Exhibition Catalogue | In Cahoots: artists collaborate across Country

fremantle arts centre

IN CAHOOTS artists collaborate across country

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artist / project name here

Cover Tony Albert, Kieran Lawson and David C. Collins, Warakurna Superheroes #1, 2017, C-type print, 100 Ă— 150 cm

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contents 2 Map 6 Curator's Essay 54 Biographies 64 Acknowledgements

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Warakurna Artists + Tony Albert

Martumili Artists + Claire Healy + Sean Cordeiro

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Baluk Arts + Neil Aldum

Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency + Trent Jansen

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Papulankutja Artists + Louise Haselton

Curtis Taylor + Ishmael Marika, Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Arts Centre

artist / project name here

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Curtis Taylor + Ishmael Marika, Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Arts Centre Perth– Yirrkala– Parnngurr

Claire Healy + Sean Cordeiro + Martumili Artists Blackheath– Parnngurr

Tony Albert + Warakurna Artists Sydney–Warakurna

Louise Haselton + Papulankutja Artists Adelaide–Blackstone– Berlin

Neil Aldum + Baluk Arts Perth–Mornington Peninsula

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Artists in In Cahoots have travelled vast distances to work with one another, crisscrossing the land by plane and vehicle, into and out of remote and regional Aboriginal communities across Australia.

Trent Jansen + Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency Thirroul–Fitzroy Crossing

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Map

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artist / project name here

Previous spread Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy near the Martu community of Parnngurr, 2017. Video still: Greg Wala

in cahoots Almost two years in the making and spanning the nation, In Cahoots celebrates the unique and energised artistic works that emerge when artists collaborate across cultures. The exhibition is the result of six residencies with remote and regional Aboriginal Arts Centres, undertaken by independent Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists from across Australia.

In the spirit of artists working together and under the radar, In Cahoots is an apt, if slightly mischievous banner for these partnerships.

Such camaraderie was vital in the face of challenges such as washed out roads, flat tyres and extreme weather – in addition to the immense personal and creative energy and logistical efforts that have gone into these collaborative projects. At the heart of these collaborations is an exceptional willingness to explore, experiment, learn and share across cultures.

In Cahoots is proudly presented by Fremantle Arts Centre, in partnership with Baluk Arts (Mornington Peninsula, Victoria) BukuLarranggay Mulka Art Centre (Arnhem Land, Northern Territory), Mangkaja Arts (the Kimberley, Western Australia), Martumili Artists (Newman, Western Australia), Papulankutja Artists (Central Desert, Western Australia) and Warakurna Artists, (Central

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Desert, Western Australia) with principle support from the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries through its Future Focus program. From the onset, In Cahoots has been led by the Aboriginal Art Centres, with their artists selecting and inviting an independent artist into their community to make a new body of work with them. Foundational to this process was the development of three-way agreements, with assistance from the Arts Law Centre of Australia. The agreements acknowledged Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property and ownership of the artwork and anticipated the expectations of the collaborating parties. Importantly, In Cahoots required the independent artists to make a minimum of two trips to the communities, allowing time to establish some mutual understanding and familiarity, before launching into the complex terrain of creative collaboration.

In Cahoots has engaged artists from every state and territory in Australia. The group is culturally diverse and boasts a raft of traditional and contemporary skills. The locations in which these residencies took places are separated by huge distances; from the Western Desert, to Arnhem Land, to the Mornington Peninsula. The immediate

overarching theme of the exhibition– collaboration–was quickly joined by a second, unanticipated, but equally important focus: sculpture, built from found materials and readymade objects. Artists in each of the six projects harvested materials directly from their surroundings, irrespective of their usual function or monetary value – discarded tin and plastic, native woods, rusted car wrecks, human hair, kelp, stones and desert grasses.

The works capitalise on the form, colour and pliability of the materials, recombining them into forms with new meanings and significance. Through the exchange of skills and resourceful experimentation, each collaboration imagined a new life for the materials around them.

This is the spirit in which Adelaide-based sculptor Louise Haselton arrived in the remote community of Blackstone, on Ngaayatjarra Lands close to the tri-border of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Seeing an adaptiveness in Louise’s work that matched their own, Papulankutja artists Pamela Hogan, Freda Lane, Anawari Mitchell, Angilyiya Mitchell and Jennifer Mitchell invited Louise to work with them. Papulankutja Artists are known for their enterprising use of native flora; crafting jewellery from nuts and seeds, weaving desert grasses and raffia, and casting soap from locally found materials.

Taking mould-making and casting processes that the artists were already familiar with, Louise cast a series of bronze objects that responded to and ‘held’ the tjanpi (woven grass objects) that she and the Papulankutja artists made on her first trip. These bronzeweaving pieces were then worked back over during Louise’s longer, second stay, with additional artists coming on board and a set of new weavings, paintings and mixed media objects adding to the body of work. This set of artworks results from a shared curiosity into how materials can be configured, arranged and finely crafted together. Each subtle touch was beautiful and powerful: layers of marks, emerging patterns, woven flecks of grass, fingerprints in bronze and concentric painted circles. This project grew over a period

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of many months and required a degree of ingenuity in keeping communications going between the artists; at one point images and audio files were being sent back and forth between the women in Blackstone and Louise in Berlin, where she was based for part of the year. The project was coordinated and assisted by many individuals at Papulankutja and Desart, in the wake of the tragic loss of long-time Papulankutja manager Jane Avery, who became terminally ill in the early stages the project. It is the resilience of the artists and their unending desire to make art that has sustained and realised this vibrant and distinct body of work.

Woven desert grasses with metal forms were explored to strikingly different effect in the Martu community of Parnngurr, 400 kilometres east of Newman, where Martumili Artists invited renowned artists Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro to work with them. Claire and Sean observed the curious cyclical life of iron ore in the Western Desert, from mineral extraction, to overseas car factories and back to the earth, as vehicle wrecks, abandoned and rusting. They asked senior Martu artists Kumpaya Girgiba, Nancy Karnu Taylor and Thelma Judson to teach them how to weave Martu-style, and used a variety of reclaimed car parts as armatures on which to weave large protruding forms. Joined by younger artist Rachel Handley, the six artists worked intensely. The brightly coloured, bulging shapes swell from the banged-up metal, bringing a distinctly fleshy and flamboyant quality to the angular steel frames.

Reclaiming discarded materials was also central to the work made by Tony Albert and Warakurna Artists. In a dynamic month-long second trip, Tony and over 45 residents in the community – ranging from young kids to senior artists – created a treasure trove of relief sculptures from tin and plastic detritus.

Just as we might gaze at clouds and find recognisable forms, the artists found shapes in the pieces of rubbish, car parts and flattened cans that suggested elements familiar to them. In an alchemical transformation, the piles of collected rubbish were re-imagined

into animals, people, houses, helicopters, vehicles, even a guitar and keyboard – an entire community of objects, carefully shaped and painted, a portrait of daily life in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. A real sense of joy pervades this work, which extends into the accompanying set of photographic prints made during Tony’s second visit. Clad in ad hoc super hero costumes and scaling mounds of rusted car wrecks, the kids of Warakurna become the legends of their own world, and the slick iconography of American superhero-saturated mass entertainment is subsumed into the desert landscapes of the Ngaanyatjarra.

The use of reclaimed metal from abandoned vehicles carries through to Mangjaka Arts and Trent Jansen’s project. Many of Mangkaja’s artists have a strong background in object making, with finely-honed skills like wood carving, hair spinning, saddle making and metalwork passed down for generations, and also learnt working on cattle stations.

With the intention of focusing on these skills, the artists at Mangkaja Arts asked Trent Jansen, a designer and object-maker from the Wollongong region, to collaborate with them.

An informal wrecking yard on the outskirts of Fitzroy Crossing provided the raw material for Collision: a suite of crafted objects including a bench, armchair and vessel created from the crushed and rusting bonnets of wrecked vehicles. Trent and Nyikina man Johnny Nargoodah cut into the crumpled metal to accentuate their suggested new functions and added steel bases. To prevent tetanus-inducing cuts they painstakingly folded and filed every edge of every object. Johnny added an extra element of comfort, soaking and shaping leather over the contours of the armchair.

Another work, Jangarra Armchair was made in response to a Kimberley creation story, told

by Jaru Kukaja Walmajarri woman Rita Minga about Jangarra; a frightening, hairy figure who would hide behind anthills and steal people who hunted too far from camp. Bulging and constructed from upturned coolamons covered in hair string, the artwork references both Jangarra and his anthill camouflage.

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Although few practice it today, the teasing and spinning of human hair into string was once a widespread Aboriginal fibrecraft.

Curtis Taylor and Ishmael Marika learned hair spinning and nunba (hair belts) from Curtis’ grandmother for their collaborative sculptural and video works. Curtis and Ishmael are both young Aboriginal filmmakers who grew up in remote communities, Curtis in the Western Desert and Ishmael in North Eastern Arnhem Land. Each artist straddles two worlds: the traditional upbringings and obligations of their respective Martu and Yolngu cultures, and the conventions and protocols of the contemporary film and arts industries. Despite having met at media events and thought about working together, Curtis and Ishmael had never visited each other’s country.

With In Cahoots and the support of BukuLarranggay Mulka Art Centre, they undertook a two-way residency: a series of adventurous road trips into each other’s homelands.

The artists explored the similarities and differences in their cultures and were accepted into each other’s families. The spear became a recurring motif in the video and sculptural works they have created, acting as a nexus for skills exchange and drawing community members into the creation process. Together, Curtis and Ishmael pushed themselves beyond the familiar territory of video, and the artists have developed an ambitious sculptural installation.

Baluk Arts are the only urban Aboriginal Art Centre in In Cahoots. Artists practicing at their Mornington Peninsula Art Centre, in outer Melbourne, are from diverse Aboriginal backgrounds from all over Australia. Many share a sense of dislocation from language, family and Country, and they see their own artmaking as one way to reconnect with and reclaim their Aboriginal culture. Together, they invited Perth-based artist Neil Aldum to work with them, beginning their collaboration with a series of energetic and personal conversations about culture, skills, history and materials. With so many individual artistic styles, skills and concerns at play, the challenge for Neil and the Baluk artists was

Almost two years in the making and spanning the nation, In Cahoots celebrates the unique and energised artistic works that emerge when artists collaborate across cultures.

to acknowledge these differences and not compress them into an unrealistically singular vision. Ideas were discussed and discarded, until Neil and twelve of Baluk’s artists – Kirsty Bell, Dominic Bramall-White, Gillian Garvie, Glenn Foster, Tallara Gray, Robert Kelly, Beverley Meldrum, Rebecca Robinson, Nannette Shaw, Douglas Smith, Lisa Waup and Shane Wright – settled on their idea.

The resulting work is an installation of individual sculptures; each one connected to an arc of steel and counterbalanced at the base by a stone. The works were made using a range of techniques and mediums, with many of the materials collected from the surrounding landscapes. The sculptures celebrate the particular skills and ideas of the individual artists, yet they all gently move on their pendulums, performing a fine balance in unison.

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curator's essay

In Cahoots has been and ambitious and complex undertaking, asking artists from diverse cultural backgrounds across Australia to develop new ways of making art, and in doing so to accept one another into their practices and communities. The artists have exchanged traditional and improvised techniques, shared cultural and personal stories, and collectively generated a bold, materially rich and fascinating set of artworks.

As a curator, it has been a humbling and wonderful privilege to work on this exhibition, and it is my hope that these exchanges lead to enduring friendships and further creative partnerships.

ERIN COATES, CURATOR

Tony Albert (QLD/NSW) with Warakurna Artists (WA) Nancy Carnegie Tjungupi, Pawuya Cooke , Lena Dawson Palitja, Steven Ebatarinja, Keesha Frazer, Andrea Giles, Norma Giles, Sheila Giles, Charlotte Golding, Trudy Holland, Dianne Holland, Ishmeil Jackson, Keenan Jackson, Tristan Jackson, Joyce James, Clarabelle Kenda, Shawn Lewis, Azaliah Madeline Golding, Brittany Malbunka Reid, Karni Mitchell, Bradley NelsonMitchell, Bernard Newberry, Francine Newberry, Bernard Niemayah Golding, Nancy Nyanyarna Jackson, Polly Pawuya Butler-Jackson, Eunice Porter Yunurupa, Kristabell Porter, Stefan Reid, Travis Richards-Reid, Delilah Shepherd, Dwayne Shepherd, Katherine Shepherd, Selina Shepherd, Aziah Smythe, Emilia Smythe, Dallas Smythe, Kieran Smythe-Jackson, Noreen Smythe, Dorothy Ward, Ranisha Ward, Jennaleen Watson, Rocky William Porter, Billy Willy, Tracy Yates, Judith Yinyika Chambers Project location Warakurna Community, Ngaanyatjarra Lands With assistance from David C. Collins, Joel Spring and Warakurna Artists staff: Jane Menzies (Manager), Andrew Wood (Field Officer), Guy Louden (Field Officer). Further assistance from Ursula Sullivan and Sophie Bannan at Sullivan+Strumpf

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Tony Albert, Karni Mitchell and David C. Collins, Warakurna Superheroes # 7, 2017, C-type print, 100 Ă— 150 cm

warakurna artists + tony albert Warakurna Artists invited Tony Albert, a descendent of the Girramay, Yidinji and Kuku-Yalanji peoples, to their community in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands to collaborate on a new body of artwork.

The outcome is an installation of sculptures constructed from discarded tin and detritus, created by Tony and over 45 Warakurna artists. Featuring people, homes, cars, helicopters, animals and other elements of community life, these figures present an image of modern Ngaanyatjarra life that is resourceful, inventive and enduring. Other work includes a photographic series that reinvents popular superhero mythology and costumes for contemporary desert life.

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When Tony first came out to the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, the artists felt it was important for him to get to know the country they knew so well.

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Warakurna Artists “We started working with tin with Edwina (Art Centre Manager 2004–2014) years ago, and now with Tony, we made everything in tin; houses, dogs, people, helicopters, camels, cars, honey ants, and even tjukurrpa (dreaming). We wanted to recreate and show people our community of Warakurna”.

JUDITH CHAMBERS, BOARD MEMBER AND ARTIST, WARAKURNA ARTISTS

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Warakurna Artists has a long tradition of working with found objects and recycled tin, with our artists gaining prominence both nationally and overseas for the innovative storytelling qualities of their work. In 2015, Eunice Porter won the Western Australian Indigenous Artist Award for her history paintings on recycled tin documenting First Contact and the Homelands movement. When the opportunity arose for Warakurna Artists to create work for In Cahoots by working collaboratively with another artist, we were interested in working with Tony Albert because of the multi-disciplinary approach and use of found objects in his practice, which he employs to provide commentary on the broad ranging issues facing young Indigenous Australians.

When Tony first came out to the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, the artists felt it was important for him to get to know the country they knew so well, so we organised meetings with our artists in the three communities we work

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1 Tony Albert, Clarabelle Kenda, Dorothy Ward, Valerie Ward, Andrew Wood, Daisha and Arielle on a visit to Patjarr, 2016.

Photograph: Jane Menzies 2 Artists and young people after a goanna hunting trip near Warakurna, April 2017. Photograph: David C. Collins 3 Emilia Smythe making work for In Cahoots in the Warakurna studio, 2017. Photograph: David C. Collins 4 Joyce James, Lady, 2017, reclaimed tin with acrylic paint, 38 × 28 × 18 cm 5 Karni Mitchell, House, and Tristan Jackson, Water Tank, 2017, reclaimed tin, plastic and acrylic paint, 37 × 67 × 14 cm 6 Eunice Porter Yunurupa, Man and His Camel (Probably Lasseter), 2017, reclaimed tin with acrylic paint, 22 × 24 cm 7 Dallas Smythe and Kieran Smythe-Jackson, Yurltu (Car), 2017, reclaimed tin and acrylic paint, 27 × 40 × 80 cm 8 Dwayne Shepherd, Church, 2017, reclaimed tin and acrylic paint, 38 × 35 × 20 cm 9 Tony Albert, Snake, 2017, raffia, reclaimed tin and acrylic paint, 21 × 96 × 39 cm All photographs of artworks

by Bo Wong

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with: Warakurna, Wanarn and Patjarr. This was crucial in enabling Tony and the artists to get a sense of one another, their culture and their art, so that we could come up with a project proposal that everyone wanted to create and be a part of. The idea of collaboration brought up various questions that we had to work through, chiefly, ‘Do we create two bodies of work, separately .. or one together?’ We resolved this by making a collective body of work in which individual artists’ styles, ideas and voices still came through. We decided to work with tin and scrap metal, as it is plentiful here in Warakurna, and it is also a medium the artists know well. So, with Tony’s help, we decided that we would attempt to recreate community life in Warakurna, out of tin sculptures, riveted together and painted.

By the time Tony came back for his second and final visit, we were ready to go. Tony brought David, a photographer, and Joel, a studio assistant, and they dedicated their first few days here to picking up ‘rubbish’ and scrap metal together with our artists – true commitment! The support of the additional helpers and stack of scrap metal enabled the artists to work very productively over a month period, quickly assembling sculptural and relief works from a range of discarded materials. Children who were on school holidays at the time were among our most enthusiastic artists, finding the power tools very alluring (while under close supervision and wearing protective clothing) as well as the opportunity to create miniature cars and houses out of the scrap tin. The children worked with their parents, Tony, David, Joel

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and Guy (Warakurna Artists Field Officer) and together as a group, we created nearly 100 works in tin. We found some pieces of metal provided a perfect surface for more decorative works, rather than sculptural pieces, such as the collaborative car bonnet, Eunice Porter’s man in the football uniform, and the oil drum lids. In between the hive of activity of Tony’s studio visit, we also had two special guests visit us, Archibald Prize Winner Ben Quilty and Oscar Winner Russell Crowe. You might see a Rabbitohs footy player (red and green stripe) in amongst the mix of sculptures as a homage to this visit.

As a result of Tony’s visit, our artists learnt some valuable skills in art work resolution, and how to create a cohesive body of work, and we had a heap of fun in the process.

JANE MENZIES, WARAKURNA ARTISTS MANAGER

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Tony Albert I would like to acknowledge the families of Warakurna and the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of Western Australia for hosting me so generously. Warakurna, a remote community situated 330 kilometres west of Uluru near the border of the Northern Territory, became home for a month. The township of approximately 180 people is nestled among the spectacular Rawlinson Ranges in the Gibson Desert.

“What do you want?”

This sounds like a simple question, but unfortunately and shamefully, this question is rarely ever directed at Aboriginal people.

In a society that dictates our needs to us – “what is best” for our people is often prescribed without consultation, as exemplified in the Northern Territory Intervention where paternalistic reforms based on reductive, generalised commentary were forced on entire populations of Indigenous people with blanket uniformity.

It was here, with these 4 simple words, that the journey of collaboration began; in posing a simple, yet poignant question.

The artists of Warakurna have a long history of artistic expression. At its commencement in 2004 the Art Centre was fully owned and governed by Aboriginal people, providing services to artists living in and visiting Warakurna, as well as the nearby communities of Wanarn and Patjarr.

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Warakurna Artists are energetic, creative and happy, and the Art Centre is where men and women, young and old, can paint and share.

Some years ago the artists at Warakurna had done a workshop with tin and other found rubbish, and they wanted to revisit and expand upon this idea. Knowing and studying my own work more closely they also wanted to focus more on the social and political issues happening in the community. They wanted to make new work during the residency, to work collaboratively, to work and engage with children, and to play Bingo – all of which became possible!

Initially I was taken to Patjarr, one of the additional communities serviced by the art centre, located a 267 km north/west from Warakurna with a very small population of 30 people. Part of the road leading to Patjarr is the notoriously dangerous Gun Barrel Highway. This highway veers off to the east before reaching Patjarr and is relatively unmaintained so any travellers are warned to proceed with great caution. Its location and isolation make it a magical place.

It was here that senior artists Valerie Ward and Dorothy Ward took me to the special place of the Tjilkamarta (Echnida) dreaming. They wanted to show me their Country, a place that they were proud of. We participated in a ceremony which involved the artists singing as we all rubbed leaves against a sacred rock.

It was an unbelievable experience, and I got to hear a lot about the area and its history.

With my own Aboriginal connection being to the lush thick tropical rainforest of far North

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1 Tony Albert, Kieran Smythe-Jackson and David C. Collins, Warakurna Superheroes #5, 2017, C-type print, 100 × 150 cm 2 Tony Albert, Lucy Lewis Mitchell and David C. Collins, Warakurna The Force is with us #1, 2017, C-type print, 100 × 150 cm 3 Valerie Ward, Tony Albert, Dorothy Ward, Arielle and Daisha hunting goanna near Patjarr, 2016.

Photograph: Jane Menzies 4 Tony Albert, Kieran Smythe-Jackson and David C. Collins, Warakurna The Force is with us #5, 2017, C-type print, 100 × 150 cm 5 Tony Albert, Brittany Malbuunka Reid and David C. Collins, Warakurna Superheroes #6, 2017, C-type print, 100 × 150 cm

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Queensland, I had never felt so far away from the familiar. However, this extension of love, learning and knowledge from the artists was reminiscent of the old people of my home.

The humanity was familiar.

I had been blessed by the land and the people. They were my new friends.

Driving back through the desert there was no road, it was bumpy as we wound our way through the trees and spinifex. At one point Valerie yelled to stop, throwing the door open before the troopie had even come to a complete halt. Excited and ready for adventure, I jumped out as fast as she did. In the red sand were a pair of parallel goanna tracks. The marks were faint and Valerie’s ability to see I would meet a similar fate when I returned. them from the moving troopie is testament I swung down with great force and knocked to her amazing knowledge of the land and the goanna over the head. Carrying it around landscape. It was a good sign – two sets of the neck I returned to Valerie and Dorothy – tracks – must be male and female, suggesting both cheering as they had the female goanna the female could even be pregnant. The female in hand also. In the troopie they told me that carries her eggs in her stomach and they're a I was a great hunter. They also told me that at delicacy. I had not hunted for goanna before the special Tjilkamarta place they had asked and I knew from the determination on Valerie’s the ancestor for us to catch some goanna face we would not be going home empty today. The ancestors had answered their songs handed. We tracked the goannas for an hour and wishes. on foot. The troopie was no longer visible and I had been blessed by the land and the people.

I was getting worried about finding our way They were my new friends. From here on in the back. As we were about to give up the tracks trip was going to be successful, we were going made their way under a large rock. “There he to make great work, be watched over, be safe is!” said Valerie, launching her crowbar at the and all enjoy our time together. This is just goanna, but missing him. He took off running how it is, Aboriginal way. at top speed. “Quick boy, run!” I took off after the male goanna, running as fast as I could This is ‘what we want’. and when I caught up he turned to face me.

He stood up on its back legs, stared at me and I would like to thank David Collins and Joel let out a loud hiss. I was in two minds about Spring for joining me on this journey and striking, but I thought that if I didn’t knock this Warakurna Artists Manager Jane Menzies for goanna over the head and take it back with me, her indispensable help and support.

warakurna artists + tony albert

Neil Aldum (WA) and Baluk Arts (VIC) Kirsty Bell, Dominic Bramall-White, Gillian Garvie, Glenn Foster, Tallara Gray, Robert Kelly, Beverley Meldrum, Rebecca Robinson, Nannette Shaw, Douglas Smith, Lisa Waup and Shane Wright Project location Mornington Peninsula With assistance from Tracey-Lea Smith (Baluk Arts Manager) and Claire Bailey

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Baluk Arts artists collecting stones from Shoreham Beach, Mornington Peninsula, 2017. Video still

by Neil Aldum

baluk arts + neil aldum Artist at Baluk Arts invited Perth-based artist Neil Aldum to work with them at their art centre in the Mornington Peninsula. For In Cahoots they created many individual kinetic sculptural works, made of kelp, clay, rubber, wood, metal, cuttlefish and feathers.

Each work moves on a strip of metal and is carefully counter-balanced with stones. Using materials from the landscapes of the Mornington Peninsula, this collectively-created body of work explores the different connections to Country, family, history and environment that each of the artists feels.

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5 1 Neil Aldum, Upheaval (detail), 2017, 40 × 40 × 50 cm, cuttlebone, rubber.

Photograph: Neil Aldum 2 Tallara Gray collecting stones from Shoreham Beach, in Mornington Peninsula, for the pendulum sculptures in In Cahoots, 2017. Photograph: Neil Aldum 3 Shoreham Beach, Mornington Peninsula, 2017. Video still by Neil Aldum 4 Kirsty Bell, ME, 2017, clay, acrylic paint, kelp, Sheoak, Tasmanian River Reed, shell, Emu feathers, resin, beeswax, cotton, linen thread, 66 × 40 × 14cm.

Photograph: Kirsty Bell

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Neil Aldum & Baluk Arts

5 Exploring materials on Shoreham Beach, Mornington Peninsula, 2017. Photograph: Neil Aldum 6 Neil Aldum, design diagram for the pendulum components, 2017 7 Weighing stones collected from Shoreham Beach, in Mornington Peninsula, 2017. Photograph: Neil Aldum 8 Shoreham Beach, Mornington Peninsula, 2017. Video still by Neil Aldum

Baluk Arts is based on the Mornington Peninsula and represents Aboriginal artists from across Australia. While their origins are diverse, the Baluk community are connected by a common narrative: detachment or removal from family, language and Country, and the endeavour to reconnect. In collaboration with Perth-based artist Neil Aldum, the Baluk artists shaped sculptures that narrate their experiences of upheaval in their communities and culture. Solace and comfort flows from the sharing of these stories, as the artists weather a changing cultural landscape together. Using ancient igneous rock as their counterweights each pendulum holds a work that speaks a personal story.

The concept for the installation evolved over many months as the artists grappled with various approaches of creating a visual landscape that spoke of their diversity, shared experiences and had a direct relationship to place. Many of the artists feel a deep connection to the sea; the coastline shapes their connection to Country, spirituality and art practice. The basalt rock and the found natural materials from around the peninsula reference this common thread and compliment the artists’ diverse practices.

Neil Aldum Upheaval Using cuttlebone and rubber, the work references my experience of listening and

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sharing time with Baluk artists as well as a continued interest in climate change adaptation. The cuttlefish (a cephalopod) uses its intricate and fragile bone to regulate buoyancy to navigate the waters. The prolonged process of collecting their bones along the WA coastline has been a comforting way of connecting with how Baluk artists interact with their Country. Similarly the behaviour of the cuttlefish is a strong counterpoint to climate change where cephalopod populations will boom in warmer, more acidic water.

Kirsty Bell ME Made of clay, kelp, sheoak, Tasmanian river reed, shell, emu feathers, resin, beeswax, and cotton, this work is the story of my emergence as an Aboriginal woman, the pain of broken songlines, and my journey of reconnecting with my culture. With each discipline I learn, it fills the void of disconnection from Country and Kin. The desert art on my torso represents my Ancestral Connection to the Arrernte people of the Central Desert. It shows my journey through life and the different directions I have taken. The kelp bodice signifies the importance of our Elders and their willingness to pass on traditional practices to the younger generations, which is vital to our survival. The weaving pays homage to the strong Aboriginal women who are the backbone of our communities – they inspire me to learn, share, and create each and every day. The shells, fibres, and feathers reiterate my deep connection to the land of Bunurong/Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, the place I was born and raised and continue to call my home.

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Dominic Bramall-White North East Vessel This vessel speaks of the poetry between symbols and materials; it is formed from Hazel Pomaderris spars (a traditional spear making material), a black wattle hull, and bull kelp sails, which are balanced with a hand-forged whale harpoon. We all carry a vessel within.

It is filled with intended and unintended cargo, to be called upon if required. Some are gifts, some things we pack ourselves and some are deep and part of the fabric of the ship. I hope to induce the feeling of vulnerable survival and surge forward. I wish to celebrate the deep, intelligent adaptation Indigenous Tasmanian people showed to the colonial reality and technology as well as my own and our own ongoing struggle with our new realities.

Site Lines This swinging shield, balanced and centred by a rock from the places I grew up, talks of the balance we must make between what we expose and what we protect. Connection to Country has worked as a shield for many dislocated Indigenous people. I am a product of Western culture, a reclaimed Indigenous heritage and a story of dislocation through adoption. In my actions and happenstance there is a tension between white middleclass education and a deep intellectual and instinctive association with my Indigenous genetic makeup. For me the symbols that are present in both ways are helpful to express this duality.

The Southern Cross is a shared symbol. A part of our land, sea and inner scapes, a cross for which the space between the lines represents

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my understanding of totemic, skin, flesh and spirit relationship with land and the crosses of Scotland and Ireland that are also part of my heritage. The imprint of Christian culture is part of colonial history and the colonial navy and later our colonised nation that co-opted this gathering of stars.

Glenn Foster The Politician The figure, formed from clay and enamel, depicts a politician. He has no eyes because he only sees what he wants to see. He has no ears, because he only wants to hear how good his own ideas are. He has an open mouth to spout his rhetoric. The politician believes he knows what is right for our people.

Gillian Garvie Black on the Inside The figure shaped from wool, hay and kelp shows a light wool exterior, however, hidden underneath it is encased in black wool - this represents my Aboriginal soul. No matter how much in my life I’ve tried to conform to the social constraints of judgemental and smallminded people I cannot deny my true self, which always reveals itself.

As a fair-skinned Aboriginal woman, I have received countless racist comments such as 'you don’t LOOK Aboriginal'. I may have my grandmother’s fair English skin but on the inside where it matters, I am black. My soul is Aboriginal and when I die, I will return to my Aboriginal ancestors.

I have struggled with abuse and depression all my life, so even though my persona is that

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1 Dominic Bramall-White, North East Vessel (detail), 2017, Bull kelp, wood, Echidna quills, kelp, saddler’s string, handforged metal, 70 × 70 × 25 cm 2 Dominic Bramall-White, Site Lines, 2017, wood, pyrography and handforged metal, 77 × 15 × 5 cm 3 Beverley Meldrum at work in the studio, Baluk Arts, 2017.

4 Gillian Garvie, Black on the Inside, 2017, wool, hay and kelp, 67 × 21 × 11 cm 5 Tallara Gray, Family Tree (detail), 2017, clay and resin, 40 × 20 × 20 cm. Photograph: Tracey-Lea Smith 6 Robert Kelly and Neil Aldum with Robert’s work Law of the Land, 2017, native pine, pyrography and local grass tree sap, 74 × 9 × 5 cm 7 Gillian Garvie with her artwork Waa has my heart, 2017, oaten hay, wood, copper, wire, clay and resin, 32 × 42 × 17 cm All uncredited photographs

by Daryl Gordon

of a bright and bubbly person, underneath I am always also in pain. The empty cavity represents this hollow ache of loss, however the ever-present tug on my heart strings remains - Country calling to me. A place where I can grow, bloom and love.

Waa Has My Heart Waa (the Crow) guides me and nurtures me to be the best me possible. He is a protector.

He cradles my heart protectively and lovingly.

The heart of clay represents my heart that is the earth of my Country. In this piece, made of oaten hay, wool, copper wire, wood, clay and resin, I’ve used the negative space in the wings to represent the complexity of identity and 'looking through' into what really lies beneath.

Tallara Gray Family Tree Family Tree is representative of family connections and the landscape. The shell, shaped from clay, is represented as an inverted family tree – each rung on the shell a generation and connection closer (or further away) from my Aboriginality, with me sitting at the tip. The crosses represent relationships with particular people in my family.

My Pa passed away while working on this project. He is the first Grandparent that I have lost, and the only one who connected to my Aboriginality. He had a very hard life and assimilated as a means of survival. Even then, his existence was a fight. The last 20 years of his life were his best and the grandchildren shared in this with him – exempt from the experiences of their parents.

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Robert Kelly Law of the Land Crafted from a single piece of native pine and local grass tree sap from the Mornington Peninsula, this shield is my depiction of protection of our culture and Country. My art is a vessel for me to connect with my culture – crafting traditional artefacts as they were made long ago. The pyrography details a main camp and its offshoots, with the central panel showing a men’s business area and the outer circular motif depicting women’s business areas. The outer linear design represents Country.

Beverley Meldrum Belonging This piece, formed from kelp and wool, is a representation of me. I have a deep affinity with the dugong and salt water. In mythology, the dugong is represented as a mermaid and I have a strong connection to its presence.

My family holidays consisted of times spent at the beach, camping on the dunes. The sea envelops my childhood memories, in particular the kelp – I recall smelling it rotting as a child and to this day the smell still brings me much comfort.

The dugong characterises my strength in life, while the ocean nurtures me with its many healing qualities. It is a source of food and a giver of life, which can be drawn on for strength in times of need.

The Seed Formed from clay and ochre this seed is symbolic of life; the beginning point of all things. It is a reminder to accept and respect

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other people’s beliefs and to stop fighting.

We all have our own belief systems and this should be respected – everybody is not the same. Whether it is compassion, respect or diversity, the process will always have a starting point to grow from, to embrace and to live by. Cradling the seed is a ceramic coolamon which provides nourishment and protection for the seed to grow.

Rebecca Robinson Fabric Midden Using a piece of intangible landscape as inspiration, I wanted to create my own place of comfort. I don’t currently know of any particular midden in Tasmania that my family would have a direct connection to, instead of continuing to be upset about this I decided to make my own.

The oyster shell shapes represent my Indigenous family and my Dad’s ongoing connection to the sea as a place of healing and source of food. Since I was young I have always been fascinated with Maireener shells and understood their importance within Tasmanian Indigenous families. Sifting through the sands for these Maireener treasures is mesmerising, knowing the hands of my ancestors have done the same for hundreds of years before me. The stitching of my midden represents how I learned selfsufficiency, independence and pride from my Anglo grandmothers while developing my skills for making personal objects of beauty.

Living in Melbourne, being physically distant from my family and country, can be hard when I am depressed or grieving for family. The creation of my fabric midden has become

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a healing blanket for comfort and has given me a way to stay connected to life, to friends and to family.

Nannette Shaw Bull Kelp Water Vessel This water vessel represents the three family groups in Tasmania. The Bull Kelp was gathered on the north-west and represents the Dalrymple (Dolly) Briggs Johnson descendants.

The Tea-Tree wood was gathered on the northeast and represents the Bass Strait Islanders (Tyereelore Island Women) descendants.

And the river reed was gathered in the south and represents the descendants of Fanny Cochrane-Smith. The concept of making this is the same as it was by Tasmanian Aboriginal women in traditional days. The last traditional water carrier was made in 1851.

Douglas Smith Bundjil (Wedge-tailed eagle) Using cotton rag paper, wool and ochre, I have created a soft sculpture of Bundjil – the great Creator spirit in South Eastern Australia. Bundjil created all living creatures and travels in the form of an eagle.

I created this work using ochres sourced with Traditional Owners from the Grampians and a three-layer stencil, a method taught to us by Melbourne street artists.

Lisa Waup Finding Place I have created this work as a symbolic representation of my family groups coming together as a whole. The piece is made up of two separate ceramic spheres being stitched together

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1 Beverley Meldrum, Belonging (detail), 2017, kelp, acrylic paint, oaten hay and wool, 180 × 20 × 20 cm 2 Lisa Waup working on Finding Place, 2017, ceramic and thread, 130 × 100 × 40 cm 3 Rebecca Robinson working on Fabric Midden, 2017, fabric, thread and Maireener shells, 130 × 100 × 40 cm 4 Lisa Waup, Finding Place, 2017, ceramic, ochre, enamel paint, cotton, shells, Coryus skull, feathers, seeds, Pine needles, Pandanus, Llama wool, 130 × 100 × 40 cm 5 Douglas Smith, Bundjil (Wedge-tailed eagle), 2017, cotton rag, wool, cotton and locally sourced ochre, 60 × 70 × 20 cm 6 Lisa Waup working on Together We Are, by Neil Aldum, Tallara Gray and Lisa Waup, 2017, rubber and paint, 3.5 × 2.5 m 7 Nannette Shaw, Bull Kelp Water Vessel, 2017, bull kelp, river reed, 20 × 12 × 14 cm. Photograph: Tracey-Lea Smith All uncredited photographs

by Daryl Gordon

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to create an unbroken piece, encompassing the intricacies of balance in life. The open centre, delivering stability to the two family groups coming together, is me – I see myself as the join between the two and the light emanating from its connection. The bird skull found in the middle of the piece is again a symbolic representation of myself and my innate connection to birds and feathers in my practice.

The earthy palette is a direct admiration and respect that I have with Country and nature.

Shane Wright Rainbow Serpent This work in timber honours and represents the Wanampi or Rainbow Serpent, a Creation Ancestor of Shane's Country in northern South Australia. The rainbow serpent created all rivers, creeks and rockholes which formed paths of storylines which our people still travel and care for today. The Wanampi resides in a waterhole, is the keeper of the weather and carer of the environment. Shane was taught how to source timber, carve and burn designs to create snakes by the highly renowned Binbinga/Yanuwa artist Billy Cooley.

Neil Aldum, Tallara Gray and Lisa Waup Together We Are While the Mornington Peninsula is not the birthplace of all members of Baluk Arts, the connection and use of its elements and materials have helped shape their identification as Indigenous people. In collaboration with Neil, both Tallara and Lisa developed this text work to bind the installation and emphasise the collective experience of their community.

baluk arts + neil aldum

Turbulent Find. Country Unbroken We

Louise Haselton (SA) and Papulankutja Artists (WA) Lynette Brown, Nora Davidson, Pamela Hogan, Freda Lane, Anawari Mitchell Angilyiya Mitchell and Jennifer Mitchell Project location Blackstone Community, Ngaanyatjarra Lands, and Berlin, Germany With assistance from Emma Sanderson (Papulankutja Manager), Tim Pearn (Papulankutja Acting Manager), Melanie Henderson (Independent Facilitator), Philip Watkins (Desart CEO), Sarah Haselton, Hilary Erickson and Flierl Kunstgiesserie

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Pamela Hogan and Louise Haselton working on a weaving at Papulankutja Artists in Blackstone community, 2017.

Photograph: Melanie Henderson

papulankutja artists + louise haselton Located in the small desert community of Blackstone, Papulankutja Artists are known for their innovative fibre work and vibrant painting and carving. For In Cahoots, they collaborated with Adelaide-based artist Louise Haselton, whose sculptural objects bring raw and found materials together into unexpected combinations. Working together with Louise, artists at Papulankutja have made an extensive body of artwork that integrates weaving, painting, assemblage and cast metal forms, drawing together traditional and improvised art making techniques.

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Louise Haselton Working on In Cahoots has seen me spend one month at Papulankutja, Western Australia, with the Blackstone artists. The artists accepted me and welcomed me into their Arts Centre, and were quietly curious about how I was attempting to incorporate elements of their work with other materials. We had conversations about how my work is often an accumulation of materials and objects, whereas the artworks produced at Blackstone were usually mono-material and made from paint, raffia or grass. Early on I showed some images of my work to the artists and after some laughing and chatting amongst the women, Angiliyla started talking about a bird that gathered whatever assorted scraps appealed to it, to decorate its nest. I listened with interest as we continued working, and slowly—embarrassingly slowly—I realised that I was that bird. We laughed when they saw I recognised their analogy.

Between my first and second visit to Blackstone I spent three months working at Phasmid Residential Studios in Berlin. In order to continue work on In Cahoots, I had brought with me several woven pieces that I'd started during my first visit to the community. I displayed them in my Berlin studio and lived with them for some time, all the while considering the complexities of this collaborative project. These woven works seemed to defy time and place and I began thinking about combining them with bronze, a material that has also been accommodated

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by a myriad of times and locations. I worked with a foundry in Berlin to cast some rudimentary bronze sculptural ‘supports’ to pair with a selection of woven pieces. On seeing images of what I was doing with their work, there was a call for “more colour!” from several of the Blackstone ladies, so when I returned to Blackstone with the bronze elements we set about responding to this suggestion. Angiliyla supplied the colour by painting onto the bronze to match the concentric circles of the woven elements. The artists and others who dropped in to the Arts Centre offered their approval with a gentle nod, a thumbs up or the occasional “palya”, or “lovely one”.

I was very happy to sit and work with the Blackstone artists, sometimes quietly, sometimes among great commotion. I have loved hearing the recollections of the Blackstone women—stories about their lives, growing up with sisters in a girls’ home while parents were far away; of walking great distances and the camps along the way; of times spent in hospital, enduring doctors with big needles; of carers travelling to and fro on the Kalgoorlie train; of flights to big cities to accompany artworks being sent to exhibitions.

Sitting and telling stories while we worked seemed to slow down time and somehow loosened my desire to predict an outcome for the works. We worked on several pieces simultaneously, picking them up and putting them down as people came and went.

I introduced small pieces of broken and cut mirror into the works and the women started

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1 Work in progress, bronze and tjanpi (desert grass weaving), 2017. Photograph: Louise Haselton 2 Louise Haselton with Jennifer Mitchell at Papulankutja Artists, 2017.

Photograph: Melanie Henderson 3 Detail of bronze and tjanpi work in progress,

by Louise Haselton, Angilyiya Mitchell, Freda Lane, Anawari Mitchell, Jennifer Mitchell and Pamela Hogan, 2017 4 Louise Haselton holding a tjanpi, 2017. Photograph: Melanie Henderson 5 Angilyiya Mitchell with her dogs Milo and Blackie, in front of the bronze and tjanpi work she has just painted, 2017. Photograph: Louise Haselton.

6 Work in progress, bronze and tjanpi (desert grass weaving), 2017. Photograph: Louise Haselton 7 Louise Haselton and Jennifer Mitchell collecting grass near Blackstone Community for weaving, 2017. Photograph: Emma Sanderson

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painting around the mirrors. We talked about how these pieces had organic references, bringing to mind eggs or stars, and were also garish and manufactured. Lynette immediately saw their visual potential and was keen that we have the works strongly lit when exhibited, so that they will “sparkle like a disco”.

Papulankutja Artists in Blackstone is undoubtedly a focal point for the artists and the community. It is not just an arts centre, but a teahouse, office, meeting point, refuge and studio. I am thankful to all of the Blackstone artists – especially Angiliyla, Jennifer, Anawari,

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Pamela, Freda, Lynette and Janet – for allowing me to sit and work with them. Thank you also to the art centre managers, Mel, Tim and Emma for their superhuman efforts in guiding me through this project.

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Papulankutja Artists

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It is not until we work together, spend time with each other, listen and share, that we can really begin to understand each other’s approaches and personal histories.

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Blackstone Community, or Papulankutja, was established after the Ngaanyatjarra people walked out of Warburton mission in the 1970s and returned to their ancestral land in the shadow of the spectacular Blackstone Range, west of the tri-state border. Papulankutja Artists is 100% artist owned and was established in 2001 and incorporated in 2004, growing out of Blackstone’s Women’s Centre.

After many years working out of the Women’s Centre and the Community Hall, Papulankutja Artists opened their own purpose-built art studio in 2009. Papulankutja Artists is very community focused, providing a place where women and men, young people and old people, can all work together.

Artists at Papulankutja are known for their innovative fibre work and vibrant painting.

For their In Cahoots project, the artists have had the opportunity to merge the two mediums and create sculptural works with visiting artist Louise Haselton. These two artistic backgrounds and worlds have combined, to form a fascinating integration of contemporary sculptural technique with the ancient world of Indigenous painting.

Bronze casts by Louise Haselton frame and support tjanpi weavings by Papulankutja artists Lynette Brown, Nora Davidson, Pamela Hogan, Freda Lane, Anawari Mitchell Angilyiya Mitchell and Jennifer Mitchell. Each of the bronze forms endows the tjanpi it holds with weight, and honours and celebrates it.

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1 Jennifer Mitchell, showing how the wirra she made was used in the early days, 2017. Photograph: Louise Haselton.

2 Work in progress, bronze and tjanpi (desert grass weaving), 2017. Photograph: Louise Haselton 3 Jennifer Mitchell making a new weaving for In Cahoots, 2017. Photograph: Louise Haselton.

4 Louise Haselton with a bronze object just cast at the foundry in Berlin, 2017. Photograph: Shoufay Derz 5 Jennifer Mitchell collecting grass near Blackstone Community, 2017. Photograph: Emma Sanderson 6 Detail of bronze and tjanpi work in progress,

by Louise Haselton, Angilyiya Mitchell, Freda Lane, Anawari Mitchell, Jennifer Mitchell and Pamela Hogan, 2017 7 Louise Haselton at the foundry in Berlin, 2017.

Photograph: Shoufay Derz

Resembling trophies, these bronze-andtjanpi artworks highlight the strength of the techniques and aesthetics used by the artists.

In another new work for In Cahoots, painting and mirror fragments have been combined.

Although mirrors can be commonly found on the ground around town, they have so far been overlooked as a potential art material. Papulankutja artist Jennifer Mitchell expressed happiness to be employing a new everyday material in her work. Combining this with painting techniques that the artists have been using for decades, the artwork explores new ways of creating.

In this exchange between artists, Louise has brought with her a new perspective: finding value in everyday objects that the Papulankutja Artists and their community do not use for artmaking. Broken mirrors, flattened spoons and bent forks all contribute to the ready-made objects on view in the studio as the work has progressed. At the same time, these objects document the existence of the community and tell a story about the people who once owned and used them. The story is in the presence of an absence; we see the spoon and imagine the hand that once held it. This is where the two artistic forces meet; their shared strength in storytelling.

Artists at Papulankutja mostly paint about the Seven Sisters; this is a significant and widespread Dreaming story about seven ladies being chased through the desert by one man.

Numerous scenarios play out as the women travel along, pursued by the man. Eventually they rise up into the sky and form the Pleiades,

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a group of seven stars seen in the southern skies. There are many variations of this story and they are expressed with bold and vivid colour in the artists’ paintings. During Louise’s time as an artist-in-residence at Papulankutja Artists, the local artists enjoyed sharing the stories they were painting. Louise was a keen listener, sitting for hours, talking, laughing and relating with the Papulankutja artists.

Together they have experimented, directed and guided each other through the rocky terrain of collaborating across Country.

Through flash flooding, flat tyres, long distances, desert heat and community politics the momentum has been constant around the goal of a special, evolving, collective artwork.

The name Papulankutja means ‘to stare, without recognising’. It comes from a traditional story about two goanna brothers who are travelling separately. As they return home, they cross paths, but neither recognises the other. This could also be a metaphor for the beginning stages of collaboration, when we are sometimes blinded by pre-conceived thoughts or expectations. It is not until we work together, spend time with each other, listen and share, that we can really begin to understand each other’s approaches and personal histories.

EMMA SANDERSON, PAPULANKUTJA ARTISTS MANAGER

Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro (NSW) with Martumili Artists (WA) Kumpaya Girgiba, Rachel Handley, Thelma Judson and Nancy Karnu Taylor Project location Parnngurr Community, Western Desert With assistance from Martumili Artists staff: Carly Day (Manager), Emma Frank (Field Officer), Ruth Leigh (Field Officer), Amy Mukherjee (Gallery Coordinator). Further assistance from Gabrielle Sullivan, Greg Wala, Man-ei, Alan Cordeiro and Cheryl Healy.

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Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, production still, 2017

martumili artists + claire healy + sean cordeiro Based at Newman in the Pilbara region, Martumili Artists supports artists from in a number of remote communities in the area. For In Cahoots, Martu artists Kumpaya Girgiba, Rachel Handley, Thelma Judson and Nancy Karnu Taylor worked with Blue Mountains artists Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro in the community of Parnngurr. They collaboratively created a series largescale weavings that are integrated into rusted car parts. These sculptural works combine local Martu basketweaving techniques with Claire and Sean’s background in dismantling ready-made objects such as vehicles and architecture.

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Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro 1 Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, Auto Safari (Colt), 2017, Giclee print on Hahnemühle Museum Etching paper, 30 × 40 cm.

First up, we’d really like to thank the Martu for being such good sports and welcoming us into their community and letting us hang out in their studio for almost a whole month!

2 Sean Cordeiro and Alysha Taylor on the way to Parnngurr community, 2017.

Photograph: Greg Wala

We really can’t imagine how we would feel if a bunch of strangers came to work in our studio; wanting to employ similar techniques that we use; with the hope of producing a collaborative body of work. But that is exactly what we did in Parnngurr.

3 Freshly hunted goannas and frozen steaks about to be cooked, 2017.

Photograph: Greg Wala 4 A wreck in the car yard near Parnngurr, 2017.

Photograph: Greg Wala 5 Kumpaya Girgiba, Thelma Judson and Claire Healy working on weavings for In Cahoots, 2017.

Photograph: Ruth Leigh 6 Sean Cordeiro, Claire Healy and Kumpaya Girgiba, Baby boomer tourist gets partially trampled by a camel, 2017, wool, Minarri desert grass and car doors, 113 × 226 × 26 cm.

Photograph: Bo Wong

Erin, the curator of In Cahoots, had the wisdom to get us out into the Pilbara for a week-long reconnaissance mission in the company of Gabrielle Sullivan. Gabrielle lived in the Pilbara for 15 years and along with Carly Day, the current Manager, and was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the phenomenon that is the Martumili Artists. We were so lucky to have Gabe along with us as she is so loved and respected out in the community that by merely being associated with her, we were cut a lot of slack and welcomed, maybe not with open arms but open hearts and eyes.

It was our first time in a remote community and Sean’s first time to actually stay in a desert town that wasn’t Las Vegas. We really didn’t know what to expect. Other than reading Cleared Out: First contact in the Western Desert we had very little knowledge to guide us. So in a lazy-Zen fashion, we decided to just

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suck it and see…. smile and listen and try not to say anything stupid.

Initially, the collaboration felt strangely like an arranged marriage. Neither party had ever met before but a few attractive photos had been seen, Fremantle Art Centre had suggested the match and we had both agreed on the union.

Now it was time to see who was the hottie in the relationship. This collaboration had put us in a tricky situation. We were definitely signed on for this collaborative project but hitherto no individuals from the Martu community had definitively put up their hand to join us. What would ‘working with the community’ actually mean? We soon realised that we were not the hotties in this relationship. We were the desperados.

Organising the best time to visit Parnngurr was a complete pain. Any city slicker would think that a group of people living 6 hours drive away from the nearest airport, which is 1¾ hours flight from the world’s most remote city, would have plenty of free time on their hands. Not so. Aside from unavoidable Sorry Business, Martu have many different engagements: ranger work, art openings, journalist interviews, visits from curators and directors, anthropologists researching, traditional meetings, hospital appointments, scientists seeking information on the nature of fire, you name it. These guys are busy and the organisations that want a piece of Martu time don’t always communicate that to one another that much… Therefore our Sydney “I’m so busy” schedule had to bend and morph to a dictated timetable that ultimately felt like

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Abandoned cars in Parnngurr return to the land. Cars are mostly made of steel and the Pilbara is the place where a lot of steel comes from.

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we could have chosen any date at random and we would have had the same opportunity for engagement with the community. (It sounds like we are crying but we have printed books in Delhi during monsoon season and it felt like we had just about the same level of control over this situation too.)

On our first visit Kumpaya Girgiba generously taught us how to weave. Weaving is one of the skills the Martu have recently acquired and adapted to their worldview. We read that weaving was picked up by the Martu in the early noughties through Eubena Nampitjin from Balgo community. Weaving seemed like a good skill to use in a collaborative project.

We were able to pick up the technique (in our amateurish fashion) and we hoped that maybe we could come together to make some weaving work together: because there was no way that we were going to start painting in the Papunya style just to get our heads kicked in when we got back to Sydney.

There is something very special about inhabiting the same space as the Martu in the art shed and working together or parallel without dialogue. It’s an intensely focused time. Perhaps a bit of singing might erupt, or rather an internal humming, but there was not much chit-chat during the art making process.

Just constant work fuelled by endless cups of tea and family assorted biscuits.

The Martu weaving process requires a particular type of grass – Minarri – and Nola Taylor took us out towards Punmu to collect grasses, as well as sample desert treats on the way. As if set free in the world’s largest lolly

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shop, we sampled many flowers; Sturt's Desert Peas, another yellow flower like a Grevillea called Jalpin, and another white with black bits called Parntal. It was the perfect time of year, with the Pilbara in an array of different blooms.

By relaxing our grip on the destination of the final outcome, we focussed on the process of weaving to navigate our collaborative journey with the Martu. As opposed to our own collaborative practice, in which usually a concept will be discussed, nutted out, talked to death, and then executed. This project was different, as there was little time for dialogue, so we had to follow the path of process. There was a sense of freedom in this method of working.

We were blown away to have the privilege to work with Thelma Judson. Being a senior Martu artist, and an amazing weaver, she had a wicked sense of humour, along with her own sense of direction of how she wished to see the works evolve. We went out for lunch one day, only to return to the art shed to find her bold new moves with paint! You snooze, you lose. She would often suggest that something was finished, only to find her labouring away on the same piece the next day.

We had quite a humbling experience with Rachel Handley. When all the other ladies went to go on wanti (women’s) camp, Rachel stayed and insisted that we stay too in Parnngurr, to teach her how to weave, Martu style. Now that was a very odd scenario. This was the first time for Rachel to weave, although she worked every day at the school, she would drop into the shed in the afternoon to carry on with her

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1 Thelma Judson working on Fixing old Motorcar, make it good, at the Parnngurr art shed, 2017. Photograph: Ruth Leigh 2 Thelma Judson working on a car door weaving for In Cahoots, 2017. Photograph: Ruth Leigh 3 Details of the painted car door weaving Fixing old Motorcar, make it good,

by Thelma Judson, Kumpaya Girgiba, Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, 2017.

Photograph: Bo Wong 4 Detail of the car door weaving Baby boomer tourist gets partially trampled by a camel, by Sean Cordeiro, Claire Healy and Kumpaya Girgiba, 2017.

Photograph: Bo Wong 5 Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy, English nutter buries himself in the sand, 2017, wool, Minarri desert grass and car doors, 103 × 113 × 20 cm. Photograph: Bo Wong

car wheel rim to produce the most magnificent massive mega-basket.

Resources- governmental, not mineral resources- are spread pretty thinly throughout the vast Pilbara area and unfortunately the legendary Nancy Karnu Taylor can no longer easily live out in community since she needs to be aided by an oxygen tank. So we were unable to work alongside her in Parnngurr. But she was still keen as a bean to be involved with the project. If you are wondering why her addition to the exhibition is so bright, it’s because she took the opportunity to buy some wool on a visit to Perth. She used this wool to weave onto a couple of back doors that we cut off an old Toyota troopie and brought back to the art centre in Newman.

We should clearly state that the point of focus of our time in Parnngurr became the car.

Burnt-out cars are the same colour as the land.

The resultant body of work was an attempt to reconcile our art making practice with Martu art making. We have very different agendas that are very difficult to merge. First and most obviously, we are not Aboriginal, we do not make artwork for the same reasons that the Martu make artwork, we do not have the same connection with the land. It could be said that our connection to the land is like driving through the land in a car …

Abandoned cars in Parnngurr return to the land. Cars are mostly made of steel and the Pilbara is the place where a lot of steel comes from. The iron ore is mined, shipped off to China, they make it into steel, the Japanese buy it, make it into cars, the cars are imported

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into Australia, people buy the cars and drive them until they are trashed and then they are left in the land to decay and return to the land.

It is a strange life cycle that takes place on a global stage. Our time in Parnngurr dropped us within that strange stream between the timelessness of geology and the temporality of white human endeavour.

The combination of weaving and abandoned cars was an aesthetic, practical and conceptual focus to create something that informed our practices while not trying to merely mimic each other’s practices. We are not sure if what we did was how we usually approach collaboration. The foundation of our art making comes from very different places. To be honest, we thought the true collaboration exists between the arts facilitator of the art centre, i.e. Field Officer Ruth Leigh, and the Martu artists. Working like a record producer who also makes a lot of tea, Ruth would talk with the Martu artistsdiscussing form, colour and composition with the Martu – a real dialogue – we felt like this was really a true sustained collaboration. For us perhaps it was more a time to dip into the Martu way of life, and to be the quiet active participants, for which we feel honoured.

Thanks for the trip. .

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Martumili Artists In a declaration that reveals an already existing confidence in collaborative relationships and projects, Martumili Artist and In Cahoots collaborator Thelma Judson proclaims “You right, we can work with artists from anywhere.” This sentiment, typical of the view of other Martumil Artists, has surely been informed by the hugely successful We don’t need a map exhibition from 2012, a project in which Martumili Artists partnered with Fremantle Arts Centre and collaborated with a range of independent artists to produce animation, video installation, and monumental painting works. For In Cahoots, once again non-Martu artists were made welcome to live alongside and create artworks within the remote community of Parnngurr, one of six remote communities in which Martumili Artists works. “Already a lot of other artists from other places come and see our good work. They can come into the art centre and do the work there, Martu and Whitefella together. You right – he’s open. Palya (good).”

(Karnu Nancy Taylor) In the months preceding the project, Martu artists at Parnngurr were shown images of Claire and Sean’s artwork. Most of all they were intrigued by the unfamiliar configuration of materials and epic scale of the works, manufactured objects which had been dismantled or reassembled into arrangements that challenged notions of purpose and significance. In a similar fashion, the resulting

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body of works from this new collaboration calls for a reconsideration of elements of community life that simply are for its Martu residents, such as the vast spatial distances between communities and towns.

During the long 4WD journey to Parnngurr for their first trip, Claire and Sean were immediately fascinated by the plethora of rusting car bodies scattered along the route and concentrated within the car yard at Parnngurr community. In early talks with Martumili Artists, Claire and Sean commented on the ability of the motorcar to protect us and transport us to “far away places with as much bodily effort as it takes to watch TV.” To the Martu, a group that continues to exist with a high level of mobility, much like the nomadism of the pujiman (desert dwelling) era, the motorcar has become an object of great necessity and desire. Claire and Sean also drew attention to the car as an object that recalls and even embodies the unique Pilbara landscape; the colour of the rusting car bodies parallels that of the iconic red earth, whilst cars are primarily constructed with steel- itself produced using iron ore, a mineral heavily mined in the Pilbara region. These musings resonated with the Martimili Artists, and the car was quickly accepted as a suitable (as well as convenient, given their relative abundance) trope for the project.

In terms of a skills exchange, working with basket weaving techniques made sense to both the Martu artists and Claire and Sean.

Though Martumili Artists are primarily known for their painting, Claire and Sean

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1 Thelma Judson working on a new sculptural weaving at Parnngurr art shed, with Claire Healy in the background, 2017.

Photograph: Ruth Leigh.

2 Detail of Fixing old Motorcar, make it good, by Thelma Judson, Kumpaya Girgiba, Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, 2017.

Photograph: Bo Wong 3 Detail of the wheel weaving Puljalja, by Rachel Handley, Claire Healy, Sean Cordeiro, 2017. Photograph: Bo Wong 4 Sean Cordeiro working in the Parnngurr art shed, 2017. Photograph: Ruth Leigh.

5 Detail of the car door weaving Jurtupa and Wawal, by Nancy Karnu Taylor and Sean Cordeiro, 2017. Photograph: Bo Wong

respectfully veered away from artistic representations that may have touched on cultural misappropriation, and moved toward a practice that could be process driven. For the Martu artists, basket weaving is a relatively newly adopted artform, a skill passed on from Central Desert artists in the 1980’s; “We never do that basket weaving a long time ago. Balgo people come and show us how to make it.”

(Karnu Nancy Taylor).

For all participants, weaving provided the opportunity to explore traditional artmaking forms in an exciting new way, altering previously established concepts of scale and material in artwork production. “Sean and his nyupa (partner) Claire, they give us the idea to do this motorcar door. We were doing hard work! We do it first time. We was doing it just like a basket! Bigger than a basket, he’s a door. He’s good!” (Thelma Judson). While Thelma excitedly commented on the scale of the resultant artworks, Karnu remarked “I’ve never done that before. I used to only make a basket. I liked making it different way.

He right, different baskets, from the door.”

In turn, Rachel observed the way in which her perspective on artmaking materials had changed as a result of her participation. “After making a basket with those cars I started looking at them a different way. When I was going for a walk at the dump I saw a car door and I was thinking about how I could make it.”

(Rachel Handley) Most importantly, basket weaving is a skill, like other skills central to desert and community life, that could be tangibly shared. “We can

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"Whitefella can learn Martu way, Martu can learn from other artists too."

show ‘em our way; making baskets, hunting for lungki (witchedy grubs) and bush tucker, collecting grass. Whitefella can learn Martu way, Martu can learn from other artists too” (Karnu Nancy Taylor). This process of ‘two-way learning’ was exemplified in the last weeks of the collaboration, when many Martu artists had left town for various commitments, and Claire and Sean were left to teach the skills they’d only just learned themselves. Rachel Handley, one of the younger Martumili Artists, had been watching the weaving from afar whilst she’d continued to paint. “I was watching them, how they was doing it, and I asked Sean and Claire if I can try one, and they made me one for the wheel. They helped me out for the grass and I did it on my own, but I was really nervous when I was first doing it. At first my hand was shaking, but Kumpaya told me you gotta stop your shaking hand, don’t get nervous. Now I can do it. I done it myself and I really want to make more.” Ultimately, it was this sense of willingness on both sides to teach as well as learn from each other that proved key to the success of In Cahoots in Parnngurr.

RUTH LEIGH, MARTUMILI ARTISTS FIELD OFFICER

Trent Jansen (NSW) and Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency (WA) Elsie Dickens, Yangkarni Penny K-Lyons, Myarn Lawford, Rita Minga, Eva Nargoodah, Illium Nargoodah, Johnny Nargoodah, Gene Tighe and Duane Shaw Project location Fitzroy Crossing, Kimberley region, and Thirroul, Wollongong region With assistance from Mangkaja Arts staff: Belinda Cook (Manager), Emilia Galatis (Acting Manager) and Wes Maselli (Studio Coordinator).

Further assistance from Mitch Tobin, Timothy Geldard, and University of Wollongong, School of Creative Arts

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Jangarra Armchair (in progress) on the banks of the Fitzroy River. Rita Minga, Johnny Nargoodah, Trent Jansen, Gene Tighe, Elsie Dickens, Duane Shaw, Illiam Nargoodah, Myarn Lawford, Eva Nargoodah and Yangkarni Penny K-Lyons, 2017, Jartalu wood, gum branches, human hair and fasteners, 140 × 105 × 100 cm. Photograph: Trent Jansen

mangkaja arts resource agency + trent jansen Mangkaja Arts Resource Centre is a vibrant Kimberley art centre representing artists across five language groups. Teaming up with Thirroul-based designer Trent Jansen, they shared stories, exchange skills and crafted new works from wood, human hair and metal. After learning about the creature mythology of the Jangarra from senior artist Rita Minga, the collaborating artists built a largescale sculptural object from carved wooden coolamons and hair string, referencing the hairy ‘man killer’.

They also created a suite of furnishings from the crumpled metal of discarded vehicles found outside the community.

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The Jangarra Armchair I like the armchair, it’s a proper Jangarra ngurra, the Jangarra could hide behind that one. It’s ok that someone might have that in their home as furniture, it’s an easy story they can understand, don’t you think?

RITA MINGA, ARTIST AT MANGKAJA ARTS

The Jangarra Armchair was designed by Rita Minga, Johnny Nargoodah, Trent Jansen, and Wes Maselli, and made by these artists as well as Gene Tighe, Elsie Dickens, Duane Shaw, Illiam Nargoodah, Myarn Lawford, Eva Nargoodah and Yangkarni Penny K-Lyons.

It has been created in two locations very far apart; Fitzroy Crossing in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia, and the Wollongong region on the east coast of New South Wales.

In 2015, Mangkaja Arts began a conversation with designer Trent Jansen about a possible collaborative project with our artists. Such initiatives can be hard to get off the ground, and so it was excellent timing and very welcomed when Fremantle Arts Centre extended the invitation in early 2016 for Mangkaja to participate in In Cahoots, and we quickly named Trent as the independent artist we wanted to work with on this exciting project.

On any given day at Mangkaja there will be several sites of creation, both inside and in the outdoor spaces, including artists working on paintings, etching tin, carving wooden

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objects, working with leather, making knives, or even spinning human hair. Early in his first visit, sitting with the women carving ngurti (coolamon) from softwood, Trent came away with a list of mysterious humanoids, together with vague outlines of their appearances and how they might behave, should you encounter one. Trent particularly bonded with Rita Minga - an older woman with a great deal of knowledge from the Jaru, Kukaja and Walmajarri language groups. Rita recalls, “I’ve worked with other artists, but Trent was the first kartiya (whitefella) artist. He was really interested in those stories”. It was her drawing of Jangarra that was the germ of the Jangarra Armchair.

According to Rita’s accounts, Jangarra is known colloquially as the ‘man killer’. A large, hairy man who carries a boomerang and a shield, Jangarra (or, ‘that Jangarra-bloke’) is known to crouch down and hide behind large rocks and anthills, observing his prey from this hidden position in the landscape. She recalls being told the story of Jangarra as a child by the old people at night, around the campfire: “They told us not to go close to the big mungku, the big anthills, because it was Jangarra ngurra, the home of that big man, Jangarra. As kids we’d go a long way hunting for a goanna, we’d dig under the small anthills but not the large ones, afraid of this man who might hurt us.” Rita is adamant that Jangarra is a real person, a real man. Importantly, Rita’s drawings are ambiguous enough to allow the beholder to form his or her own image of what this creature could be.

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According to Rita’s accounts, Jangarra is known colloquially as the ‘man killer’. A large, hairy man who carries a boomerang and a shield.

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1 Rita Minga and Trent Jansen’s drawings for Jangarra Armchair, 2017.

2 Anthill on the outskirts of Fitzroy Crossing, 2017.

3 Illiam Nargoodah working on Jangarra Armchair in Thirroul, 2017.

4 Johnny Nargoodah working on Jangarra Armchair in Thirroul, 2017.

5 Coolamons drying in the sun, carved by Rita Minga, Johnny Nargoodah, Trent Jansen, Gene Tighe, Elsie Dickens, Duane Shaw, Illiam Nargoodah, Myarn Lawford, Eva Nargoodah and Yangkarni Penny K-Lyons, 2017.

6 Clayton Cherel and Gracie Green cutting up a coolamon tree, 2017.

All photographs by Trent Jansen

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The constant sound of axe-chipping was calming, yet over time became the soundtrack of hard work.

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See Trent Jansen’s Hairy Wild Man From Botany Bay and Pankalangu Collections.

this creature and translate it into an object: “As part of this exchange, Rita drew her interpretation of the Jangarra hiding behind an anthill. Then I drew my interpretation of her sketch, translating her drawing into an armchair”. Based on these initial sketches, it was decided that coolomon wood, and In early reports there are stories of the forms that referenced the coolomons made yahoo – a creature ‘resembling a man … but in the Kimberley region could make up the more slender, with long white straight hair … components of this design. From this point, extraordinarily long arms … with great talons’. a group of dedicated Mangkaja artists, These stories captured the imaginations of including Johnny Nargoodah, Illiam Nargoodah, the new British settlers. The fear of the yahoo, Gene Tighe, Eva Nargoodah and Elsie Dickens, which became interchangeable with the along with Trent and Rita, began to carve Bunyip, soon became one that local Aboriginal these coolamon-like forms from locally felled people shared with the new British settlers.

Jartalu trees. The basic forms were given shape This fear of a gruesome and vicious creature

by Rita, Gene, Eva and Elsie, who hand-carved gained its potency from the folkloric tales that these organic objects using axes. The constant were used to substantiate its existence. These sound of axe-chipping was calming, yet over tales were suitably vague and, according to time became the soundtrack of hard work. The researcher and writer Robert Holden, their lack forms were further refined by Johnny, Illiam of detail was attributed to the fierce nature and Trent using an angle grinder fitted with a of these creatures and the assumption that wood carving head. Wearing goggles and soon no one had survived an encounter. covered in wood chunks and dust these fellas resembled creatures themselves.

With Trent’s particular interest in creature mythologies and the starting point of Rita’s Once the coolamons were formed, Trent, Johnny and Wes took them to the river, driving description of the Jangarra, Trent proposed straight branches into the sand to generate an that they co-author an interpretation of

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Trent had explored anthropomorphic stories like these is previous projects1 and came to Mangkaja with a specific interest in the historical cross-over of creature mythologies into white European settler culture in the early days of colonisation, enduring today:

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1 Johnny Nargoodah moulding leather over the Collision Armchair in Thirroul, 2017. Photograph: Trent Jansen 2 Coolamons drying in the sun at Mangkaja Arts, 2017.

Photograph: Erin Coates 3 Trent Jansen attaching hair string to a coolamon for Jangarra Armchair, 2017.

Photograph: Erin Coates 4 Detail of an anthill at Fitzroy Crossing, 2017.

Photograph: Erin Coates 5 Julia Lawford, Eva Nargoodah and Rita Mina working on coolamons and having scones with Johnny Nargoodah, 2017.

Photograph: Trent Jansen 6 Hair string and wooden coolamon, 2017.

Photograph: Trent Jansen

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armature on which to position the coolamons as components of the chair. Trent explains “This armature allowed the Jangarra Armchair to be designed in three-dimensions and in realtime, placing the coolamons upside down and adjusting and rearranging them with the aim of generating an overall form that referenced both the anthill and the Jangarra ngurra.”

Another important aspect of the Jangarra armchair was the addition of traditional human hair string, made by Myarn and Penny, the last two remaining people in Fitzroy Crossing who still have the skills to practice, teach and make human hair string in the traditional way. This is culturally significant to the Jangarra story, both in how it relates to the description of creature as covered in hair and also given that the hair string creation skills were reinvigorated for the project.

In Aboriginal communities time plays a crucial role in cultural transmission. Trust, respect, skills, and the sharing of personal and cultural histories all increase exponentially over time. A further cultural factor is that is it common to receive knowledge passively, for it to be given rather than asked for. With our In Cahoots project, time was always going to be our biggest enemy. But the fantastic opportunity that In Cahoots created drove us to find strategies to remain true to the collaborative intention of the project. On several occasions we all had to recalibrate and discuss the c-word (a term Erin, the curator, jokingly used to refer to the difficult aspects of collaboration). We talked about the issues of mutuality, power, propriety and consent.

mangkaja arts resource agency + trent jansen

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Another term that came up was ‘level’, a kartiya (whitefella) word that has found its way into local language, which is used to refer to balance. Balance means having a two-way exchange, and for In Cahoots this required some of our artists to travel to Trent’s community to finish the work.

The final Jangarra Armchair was constructed when Johnny and Illiam Nargoodah travelled to Wollongong to work with Trent Jansen in the workshop at the University of Wollongong.

It was here that these three artists worked together using materials collected and shaped in Fitzroy Crossing to give final form to this piece, designed by Rita, Johnny and Trent many months earlier.

WES MASELLI, TRENT JANSEN AND RITA MINGA

Collision I’ve been working at Mangkaja for 16 years, but it’s my role as a technician to help others make art, it’s less often that I have the chance to make art myself. In my past I’ve worked as, among other things, a yard builder and a saddlemaker, so these are some of the skills I was able to bring to the project….It was a new challenge, working with Trent … he was interested in those broken pieces of cars, what some people might think are rubbish.

I mean, I’ve fixed up lawnmowers, and old chairs, tyres, that kind of thing, but I’ve never thought that it could be art. These were new ideas that he brought. I enjoyed that, looking at the shape of things and how to make them

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1 Abandoned car yard near Fitzroy Crossing, 2017.

2 Duane Shaw and Trent Jansen collecting rusted car panels for Collision, 2017.

3 Crumpled bonnet of a car wreck near Fitzroy Crossing, 2017.

4 Penny K-Lyons in the Mangkaja troopie, 2017.

Photograph: Trent Jansen 5 Rusted car wreck near Fitzroy Crossing, 2017.

6 Duane Shaw and Trent Jansen loading car panels onto the Mangkaja troopie, 2017.

7 Duane Shaw cutting car bonnets for Collision, 2017.

8 Abandoned car yard near Fitzroy Crossing, 2017.

All photographs by Erin Coates, unless captioned otherwise

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into something new. This project has given me a chance to use my extensive range of skills in an artistic context whilst also teaching my son Illiam and working with Trent.

JOHNNY NARGOODAH

Collision is set of three works, a bench, armchair and vessel. They were designed

by Johnny and Trent, and made by them and Duane Shaw. Like the Jangarra Armchair, they were created in Fitzroy Crossing then transported to Thirroul, in the Wollongong region, to be completed. The following text is by Trent Jansen with direct quotes from Johnny Nargoodah: Newly manufactured car panels are key examples of precision human industrial capability and complex mass production.

Attached to Toyota Land Cruisers, Nissan Patrols and Ford Falcons, these industrial objects find their way into the Kimberley region, hurtling down dirt roads and lumbering along bush tracks, all the while exposed to extreme heat and rain as the wet and dry seasons track through their inevitable cycle. It is in this environment that these automobiles and the attached panels are subject to some of the most extreme and trying conditions of any place in the world. In some instances, often tragic for those occupying the vehicle, these industrial machines are put to the ultimate test, careering into a tree, or an oncoming vehicle. Ironically, the most advanced human machinery cannot mimic the affect that a tree or stray bull has on these steel forms. These violent and sometimes traumatic collisions

in cahoots

force these car panels into beautifully complex forms, whose undulations could not be achieved by any other means.

Within my design and art practice, I’ve developed a love for the idiosyncratic; a sensibility that sees beauty in the imperfection resulting from manual making and the affect that chance can have in shaping a material. This responsiveness to certain forms drew me to explore crushed car panels, found on vehicles in informal car wrecking yards around Fitzroy Crossing. Using a batterypowered angle grinder, Duane and I selected and removed several crumpled bonnets and took them back to Mangkaja. Seeing them laying in the yard out the back of Mangkaja, Johnny became interested, approaching me to ask “What are we doing with these?”.

Johnny is a Nyikina man who grew up in the region surrounding Fitzroy Crossing and worked as a yard builder on a cattle station for much of his adult life. During this period, Johnny learned to manipulate metal using industrial methods. This technical background combined with a natural eye for perfection, make Johnny a precise maker, with a preference for flawless craftsmanship and extreme attention to detail.

Our process of making something new with the old rusted car bonnets progressed with Johnny drawing chalk lines onto the metal to mark out where to cut. He defined logical cuts “…where the dents are, you sort of stand back and then you can see the right place to make a line... and that’s how you mark it”. Sitting the panels on tree stumps, we then cut into them

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7 with a grinder. Next, we had to grind the edges, Johnny is a tireless perfectionist in every task he undertakes. As Johnny explains, “we need to grind the edges otherwise somebody might get cut. We use sandpaper to make it soft on the edge, it’s sort of round, if you feel it. Every edge where we cut with that grinder it was left sharp. We had to use a screwdriver to manipulate the little sharp parts.”

Working these lines into precise and beautifully finished edges, Johnny then suggested covering the top surface of the largest panel with leather: “The shapes look really good in their finished wrecked forms, already wrecked, already in their shape. These forms, anything could be made out of them.

Because this looked like a chair … I wanted to add the leather for softness, to make it comfortable, and because it looked good”.

After soaking the leather Johnny pushed it into shape “…so that it follows the shape of the metal”. Johhny’s experience with sculpting leather in this way is unique, a skill he was also able to teach both his son Illiam and Trent at the studio in Thirroul.

I put forward the name for this set of works, Collision, feeling that this is the perfect metaphor for the coming together of individuals from disparate cultures and making sensibilities in the production of a collection of artifacts that embody and celebrate this place of cultural confluence.

Reflecting on the creation of our work for In Cahoots, Johnny’s response is more direct: “Well what I want to say, even though it’s rubbish, it’s come out looking really good.”

TRENT JANSEN, JOHNNY NARGOODAH

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mangkaja arts resource agency + trent jansen

"Well what I want to say, even though it’s rubbish, it’s come out looking really good."

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Curtis Taylor (WA) with Ishmael Marika, from Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Arts Centre (NT) Spear makers: Wilson Mandijalu, Wanyubi Marika, Desmond Taylor, Wokka Taylor and Yilpirr Wanambi Project location Yirrkala community, Northeast Arnhem Land and Parnngurr community, Western Desert With assistance from Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Arts Centre staff: Will Stubbs (Coordinator), Edwina Circuitt (Coordinator) and Joseph Brady (The Mulka Project Program Director). Further assistance from AbdulRahman Abdullah, Jacqyn Butt, Lemarion Chapman, Olga Cironis, Carly Day, Jahrel Jadai, Jordan James, Corbin Mandijalu, Kleon Mandijalu, Tye Mandijalu, Matt McVeigh, Mia Pepper, Sydney Norman and Ignatius Taylor.

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Ignatius Taylor and Ishmael Marika cutting desert Acacia trees to make spears at Georgie Bore near the Canning Stock Route, 2017.

Photograph: Curtis Taylor.

curtis taylor + ishmael marika, buku-larrnggay mulka arts centre Ishmael Marika is a young Yolngu artist living in the Arnhem Land community of Yirrkala. Inviting Perth-based Martu artist Curtis Taylor to work with him, the two artists embarked on several trips back and forth between Martu and Yolngu Country. Sharing aspects of their respective cultures as they explored life in the Western Desert and in the communities of North Eastern Arnhem Land, they extended their primarily video-based art practices to learn the traditional woodcarving and hairspinning techniques of each region.

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essay by

Curtis Taylor I grew up in Punmu, a Martu community in the Western Desert, and also spent time in Port Hedland and Perth. Even though I studied media and filmmaking at Murdoch University, lots of the practical skills I have in this area come from hands-on experience working with the Martu-led, Newman-based organisations Martu Media and Martumili Artists. Ever since I started making videos I’ve been really interested in telling the stories of Martu people in a way that reflects our relationship to things like technology and both traditional and popular culture. A few years ago I found out about Ishmael Marika’s work, because we both had videos in the exhibition Taboo at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, curated by Brooke Andrew. Straight away I was really curious about Ishmael – we are around the same age, both from remote communities (but very far apart), working with video, and I felt that our stories were linked and were comparable in how we were thinking about and talking about our ideas through horror – like my film Mamu and his film Galka. It seemed like both of us were making video works in a new kind of fringe genre of ‘Aboriginal horror’, drawing on fearsome tales within our respective cultures and visceral elements of initiation. I think we both also really respond to horror films and the way they can be so cheaply made and still so effective. It was the next year that I got to meet Ishmael, at the 2014 Remote Media Festival in Djarrigin-Lombadina, where remote

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media organisations from all around Australia came together to share their knowledge and ideas. And now finally I have had the chance to collaborate with Ishmael for In Cahoots.

I would like to pay homage to the Yolngu and Martu people who helped us shape our ideas and bring this work to fruition.

To begin our collaboration, last year I made a trip to Ishmael’s homeland in Northeast Arnhem Land, to Yirrkala, Yilpara (Blue Mud Bay), Nyul, Buymurr and surrounding communities and areas. It was good that there was no pressure to start making work together straight away, and this trip was really a chance to hang out and get to know each other. I stayed with his family and he showed me where he grew up, where his father and mother came from, and where they used to live on the beach. For me, living mostly in Perth these days and feeling spiritually separated from my Country, it was refreshing to be on the land where local language is spoken and not English. Working with Ishmael and his family, they have all been very welcoming and adopted me like Ishmael’s brother. I could not navigate around Yolngu tradition without the guidance of Ishmael and his teachers.

I also spent time at Buku-Larranggay Mulka Art Centre, seeing the artists in action, being immersed in Yolngu works, old ones and new ones being created. Everyday seeing Nyapa Nyapa creating work in the space was just mesmerising and gave me a little bit of understating in the Yolngu concept of Mardayin. Nyapa Nyapa is definitely a storyteller, and my interactions with her grounded me in this place.

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5 1 East of the Martu community Parnngurr, off Hand Pump no.2 Road, 2017.

Photograph: Curtis Taylor

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2 Curtis and Ishmael in Central Arnhem Land driving to Blue Mud Bay, 2017 3 Hunting for crabs at Rainbow Cliff, Arnhem Land, 2017. Photograph: Curtis Taylor 4 Ishmael Marika and Wokka Taylor at a rockhole near Parnngurr, 2017. Video still: Curtis Taylor 5 still from Ngarnda (pain), Curtis Taylor, 2015, video installation, duration: 4:24 minutes 6 Ishmael Marika and Ignatius Taylor loading desert Acacia trees into a ute, 2017. Photograph: Curtis Taylor

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7 Fire from Martu burning Country, East of Parnngurr Community, 2017.

Photograph: Curtis Taylor.

8 Curtis Taylor and Ishmael Marika, heading fishing at Blue Mud Bay Point, 2017.

Photograph: Roy Marika

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curtis taylor + ishmael marika, buku-larrnggay mulka arts centre

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So this was the first step. I returned the favour and invited Ishmael back to Western Australia to Punmu, where I grew up. I showed him the Country where my grandmother is from, where she grew up, and those areas she has knowledge of and can speak for. It was very important to have this exchange, to visit each other’s Country, and also to form a relationship in which we were comfortable in what we could talk about in our cultures – because most of the stuff we talk about in our artwork stems from Country and our belief systems.

It was really foundational for us to have this at the start.

After our Western Desert trip I returned again to Yirrkala to work with Ishmael. Our ideas for what to make for In Cahoots came organically; we had begun making spears from Acacia wood when we were in the desert, with the help of Wilson Mandijalu, Desmond Taylor and Wokka Taylor, and when I returned to Yirrkala we made more spears, with Wanyubi Marika and Yilpirr Wanambi, collecting wood from trees in the mangroves and on the beaches.

It was such a different wood to what I’m used to, and where it is collected from. You can definitely see when we put them side by side the difference between the wood, the colours and how they’re shaped.

For Ishmael and I, working so much up until now with video and new media, it was good to work with physical materials with this project and share traditional skills from both of our cultures. For me, the spear installation we are making signifies Yolngu and Martu coming together and the story of trade. Handmade

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objects are really valuable as gifts. They have been made by one person and they have put culture into it. There was a transfer of knowledge between us in making work for this project together. We also learnt and filmed hair spinning, watching my grandmother make hair string, which has many traditional uses.

We really got to experiment and talk about a whole lot of ideas, and stayed in touch to continue to develop our work for In Cahoots up until very close to the opening of this show.

Gaining a visceral understanding of the land, sea and sky in Yolngu cosmology, and Martu Jarkulpa (messages) from the desert, I feel we only scraped the surface of how to amalgamate Yolngu and Martu interpretations of ancestral iconography into modern threedimensional form. This is the beginning of a bigger story for Martu and Yolngu.

essay by

Ishmael Marika I grew up on saltwater country in Northeast Arnhem Land, with Mum and Dad, on Mum’s Country in Yilpara (Blue Mud Bay). In 2010 I started making artwork and working for Buku-Larranggay Mulka, a largely Yolngu-run art centre that services about 25 communities within a 200km radius of Yirrkala. I was shy in the beginning, but over time, working and creating, I’ve become more confident now. My old people trust and include me in representing our vision of mulka, holding and protecting culture and law through a sacred but public ceremony. I travel quite a lot for the

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1 Wokka Taylor cutting desert Acacia to make spears, 2017.

Photograph: Curtis Taylor.

2 Spears made by Wilson Mandijalu, Desmond Taylor and Wokka Taylor from desert Acacia wood, 2017.

Photograph: Bo Wong.

3 Curtis Taylor with wood for spears, Yirrkala, Arnhem Land, 2017. Photograph: Ishmael Marika 4 Curtis Taylor heating and straightening mangrove wood for spears at Yirrkala, 2017 5 Nancy Taylor’s hair spinning tool, 2017. Photograph: Curtis Taylor.

Following page Fire from Martu burning Country, East of Parnngurr Community, Western Desert, 2017. Photograph: Curtis Taylor

Mulka Project, which is the digital production and archive division of the art centre. We go and speak at events, participate in media festivals, exhibitions and gatherings. When I do this I am an ambassador and a voice for my generation, and the ones that have been before and are coming.

When I was growing up, I’d go back and forth from our camp to community school.

We moved into town, to the community of Yirrkala, land that is my Dad’s Country, and that I have a deep connection to as well. My schooling was in Yirrkala and then continued in Melbourne. Being away from Country was hard and I wanted to return and contribute to the work my forefathers started in the old days, building Yolngu self-determination and keeping our culture strong. When I won the Youth Award at the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in Darwin last year, it was great to be congratulated and get acknowledged for the work that I’ve done, and that I contribute to with many others.

Now I’ve been working with Curtis on In Cahoots, making a connection across cultures.

I knew him from other media and art shows we were both in, but this is the first time we got to work together. Making work with Curtis meant I got to see his Country, to meet his family and spend time with them in the Western Desert.

My first introduction to this Country was in the early hours of the morning, driving out from the town of Newman to the Martu community of Parnngurr. We came upon Nyarri Morgan and his family; they had broken down on the side of the road. We helped them change

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tyres on their car and get them on their way, following behind. Curtis and I camped just outside of the community on a dry sandy river.

It was magical, on a clear morning watching the stars from my swag, dusty from the changing of tyres. This experience, and also meeting different people, camels and dogs in the Western Desert, were the highlights of my first trip to Western Australia.

I had a feeling of ease and of being at home with Curtis and his family. This made me more comfortable in opening up and working together. We got busy with the tasks of making wooden objects by hand and filming Curtis’ grandmother, Karnu Nancy Taylor, spin hair for a nunba (hair belt) for the show. Seeing the waterholes in the desert country and hearing old oral stories from the Warnman people in the Karlamilyi area I learnt a lot. The time during which I was there was very special for desert peoples, as it was ceremony and law time, and I was invited to their ceremonial grounds. I don’t take this lightly – a huge honour and respect was given to me to be asked here.

I’m writing before the exhibition, and feeling excited about the work Curtis and I have been creating. Making a large set of spears, in his Country and mine, that will seem to fly in the air together, is a representation of our ideas of contemporary Yolngu and Martu art. I see the spears as a symbol of cultural exchange, crossing over and sharing ideas.

curtis taylor + ishmael marika, buku-larrnggay mulka arts centre

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artist / project name here

the artists

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tony albert + warakurna artists

Tony Albert Born in Townsville and now living in Sydney, Tony Albert is a descendent of the Girramay, Yidinji and Kuku-Yalanji people. In his artistic practice he uses a wide range of mediums including painting, photography and mixed media to explore Aboriginal and Australian history, often incorporating elements of kitsch ‘Aboriginalia’. In 2014 Tony was awarded the Basil Sellers Art Prize and the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. In the same year he was also commissioned to create a major public artwork in Sydney’s Hyde Park, dedicated to Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander military service. Tony has undertaken several artist residencies, including the prestigious International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York. He was also awarded the 2016 Fleurieu Art Prize, with his winning work, The Hand You’re Dealt. Tony’s work can be seen in major national and international museums and private collections. He is represented by Sullivan+Strumpf. sullivanstrumpf. com/artists/tony-albert

a diverse range of programs, including kids programs conducted during school holidays; art therapy program for residents of Wanarn Aged Care and outreach painting program for Wanarn community; programs to engage the younger generations through digital artistic innovation via the Warakurna Street Wear Project and NG Media. warakurnaartists.com.au.

Warakurna artists included in In Cahoots are: Nancy Carnegie Tjungupi, Pawuya Cooke , Lena Dawson Palitja, Steven Ebatarinja, Keesha Frazer, Andrea Giles, Norma Giles, Sheila Giles, Charlotte Golding, Trudy Holland, Dianne Holland, Ishmeil Jackson, Keenan Jackson, Tristan Jackson, Joyce James, Clarabelle Kenda, Shawn Lewis, Azaliah Madeline Golding, Brittany Malbunka Reid, Karni Mitchell, Bradley Nelson-Mitchell, Bernard Newberry, Francine Newberry, Bernard Niemayah Golding, Nancy Nyanyarna Jackson, Polly Pawuya Butler-Jackson, Eunice Porter Yunurupa, Kristabell Porter, Stefan Reid, Travis Richards-Reid, Delilah Shepherd, Dwayne Shepherd, Katherine Shepherd, Selina Shepherd, Aziah Smythe, Emilia Smythe, Dallas Smythe, Kieran Smythe-Jackson, Noreen Smythe, Dorothy Ward, Ranisha Ward, Jennaleen Watson, Rocky William Porter, Billy Willy, Tracy Yates, Judith Yinyika Chambers.

neil aldum + baluk arts

Beverley Meldrum Beverley Meldrum is Wirangu (SA) through her father's side of the family.

Bev was born in South Australia and moved to the Mornington Peninsula thirty years ago. She is an emerging artist and enjoys working with a wide variety of mediums including ceramics, timber, stone and kelp.

Robert Kelly Robert Kelly is of Wathaurong (VIC) heritage and is a founding member of Baluk Arts. Bob enjoys painting with oils and expressing the spirit of the Mornington Peninsula landscape from an Aboriginal perspective in a traditionally European style. Bob is also known for his high quality wood carving and pyrography. In 2017, Bob had work acquired by the Bayside City Council and completed a commissioned work for the Level Removal Crossing Authority Reconciliation Action Plan.

Dominic Bramall-White Neil Aldum Warakurna Artists Warakurna Artists is located in the remote community of Warakurna in WA’s Ngaanyatjarra Lands and is a hub for three remote Ngaanyatjarra communities; Wanarn, Patjarr and Warakurna, where artists are related and move freely between these communities, working collaboratively – culturally and stylistically. Warakurna Artists facilitates the production of the artists’ work and is one of the leading organisations in the Western Desert Mob alliance. Warakurna runs

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Perth artist Neil Aldum has a deep interest in both science and art, having held roles in the water industry and in climate change research.

He works with predominantly raw industrial and agricultural materials, often using an unexpected combination of skills including weaving, woodworking, concrete casting and sewing. Neil has shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in WA and has received commissions from the City of Perth.

Dominic Bramall-White is Pyemmairrener (TAS) and was adopted early in life. His artwork is an exploration of the lost parts of his heritage creating a deeper understanding of his identity. His artwork explores themes of landscape and interaction with place, family, genetics and biology. Dominic was a finalist in the 2017 Manningham Ceramic Art Award, and in 2015 won the Kane Construction 3D Award in the Koorie Art Show at the Koorie Heritage Trust in Melbourne.

Kirsty Bell

Glenn Foster

Nannette Shaw

Kirsty Bell was born and raised on the Mornington Peninsula and is of Arrernte (NT) descent. Kirsty has recently discovered her love and skill for traditional weaving and also enjoys working with kelp and other natural materials. Kirsty also works in ceramic, acrylic paints and ochre.

Glenn Foster is an emerging artist of Palawa (TAS) heritage. Glenn has been a practising artist for a few years and explores different personal expression through natural mediums including wood and clay.

Nannette Shaw is a Tyereelore Elder from Tasmania, and also has ties to the Boonwurrung/Bunurong people of Southern Victoria. Netty creates traditional Bull Kelp water vessels using the same practice and materials that were used by Tasmanian Aboriginal women for thousands of years. She recently presented her works at Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair and Tarnanthi Art Fair and was also featured in Kanalaritja: An Unbroken String at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Shane Wright Lisa Waup Lisa Waup was separated from her Gunditjmara (VIC) and Torres Strait Islander (TSI) family at a young age.

Lisa has developed a distinctive weaving practice and her work is usually made of many layers that symbolise reattaching layers of history and story to reconnect to her heritage.

Her work was featured in Tarnanthi at the Art Gallery of South Australia, and for the last two years she was a finalist of the National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA).

Lisa's work has been acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery and Bayside City Council.

Shane Wright is a Kokatha man from South Australia and an artist, activist, environmentalist and advocator for preserving and honouring culture.

Shane’s work involves layered and deep stories of songlines, Country and connection. He works with several different mediums including acrylic on canvas, wood carving and emu egg carving. He sees his work as a tool to pass on creativity, knowledge, empowerment, and connection from past to present to future generations.

Douglas Smith Douglas Smith is a Wiradjuri (NSW) man and has been creating art for many years. Doug enjoys drawing, painting and carving and often uses symbolism to express his emotions, strength and story. His most significant works are created with charcoal, ochre and wood.

Gillian Garvie

Tallara Gray Tallara Gray is a descendant of the Gudang (QLD) people of far north Cape York. Tallara is interested in exploring her experience of Aboriginal culture and family stories through sculpture and mixed media works, including photographic and text explorations. Her work has been featured in Tarnanthi at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

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Gillian Garvie is a Wiradjuri (NSW) woman through her father, who was adopted and raised in a nonIndigenous family. Gillian grew up on different cattle and sheep stations in the Riverina region in NSW before moving to the Mornington Peninsula.

Gillian is passionate about cultural transmission and personal expression through multidisciplinary techniques with materials such as wool, clay, grasses and ink.

Rebecca Robinson Rebecca is Pyemmairrener (TAS) and is currently creating works of soft sculpture in a wide variety of materials including fabric, wool, cotton and straw. Her work explores history, the environment and stories of place from Tasmania and south east Melbourne.

louise haselton + papulankutja artists

Lynette Brown Lynette was born in Malara, known as snake Country. Lynette now lives in Blackstone with her family and enjoys weaving, beadwork and painting detailed stories about Kunamore Bore and the Seven Sisters. This is a popular dreamtime story of seven ladies being chased through the desert by one man. There are numerous scenarios as these ladies travel around. Eventually they rise up into the sky and form the Pleiades, a group of seven stars seen in the southern skies. There are many variations of this story.

Louise Haselton

Freda Lane

Louise is an Adelaide-based artist who works with sculpture and installation.

She utilises a wide range of materials and techniques, from combining readymade objects through to casting raw materials. Her work plays with the intrinsic material properties of objects and substances through a curious process of arrangement and contrast, inspiring a re-evaluation of these commonly found materials. She was featured in the 2016 Adelaide Biennale Magic Object and has held major solo exhibitions at The Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia and The Australian Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide. Louise is the Head of the Sculpture Studio at the School of Art, Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia and has undertaken artist residencies in India and Germany. She is represented by GAGProjects.

Freda was born in about 1940, on the other side of the old Blackstone Rock Hole; “I was born in sand, a bush baby and my mother carried me naked on her head with her piti (wooden carrying vessel).” She paints her Country in stunning colour and detail, and also makes woven baskets and larger tjanpi sculptures, including collaborating on the life-sized Toyota troopie woven sculpture that won the 22nd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Award in 2005. Before becoming an artist for Papulankutja, Freda was a health care worker.

Nora Davidson Nora was born in the community of Jameson. Nearby her family holds the story for Illurpa, which is a place where Kuniya – a giant snake – travelled through the desert. A matted black fibre found at Ilurrpa Bore is said to be the black hair left over after Kuniya had swallowed many people and then was sick. Nora paints in a vibrant, lush style, drawing on the stories she was told as a young girl, her understanding of Country and ancestral stories she is connected to. She lives in Blackstone with her family and regularly makes art at Papulankutja Artists.

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Angilyiya Mitchell Angilyiya was born near to Blackstone Ranges in Emu Country near Kunmarnarra Bore, which is known as an important area for traditional law and for men’s Dreaming. She is a strong Law woman with extensive bush skills and a wealth of traditional knowledge. Several years ago, Angilyiya was appointed the caretaker for an important woman’s dreaming, linked to the Seven Sisters story in country a little south of Blackstone.

She is also a senior singer and dancer.

Angilyiya is also known for her fibre art and was one of the weavers involved in making the life-sized Toyota tjanpi that won the 22nd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Award in 2005.

Anawari Inpiti Mitchell Anawari was born in the late 1950s at Kampurarrpapirti and grew up at Warburton Mission. She has been weaving since the 1990s and took part in the very first tjanpi weaving workshop at Papulankutja. Anawari and the women of her family have custodianship over Kuruyala, a place east of Blackstone that is a significant site in the major dreaming story of the Seven Sisters. Her paintings are in several major collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, and she is one of the artists in Songlines, tracking the Seven Sisters, at the National Museum of Australia (2017).

Anawari also has diverse skills in printmaking, textiles, jewellery and making spinifex paper. She was previously the manager of Blackstone Women’s Centre.

Jennifer Nginyaka Mitchell Born in 1955 at Kala Tjuti, Jennifer is a senior custodian of the Krur Ala Seven Sisters site. Jennifer’s family were directly affected by the Maralinga nuclear testing, which was carried out by the British near Woomera during the 1950s and 60s. Her grandfather died from illness related to the radioactive fallout. Jennifer paints her Country and also weaves baskets and other forms from desert grasses.

Like many artists at Papulankutja Artists, she is also involved with Tjanpi Desert Weavers, where she helps with administration, and also organises the NPY Women’s Council Law and Cultural Camp every year.

Pamela Hogan Pamela is an arts worker for Papulankutja Artists, an active artist and a mother of six. Pamela’s artwork focuses on traditional stories like the Seven Sisters, and on the landscapes of her father’s and mother’s Country.

She works across many mediums, including paintings, textiles, weaving, jewellery, printmaking and casting and she is also actively involved in sharing and passing on skills to others in her community of Blackstone.

Pamela’s unique cast soap sculpture work was extensively featured in the recent major exhibition NGURRA: Home in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands at the South Australian Museum.

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claire healy + sean cordeiro + martumili artists

for large collaborative projects. She has participated in several major exhibitions, including Songlines, tracking the Seven Sisters at the National Museum of Australia (2017).

Kumpaya is also a senior Law women and cultural leader, and a custodian for the Minyipuru (Seven Sisters) songline.

Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro Rachel Handley Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro’s practice brings together ideas of home, movement and destruction.

Their solo exhibitions include a survey exhibition at the MCA, Sydney 2012; Are we there yet? at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC 2011; PREMS at La bf15, Lyon 2009; The Paper Trail at the AGNSW, 2007 and flatpack at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin 2006.

Their installation Life Span was part of the Australian representation at the 53rd Venice Biennale. They have also participated in the Setouchi and Auckland Triennials. They are represented by Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery. claireandsean.com

Rachel grew up in Punmu Community, where she completed her schooling.

Following school each day, Rachel always loved going hunting with her elders, especially Muuki and Ida. In the early 1990's she moved to Parnngurr, following her uncle Muuki Taylor. She now has three kids and works full time for the local school.

Rachel is an emerging artist and started painting several years ago. Her work was included in the Martumili Artists exhibition at the Port Hedland Courthouse Arts Centre and Gallery in 2008. In addition to painting, Rachel enjoys playing sport and going on bush trips.

Kumpaya Girgiba Thelma Judson Kumpaya was born near Kiwirrkura and walked all around that area with her family in her youth. Her brothers include the established artists Charlie Wallabi, Helicopter and Patrick Tjungurrayi. Kumpaya grew up, married and had children while living a nomadic life. She and her family avoided whitefellas, but were eventually spotted from an aeroplane during a program of clearing people out of the desert prior to weapons testing in the area, and were subsequently convinced to move to Jigalong mission, where they rejoined many of their relatives. After many years working on stations she moved to Parnngurr community in the 1980s. Kumpaya is an extraordinary teacher and orator, with particular skill in gathering artists together

Thelma was born in the Percival Lakes region and grew up around Yimiri and Kurturarra, walking around this region with her mother, father and grandmother. In 1964 Thelma and her family hid from an aeroplane that was searching for them during a government desert clearing program prior to weapons testing in the area.

They were eventually found and moved to Jigalong mission in 1964, being amongst the last Martu people to leave the desert and the pujiman (bushman ) way of life. Today Thelma lives in Parnngurr with her family and both paints and weaves for Martumili Artists. One of her previous basket works was developed into a giant, interactive inflatable sculpture that toured Australia in the exhibition

We don’t need a map: a Martu experience of the Western Desert.

National Gallery of Victoria, University of New South Wales and University of Wollongong. trentjansen.com

skilled at hair spinning, used to make traditional hair string, and is one of the few people with this skill.

Elsie Dickens Nancy Karnu Taylor Nancy Taylor is a Warnman woman from Karlamilyi who now lives in Parnngurr. She travelled extensively as a young woman with family members at Kurrka, Nullagine and Wirtilwirtil (near Woody Woody gold mine). Nancy paints the country around Karlamilyi, including Japarli, Yaralalyu, Jinturinypalangu and Jutupa. Nancy’s paintings and woven baskets have been included in several significant exhibitions, including Songlines, tracking the Seven Sisters at the National Museum of Australia (2017), Black White & Restive, Newcastle Art Gallery (2016) and Australia, Royal Academy of the Arts, London (2013). Many of Nancy’s family members are also dedicated artists, rangers and cultural custodians, and her grandson, Curtis Taylor, is also an artist in In Cahoots.

trent jansen + mangkaja arts resource agency

Trent Jansen Trent Jansen is an artist and designer specialising in contemporary object making. The objects and furniture Jansen designs are richly symbolic, exploring the identities of specific individuals, families and communities.

His recent research has focused on creature mythologies and the potential for cultural exchange between Indigenous and European myths. Jansen’s exquisitely designed and crafted objects utilise both raw and fabricated materials and are held in major collections, including the

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Elsie is a Walmajarri woman who resides at Kurnangki in Fitzroy Crossing. She is a senior woman of great cultural significance. Her skin is Nanganarti and she raised her children at Cherrabun Station before moving to Fitzroy Crossing.

Rita Minga Rita is senior woman with knowledge of the Jaru, Kukaja and Walmajarri language groups. From time to time she makes art at Mangkaja and has significant skills in carving wood, and also knows where to find the right trees.

Yangkarni Penny K-Lyons Yangkarni was born in 1932 at Wanywurtu under a tutujarti (desert walnut) tree. She speaks Walmajarri and grew up with her family on their traditional lands in the Great Sandy Desert, until the early 1950s. There is a rock hole with spring water at Wanywurtu where Yangkarni remembers going walkabout for goanna and pussycat (feral cat).

Yangkarni’s family and other groups migrated north to the cattle station country surrounding the Fitzroy Valley.

When they left the desert she was a girl in her early teens. During the journey she lost her mother’s sister, then her father and mother. Yangkarni became distressed about losing her parents and wanted to keep looking for them. Her brother got angry with her and left Yangkarni and her little sister at a nearby Community called Milidjidee and kept going. Yangkarni’s beautiful paintings show the traditional waterholes and hunting grounds where she grew up.

Eva Nargoodah Eva was born in 1954 on Christmas Creek Station, where her dad was a stockman and her mother worked in the house. When she was six she was taken to GoGo Station, where her great-grandmother lived. Several years later her and some of her family members shifted to Cherrabun Station, where she went to school.

She also spent time at school in Derby and then worked at Christmas Creek School as a teacher. In 1984 she married, and now has nine children and nine grandchildren. Eva started painting after her children grew up.

She paints her grandmother’s Country and what she taught her. Eva paints in her own style, the seasons, bush tucker and her childhood memories of winter rains and cold weather.

Today she lives at Jimbalakudunj Community, 120 km southwest of Fitzroy Crossing.

Myarn Lawford Myarn was born around 1935 and is a Warlmajarri woman whose country is associated with the cockatoo dreaming story from the desert. She is a senior woman of great cultural significance who currently resides in a place near Wankajonka, 100 km outside of Fitzroy Crossing. Myarn is

Illium Nargoodah Illium is a young man who recently started making work at Mangjaka.

He comes from a family with

many artists. He was selected for the Revealed exhibition in 2016 at Fremantle Arts Centre, with a selection of uniquely crafted knives, in which he used reclaimed metal, bone, wood and twine.

Curtis Taylor

Johnny Nargoodah Johnny is a Nyikina man who grew up in the region surrounding Fitzroy Crossing. He works for Mangkaja Arts, assisting with the studio and preparing and packing works for exhibitions. He has previously worked as a yard builder on a cattle station and has many skills working with wood, metal and leather.

Gene Tighe Gene was born around 1935 and is a senior woman of great cultural significance. Gene, Elsie and Myarn often stick together and are great friends. Gene is a Walmajarri woman who is also a custodian of the Cockatoo dreaming story. She grew up with Myarn and was born out in the bush. Gene lives in Ngumban just off the great Northern Highway on the way to Wankajonka.

Duane Shaw Duane is a man in his early thirties who works at Mangkaja Arts Centre.

He was born in Derby and is a Bunuba man who lives in Fitzroy Crossing.

He is also a very talented musician and is in a band that regularly travels the country.

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curtis taylor + buku-larrnggay mulka arts centre

in cahoots

Curtis is a Martu filmmaker and artist based in Perth. Growing up in the remote Martu desert communities and in the city, Taylor has gained both traditional Martu knowledge and a Western education. He has worked on a number of film and multi-media productions, including Lynette Wallworth’s Emmy Award-winning work Collisions. He was Community Coordinator and Youth Development Officer at Martu Media (a division of Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa), where he also spent 18 months working on Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route as a filmmaker and youth ambassador. Curtis was the recipient of the 2011 Western Australian Youth Art Award and Wesfarmers Youth Scholarship and his screen works have been shown in international film festivals, including The 2012 Nepal International Indigenous Film Archive Festival. Curtis’ exhibitions include Networking The Unseen, Furtherfield Gallery, London (2016), Dead Ringer, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth (2015), Taboo, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2012), We don’t need a map: a Martu experience of the Western Desert, Fremantle Arts Centre (2012).

Ishmael Marika Ishmael Marika is a Yolngu artist and filmmaker from the community of Yirrkala in Eastern Arnhem Land. He is very active in his community and comes from a family of artists and cultural custodians. His grandfather, Milirrpum Marika, was the lead

plaintiff in the Gove Land Rights case, and his father, Gary Waninya Marika, has an Order of Australia for services to Indigenous health. Ishmael’s mother, Yalmakany Marawili is a Yirrkala Ranger and artist. Ishmael has been commissioned to make screen work for the ABC and his work has been shown in several major exhibitions, including: The 2016 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Mildura The 10th Palimpsest Biennale (2015), Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art (2014), and Taboo, Museum of Contemporary Art (2013).

His video work is held in the Collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Ishmael works at the Mulka Project, the media division of Buku-Larrnggay art centre and has also worked as a ranger on his ancestral lands.

Wanyubi Marika Wanyubi is a talented artist and also has a background in cultural dance and was the founder of the Yirrkala Rangers. His fine art work involves an innovative application of his clan law, and his work is held in major collections, such as The British Museum, London, The National Maritime Museum, Artbank and the Sydney Opera House. Wanyubi comes from a family of clan leaders and his father, Milirrpum, represented his people in Australia’s first land rights case in the Darwin’s Supreme Court ‘Milirrpum vs Nabalco’. He has trained in teaching and worked in many fields, including housing and roads, environmental regeneration, and Community Management. Wanybi’s father taught him how and what he can paint, and today he creates artwork amongst his clan people and those of the Madarrpa. His most recent exhibition, Gapu-Monuk Saltwater Journey to Sea Country was held at the National Australian Maritime Museum (2017).

Yilpirr Wanambi Yilpirr was raised in the outstation of Gangan on Blue Mud Bay, by an extended family of prolific artists.

After his brother’s death in 2005, Yilpirr moved from Gangan to Yilpara where his wife is from. This is when he started painting. It is likely that he was influenced in this by his proximity to Djambawa who is a mentor to many young artists. Yilpirr is skilled in wood carving and painting and has shown in the exhibitions Lumggurma, Brumby Ute Gallery, Colorado USA (2015), and Legends and Lore, Artitja Fine Art, Perth (2017).

Wokka Taylor Wokka was born in the far Kayili (north) of the Martu homelands near the Percival Lakes area. The place where he was born is called Kulyakartu, which is a very important area to Martu artists and his family.

They would travel there during the Pujiman (bush) days in the wet season.

It is predominately grass plains and would be very good hunting. During the dry time they would travel Yurlparirra (south) around the Percival lakes area, travelling to all the lakes, sand dunes and waterholes all over the desert. Wokka’s brother Muuki Taylor is a fellow painter and both are very senior Martu law men and elders.

His wife Nancy Karnu Taylor is also a very well-known and respected painter and is also an artist in In Cahoots.

Desmond Taylor Desmond was born in 1964 close to the Oakover River. Two years later

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his family moved to Jigalong Mission – they were amongst the last Martu to live entirely in the desert without access to rations. Desmond went to school in Nullagine and Perth and now works as a professional translator and educator as well as an artist. Desmond primarily paints his family’s country around Karlamilyi (Rudall River) and the creation stories for that country, especially the Ngayarta Kujarra Dreaming. Desmond’s son Curtis Taylor is another artist in In Cahoots.

Wilson Mandijalu Wilson grew up in Bidyadanga Community, south of Broome. His skin group is Karrimarra and he speaks Yulparija. Growing up, he was close to the old people of the Great Sandy Desert, who had only left desert life in the late 1950s to settle in Bidyadanga. They came from Winpa and Kulyakatu country, and Wilson has made trips back to these places with them, learning about his Country. Today he works in the mining industry, in the Pilbara Port of Cape Lambert. For In Cahoots he helped his younger brother, Curtis Taylor, collect wood from east of Parnngurr near the Canning Stock Route and make spears.

From a young age, Wilson learnt how to make spears from his older siblings and fathers. He uses them to hunt stingrays, salmon, sea turtles, dugongs, mud crab and many kinds of reef fish.

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acknowledgements

acknowledgements In Cahoots: artists collaborate across Country Fremantle Arts Centre 25 November 2017–28 January 2018 Curated by Erin Coates, Fremantle Arts Centre Catalogue published and distributed by: Fremantle Arts Centre, 1 Finnerty Steet, Fremantle, Western Australia Phone: +61 (0)8 9432 9555 Web: fac.org.au Catalogue editors: Erin Coates and Sheridan Coleman Catalogue design: Isabel Krßger Image credits: all images are courtesy and copyright of the artists, the listed Aboriginal Art Centres and Fremantle Arts Centre

In Cahoots is presented by

Supported by

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artist / project name here

Almost two years in the making and spanning the nation, In Cahoots celebrates the unique and energised artistic works that emerge when artists collaborate across cultures.

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