. The two sisters are in fact Minyma Mingkiri (Mice Women) and the story goes that there was a large gathering of Minyma Mingkiri at a hill north of Ernabella. The women were collecting bush foods together when the Two Sisters decided to go travelling. It is on their travels that they encounter the man depicted in the artwork.

When the fibre figures were completed the women decided to take them to visit a number of significant sites connected to the Tjukurpa story. At each site the artists performed inma (song and dance related to the Tjukurpa). The country, the women, the Ancestral Beings and the fibre figures were intimately connected through this activity. The fibre sculptures are the embodiment of this ceremonial connection to country.

Minyma Kutjara (Two Women) 2009

Artists from Pitjantjatjara communities of Ernabella and Amata: Imiyari Adamson, Katanari Butler, Naomi Kantjuriny, Iluwanti Ken, Niningka Lewis, Pantjiti Lionel, Pantjiti MacKenzie, Paniny Mick, Mary Pan, Tjaria Stanley, Carlene Thompson, Dolly Ungakini, Ruby Williamson, Yaritji Young. Technical assistance from Jo Foster and Mel Darr

Grass, raffia, wool, hair string, sheep’s wool, emu feathers, wood, wire, wire mesh

MINYMA KUTJARA

Pitjantjatjara artists from SA

Minyma kutjarangku kunyu wati kutju pungkula karpinu

It is said that two women hit a man and tied him up ARTIST STATEMENT

This is a story about a man who hid and spied on two women, two sisters, while they were out in the open. He had been searching for them, following them for sometime. The sisters spotted the man and as they felt his intentions towards them were not right they decided to punish him. They danced the ‘akutarinyi’, a powerful dance that women do before a fight. With the power from the dance and while the man was lying asleep, the two sisters crept up on him and hit him, proper way according to Law. Then they rolled him up, bound his wrists and ankles and carried him back to their camp at Wamitjara and kept him there. The younger sister went hunting for meat for their supper while the older sister looked after the man as is the proper way after administering punishment. And here he is still, asleep. That is how the story goes.

as told by Tjaria Stanley


FOR JUNIORS Identify the figures of the two women. Describe how they are sitting and what they are wearing. Find the three objects with each woman. Name them and describe what they are used for. Locate the man lying down and examine his hands and feet. What has happened? Look closely at these figures and describe their moods. Are they happy, angry, scary, excited, annoyed… What makes you think this? Imagine these figures could talk. What would they say?

Pose like the figures and role-play a conversation between the two sisters or tell a story from the man’s point-of-view. FOR SENIORS Imagine this artwork is a photo on the front-page of the newspaper and think of a headline. Imagine this artwork as a frozen moment or a freeze frame in a movie. Suggest what has happened before and what might happen after this moment. Why might the artists have chosen this particular moment in the story to focus on? Describe the body posture of the figures. What does it reveal about their situation? Consider this artwork as an image of power. Who has the upper hand here?


STATION SCENE

Artists from Ernabella created a contemporary scene of station life including a psychedelic windmill and an open backed truck full of women, kids and dogs, surrounded by camels and donkeys. A light-hearted and animated scene it also alludes to the massive changes that have occurred on traditional homelands since the advent of pastoralism in the region.

Introduced ‘beasts of burden’, camels and donkeys, now run wild and are at plague proportions destroying habitats and competing with native animals for food. While Anangu realise the problems that these animals cause to the environment they also have a fondness for them and are aware of their biblical associations.

Station Scene 2009

Artists from Pitjantjatjara community of Ernabella: Milyika Carol, Malpiya Davey, Pantjiti Lionel, Niningka Lewis Technical assistance from Jo Foster, Mel Darr and Alison Clouston

Grass, raffia, wool, string, sheep’s wool, wire, wire mesh

STATION SCENE Pitjantjatjara artists from SA

Ngura tjuta panya ngaranyi kuwari.

Today there are many stations on our land.

ARTIST STATEMENT

A long time ago in our grandmother’s time our families would walk from rockhole to rockhole, but today the land is covered with stations. Windmills and motorcars are everywhere. People came from over the sea bringing camels and donkeys, which have multiplied into the millions. This is true. Their animals and things have multiplied everywhere, and now there are millions of donkeys, camels, bullocks, sheep and cars everywhere and their homesteads and stations are all over our land.

Niningka Lewis LOOKING & DISCUSSING ACTIVITIES

FOR JUNIORS Mime climbing the windmill. Describe the experience and the view from the top. Imagine you are sitting in the back of the truck. Who and what else is in the back with you? Describe the ride and the view. What animals, landforms, structures and vegetation can you see? Look at the animals and name them. Examine their scale in relation to the people. Suggest why the artists have made them this size.

Tell a story from the grandma’s point of view. Answer questions from the group of ‘grandchildren’ about the changes to the land and lifestyle since grandma was young. FOR SENIORS Compare this image of an Anangu family with the Early Days Bush Family. What is similar? What is different? Consider the mood and the setting. Discuss the impact of European settlement on Anangu Lands in Central Australia. How have the artists alluded to this in this work?


GUMNUTS

Intrigued by the potential of indigenous materials as potent symbols of place Maria Fernanda Cardoso collected quantities of large gumnuts whilst camping out bush with Ngaanyatjarra artists. She has arranged these gumnuts in a grid pattern to create a large wall mural. The seeds were drilled at the back and the stem replaced with a fine steel pin which was used to pierce the wall and arrange the nuts. The installed gumnuts undulate visually in a way reminiscent of the textures, forms and rhythms of the desert landscapes where they were collected.

The tough protective wooden casing that holds the precious seed safe until a rare mix of ideal conditions allows it to be released, is a uniquely Australian adaptation to the harsh desert climate. In looking intently within the landscape, Cardoso has found a material that expresses not only the tenacity of unique Australian flora, but by arranging and ordering it, allows us to appreciate the beautiful individual geometry and symmetry of the natural forms. Her restrained approach recalls the aesthetic principles of minimalism while the choice of material is steeped in place.

Anangu call these seeds tartu. Many women make bracelets and necklaces from gumnut seeds. Gumnuts 2009 Maria Fernanda Cardoso Tartu seeds, metal

GUMNUTS Maria Fernanda Cardoso

I was in search of a truly local indigenous material to work with,

not something imported.

ARTIST STATEMENT

While camping near Kuruala, I went walking alone to a tali nearby (tali is a sand hill) where I found a gum tree, loaded with the biggest gumnuts I have ever seen. Woody gumnuts are uniquely Australian objects, and they have very interesting geometric shapes. I found divisions of a 4 or 5 star shaped pattern in the same tree. I have reorganised them in a grid pattern on the wall so people can look at them in a frontal way and appreciate their shapes and patterns. While Tjanpi work is narrative, mine is geometrical and modular. But both speak of the land and its inhabitants, whether people, animals or plants. LOOKING & DISCUSSING ACTIVITIES

FOR JUNIORS Look closely at this work. What is it made from?

Describe the colours and shapes of the nuts. Are they all the same?

Guess how many nuts there are. Find the biggest nut. Now find the smallest.

Imagine joining the dots between the gumnuts. What shape would be drawn?

Imagine this work as a labyrinth and plot a journey through the maze. What would be the longest route what would be the shortest? What route do you take? Describe the journey.

Brainstorm some words to describe the feeling and movement of the work.

Hold hands to make a human chain and move like the sculpture. FOR SENIORS Imagine this work as the cover of a CD and describe the music. Would it be techno, rock, classical, world…What makes you think this?

Describe the movement. Is it pulsing, flowing, jagged, hypnotic….? Analyse how the artist has created the illusion of movement.

Imagine all the nuts were exactly the same size or painted a uniform colour. How would this change the quality of the work?

Imagine rearranging the nuts. Picture them closer together or further apart or in a completely different pattern. How would this effect the feeling of the work?

Describe the shadows. How do they contribute to the effect of the work?

Brainstorm some associations with gumnuts and suggest why the artist may have chosen to use this material.

Consider whether this artwork is a painting or a sculpture.


EMU FLAG #2, HAIRY EMU POLE, EMU POLE BLACK

As well as the gumnut mural Maria has made a ‘flag’ and a pair of ‘poles’ using emu feathers. The feathers, which came in a large sack from an emu farm, have been meticulously sorted and arranged according to their length and texture and then threaded painstakingly through the small holes in lengths of flexible nylon mesh which Maria refers to as a kind of ‘skin’. The feathered mesh is hung against the wall to create the flag and curved around into a tube to make the poles.

The works have an ethereal, floating quality evocative of the mesmeric textures and colours of scrub and grasslands, the habitat of the emu, and indeed Cardoso describes her work as a kind of Australian landscape painting. In her flag piece the animal and the landscape have become one inseparable reality. Interesting parallels can be drawn with Anangu perceptions of Ancestral Beings who exist within and of the land.

Cardoso’s use of emu feathers also hints at the irony she perceives in revering this flightless bird as a national symbol, appearing as it does on the Australian Coat of Arms, while at the same time farming it for meat and feathers and often reducing it, in popular culture, to tourism cliché.

Emu flag #2 2007 Maria Fernanda Cardoso Emu feathers, fibreglass netting, impasto, steel, fabric, glue

Hairy emu pole 2008 Maria Fernanda Cardoso Emu feathers, fibreglass netting, glue, metal

Emu pole black 2008 Maria Fernanda Cardoso Emu feathers, fibreglass netting, glue, metal

EMU FLAG #2, HAIRY EMU POLE, EMU POLE BLACK Maria Fernanda Cardoso

I consider the use of emu feathers in my art making as a kind of

Australian landscape painting. ARTIST STATEMENT

When I first moved to Australia 12 years ago, I wanted to make artworks from native animals as a way to connect to this land, my new country of residence. Since the emu has inhabited this continent for over 80 million years, I thought that I would make a deep connection if I were to use it both as a subject matter and as a material for my art installations. The emu’s feathers mimic the specific colour and texture of the grasses, scrub and soil of the country that the bird inhabits. By using mimicry, what this animal has done is to copy the landscape with its own body. I consider the use of emu feathers in my art making as a kind of Australian landscape painting - except I decided to move off the wall, and make sculptural objects. LOOKING & DISCUSSING ACTIVITIES

FOR JUNIORS Indicate which work is the flag and which are the poles. What makes you think this?

Imagine running your hands over the different surfaces and describe the sensations.

Play a game of spot the difference with the feathers. Are they all exactly the same?

Imagine a strong breeze came rushing through the gallery. Describe the effect on the work.

Imagine making this work. Picture threading the first feather into place and each one after that. Suggest which feather may have been the last. Would it be a quick job?

Consider whether this work is quiet or loud. What gives that impression?

Cardoso was inspired by the story of the twin brothers to make twin poles. Describe the different personalities of the twin poles. What indicates they are from the same family?

Suggest why the artist has called one of her pieces a flag. Consider what country it could represent. FOR SENIORS Identify the type of feathers used and suggest why the artist may have chosen this material to work with. Cardoso describes these feathers as an ‘industrialised natural’ material. What do you think she means by this?

Think what famous Australian icon includes an emu and suggest why the emu is considered an important symbol of Australia.

Discuss the significance of animals in Anangu culture.

Cardoso describes her works with emu feathers as ‘a kind of Australian landscape painting’. Clarify what you think she means by this. Do you agree?


MAKE CAMP

Alison Clouston has used found materials, both natural and industrial, sourced in the bush whilst camping with Pitjantjatjara artists to make her artwork. Discarded fencing wire, reticulation piping and harvested sections of mulga twigs have been assembled to create a series of ambiguous structures. The rickety cubes, domes, and lattices are like modular components that can be arranged in a number of different ways. Clouston was inspired by the architecture of bush camping where temporary beds, windbreaks and shade shelters are resourcefully fashioned from materials at hand and endlessly reconfigured to suit the needs of weather or activity.

Clouston has also created a number of large vessels from tyre inner tubes. The black rubber is stretched over a wire armature with the final form reminiscent of classical amphoras or animal skin bladders. By displaying her structures alongside these vessels she has referenced two fundamental requirements for human survival - water and shelter. The versatility of her collection of structures, which can pack down into a single transportable unit while offering numerous possibilities for arrangement, hints at a nomadic adaptability as well as alluding to the symbiotic relationship between individual and community.

Make Camp 2009

Alison Clouston

Eucalypt and acacia wood, wire, tube rubber, grass, threads

MAKE CAMP Alison Clouston

Thinking about arrival and departure, camp and journey, architecture and artefact, I’ve made a portable domesticity.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My Buckminster Fuller dome is a basket for sleeping in. Like my skinny wiltja fences of twig and wire and polymer pipe, it reflects the warp and weft of weaving, the rhythmic coils of the Tjanpi work. My tube vessels suggest my campfire, my bush kitchen. The auto butyl, pliable as roo skin, is salvaged from the cars of new bush nomadism. The various components, packed inside one another for transport, can be arranged in endless variations according to place and circumstance, in a clustered encampment on the floor, or like a plan drawing across a wall. The movement of this work into a gallery is itself a journey and a work in progress, each exhibition a temporary and negotiable resting place


FOR JUNIORS Count the parts and describe all the different shapes and forms that can be seen.

Picture building a cubby house from all the bits and pieces and describe it to the group.

Imagine this work as a series of musical instruments. Play them. Describe how each part sounds and how they sound when played together.

Picture this work as a skeleton. What sort of creature would it be? Imagine this creature could get up and walk away or crawl across the walls. Describe and mimic how it would move.

Strike a pose inspired by the sculpture. Take it in turns to be the artist and join everyone together to make a sculpture. FOR SENIORS Define the words armature, structure and shelter and discuss how they relate to this artwork.

Discuss why shelters or structures are considered one of our most basic needs. Is it only human beings that build homes? Brainstorm some structures and shelters from the natural world.

Picture rearranging all the elements to make a number of different structures.

Describe the shadows. How do they contribute to the quality of the work?

Imagine stretching some fabric around the armature. What forms are revealed? How would the shadows change?

Imagine the work as a map, an architectural plan or a diagram for a machine and describe the place or the structure it represents.

Comment on Alison Clouston’s description of this work as ‘part drawing, part sculpture’.

Consider what makes an architect and discuss in relationship to Clouston’s work. Is this work architectural or sculptural or both? Debate this issue.

EARLY DAYS BUSH FAMILY - Museums & Galleries Queensland · EARLY DAYS BUSH FAMILY Ngaanyatjarra...

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