K u r l k ay i m a N g at h a Remember me
T h i s i s a 2 8 pag e p r ev i ew. f o r t h e c o m p l e t e 1 4 4 pa g e p u b l i c at i o n , pleas e vi s it fo rm . b ig cartel .com o r j o i n u s at fo rm . n et. au/m em b e rs h i p
Film still by cinematographer Giovanni C. Lorusso in the Pilbara, 2015.
Murlumurlu Ptilotus nobilis (Amaranthaceae) Mulla Mulla Collected in Nyiyaparli country. The soft, cylindrical flowers of the murlumurlu plant were used to fill bags or kangaroo skins to make pillows. The murlumurlu, is one of the most iconic flowers of the Pilbara. Photograph by Bewley Shaylor, 2016
contents
Foreword 8 Introduction 14 Curatorial Note 18 Botanical Notes 24 Bonnie & Brian Tucker
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May Byrne & Beverly Hubert
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Fiona Foley—Djon Mundine OAM
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Eunice Napanangka Jack—Chrischona Schmidt
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Adrian Condon 61 Yandicoogina David Stock 66 Stephen Hopper 70 Hilda Flan 79 Bill Gammage 84 Philippa Nikulinsky 93 Giovanni Lorusso 100 Wadu Tucker 104 Julie Walker 110 June Injie 114 Lorraine Injie 119 Marnmu Smyth 125 Nancy Tommy 130 Roma Butcher & Doreen James 134 Thank you 142
Thurla Mardamarda (Yinhawangka name) Swainsona formosa Sturt’s Desert Pea Collected in Nyiyaparli country. The flower of this plant can be sucked for its sweet, honey-tasting nectar. Photograph by Bewley Shaylor, 2016
foreword Lorraine Injie IBN Corporation Chairperson
Remember me
In Aboriginal culture, almost every
Australia. Just like my grandmothers and
swimming, fishing and collecting bush
aspect of life has something to do with
their grandmothers before them, I am an
tucker. Our Elders taught us from an early
plants. Plants provide different types
Yinhawangka. Up until 200 years ago the
age the names of different plants, what
of food, medicines, tools (artefacts) and
Yinhawangka people lived and occupied
plants we could eat, use as medicine, how
are an important resource to Aboriginal
the upper plateaus of the Hamersley
to make artefacts and weave baskets to
people. Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember
Ranges.
trap fish. As we grew older, I remember
Me provides a unique glimpse into the complexity of Aboriginal ecological knowledge and explores the links between botany, land, and cultural identity.
there were trees in the school yard that For as long as I can remember, I have had a strong passion for collecting
we would pick off the nuts and berries particularly the sweet ones!
and recording traditional Aboriginal knowledge of flora, fauna and place
The Aboriginal people of the Pilbara not
The traditional lands of the Yinhawangka,
names, because to me, this knowledge
only have distinct identities, but come
Banyjima and Nyiyaparli (YBN) people
is so important. This traditional cultural
from distinct places, and have specific
extend across the Hamersely Ranges in
knowledge not only unites us to our past
knowledge about the plants of those
the heart of the inland Pilbara region, in
but connects us to our future. When I was
places. However, dispossession and mining
the high country of northern Western
younger, we would spend all weekend
in the Pilbara region has meant that
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K u r l k ay i m a N g at h a
much of the traditional linguistic and
incorporating biodiversity, land and
Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember Me was
cultural knowledge of the Yinhawangka,
cultural values. FORM has honored this
developed in response to requests from
Banyjima and Nyiyaparli is on the verge
traditional knowledge with the efforts
Elders and the YBN community after the
of becoming extinct. If this knowledge
of Sharmila Wood (Curator), Andrew
successful Marlbatharndu Wanggagu: Once
became extinct before we had the
Dowding (Anthropologist) and Rhianna
Upon A Time in the West (2014), capturing
opportunity to share it, it would be as if
Pezzaniti (Environmental Scientist) we
Aboriginal stories of station life in the
our people never existed.
are grateful to them for bringing their
Pilbara.
skills to this project, promoting respect for This would be a gross injustice to the Elders of the past, who lived to an old age without the science and medicine that we have today. We must continue to pass this knowledge on to our future generations
Aboriginal culture. FORM has captured
For most YBN people, the loss of land
this knowledge through storytelling,
through dispossession means that the
film, photography and the collection of
connection with Country requires
traditional plant samples with support
support. IBN Corporation believes this
from the Western Australian Herbarium.
project connects people to the strong
to remember how our Elders lived and survived. Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember Me is about sharing knowledge. Aboriginal people have a unique connection with the land and have developed distinct knowledge systems and practices
cultural identity that is fundamental to Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember Me has
Aboriginal social and emotional well-
provided the Yinhawangka, Banyjima and
being and recognises the traditional
Nyiyaparli people with the opportunity
historical and botanical knowledge
to express their traditional knowledge
of Aboriginal people in the Pilbara.
and contribute to preserving and sharing
These knowledge systems and cultural
the stories embedded in the Country for
expressions continue to remain a source
future generations to share.
of strength, pride and resilience.
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Remember me
Film still by cinematographer Giovanni C. Lorusso in the Pilbara, 2015.
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Film still by cinematographer Giovanni C. Lorusso in the Pilbara, 2015.
K u r l k ay i m a N g at h a
introduction Lynda Dorrington FORM Executive Director
Picture the Pilbara and what comes to mind may often comprise wide sweeps of red earth, blue sky, endless horizons and the architecture of ancient rock. The landscape is indeed dramatic, but sometimes it can be at the seemingly smallest level of detail that the richest stories can be found. Within a single plant, a leaf, even a seed, is contained complex and ancient knowledge. Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember Me is a creative project that gives audiences an insight into Aboriginal societies’ understanding of place through botany and methodology of plant use, the project engages Yinhawangka, Banyjima and Nyiyaparli and people as participants, alongside commissioned artwork by Eunice Napanangka Jack from Ikuntji
Senna glutinosa subsp. pruinosa (Fabaceae)
in Central Australia, and Badtjala artist
Collected in Banyjima country. Photograph by Bewley Shaylor, 2016
Fiona Foley.
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Remember me
The exhibition, which incorporates
the Yinhawangka, Banyjima and Nyiyaparli
FORM has demonstrated a long-term
film, documentation, paintings and
people. In seeking to strengthen culture
commitment to building opportunities
installation work, aims to offer different
and well-being, FORM and IBN have
for Aboriginal culture to flourish, and
ways of presenting Aboriginal traditional
partnered to increase opportunities for the
has forged cross-sector partnerships
knowledge and history. At the same time,
community to engage with a broad and
to multiply these impacts. Our Pilbara
the high country of the North West of
inclusive creative platform, which has been
programming continues to combine artistic
Australia is reframed and revealed from
designed to share and present their culture
and creative excellence with community
an ethno-botanical perspective not only
in a contemporary context.
engagement and development. The Spinifex
by the visiting artists and non-Aboriginal participants, but also by the traditional owners who know and understand it, down to its most diminutive aspects.
Hill Studios for example, which opened The processes and methodology employed by FORM in initiatives such as Marlbatharndu Wanggagu – Once Upon a Time in the West (2014) and Kurlkayima
in South Hedland in early 2014 and is managed by FORM, supports a range of creative expressions while at the same time facilitating Aboriginal people's access
Although the presentation and production
Ngatha - Remember Me have been devised
of art anchors Kurlkayima Ngatha -
to increase the visibility of Aboriginal
Remember Me, it only reveals part of
voices and culture. The process of creating
the larger project, which has been
Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember Me has also
Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember Me
developed through a partnership with
facilitated an intercultural platform that
illustrates FORM’s commitment to
IBN Corporation (IBN). The project has
has brought together Aboriginal people
showcasing the riches of Aboriginal
facilitated return trips to Country with
from different artistic backgrounds and
culture, land management and connection
Yinhawangka, Banyjima and Nyiyaparli
traditions. Through connecting diverse
to Country. This exhibition draws attention
people who have reconnected with
artists and organisations together over
to the status of the Pilbara as a biodiversity
memories of land through sharing,
vast distances, the project has enabled the
hotspot; it reminds us how vulnerable
recording and documentation.
exchange of information about different
this unique environment is. For the
approaches to interpreting, place, memory
Yinhawangka, Banyjima and Nyiyaparli
and connections to Country, demonstrating
people, it is also home.
FORM shares with IBN Corporation the desire to sustain and celebrate Aboriginal culture for the long-term sustainability of
the way arts and enterprise can sustain and renew knowledge.
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to economic and cultural opportunities, in turn promoting self-determination.
Film still by cinematographer Giovanni C. Lorusso in the Pilbara, 2015.
C u r ato r i a l n ote Sharmila Wood FORM Curator
Androcalva luteiflora Collected in Nyiyaparli country. Photograph by Bewley Shaylor, 2016
Remember me
The importance of the natural world, of
Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember Me
knowledge and practices which are
botany, and of landscape, is pervasive in
has been a vehicle for the interaction
beginning to become memories. Yet, it
the artwork, film and stories that comprise
of science, art, and Aboriginal ethno-
also reveals the ongoing use of plants
Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember Me. The
botany. The exhibition has also facilitated
as medicine and food. The process of
exhibition explores how knowledge and
intercultural exchange between
collecting and recording this cultural
the human imagination can interact
disparate Aboriginal communities and
heritage was an important outcome of this
with the environment through art,
artists. To date, it has brought together
project.
ritual, science and culture in ways that
a botanist, an environmental scientist,
variously sustain, revere, and sometimes,
an anthropologist, a cinematographer,
destroy. The exhibition is a meditation
leading contemporary artists and the
on place and belonging, memory and
Yinhawangka, Banyjima and Nyiyaparli
loss, renewal and decay. It is a reflection
(YBN) people through exchange,
on what it might be to live away from
collaboration and production.
This process was developed in partnership with IBN Corporation who endorsed the project following the success of Marlbatharndu Wanggagu Once Upon a Time in the West. Andrew Dowding, an Aboriginal anthropologist
home, how it is to be dispossessed from For the YBN community, the project has
who works extensively in the North West
facilitated return trips to Yurlu (Country)
with elders and a range of communities,
and a way to reconnect with experience
travelled with FORM’s Rhianna Pezzaniti
and uses of botany and land management.
and myself on field trips along with
It has created an archive for the future
cinematographer Giovanni Lorusso. The
and documented knowledge from which
Yinhawangka, Banyjima and Nyiyaparli
The Yurlu (Country) misses its people
more knowledge can be produced. In the
people who wanted to be part of the
and implores them to kurlkayima ngatha
recording of stories in film, audio and
project requested us to meet them on their
(remember me).
text there is an undertone of longing
Yurlu (Country). This often involved very
for the past - for the old people and the
long drives from the towns where most
Country. Aboriginal land management practices were pragmatic and respectful of the interconnectedness between people and the ecosystem, between a healthy Country and human intervention.
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K u r l k ay i m a N g at h a
YBN people now live. This highlighted the
The plants are the Pilbara in miniature -
In expanding the project to explore the
vast distances that have separated YBN
each suggest a story of place, season, and
diverse connections between botany and
people from their traditional lands and
time. Although scientifically pressed and
culture, Badtjala artist Fiona Foley was
place of belonging, causing displacement
dried, classified and categorised, the samples
commissioned to create the installation
and hardship.
retain sensuality, fragility, texture, and
works for the exhibition. Foley’s work
form. They appear visceral and suggest the
commonly incorporates botanical elements
promise of perfume. When photographed
as symbolic, metaphoric and cultural
on a white surface the samples have the
material. She is one of Australia’s foremost
appearance of delicate sculptural objects.
contemporary artists, and has been
They are also metonyms for Yurlu (Country)
presenting work since the 1980s. Her
and for Aboriginal culture. As Lorraine
work is represented in many of Australia’s
Injie IBN Chairperson and Lore and Culture
major public art collections and she works
Officer commented, ‘they are like bringing
across a range of media, including painting,
in a piece of the Country.’ In this way the
photography, printmaking, sculpture and
samples become cultural symbols for a
installations.
Giovanni Lorusso is interested in combining the philosophy of language with new forms of cinematographic expressions. He was tasked with capturing how YBN people interacted with the land. Lorusso did this through creating atmospheric and evocative images that reach towards the transcendence of nature. He captured the dichotomies of light and dark to hint at the timelessness of a landscape, which has repeated the cycle of birth to death for eons. Lorusso documents the scale and vastness of the landscape, and the minutiae of soil, stone, plant and leaf. The intimacy of Kurlkayima Ngatha Remember Me is also embodied in plant samples collected by Environmental Scientist Rhianna Pezzaniti, with the support of the Western Australian Herbarium, Department of Parks and Wildlife. The Herbarium's Pilbara Identification Botanist Steve Dillon helped to guide us in the collection process and assisted in identifying the scientific names for plants.
dense and expansive traditional knowledge system of ecology through which Aboriginal people managed plants and botany for food, for medicine and for the future. They are gentle relics that express the vanitas which is part of the eternal story of regeneration and renewal, decay and loss.
Foley has a reputation as a provocateur, often challenging the status quo through revealing hidden or marginalised aspects of Australian history and race relations. She commonly uses strategies of subterfuge, inviting audiences to engage with artwork that is seductively beautiful but, in fact,
The botanical illustrator Philippa Nikulinsky
symbolises unseemly and sinister elements
similarly captures moments of time in her
of our past. For instance, Foley’s public
meditative and detailed field drawings.
art commission for the State Library of
Nikulinsky pictures the survivors of arid
Queensland, Black Opium (2006), and
environments that bloom year after year,
her work, Bliss (2006), at the Museum
revels in their beauty and the dignity of
of Contemporary Art, use exquisite and
survival and age. The field drawings in the
elegant poppies to reference the 1897
exhibition are immediate because they are
Aboriginals Protection and Restriction
captured on the spot, and they carry with
of the Sale of Opium Act. This legislation
them the traces of the environment.
was an instrument of colonisation and subjugation that ultimately led to oppressive
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Remember me
State control over Aboriginal people and
Similarly the large-scale text-based
painting, and her meticulous dots evoke the
legitimised population removal into reserves.
artwork in aluminium, IOU (2016),
wildflowers around Tjukurrla'.
is concerned with how the impact of Foley’s artwork in Kurlkayima Ngatha Remember Me similarly employs metaphor for much broader concepts underpinning the history of Western Australian race relations. The body of work she has
colonisation continues to ripple through contemporary society through the debt owed from stolen land and stolen wages, whilst incorporating objects found on Pyramid Station in the Pilbara.
developed for this exhibition is layered with
In our contemporary world concerns about the environment have led to a reexamination of how we interact with nature and develop a more meaningful relationship with the earth. Within this context Aboriginal culture and land
meaning to reflect the time Foley spent in
Songmen (2016) features boomerangs used
management practices, which sustained a
the Pilbara on a field trip meeting traditional
by Aboriginal singers in the Pilbara and
balance in the environment over millennia,
owners as she travelled from the Burrup
is a collaboration with Brian Tucker. It
and will experience a renaissance. Whilst
Peninsula inland through the Millstream
also features a set of boomerangs made by
race relations and colonisation have
Chichester National Park to Weeli Wooli
David Cox. This work reveals how Foley's
resulted in dispossession, silencing and
Creek and Newman.
art investigates the deep connection
marginalisation, Aboriginal beliefs in the
between the cultural and natural contexts
interconnectedness between people and
of place and Aboriginality. Through song,
ecology provides a beacon for the future.
The irreverently titled Pontificate On This (2015), references the historical significance of tobacco as a source of barter, and its use in the North West when mixed with white
the intricate symbiotic relationships between people, art, culture, plants and animals is echoed across the millennia.
ash to create a mild narcotic. The 66 cast aluminium clay pipes represent the number
In showcasing the diverse ways place
of clauses within Western Australia’s
is evoked through botanical forms,
Aborigines Act 1905, echoing the earlier
Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember Me also
Queensland legislation referenced in Foley’s
includes a series of paintings by senior
significant body of work on opium. Foley’s
Ikuntji artist, Eunice Napanangka Jack. As
work draws out the parallels between
Dr Chrischona Schmidt writes, Eunice’s
Queensland and Western Australia, States
work brings her Country with her into the
in which the tools of colonial administration
painting: ‘Napanangka sings the songs of
were a particularly blunt force in the
her ancestral spirit, the wallaby woman;
everyday lives of Aboriginal people.
she travels through her Country whilst
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Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember Me.
Film still by cinematographer Giovanni C. Lorusso in the Pilbara, 2015.
When you’re standing in an air-
The Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember Me
important to seek out, extend and
conditioned city-centre gallery, a box of
project simultaneously follows this model
preserve these traditional knowledge
walls and glass and ceilings, your spatial
and extends it, combining science with art,
systems, and create enduring partnerships
awareness dictated not by distance
botany with story, partner with partner.
between arts bodies, science bodies and
and wide horizon but by the geometry
What appears in this exhibition is but
Indigenous people. It could be of benefit
of angled and artificial light, it can be
a small fraction of the project’s scope,
to us all if traditional knowledge could
difficult to connect what you’re seeing
developed and documented from repeated
be better recognised and integrated with
and hearing – artworks, objects or
trips to Country with Yinhawangka,
Western science; and perhaps projects like
installations, film footage or audio – with
Banyjima and Nyiyaparli people. Many
Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember Me can
a place thousands of kilometres away,
hours of driving, walking, talking and
act as a pilot for what could be developed
and with knowledge tens of thousands of
gathering. Of filming, watching and
and achieved in the future. Surely an
years old.
listening. Of generous sharing and
experience-based, practice-led knowledge
collaboration, individual and collective,
– how humans have learned about the
across regions and areas of expertise. The
planet from the planet itself – is every bit
deep, empirical, irreplaceable knowledge
as valid as laboratory-based research.
It’s a little over a decade now since FORM started working in the Pilbara, embarking on partnerships and projects intended to share knowledge and experiences of this vast and complex part of Western Australia; to encourage people’s awareness and appreciation regardless of the length of their connection to the area, and to facilitate creative and cultural exchange for the betterment of all. Right from the organisation’s early days in Newman to its present involvement with Port Hedland, many stories have been told through a variety of media: paintings, objects, installations, photography, film and words. In collaboration with partners drawn from both private and public sectors, FORM has gathered these stories up, shared them with local audiences and taken them beyond the Pilbara’s boundaries to delight and enlighten many other audiences, both domestic and international.
of the region’s Aboriginal people combined with the painstaking identifications and scientific protocols of the Western Australian Herbarium, and with the wisdom and cultural guidance of the IBN Corporation. All of this, catalysed by FORM’s determination to help foster the maintenance and sharing of precious knowledge, and offer new ways to new audiences of appraising and honouring it, through cultural and artistic means. I was fortunate to travel to the remote reaches of the Pilbara, and experience first-hand the privilege of following the Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember Me project’s Aboriginal participants as they located a particular plant or bush, and then spoke of its healing and nutritional properties. As the world becomes ever more urbanised and industrialised, it seems increasingly
In the meantime, the project is a link to a place thousands of kilometres away, and with knowledge tens of thousands of years old. Imagine that the Kurlkayima Ngatha - Remember Me exhibition, as well as comprising plant specimens, film and art, also contains wide open spaces, the noise of insects, and the nip of a hot desert wind. Hear it amplify the quiet voices of Yinhawangka, Banyjima and Nyiyaparli people, explaining how bush medicine can be made from the sap of the bunungu tree, and what happens when you wash in nhirti infused water. Let it offer a tiny sample of traditional knowledge, garnered from millennia of desert life and experience, and passed carefully from generation to generation.
Remember me
b ota n i c a l n otes Rhianna Pezzaniti FORM Environmental Scientist
Ptilotus calostachyus (Amaranthaceae) Weeping Mulla Mulla Collected in Banyjima country. Photograph by Bewley Shaylor, 2016
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Film stills by cinematographer Giovanni C. Lorusso in the Pilbara, 2015.
K u r l k ay i m a N g at h a
Marruwa Acacia xiphophylla (Fabaceae) Snakewood Collected in Yinhawangka country. Murruwa is the best type of firewood, it burns all night. It can be used to make wirra, (boomerangs) and fighting sticks. The ash of this tree is also mixed with tobacco to make a substance people like to chew called pulkurr. The marruwa is also a good source for gum and the seeds can also be cooked in the fire and eaten. Photograph by Bewley Shaylor, 2016
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