The Canning Stock Route project is an inspiring accomplishment that has touched the lives of so many people in a positive way, culturally and economically. Ian Ashby, President BHP Billiton Iron Ore
NGURRA KUJU WALYJA
One Country, One People The Canning Stock Route Project 2006 – 2011
Page 2
CONTENTS Foreword: The Hon Colin Barnett MEc MLA, Premier, Western Australia.................. 6 About the Canning Stock Route Project....................................................................... 11 History of the Canning Stock Route .............................................................................. 16 An Intercultural Team. . ......................................................................................................26 The Journey........................................................................................................................32 The Professional Development and Mentorship Program. . .......................................40 The Collection....................................................................................................................57 Young and Old, Old and New.. ........................................................................................58 Dreaming the Future. . .......................................................................................................61 Returning the Project to its Owners. . .............................................................................72. The People..........................................................................................................................78
Darwin
Birriliburu Artists Kayili Artists Mangkaja Arts Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre
Kununurra
Martumili Artists Ngurra Artists
Warmun
Papunya Tula Artists Paruku Indigenous Protected Area
Fitzroy Crossing
Broome
Warlayirti Artists
Wangkatjungka and Ngumpan
Bidyadanga
Yulparija Artists
Lajamanu
Halls Creek
Billiluna Mulan Balgo
Great Sandy Desert
Port Hedland Roebourne Punmu
Nullagine
Kunawarritji
Parnngurr Newman
Jigalong
Kiwirrkurra
Patjarr Warakurna
Warburton
Perth
Papunya
Alice Springs Gibson Desert
Little Sandy Desert
Wiluna
Kintore
Page 4
Opposite: Well 1 Tim Acker, 2007
That Canning Stock Road, they been only put ’em lately. I say only yesterday. Before this, blackfella Country. Soakwater, jila [spring], jumu [soak], rockhole. Now it’s Canning Stock Road for anybody to use … Before, it was blackfella Country. Ngarralja Tommy May, 2007
Page 6
FOREWORD Australia is a country that requires appraisal on a different scale. The distances, extremes of climate, topography and landscape all demand that we set aside our usual methods of measurement. We are challenged to use a fresh perspective. This sense of scale and perspective is also true of Australia’s cultural heritage. However familiar we think we are with the narrative of this country and its people, time and again we are amazed and humbled by the sheer weight of experience, wisdom and knowledge that infuse the stories and protocols of Aboriginal Australia. These stories are shared through paintings, through artefacts, through dance, and through the personal testimonies of people who are conscious of the need to pass on knowledge, to keep culture alive, and simply to communicate the complexity and power of their history, and this country’s history. These are stories relevant to all Australians, and to citizens of the world. From time to time, someone devises, on an appropriate scale, a means of gathering, researching and sharing this cultural material. An organisation is able to crystallise an idea into a project, one that is capable of creating the necessary level of trust, respect and collaboration. FORM‘s Canning Stock Route Project – Ngurra Kuju Walyja – One Country, One People – is just such a project. The State Government is proud to be a part of this Project and to witness firsthand the enormous talent of the communities and contributors who have nurtured and grown this epic undertaking, from the very beginning through to its conclusion. FORM seeks to develop and support cultural community development projects that can have a long-term impact. The Canning Stock Route Project has not only created an extraordinary collection of paintings, digital media and oral histories, it has generated skills development and new career opportunities for the many Aboriginal people who took part, forging valuable community connections that will build over time.
This page: Cattle at Durba Springs 2007 (detail) Mervyn Street, Mangkaja Arts, pencil and watercolour on paper National Museum of Australia
Page 7
This Project reveals something of the many intricate lines of enquiry and painstaking applications of specialist knowledge, which have informed the Project’s research outcomes, and created a unique collection of material. This is about much more than just incredible artworks. Through the stories collected here, we are able to understand how the Project has invoked the history of a generation of Aboriginal people and created a lasting legacy for us all. We have been proud to be able to assist in preserving a rich part of this nation’s cultural heritage, and an integral part of our state’s identity.
Hon Colin Barnett, MEc MLA Premier of Western Australia
Previous page: Kayili artist Yurnangurnu Nola Campbell with her painting Tika Tika. Tim Acker, 2008
Opposite: Martumili artist Muni Rita Simpson points to one of the waterholes in her painting Minyipuru. Tim Acker, 2007
Page 11
ABOUT THE CANNING STOCK ROUTE PROJEC T Ngurra Kuju Walyja – One Country, One People – the Canning Stock Route Project was initiated by FORM in 2006 with a multifaceted – cultural, artistic, social and economic – approach. The Project set out to explore, for the first time, the history of the Canning Stock Route from the perspective of Aboriginal artists, through art, oral histories and new media. It established a program of professional development and employment for Aboriginal artists, emerging creative professionals and others, with the aim of increasing the operational capacity of remote area enterprises. And it set out to create new national and international markets for Canning Stock Route Project artists and their enterprises. As the Project team began researching and interviewing artists with cultural and historical ties to the stock route, curating and documenting their stories, it became apparent that the Aboriginal story of the Canning Stock Route was far bigger than they had imagined. Three artists from six art centres were initially invited to participate in the Project in early 2007 but by April 2008 there were around 90 artists involved from 10 art and cultural organisations across the Western Desert. With FORM those organisations form the Canning Stock Route Project Alliance: Mangkaja Arts, Ngurra Artists, the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre, Yulparija Artists, Paruku Indigenous Protected Area, Warlayirti Artists, Martumili Artists, Kayili Artists, Birriliburru Artists and Papunya Tula Artists. The Project sought to balance the existing non-Aboriginal history of the world’s longest, and reputedly most dangerous, historic stock route, with a virtually unknown Aboriginal story. This required that the Aboriginal story be given prominence through paintings, stories, film, cultural artefacts, photography and interactive multimedia. There are 10 traditional Aboriginal languages spoken by Project artists: Kartujarra, Kiyajarra, Kukatja, Manyjilyjarra, Juwaliny, Putijarra, Walmajarri, Wangkajunga, Warnman and Yulparija, yet despite the distances that separate them, almost all are related by marriage, kinship or blood.
Page 12
Opposite: Martumili artists Mulyatingki Marney and Jartarr Lily Long point out Tiwa (Well 26) in Lily’s painting of the same name. Morika Biljabu, 2008
In July 2010 the Canning Stock Route Project reached a major milestone with the launch of Yiwarra Kuju: the Canning Stock Route. The exhibition, which was produced by FORM and the National Museum of Australia, showed in Canberra until Australia Day 2011, attracting more than 122,000 visitors. In 2011 Yiwarra Kuju returns to its home-state of Western Australia for the first time, as the official cultural backdrop of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) before opening to Western Australian audiences throughout November. Yiwarra Kuju offers a vibrant, breathtaking insight into the achievements, and the art, of the broader five-year Canning Stock Route Project. The exhibition is a vision of the Country that was intersected by Canning’s Stock Route. It is a Country seen through the eyes of Aboriginal artists, and animated by ancestral energies and stories. The exhibition itself is laid out geographically and visitors are welcomed into the ‘Country’ from the south of the route by a video of Birriliburu artist Vera Anderson who explains how Aboriginal people introduce themselves to Country they’ve never visited before. Once welcomed, visitors enter another world inside the exhibition. They travel north through the exhibition learning about the Country through paintings, stories, songs, dances, film and photography until they reach Paruku (Lake Gregory) and as they return south again, they encounter the awardwinning eight-metre long multimedia interactive, One Road, which won silver in the 2011 MUSE Awards for interpretive interactive installation. More than an exhibition of Aboriginal art, Yiwarra Kuju is defined by a remarkable collection of oral histories, which vividly bring the culture and history of the region to life. More than 200 oral histories were recorded by the Canning Stock Route Project team, mostly in traditional languages, and more than 80 of these were translated by a team of skilled Aboriginal translators led by Ngalangka Nola Taylor and Putuparri Tom Lawford. This rich fund of cultural knowledge, conveyed in the artists’ own words, shaped the broader story of Yiwarra Kuju and brought the extraordinary history of this region into national focus for the first time. Following Perth, Yiwarra Kuju will travel to the Australian Museum in Sydney in December and January.
Opposite: Paruku Indigenous Protected Area artist Tarnja Lyn Manson paints a collaborative map of Paruku (Lake Gregory). Tim Acker, 2007
Every water got a song … People got to tell you story to make you happy and safe. Every place got a story. Joe Brown, 2008
I like to share this story. [It doesn’t] come from me, come from old people and passed on and on. When I’m in my place I sit down with the young kids and tell them serious story so they can remember. We pass the story so younger one can know, so story can keep going all the way to another generation. Jawurji Mervyn Street, 2007
Page 15
Page 16
Opposite: Natives, Sturt Creek Alfred Canning, 1906. State Library of Western Australia, The Battye Library
HISTORY OF THE CANNING STOCK ROUTE Wally Caruana The Canning Stock Route is an iconic part of Australian history: at once an achievement of epic proportions and a national folly. The story of the stock route is lined with heroic feats of human endeavour and courage, first contact, tragedy, environmental degradation, diaspora, hope, misunderstandings and humour, but ultimately it is – as the Project seeks to show – a triumph of human will and cultural continuity. The stock route has had far-reaching consequences for those whose Country it traverses, even though today it is no longer used to carry stock, but four-wheel drive adventurers, miners and others. The stock route continues to have social, cultural and environmental relevance for traditional owners and the general public alike. In the late 19th Century, most of Western Australia’s beef came from the Kimberley. West Kimberley pastoralists had a monopoly on the beef trade at the time, however, as East Kimberley cattle were being quarantined due to an infestation of tropical ticks, which had been brought to Australia from Java in 1872. The ticks caused red fever in cattle, and caused the prices of beef to soar. There was a huge demand for fresh meat in the booming goldfields populations. The gold mine in Wiluna, at its peak, was the largest in Western Australia, supporting 9,000 miners. Exorbitant beef prices became such a vexed issue in the south that a royal commission was called in 1904 to investigate the activities of a so-called ‘West Kimberley meat ring’ alleged to be keeping meat prices high. In 1905 the independent MP James Isdell came up with a solution to the East Kimberley tick problem. Isdell suggested that if the cattle were driven to market along a stock route through the harsh desert country, the ticks would fall off and die. He was right. Most in government believed a desert stock route would be impossible, but the Under Secretary of Mines, HS King, came up with a suggestion the government couldn’t refuse. He suggested combining the stock route survey with a search for goldbearing country. Alfred Canning was commissioned to do both. His party set off from Perth in April 1906 to locate well sites roughly a day’s walk apart with enough water for up to 800 head of cattle.
Page 18
Opposite: The survey team, 1906. State Library of Western Australia, The Battye Library
Running almost 2,000 kilometres, from Halls Creek in the Kimberley to Wiluna in the south, the Canning Stock Route crosses the traditional lands of many Aboriginal language groups, and intersects a region where nearly 20 languages are spoken. Canning relied on the knowledge of Aboriginal guides to lead him to certain waters and brought along police-issue neck-chains to ensure their ‘cooperation’. The guides also led Canning’s team away from other waters and influenced the shape and direction of the stock route with their decisions. On the party’s return to Perth in 1908 a royal commission was called to investigate accusations made by the expedition’s cook Edward Blake of cruelty towards and inhumane treatment of the guides. Canning and his men were cleared of all charges. The commissioners condemned the use of chains but declared that the need for a stock route justified the means. Canning left Perth again in March 1908 to commence the construction of the stock route wells. He returned in April 1910. Forty-eight of the 54 stock route water sources are constructed wells, and 37 of these were built on or near existing waters, which made access extremely difficult for Aboriginal people. Largely because of this, the droving era did not begin well. Some of the first drovers to bring cattle down the route in 1911, were killed by desert people at Well 37. Sergeant RH Pilmer’s ‘punitive expedition’ recorded killing at least ten Aboriginal people in response to the deaths of the drovers but despite his assurances that the route was safe to use, drovers barely used it again for 20 years. By 1917, nearly half the wells had been damaged or destroyed by Aboriginal people. Another royal commission into the price of beef led to the re-opening of the stock route in 1929. William Snell, who was commissioned to recondition the wells, was extremely critical of the construction and placement of Canning’s wells and fitted many with ladders for easier access by Aboriginal people. Snell ran out of materials before the reconditioning was completed, and at nearly 70 years of age, Alfred Canning returned to complete the job in 1930– 31.
Opposite: Head Stockman 1942 Axel Poignant, England, 1906–86 gelatin silver photograph 39.2 x 31.5 cm National Gallery of Australia
Page 21
From 1931 to 1959 the stock route experienced its most prolific period of use. An average of one mob a year was driven south to market along the route. Most of the drovers, and stock men and women were Aboriginal and were famed for their skill. The construction of the Canning Stock Route dramatically transformed the lives of Aboriginal people in the region, bringing about a complex meeting of cultures in one of the most arid and remote regions of the world. Many Aboriginal people first came into contact with Europeans along the stock route, which has been the site of massacres, murder, mining, droving and weapons testing, leading to the displacement of many people from their traditional lands. The impact of this movement across the desert has led to remarkable interconnections between language groups now living as far away from one another as Broome, Balgo, Wiluna, Kunwawarritji and Kiwirrkura. The establishment of the stock route also introduced a new chapter in the history of Aboriginal art. The Canning Stock Route influenced the personal histories and creative journeys of some of Australia’s most senior and respected artists: Rover Thomas, Eubena Nampitjin, Jan Billycan, Helicopter Tjungurrayi, Spider Snell, Patrick Tjungurrayi and others. It also drew Aboriginal people away from their traditional lands to communities, stations and settlements at the edges of the Western Desert. As a result of this diaspora, artistic practise has spread through the desert like wildfire since the 1970s — from Papunya to Balgo and on to Fitzroy Crossing, Bidyadanga, Patjarr and the Martu communities, as family members visit and inspire one another.
This page: Helen Hill, north of Well 27. Tim Acker, 2007
Home is like your house, but home to us is like our Country … We’ll always come back to that tribal Country, where old people used to walk around and used to hunt … That’s what we believe. When we die, we become one with the Country. Our spirit goes back. Curtis Taylor, 2009
Page 24
Opposite: Martu kids perform in front of the painting Kunkun at Kunawarritji (Well 33). Morika Biljabu, 2008
We’re all one big family because we all follow one circle. Even though we all speak other languages but we got one area we all belong to. We all are one big family. Putuparri Tom Lawford, 2007
Before Canning made those lines of wells, it was all family groups – tribes and language groups that were related … Nowadays we are living [in different places], everybody moved, separated to different parts of the Western Desert, to different towns: Fitzroy Crossing, Newman, Jigalong, Balgo, Broome, Bidyadanga. And that connection is still alive today in the heart of the desert … We all one mob. All one people. Canning Stock Route is another history. It’s the European version. But now what we’re talking about is how … daily lives were all connected back through song and dance and Dreaming and the desert. Murungkurr Terry Murray, 2009
Page 25
Page 26
Opposite: Members of the curatorial team work with the Canning Stock Route Collection at the Black Swan Theatre in Perth. Ross Swanborough, 2008
an intercultural Team The success of the Canning Stock Route Project is based on the contributions and skill of its remarkable intercultural team, which is made up of nine Aboriginal and five non-Aboriginal team members. The Aboriginal team includes cocurators Hayley Atkins, Doolmarria Louise Mengil and Murungkurr Terry Murray, filmmakers Curtis Taylor, KJ Kenneth Martin and Clint Dixon and filmmaker and photographer Morika Biljabu, and cultural advisors and senior translators Ngalangka Nola Taylor and Putuparri Tom Lawford. The non-Aboriginal team includes Project co-founder and co-curator Carly Davenport, content manager and co-curator Monique La Fontaine, anthropologist and co-curator John Carty, photographer and Project co-founder Tim Acker, filmmaker and mentor Nicole Ma and curatorial mentor Wally Caruana. A total of 51 workshops were conducted over three years to ensure that all aspects of the Project’s development, and its public outcomes, were driven and approved by artists and art centres. Artist workshops, curatorial workshops, mapping workshops, content development and Aboriginal Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) approvals workshops took place on the Canning Stock Route itself, in 17 remote Aboriginal communities, in Canberra, Broome, Melbourne and Perth. In addition to Aboriginal artists and team, the Canning Stock Route Project has provided employment, professional skills development and/or mentorship to approximately 250 Aboriginal people over the life of the Project, including oral history contributors, elders and senior cultural advisors, translators and interpreters, workshop participants, traditional dancers and singers, mechanics, nurses and rangers.
Opposite: Co-curator Hayley Atkins and mentor Wally Caruana survey the canvases painted on the Canning Stock Route at Nyarna (Lake Stretch). Tim Acker, 2007
Page 29
I learnt a lot with how stories and paintings really connect and how you have to always make them sit together, with the colours and the stories; that’s the part I like. I was thinking, ‘No I don’t want to work because I don’t know anything’. [Now] I just want to work so I can go out there and know everything about painting and stories. I was doing it so it was like a journey for me, like knowing the families and the stories. So I was just so proud to be on this Project. Hayley Atkins, 2009
Opposite: Cultural advisor and translator Putuparri Tom Lawford and grandsons prepare to dance at Ngumpan.
Page 31
For me it was a big job. For me it’s been good to get all the old people’s stories so they can be heard. The main thing is working with all this good lot of people on the Project. The team of Hayley [Atkins], Terry [Murray], Louise [Mengil], Nicki [Nicole Ma], Monique [La Fontaine], Tjakamarra [John Carty], Tim [Acker] and you [Carly Davenport]. When we first started it was a long trip … to be where we are now. We got all the art centres together, and all the old people that came from the different directions across the desert. All of them were happy to share their stories, all of them families are happy. Putuparri Tom Lawford, 2011
Page 32
Opposite: Birriliburu artists and Aboriginal Project team on the Canning Stock Route. Tim Acker, 2007
THE JOURNEY Carly Davenport
It began with the idea of the road. The Canning Stock Route Project began as an exploration of the histories, communities and stories of Australia’s iconic Canning Stock Route from the perspective of the many Aboriginal artists whose communities surround this isolated 1,800 km track. The Project grew, involving many people, exploring many artforms, many stories, eventually forming the alliance of 10 Aboriginal art enterprises, and generating a host of long-term programs and achievements. Yet the idea of the journey and of travelling has remained a central theme. The Canning Stock Route Project essentially came together over a series of professional development, artistic and content workshops over 2006-2010, including many ‘back to Country’ trips to locations along and around the stock route. Four major artists’ camps were held in 2007. The character of each camp was distinct, with the mood and energy echoing the terrain and the mix of people present: the lush, peaceful space of Durba Springs, the dynamic activity of Kilykily (Well 36), the calm of Kujuwarri (Well 46); and the celebratory gathering at Nyarna (Lake Stretch). These diverse environments and the coming together of artists from so communities resulted in a body of work that reflected the vitality of people’s relationships with Country and with each other.
Page 34
This page: Sandhills or tali near Well 28. Tim Acker, 2007
A combination of ventures forged the Project’s early cross-desert linkages between art centres and gave rise to its blueprint. In 2003-2004 Project co-founder Tim Acker and I had travelled to several Western Australian art centres and saw the paintings of Kumpaya Girgaba at Kayili Artists in Patjarr. We were amazed that this elderly lady had travelled so far from her Martu home to visit family. The interconnectedness of family and geography always had a profound impact on us, and by 2006, the idea for the Project crystallised when Tim suggested the Canning Stock Route, created by Alfred Canning and his men, as a symbolic and physical link through the Western Desert, a link which connected artists from distant communities in a circle of art centres. By using the route as a lens, a compelling history started to emerge in stories and acrylic paintings, not only of the road’s impact but also of contemporary family networks, the resilient bonds that continue to define desert society.
Page 35
Over time, we channelled the energies of Aboriginal artists and contributors from ten remote area community arts and cultural enterprises across 17 communities, enabling professional exchange to occur between the various language groups, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people and enterprises, families and communities. Across the communities, meetings were held in the art centres, in sheds, on verandas, in frail-aged facilities, school playgrounds, on football ovals, behind sand dunes, by campfires and lakeshores, in the shadows of trees and four wheel drives. As artists told their stories, team members scrambled to re-charge camera batteries, translators and artists provided clarifications and direction, family members listened and interjected; interested locals dropped by to observe, and kids and dogs were drawn to see what was going on. Artists from across the Western Desert responded to the team’s interest in mapping family movements and relations. In each community that we visited more people came forward with their own stock route stories, wanting to share their personal histories and family connections that tied them to ‘stock route Country’ too. As Curtis Taylor describes, ‘… this Project gave us a chance to listen to each other and learn from each other. All the artists are family for each other. Family means you belong; wherever you go you are not lost1’. Harnessing local talent and communities’ socio-cultural connections, the Project expanded to include around 250 Aboriginal participants and numerous agencies. Artists, traditional owners, community leaders, translators, cultural brokers, emerging curators and multimedia professionals were all employed, and alongside this Aboriginal professional network, intellectual and financial partnerships with well over 100 non-Aboriginal people and agencies, industries and business leaders in Perth, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney were forged to support the development of the Project and its major exhibition Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route, which was co-produced with the National Museum of Australia. 1 Curtis Taylor narrating the Project’s short-film Two-way Learning: communities together, Co-directed with Nicole Ma, 2011.
Page 36
Opposite: From left, Kunkun artists Nora Wompi, Bugai Whylouter, Kumpaya Girgaba and Nora Nangapa at Kunawarritji, Well 33. Morika Biljabu, 2008
Professional development and approvals workshops were held between late 2006 and mid 2010 in both remote and urban environments. Literally tens of thousands of dusty desert kilometres were travelled by team members, and 58 community visits were conducted. The most epic of these was the original six-week expedition along the stock route in July and August 2007, which fired the imaginations of 60 artists from seven art centres and their large intercultural Project team. The workshop held at Kilykily (Well 36) gave the team tremendous insights into the complexity of family and social relations and was a significant catalyst, triggering the Project’s research trajectory. Many seminal collaborative works were also created at Well 36, fusing artists’ creative application, talents and histories at that extraordinary gathering, with its rare and unrepeatable combination of people.
Page 38
Opposite: Co-curator Hayley Atkins (right) and Renette Biljabu with the painting Kunkun at Well 33. Morika Biljabu, 2008
Learning from each other to develop the Project meant a willingness to journey together to understand, accept and negotiate differences; sometimes this created astonishing and unforseen connections; sometimes it worked in reverse: cultural differences arose and things were missed, whether that was missing planes, or meanings. The team all recognised that navigating cultural differences is an imperfect art, but it is always better than the alternative, which is not trying at all. Carly Davenport, 2011
Page 39
Page 40
Opposite: From left, co-curators Hayley Atkins, Monique La Fontaine, Louise Mengil and John Carty work with the collection. Tim Acker, 2009
THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND MENTORSHIP PROGRAM Mags Webster A group of young Aboriginal curators, photographer and filmmakers have become a vital part of the Canning Stock Route Project team, mentored through the real-life processes of developing and documenting a multi-regional cultural project and curating a major exhibition and collection of art. Central to FORM’s ethos for the Canning Stock Route Project was the desire to create ongoing leadership and employment opportunities for Aboriginal people, via means that were adaptive, responsive and culturally appropriate; and to help build networks and opportunities for economic empowerment that would go on after the Project ended. As well as employing Aboriginal cultural advisors, translators and technicians on the team, FORM devised two development programs for emerging Aboriginal professionals: one for curators, one for multimedia practitioners. Under the guidance of specific mentors and the guardianship of the broader team, a small group of aspiring curators, filmmakers and photographers worked at the nucleus of the Project, regularly meeting in Perth and Canberra as well as out-bush: selecting canvases, gathering stories, and sharing knowledge. Increasingly these young professionals became cultural intermediaries for the 110 or so participating artists. The depth of their commitment and enthusiasm equipped them to be passionate ambassadors for the Project and for the exhibition, and enabled them, on behalf of the elders, to carry and communicate its story to urban audiences.
Page 42
Opposite: Co-curator Louise Mengil explains the exhibition layout to Mangkaja artists in Fitzroy Crossing. Tim Acker, 2009
Page 43
The 2007 ‘return to Country’ trip along the stock route triggered the beginning of these mentorship programs. FORM invited two emerging Kimberley-based filmmakers, Clint Dixon and Kenneth ‘KJ’ Martin, and a young Martu photographer and filmmaker Morika Biljabu to join the journey, initially to observe and work alongside the professional multimedia unit charged with documenting the trip. The three young people ended up making their own short films, which offered powerful and personal commentaries not only on the physical experience of the journey, but also bore witness to the artists’ unbroken bonds with Country, embodied by the intensity of their paintings. Also travelling with the stock route artists was a young Martu woman Hayley Atkins, the first member of the Aboriginal curatorial team. Her rapport with the older people and her eagerness to assist in gathering stories and paintings became a vital part of the trip’s success. It was obvious to FORM that the ongoing involvement of these individuals as co-curators and filmmakers would be a huge asset to the Project, but in order to offer something lasting and meaningful in exchange for their commitment and time, the manner of that involvement needed to be structured through proper paid employment within a bespoke mentorship process. In addition to the four already on board, Walmajarri, Wangkajunga and Juwaliny artist Murungkurr Terry Murray, Mirruwong arts worker Doolmarria Louise Mengil and later, young Martu filmmaker Curtis Taylor also joined the Project team. Hayley, Terry and Louise’s introduction to curating a major exhibition came from art expert and author Wally Caruana. The former senior curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the National Gallery of Australia, Caruana worked with the Project for a year in the role of guest mentor and curator, setting the team on track to assemble the exhibition content. Over the duration of his involvement, the emerging curators came together to select the work, visit art institutions and build a high-level understanding of what goes into making a show of Yiwarra Kuju’s scale and complexity.
Page 44
Opposite: Co-curator Hayley Atkins holds up the painting Puntawarri, which she collaborated on with her grandmother Milly Kelly at Well 36. Tim Acker, 2007
Becoming a curator, learning the stories was a big, long journey. I started off not knowing anything about the Canning Stock Route, not even knowing about the Alfred Canning version, so it was an honour to be able to learn from an Aboriginal perspective. I must say now, it’s seems like travelling so many sandhills, in the heat of the day, but energy wise it feels like I haven’t used a bit. So the Project has carried me more than I’ve carried the Project. I am flying in colours. It’s nice to be able to work with Terry Murray and Hayley Atkins; they’ve inspired me in so many ways, young Martu woman and a Walmajarri man, from their community, representing their people. Louise Mengil, 2009
Page 46
Opposite: Photographer Morika Biljabu documents the painting workshops at Kilykily (Well 36). Tim Acker, 2007
Caruana believes the benefits that remote community professionals bring to a project like this is critical to its success, being based on:
… the coalescing of experiences and knowledge from within the communities and those from the professional and public domain. In the end, to represent the artists and the art to maximum effect – on the artistic, social and cultural levels – you need this coming together. Wally Caruana, 2008 Award-winning filmmaker and producer Nicole Ma mentored the multimedia practitioners and directed the production of a vast amount of audio-visual material documenting the Project. ‘I believe a mentor’s job is to open up the world of possibilities and to inspire and create a safe space in which to experiment with ideas,’ she says. While Caruana and Ma could guide their colleagues through many of the technical and artistic aspects of curatorship and media work, the deeply important cultural dimension (particularly the in-Country engagement with the artists and traditional owners) lay in the domain of the Project’s senior cultural advisors and translators Putuparri Tom Lawford and Ngalangka Nola Taylor. Right from the early days on the return to Country trip, he was able to bring a wide range of experience and an intimate geographical and cultural knowledge to his involvement on the Project.
Page 47
Page 48
Opposite: Cultural advisor Ngalangka Nola Taylor and filmmaker Curtis Taylor explain the exhibition design to Martumili artists Waka and Nancy Taylor, at Parnngurr Community. Tim Acker, 2009
Page 49
The presence of these experienced people gave confidence to the younger members of the team, and importantly, represented an appropriate level of cultural authority and knowledge in observing protocol with the older artists and countrymen. As Hayley Atkins explains, having senior Martu woman Nola Taylor involved eased some worries:
She helped me a lot. First, when I worked with this Project too much was coming into my head, I was bit uncomfortable. Like, this is a big thing you know, could get in trouble [culturally if we say the wrong thing], so that’s why I asked if Nola could come on board and work with us, and check with the old people to check if they want to work and story to be told. But actually everybody likes it and there was no concern, only some stuff. So, yeah, that’s good I got Nola on board. Hayley Atkins, 2009
Page 50
Opposite: Mangkaja artist Manmarr Daisy Andrews and co-curator Murungkurr Terry Murray. Tim Acker, 2009
There are many wonderful Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists practising in Australia today, whose outputs are supported by dedicated and passionate arts workers. Extraordinary work appears regularly in commercial galleries and forms part of major institutional and private collections. It is not often, however, that these works are contextualised by such a depth of documentary and cultural provenance as that offered by the Canning Stock Route Project. Nor does the process necessarily always involve younger members of Aboriginal society in a key curatorial capacity. Yet, inevitably as senior artists and custodians pass away, the continuity of Aboriginal stories and culture communicated through art depends on emerging generations of Aboriginal practitioners, and critically, of people who have the knowledge, birthright and cultural background to interpret and administer that continuity. If the Canning Stock Route Project could be said to have a broad leitmotiv, an overall recurring theme, arguably that might be ‘exchange’: inter-cultural, intergenerational, an exchange between the historical and the contemporary, between one medium and another. As one of the Project’s contributing artists, Martu man Clifford Brooks expresses it: ‘The white man history has been told and it’s today in the book. But our history is not there properly. To tell our story to the world, we do it by painting.’2 The curatorial world mediates how the world at large perceives, values and appreciates story and paintings. Both worlds need people like Nola, Tom, Terry, Hayley, Curtis, KJ, Louise, Morika and Clint.
2 Clifford Brooks, 2007
Page 51
Page 52
This page: Charlie Wallabi Tjungurrayi points to Kaningarra (Well 48). Tim Acker, 2007
Page 53
I knew that in my heart, and old man [Rover Tomas] tell me, ‘We gotta do painting and tell our stories through there’. Might as well do it through arts so the whole world can hear us. This is a true story that we gotta put down on the paper. Painting Jukurrpa ngapulu [father’s Dreaming]. That’s a jamumili Jukurrpa [grandfather’s Dreaming], our grandfathers’ land. It’s not a thing, it’s a Jukurr [Law from the Dreamtime], really, what our old people been tell us what to do. That’s why we gotta carry this so the people in other country can have a look too; what is true that’s never been recorded. So, what we talking about kuwarri [now] is a history we gotta do. So, that’s why I do painting kuwarri ngayinpa [that I do now] because of my old man been tell me, ‘Tell your stories through painting’. Clifford Brooks, 2007
Previous page: Mangkaja artist Dorothy May paints at Nyarna (Lake Stretch). Tim Acker, 2007
Opposite: Paintings produced on the stock route are laid out on the shores of Nyarna (Lake Stretch). Tim Acker, 2007
Page 57
THE COLLEC TION The paintings and other cultural materials documented, created and recorded for the Canning Stock Route Project reinforce the ancestral and cultural significance of the lands through which the stock route passes. While the artists have adopted a range of perspectives in their work, they have, by and large, placed the Canning Stock Route within the context of the vast cosmologies which arise from the land and waters on which the stock route was superimposed, and within the context of the body of traditional Law which governs all aspects of Aboriginal life in the region. During seven week-long sessions over 14 months the Canning Stock Route Project team defined the Canning Stock Route collection from over 250 artworks to a refined selection of around 140 paintings, objects, cultural artefacts and associated cultural materials. It was acquired by the National Museum of Australia in 2008 as a collection of national significance. As part of the acquisition, the Museum partnered with FORM to produce Yiwarra Kuju using some of the vast collection of documentary materials gathered on the Project. Yiwarra Kuju explores the themes of Country, water, Dreaming, family, history and movement to paint an extraordinary picture of the desert Country that Canning Stock Route Project artists call home.
Page 58
Opposite: Warlayirti artist Eubena Nampitjin and grandchild at Balgo. Tim Acker, 2008
Old and Young, Old and New As a cultural project breaking new ground it has also seamlessly blended old and new artforms, from reviving traditional dance and ceremonies to creating a vast collection of contemporary paintings to innovative interactive technology and exhibition design. In the latter example, the rich content that had been collected as part of the Project was developed into the award-winning ‘One Road’ installation – an interactive, multi-touch interpretive platform constructed as part of the Yiwarra Kuju exhibition and designed to mimic the journey and points of confluence and interest on the Canning Stock Route. In keeping with the Project’s multidisciplinary approach, this interactive display merged artistic, cultural, historical, ecological and scientific data within the interface of Alfred Canning’s iconic hand-drawn map. One Road was developed by multimedia design firm Lightwell and members of the Canning Stock Route Project team.
Page 60
Opposite: Curtis Taylor as Nyiru in a still from his film of the same name. Curtis Taylor, 2010
Page 61
Dreaming the future multimedia & the CANNING STOCK ROUTE PROJEC T Monique La Fontaine The youngest members of the Canning Stock Route Project team, Morika Biljabu (21, Martumili Artists) and Curtis Taylor (22, Martumedia) are the first generation of their families to be born in hospitals. Both are the children of parents who were born in the bush, both are fluent in their traditional languages, and both have grown up under the leadership of their elders, witnessing the extent of their old people’s knowledge, both in their day to day lives and in the practice of law each year at ceremony time. Morika and Curtis are also members of a generation referred to in educational terms as ‘digital natives’3. As ‘native speakers’ of the new digital languages, they have grown up with computers, video games, the internet and mobile technologies in the same way that ‘digital immigrants’ grew up with radio, television and paperbased media. As a result, they, and other young filmmakers like them across remote Aboriginal Australia, are approaching media production at a rare cultural and technological juncture. Their vision of the world is shaped by an extraordinary confluence of culturally traditional and worldly contemporary influences, from which they draw endless inspiration to ‘dream new dreams’ within digital culture. In the work of both filmmakers, Jukurrpa or the ‘Dreaming’ is also a kind of a blueprint for the telling of certain stories. Certain information is implied rather than spoken, and omissions that would otherwise be confusing for non-Aboriginal viewers, inspire instead a sense of the vastness of the landscape in which these intricately intersecting stories — personal and ancestral — are defined in relationship to one other.
3 Prensky, Marc, ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants’, On the Horizon, MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001
Page 62
Opposite: From left, Ngurra artist Mayapu Elsie Thomas and Martumili artists Jartarr Lily Long and Dadda Samson at Kilykily (Well 36), on the Canning Stock Route ‘return to Country trip’. Gabrielle Sullivan, 2007
The Canning Stock Route Project began as an idea of exploring history through the lens of contemporary via the stories of an intricately interconnected but disparate group of Western Desert artists with connections to the Canning Stock Route. But the Project’s focus on comprehensively recording the oral histories of the many artists involved, and documenting the story of the Project on film, transformed it from an art exhibition proper to something infinitely more revealing and insightful. More than 260 interviews and oral histories were recorded over a five-year research period, around 50 recorded on audio-cassette by anthropologist and co-curator, John Carty, and more than 205 recorded primarily on digital media by Nicole Ma, Emmaline Schooneveldt-Reid, Davenport, myself and others. The overwhelming strength of the Canning Stock Route Project, and of the Yiwarra Kuju exhibition, for both contributors and visitors, was in its foregrounding of Aboriginal stories told in Aboriginal voices. For Aboriginal contributors, the realisation that these stories had been permanently acquired by the National Museum of Australia, and were destined to be seen and heard in Canberra by a largely non-Aboriginal audience signified for them a hugely important milestone. Their knowledge and experiences were being weighed in the balance of a history previously only partly told — a story that for the most part had excluded Aboriginal people. Social researcher and psychologist Hugh Mackay asserts that of the ten basic human desires that underscore our experiences in life, one is of pre-eminent importance — the desire to ‘matter’, to be taken seriously, to be appreciated, respected and understood being paramount. Although human beings approach the fulfilment of this desire in various ways, some healthy, some unhealthy and some even deeply destructive, Mackay explains that by far the most effective way of achieving it — profoundly — is to be listened to.4
4 Mackay, Hugh, What makes us tick? The ten desires that drive us, 2010, Hatchette, p.5-24
Page 63
Opposite; Martu boy at Kunkun near Kunawarritji (Well 33). Morika Biljabu, 2007
Page 65
The astounding response of visitors to Yiwarra Kuju confirmed that the use of multimedia was pivotal to the exhibition’s success in achieving this aim. Had it focused strictly on the artworks in the Canning Stock Route collection, breathtaking as they are, and even on the artwork stories featured on labels, the exhibition would have undoubtedly been popular with audiences. But the show’s exercise of video, photography, oral history and interactive media created for audiences a sense of affinity with the people behind those artworks, which inspired genuine listening and empathy. Through the use of multimedia, audiences were brought ‘up close’ to the stories of artists and contributors. Video offered them an invitation into the lives of artists, to experience for themselves the humour, warmth, generosity and rich living culture from which the artworks emerged. Crucially, they also evoked for visitors an experience of being communicated with, rather than spoken at, and left them with a feeling of privilege and of gratitude in the sharing of such cultural wealth. Verbatim transcriptions of the oral histories, made by curators and Aboriginal translators, captured the character and nuance of speakers and reflected a rich desert worldview expressed through language. These oral histories provided the basis for both artwork story labels and artists’ biographies, which comprised two of the five5 information tiles accompanying each of the artworks in Yiwarra Kuju. Photographs of the artists comprised another.
5 Some works in Yiwarra Kuju had fewer or more accompanying information tiles.
Page 66
Opposite: Martumili artist Kumpaya Girgaba tells the story of the painting Kunkun at the site it’s named after. Morika Biljabu, 2008
I was at school doing computer stuff and taking photos and a lot of people liked my pictures. And I got involved with Gabrielle [Sullivan, manager Martumili Artists], she sent all my pictures to Carly [Davenport], and Carly said, ‘Oh, good photos. You should get involved on Canning Stock Route. Morika Biljabu, 2007 Taken primarily by Tim Acker and Morika Biljabu, the portraits introduced visitors to the makers, offering a glimpse of each person’s unique character and energy, but they also revealed another layer of awareness in the experience of the paintings: as expressions of the artists’ Country, the artworks were also a form of self-portrait — a reflection of the artists’ intrinsic relationship to Country as part of themselves. A staggering 20,000 images were taken over the life of the Canning Stock Route Project, capturing the raw beauty of the country, the day-to-day life of communities, the 51 workshops staged in-Country and in communities, the contributions of the seven emerging Aboriginal curators and filmmakers and the growth and development and making of the Canning Stock Route collection. As works of art, Morika’s images are particularly remarkable for what they reveal of the relationship between photographer and subject.
Opposite: Martumili artists Yikartu Bamba, Lily Long, Yuwali Janice Nixon and Dadda Samson. Morika Biljabu, 2008
Page 69
For those who worked on the Canning Stock Route Project, the highlight of the Yiwarra Kuju exhibition, by far, was the response of the artists themselves. Though they were thrilled to see their own paintings on display in such a prestigious setting at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, it was the experience of seeing family members telling their own stories all across the exhibition that elicited such joyous emotion.
Seeing all the artists and all the elders come through the exhibition, it’s just a great feeling, a great moment. You can’t describe it really. When you just see the looks on their face — they were happy, smiling. There was a big smile on my face. There’s no words to describe it really, it’s just amazing. It’s something they can be proud of, telling their story. Also sharing their history and their culture and where they come from and how they live. Clint Dixon, 2010
Opposite: Ngumarnu Norma Giles at Patjarr Community. Tim Acker, 2008
Page 71
You paint it because you know everything. You know because as a child you walked around in the Country, and with your parents and grandparents drank from those rock holes and later were taught the names of the rock holes and their stories. They taught us their knowledge so that we could survive on our own after they had passed on. Ngumarnu Norma Giles, 2008
We wanna tell you fellas ’bout things been happening in the past that hasn’t been recorded, what old people had in their head. No pencil and paper. The white man history has been told and it’s today in the book. But our history is not there properly. We’ve got to tell ’em through our paintings. Clifford Brooks, 2006
Page 72
Opposite: Warlayirti artists Helicopter and Brandy Tjungurrayi (far right) with cultural advisor Putuparri Tom Lawford (foreground) and co-curator Monique La Fontaine in Balgo. Tim Acker, 2009
RE TURNING THE PROJEC T TO ITS OWNERS Monique La Fontaine Over 200 oral histories have been recorded on the Canning Stock Route Project since 2006, with more than 100 Aboriginal artists, curators and contributors – many told in traditional Aboriginal languages. Many of these stories were recorded on the Canning Stock Route itself in 2007, along with hundreds of hours of high-definition digital video footage documenting the 2,000 km journey along the stock route and the experiences of the 60 or so elders who returned to their traditional Country on this epic Canning Stock Route Project trip – some for the first time since childhood. Hundreds more hours of high-definition footage were shot at artist camps both out bush and in communities; during curatorial and filmmaking workshops in Perth, Broome, Melbourne and Canberra; and during comprehensive content approval workshops conducted in 15 communities prior to the launch of Yiwarra Kuju. Nearly 20,000 digital images were also taken over the life of the Project, documenting the Country and its people, and the making of an extraordinary collection of art that embodies the soul of the Project and the record-breaking exhibition that grew out of it. A huge amount of extremely valuable material was recorded in these workshops, although not all of it was suitable for public use. The Canning Stock Route Project relied on the expertise of Aboriginal translators and cultural advisors to ensure that Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) was carefully handled and that the needs of communities were thoroughly addressed. Once oral histories were translated into English the various story elements of each interview were identified and numbered in comprehensive permission forms so that contributors could assess the suitability of each element for a range of uses (exhibition, books, multimedia, online access, storage in public collections and community archives). When curators returned to communities with these detailed permission forms they were accompanied by a senior Project translator and cultural advisor, most often either Ngalangka Nola Taylor or Putuparri Tom Lawford, who interpreted and provided advice to elders, and directed the non-Indigenous team in relation to culturally sensitive issues.
Page 73
Opposite: Filmmaker Clint Dixon (left) documents the Majarrka dancers at Ngumpan workshop. Tim Acker, 2008
Page 75
Cultural advisors, translators and family members provided invaluable guidance by determining which stories were ‘open’ and which were closed or should be held for the benefit of communities. Some stories, which were generously shared in the privacy of contributors’ homes, were not intended by them to be communicated widely beyond that environment. Though not strictly secret-sacred, such stories were considered culturally sensitive for a number of reasons. Due to a long history of non-Indigenous exploitation of Aboriginal sacred knowledge, communities have become understandably wary of the potential for their knowledge to be appropriated and misused. As the Project team began to collate material for the Yiwarra Kuju exhibition, its content was shaped by the art works in the collection and by the connections of the various language groups to the Country crossed by the stock route, and to each other. The curatorial team defined the content and layout of the exhibition, Freeman Ryan Design designed the physical layout of the exhibition and created visual plans showing the placement of art works, themed areas and regions of ‘Country’, and filmmaker Nicole Ma created videos, which enhanced and added insight into the art works and thematic regions of the exhibition. Once the draft material was complete, the Project team returned to communities wielding vinyl exhibition plans, manuscripts of exhibition text, rough-cuts of the exhibition films and printouts of the curated sequences of art works to present to art centres, artists and their communities. This degree of community approval over the content and design of Yiwarra Kuju is highly uncommon in the normal production of art exhibitions, yet this phase of the approvals process turned out to be pivotal. The cultural issues identified in these final meetings were subtle and significant and their resolution lent a profound integrity to its final outcome.
Page 76
Opposite: Papunya Tula artist Patrick Tjungurrayi names the waterholes that became wells in his painting Canning Stock Route Country. Tim Acker, 2007
Given the vast size and scope of the Canning Stock Route Project archive, only a fraction of its content could ever be featured in Yiwarra Kuju. In its entirety, it documents in extraordinary richness and detail the lives, culture, history and experiences of more than 120 Aboriginal artists, contributors and emerging professionals in 17 communities across the Western Desert. The cultural, social and historical value of this repository is inestimable. Contributors had communicated their knowledge to the Project with the intention of informing mainstream audiences about their history and way of life to promote greater understanding, and to preserve their knowledge for the benefit of younger generations. The vast majority of these contributors are over 70 years of age and have lived through an extraordinary period of history that dramatically shaped both the region and the lives of their communities. As these old people pass away, the Canning Stock Route Project archive will constitute a priceless record of their knowledge for the younger members of their communities. As such, the Project has been keen to ensure that this body of research will create a meaningful legacy for communities. Although most collecting institutions make ICIP material readily available to communities on request, for many Aboriginal people living in remote areas today finding and accessing this information can be prohibitively difficult. Consequently, the final phase of the Canning Stock Route Project’s epic six- year journey will involve the comprehensive repatriation of discrete digital archives of the Project’s content and ICIP to each of the art centre communities involved. The Canning Stock Route Project archive will provide Aboriginal communities with ongoing access to the stories, images, films and raw materials that comprise an invaluable part of their tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and will create the potential for new materials to be created from this rich fund of cultural knowledge. This comprehensive return of content is a fitting reflection of the Project’s guiding principles and ethos and a celebration of the collaborative efforts and cultural continuity at its heart.
Page 78
The People CONTRIBUTORS Wally Caruana, Carly Davenport, Monique La Fontaine, Mags Webster. Essay excerpts taken from FORM’s Ngurra Kuju Walyja – One Country, One People – Stories from the Canning Stock Route (Macmillan Art Publishing, 2011) PHOTOGRAPHERS Tim Acker, Morika Biljabu, Gabrielle Sullivan, Ross Swanborough.
FORM Canning Stock Route Project team Co-curator Hayley Atkins Filmmaker and photographer Morika Biljabu Filmmaker Clint Dixon Cultural advisor and translator Putuparri Tom Lawford Filmmaker ‘KJ’ Kenneth Martin Co-curator Doolmarria Louise Mengil Co-curator Murungkurr Terry Murray Cultural advisor and translator Ngalangka Nola Taylor Filmmaker Curtis Taylor Co-founder and photographer Tim Acker Co-curator and anthropologist John Carty Curatorial mentor Wally Caruana Co-founder and co-curator Carly Davenport Co-curator, content manager and production editor Monique La Fontaine Film director and multimedia mentor Nicole Ma.
FORM team in support of the Canning Stock Route Project Executive Director Lynda Dorrington, Chairman Declan Hoare, Mags Webster, Carol Ingley, Elisha Buttler, Paulene Mackell, Mollie Hewitt, Peter Zylstra, Zane Hill, Rebecca Eggleston, Ebba Wehmeyer-Ernst, Monique Oosthuizen, Zac Whitely, Ashleigh Lyford, Rebecca Giggs, Lucy Brown. Aboriginal translators Ngalangka Nola Taylor, Putuparri Tom Lawford, Annette Williams, Wuntupayi Jane Gimme, Morika Biljabu, Hayley Atkins, Curtis Taylor, Joshua Booth, Lena Long, Taji Desmond Taylor, Anne Nowee, Joy Nugget, Gail Smiler, Daniel Walbidi, Martina Badal, Clifton Bieunderry, Lizzie Ellis, Susie Gilbert, Nunarn Hazel Hobbs, Olive Knight, George Lee, Gracie Mulligan, Eva Nagomarra, Dorothy Ward.
Page 79
ARTISTS & ART CENTRES IN THE CANNING STOCK ROUTE PROJECT ALLIANCE Kayili Artists Yurnangurnu Nola Campbell Katapi Pulpurru Davies Kurltjunyintja Jackie Giles Ngumarnu Norma Giles Mangkaja Arts Manmarr Daisy Andrews Nyuju Stumpy Brown Jukuna Mona Chuguna Jarinyanu David Downs Nyarngkarni Penny K-Lyons Ngarralja Tommy May Jukuja Dolly Snell Ngilpirr Spider Snell Jawurji Mervyn Street Wakartu Cory Surprise Taku Rosie Tarco
Martumili Artists Yunkurra Billy Atkins Hayley Atkins Ngamaru (Ngamayu) Bidu Jakayu Biljabu Morika Biljabu Renette Biljabu May Brooks Sarah Brooks Yikartu Bumba Ngarnjapayi Nancy Chapman Jacinta Galova Jugarda Dulcie Gibbs Kumpaya Girgaba Jeffrey James Thelma Judson Noreena Kadibil Pukarlyi Milly Kelly Jartarr Lily Long Mulyatingki Marney Nyangapa Nora Nangapa Yuwali Janice Nixon Mary Njana Yanjimi Peter Rowlands Dadda Samson Anya Judith Samson Muni Rita Simpson Ngalangka Nola Taylor Kanu Nancy Taylor Pija Peter Tinker Mitutu Mabel Warkarta Bugai Whylouter Mantararr Rosie Williams Nora Wompi Marjorie Yates
Ngurra Artists Yanpiyarti Ned Cox Kuji Rosie Goodjie Milkujung Jewess James Mayarn Julia Lawford Putuparri Tom Lawford Nada Rawlins Mayapu Elsie Thomas Jukuja Nora Tjookootja George Tuckerbox Papunya Tula Artists Nankatji Josephine Nangala Miriam Napanangka Patrick Olodoodi (Alatuti) Tjungurrayi Charlie Wallabi (Walapayi) Tjungurrayi Richard Yukenbarri (Yugumbari) Tjakamarra Paruku Indigenous Protected Area Mikarri Shirley Brown Kurpaliny Bessie Doonday Wijiji Anna Johns Nana Daisy Kungah Kampirr Veronica Lulu Tarnja Lyn Manson Chamia (Jamiya) Samuels Japurra Wendy Wise
Yulparija & Short Street Gallery Artists Jawarta Donald Moko Jarran Jan Billycan Miyapu Mary Meribida Palurn Harry Bullen Pampirla Hansen Boxer Birriliburu Artists, Tjukurba Gallery Vera Anderson Sharon Anderson Clifford Brooks Dadina Georgina Brown Sheila Friday Jones Warlayirti Artists Wuntupayi Jane Gimme Lumu Lucy Loomoo Eubena (Yupinya) Nampitjin Elizabeth Nyumi Wimmitji Tjapangarti Kamara Brandy Tjungurrayi Helicopter Joey Tjungurrayi Christine Yukenbarri
All rights reserved. The material in this publication may be used for media purposes with prior permission in writing of FORM and media are encouraged to submit content to FORM prior to publication. All quotes and images must be correctly attributed to the relevant individuals, writers and photographers, and to “FORM Canning Stock Route Project”. Copies of all media coverage and associated material must be provided to FORM on publication. ISBN 978-0-9808691-9-4 Copyright: FORM Contemporary Craft and Design Inc (“FORM”). Copyright for all text in this publication is held by relevant individuals, organisations or FORM. Copyright on all works of art shown belongs to the respective artists or their families. Copyright of photographic images is held by FORM or individual photographers or institutions. No copyright may be used without prior express consent.
Media enquiries should be directed to: Lynda Dorrington, Executive Director E: lynda@form.net.au M: 61 407 771 353 Monique La Fontaine, Project Manager E: moniquela@form.net.au M: 61 408 924 194 E: canningstockroute@form.net.au Media access to images and content: Canning Stock Route Project content including images, films and other materials can be accessed for media use via the CHOGM Media Centre intranet. Warning: It is customary in many Aboriginal communities to refrain from using the names and images of people who have passed away. All such uses in this publication have been consented to by the relevant individuals or family members, however, care and discretion should be exercised in using this book within Aboriginal communities.
Spellings: In this publication the spelling of Aboriginal language words follows the standard spelling conventions of each language. Many of these languages share strong similarities and some of the same words but are spelt differently. Words that are used or commonly understood by all of the participating language groups follow the spelling system used by the majority. Where the traditional names of artists have been included in addition to accepted artworld names, the standard spelling of bush names usually appears in brackets, for example: Patrick Olodoodi (Alatuti) Tjungurrayi. Edited by: Monique La Fontaine and Elisha Buttler. Designed by: Sandie Stewart, Chocolate Design and Finn Creative Production and printing: Scott Print. Published by FORM October 2011 FORM 357 Murray Street, Perth Western Australia 6000 P: 61 8 9226 2799
www.canningstockrouteproject.com
MK_LOTC0065
Proudly supporting the Canning Stock Route Project