Flowing arcs of dot-mark lines portray the world in patterns and rhythms on every canvas. The sun’s glare, the moon’s glow, the black of night, all depicted in ochre, the country’s own pigment lifted from the earth. Such is the art of the Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin — the longest-known and most thoroughly recorded Indigenous creative tradition in Australia.
The works in this exhibition showcase the artists’ individual styles in depicting shared stories. Some artists adhere closely to traditional tools, employing a wooden comb (Pwoja) to apply dots to their canvas or sculpture. Others may use sticks or western paint brushes in their mark-making.
The commonality comes from the deep heritage and tradition each artist is influenced and inspired by. In an introductory statement in the book Tiwi, Art/Histroy/Culture, Pedro Wonaemirri opens with ‘We are the Tiwi. Tiwi is we the people. […] We Tiwi people have to keep our culture alive. The art from long time ago and today - we are still seeing it as Tiwi art.”
