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Art Exhibitions and Displays

Elders Art Group/Indigenous Arts Unit, RMIT

A collection of works by the Elders Art Group (which works through the Indigenous Arts Unit at RMIT) will be shown during the conference, accompanied by works from Indigenous Arts Unit teacher Sharon West whose themes are inspired by Koori oral histories.

The Indigenous Arts Unit is a Tafe programme situated at the RMIT Bundoora Campus. It is an active partner within the Koori community. 2005 saw the formation of an Elders art programme with ACES. Our arts industry partners were represented by the Bundoora Homestead Art Gallery, of the City of Darebin, and the Koori Heritage Trust.

In July 2005 the unit hosted the Grugidj graduate exhibition at the Faculty Gallery of the School of Art featuring graduating Diploma students Jarrod Atkinson, Turbo Brown and Elders Uncle Herb Patten and Aunty Bunta Patten. This exhibition resulted in the acquisition of number of artworks by the National Gallery of Victoria.

Other student achievements included the inclusion of Turbo Brown as a finalist in the Telstra National Indigenous Art Prize and Aunty Bunta Patten receiving the Deadly Arts Award of the Victorian Indigenous Art prize.

Aunty Bunta Patten, a leading member of the group and Gunditjmara Elder, will present a talk about the works during the conference, with an introduction from Sharon West, who discuss how Aunty Bunta has acted as her mentor as a non-Indigenous teacher in an Indigenous arts unit. Check the conference program for details.

www.rmit.edu.au/art/indigenousart

Elder's Catalogue [pdf 341kb]

Aunty Bunta Patten - oil wash on paper
My Country (gariwerd/grampians)

Aunty Gwen Garoni - acrylic on canvas 2008
Corenderrk Aboriginal Mission

Sharon West - oil on canvas 2007
Queen Victoria-Big White Bosswoman

Koorie Heritage Trust

The Koorie Heritage Trust Inc is a not-for-profit Aboriginal community organisation that aims to protect, preserve and promote the living culture of Aboriginal people of south-eastern Australia.

'Gnokan Danna MurraKor-ki', is the motto of the Trust and is the combination of two Koorie languages and means 'Give me your hand my friend' and bridge the cultural gap. The Koorie Heritage Trust Inc believes that through education and promotion it can raise an awareness and appreciation of the cultural diversity of Koorie culture in south-eastern Australia and work towards the broader goals of reconciliation for all Australians.

The Trust cares for a diverse range of artefacts, artworks, crafts, oral histories, books, manuscripts, historical material and photographs and houses four gallery spaces; a permanent interactive exhibition that teaches about our history and culture, and a retail shop that sells authentic products.

Some of the activities offered at The Trust include art workshops, educational programs, accredited training, cross-cultural training, cultural tours and touring exhibitions. The Trust also provides a range of programs and services to the Koorie community and the general public including assisting community members trace their family history; youth projects designed to connect with Elders and culture, and an extensive research library dating back to the 1800s.

The Koorie Heritage will mount a display during the conference, including a touch screen display about their work. See www.koorieheritagetrust.com

Julie Paama-Pengelly

Julie Paama-Pengelly is of Ngaiterangi (Bay of Plenty, NZ) tribal descent and is an active artist, writer and educator of contemporary Maori art. She holds a Masters of Development studies as well as a Masters (Honours) in Maori Visual Arts—both through Massey University. She currently divides her time between the art practices of painting, printmaking, ta moko and digital design and the curatorial management of a major show of 101 Contemporary Oceanic artists to tour New Zealand, Australia, Israel, Japan and Europe over the next five years. Julie is also undertaking a major body of practical and theoretical research based on her personal Ta moko (traditional skin-marking) work that will contribute to a PhD in Fine Arts.

Julie's interest lies in the philosophical and physical spaces that art occupies in indigenous cultures and the ongoing evaluation of the value of established and new knowledge. Her photogravure prints are new experiments in this printmaking medium that enable her ta moko work to be accessible to a new public in the art gallery setting (these will be on display during the conference). Julie intends to explore this medium further in her PhD, by translating major body works into handprints of life-size scale.

Julie has been a key player in the development of tertiary art education models for Maori and provides on-going leadership in this field, in New Zealand. For more information see www.maoritattoo.co.nz

Dianne Jones

Dianne Jones is a contemporary Nyoongar photo-media artist whose work deals with Indigenous identity and cultural history. Jones' practice foregrounds the homogeneity of dominant visual ideologies, while creating representations that are inclusive rather than exclusive of marginalised bodies and voices. In her Iconic Painters Series she confronts 'classic' Australian imagery. Referencing Tom Roberts, John Glover and Eugene Von Guerad, Jones performs pointed interventions. In Tom Roberts' Shearing of the Rams, her father, brother and nephew are positioned amongst the workers. In a John Glover landscape, a photo taken at a Jones family picnic is inserted in place of the 'flora and fauna' implications of the original image's portrayal of Indigenous Peoples as 'other'. In her Iconic Photographers Series, Jones focuses on a group of Australian photographs that have infiltrated the popular public consciousness. These images, which include Max Dupain's Sunbaker and David Moore's Meat Queue, have come to function as signifiers for national identity.

Jones has literally inserted her body into the works, letting herself mingle, meeting suburban mums of the 40s, swimming with the larrikin boys of the 50s and embracing the glamour of the 60s. Jones's work is influenced by Marcel du Champ, Tracey Moffett, Barbara Kruger, Brenda Croft and Gordon Bennett.

Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions in Australia and overseas, and is included in the collections of National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Monash University Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Australia. For more information see www.niagara-galleries.com.au/artists/artistpages/theartists/jones/jonesframe.html

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