Belonging wishes to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Noongar people of the Whadjuk nation and their Elders past and present. We acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this city and this region. Belonging is proudly supported by the Office of Multicultural Interests, and North Metropolitan TAFE. Belonging Exhibition Team: Propel Youth Arts WA Project Officer Steven Finch Curator Gabby Loo Assistant Curator Danyon Burge Installation Team Carolyn Smith Liz Smith Workshop Helpers Hannah Cockroft Emeline McGrath Photographer Matt Newell
Exhibiting Artists Jay Azim Hutson Nathan Tang Anneka de Souza Usamah Abdullah Prema Arasu Yuanya Liang Mary Chris Par Muhammad Abdullah Alexandra Loo Lwe Moo Andrea Parafina Elna Aswadila Abdul Wahab Debbie Choo
Videographers Renee Nguyen Jake Stillman
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Introduction Belonging is an interactive community exhibition and a platform for young creative people from refugee and migrant backgrounds, to share their stories and explore their identities and cultures. Many of the artworks on display have been produced during the two creative workshops hosted prior to the exhibition. During these workshops participants learned story collecting techniques, and fundamental art skills in drawing and painting.
Artists Usamah, Elna and Muhammad holding their drawings at Workshop 2 on the 11th of April 2017.
Belonging also offers a series of three workshops for young people (aged 12-26) of all backgrounds to participate in: Empathy Portraits: Life Drawing in Practice Tuesday 18 April, 12.00 - 2.30pm Story Telling with Comics: Panel by Panel Thursday 20 April, 12.00 - 2.30pm Everyone has a Story: Book Making Saturday 22 April, 12.00 - 2.30pm 2
Words from the Curator During the first Belonging workshop we had an open discussion on our cultural backgrounds and personal histories. At the time I recognised feelings of confusion and uncertainty. It seemed as if many of our young artists had not spoken publicly about their cultural identity in such detail before. To tell you a bit about myself, I am the youngest child of migrant parents. I dabble between two cultural realms, with one inevitably overriding the other. The native tongue of my parents’ fades in my memory, and I am constantly slotting sounds into vague definitions. So, when I am struck with the question of “Where are you from?� I hesitate. I understand that people do not mean for this to sound rude, but with age it grows into an alarming question when you do not feel confident with any answer. As Belonging reaches other Western Australian communities I truly look forward to assisting the creative expression of more migrant and refugee background youth who are similarly seeking a space to discuss and delve into the complexities of their cultural and personal identity. If these young people are anything like me, their answers to what belonging means to them would involve a lot of grey areas yet to be uncovered. I am also hopeful that Belonging will continue to empower the voices of youth that are otherwise excluded from public dialogue on multiculturalism in Australia. Gabby Loo Gabby Loo is a local comics artist studying Fine Arts at the University of Western Australia, of Shan (Myanmar) and Chinese ethnicity.
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Belonging presents works by: (Gallery left Wall, viewing from left to right) 1. Jay Azim Hutson Generasi (Generations) series of three photographs The three images depict different generations within my Indonesian family. Youth, middle age and old age are the three generations. Each subject’s gaze shows each individuals’ possible motivations and thoughts at that point in their life. ‘Adik Saya’s’ (My Brother) main subject is the bottle of chilli sauce, which is associated with Indonesian food, next to it, a pepper shaker, usually associated with western food. The two condiments depict Jay’s multicultural upbringing of being half Australian and half Indonesian. 2. Jay Azim Hutson ‘Om Ais’ (Uncle Ais) depicts a man in a relaxed pose, reading the newspaper. The pose is very “dad-like,” focused, but relaxed in the way his legs are crossed and how he is laid back on the couch. His sight is looking towards the now, the current global and domestic economical and political climate. 3. Jay Azim Hutson The final image, ‘Eyang Boy’ (Grandfather) has my grandfather sitting in a relaxed position in his armchair. His gaze is focused on something outside of the frame. Above him is artwork with Arabic writing, scriptures from the Quran, creating the idea that he is a man, who has lived his life under Islam and is now looking at his family, his legacy and his past.
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4. Nathan Tang Missing Assemblage Refer to the last pages for an essay on Multiculturalism also written by Nathan. 5. Anneka de Souza two drawings, and poem: Home My ancestors came from across the seas To call Australia home From the four corner of the compass they came, Blown by the North East wind I come from places all around the globe, I’ve lived to cities that’ll never grow old, From the heights of New York to the streets of Mumbai From the depths of the desert and the lights of Shanghai I am all this and more I am a melting pot of cultures combined A mix of sights and tastes and sounds Neither black nor white, but some shade between I came from across the seas I now call Australia home 6. Usamah Abdullah MOSQUE mixed media drawing 7. Yuanya Liang Australia and China mixed media drawing 5
8. Prema Arasu Steve My piece is called “Steve” which was the Australianised nickname of my late paternal grandfather, Dr. Subramaniam Tirunavu Arasu. He was born in India, lived in Malaysia and migrated to Australia in the 70s. His book collection is now mine, and I’ve found that he used miscellaneous papers or whatever he had on hand to mark his page. This piece is made from that ephemera. The ink I have used here is Noodler’s “Burma Road Brown” in homage to the cultural heritage of my mother’s side of the family and in acknowledgement of the colonial impacts on Burma. 9. Mary Chris Par ink, pencil Hi everyone, my name is Chris. This is my design. My character traits are friendly, happy, red, blue, yellow and confident. I chose my design because the heat means my favourite colour is red and the cross means I am Christian. The two peoples show are friendliness. The face represents that I am always happy. 10. Usamah Abdullah Mercy mixed media drawing 11. Muhammad Abdullah How I catch snake mixed media drawing 12. Usamah Abdullah My backyard (in Australia) mixed media drawing 13. Mary Chris Par pencil Hi everyone my name is Mary Chris Par. Most people call me Chris. I’m an 18 years old student in North Lake Senior Campus. I came 6
from Myanmar Chin. This is our Chin traditional clothes, this is what we wear, this is woven, we wear them with a silver belt which is made from coins. We use them at a ceremony on National day. I like traditional clothes because I’m proud to be Chin and I love that we are beautiful and attractive. We should not forget our culture and identity wherever we live. Also Chin has a special custom, we take off our shoes before we go into the house. When we pass things to the elderly people we use both hands and when we walk in front of the elderly people we bow our heads. I lived in Malaysia for 20 months then I came here. I felt enjoyed and happy. 14. Alexandra Loo Family ink (Gallery right wall, viewing from left to right) 15. Muhammad Abdullah REHAL mixed media drawing 16. Lwe Moo SOMETIMES YOU PROBABLY FEEL THE SAME AS ME! ink 17. Muhammad Abdullah SHEIKH (old man/scholar/respected elderly) mixed media drawing 18. Andrea Parafina Holidays ink, pencil, watercolour This piece is a scene from my time spent with family in the Philippines during the Christmas season. Despite living in Australia I still feel like I have that sense of community with my family and culture, especially in the Christmas period, since religion is such a 7
major part of Filipino culture and a lot of time is spent with family. Even though my upbringing in Australia has shaped me to follow my own beliefs, I still experience a sense of belonging when surrounded by the food, music and spirit of my culture. 19. Elna Aswadila Abdul Wahab W.O.R.D drawing 20. Debbie Choo Subculture digital drawing For one, I’m sure everyone has at least one experience in their high school life that they would never relive no matter how much money was thrown at them. This basically sums up my entire adolescence up to Year 12. The good news is that these insanely bad experiences marked me forever as belonging to the Asian pop subculture of Perth and that, right now, belonging to this subculture instils me with real confidence as a person in their 20s. When I was 12 and first started high school at a sort of fairly middle class high school with a large immigrant population, adolescence wasn’t a rocky road. I had a good mix of friends of different ethnicities but the people I stuck with most called themselves the AZN (Asian) gang. Together we bonded through Asian pop, manga, Korean dramas and Japanese fashion. It was cool and I felt I really belonged in this AZN gang. Together we discussed the problems of having strict Asian parents and competed with each other in our studies. Unfortunately, I fell short of my expectations in Year 9 and so, moved to a extremely exclusive private school in Peppermint Grove to up my academic game. This was probably one of the worst decisions of my life. I felt super alienated in that school because there were like two and a half Asian students in my year group, and 8
they weren’t interested in Asian pop culture at all. I grew up somewhat lonely, thinking I was different from everyone else; when, in fact, there were heaps of Asian Australians who loved K-pop and anime! So, this piece I have named ‘Subculture’ celebrates the new, young generation of Asian Australians who feel they belong to the Asian pop subculture of Perth. While Asian pop may be the dominant cultural trend in Asian countries, it is a subculture in A ustralia because we are a multicultural nation. This piece is also called ‘Subculture’ because I would like to emphasise the utter wonderfulness of having various subcultures in Australia where different ethnicities can feel they belong to. Living in a relatively tolerant, multicultural nation is a fantastic thing!
Multiculturalism An essay written by Nathan Tang When talking of belonging it is unavoidable to speak of one’s culture and heritage. Australia is a self-proclaimed multicultural society; we are supposed to celebrate the vast differences that come with being an immigrant nation. Whether our heritages are European, Asian, African or Indigenous, all are, at least supposed to be, equal. It is admirable to aspire to such a thing; it is what should be done. However, we have a ways to go before we can reach it. Nowadays, our social and political atmosphere is marred with suspicion and paranoia and the effects are clear on our society and culture to the extent that in some circles multiculturalism is considered either impractical or dangerous. Somewhere along the line it went wrong, we became less hospitable as we believed the world around us did the same. But the doors were always closed, or at least only ajar. We tolerated others with our teeth gritting and instead of speaking, we resided ourselves to silence and self-assurance, that we were in the right. This paternalistic view is no moral high ground and is not multicultural; in effect it is near segregation. We are routinely fooled 9
into believing a false and exaggerated narrative about those who come to our shores seeking refuge or about the ones who inhabited this land before us. We betray multiculturalism when we prefer not to individually engage with one another, when we support policies that are driven by fear and when we give platforms to divisive agendas masquerading as ‘free-speech’. Centuries of Western colonisation have brought about the world we live in. It was damning to see that in the Australian Multicultural Statement released this year, there was barely any mention of the Indigenous peoples. They were denied a personal story alongside the migrants and second-generation Australians; stories that were palatable but could not satiate. Personally, it is ironic that I, an immigrant from a former British colony who feels no cultural belonging to my homeland nor the country I reside in, am also the same person who had and is contributing to the deprivation of that same sense for the Indigenous peoples of Australia. The only thing that is true about Australia as a multicultural society is that it is not our reality yet. One cannot preach multiculturalism whilst demanding assimilation without dialogue; one cannot claim to be hospitable whilst reluctantly tolerating people through the convenient frame of a TV set. To belong in this nation is to be accepted by it. But to sound hopeless is insincere. Through the comfort of friends, marching in rallies and engaging with one another, not as political opposites or irreconcilable ethnicities, we rebel against the very notion that states that it is in our nature to be divided along those lines. As we begin to see oppression and division as a shared phenomenon we are driven personally into community. In the words of Albert Camus “I rebel, therefore we exist.”
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