International Women’s Day 2022
Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Culture Centre
THREE EXHIBITIONS 10 March to 23 April 2022
K Space Gallery
WOMEN OF KATH-RYNE A Creative Visual Arts Project by and about Women from our Community
G
odinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Culture Centre is all about expressing who we are, celebrating culture, connecting artists
and audiences, and making our community more creative. We’re always looking for ways to do that. This project has been developed as a visual festival of the many female faces, stories, and leaders in our region—as our contribution to International Women's Day 2022. Each participating artist is expressing who we are. Developed by Godinymayin and our community partners, the Women of Kath-ryne project was led by board members and coordinators Toni Tapp Coutts and Siobhan Mackay. The commuinty art project began a few months ago when they invited over 30 local women to make new works of art inspired by women important to them. Thanks to a generous grant from the Northern Territory Government, our organisation provided a blank canvas and art supplies to each participant and asked them to create something special to present at the Centre. Three dozen women form across our region accepted the challege and began making new art. In this exhibition, viewers will find stories, paintings, photographs, collage, and even textiles—a collective visual celebration for 2022 International Women's Day. Each participant was asked to think about a heroic woman in her life—somebody who has made an impact on their view of the world. With canvas and paint supplies, they added mixed-media, photography, collage, textiles, and anything else that would reveal an inspiration, a mentor, an important person. We welcome you in to meet the Women of Kath-ryne—and in each canvas, discover the stories that fill the canvas.
Lambert Gallery
WE ARE STRONG WOMEN Ngagurr awa falmi, lurrity napa ngannim
M
errepen Arts is a strong dynamic indigenous art centre, firmly anchored on the banks of the Daly River. Like the waterway, the centre has ebbed and flowed: always moving forward with assistance from the local women. The story of the art centre began in 1986 when a Women’s Centre Majellan House was opened in Nauiyu, 230 kilometres southwest from Darwin. The community is surrounded by small rocky hills, luxuriant wetlands, and is home to a large variety of wildlife. Almost as soon as the centre was set up the Nauiyu women demonstrated amazing untapped artistic skills. Given painting materials their latent skills became a creative centre, and Merrepen Arts was founded. The name comes from the local sand palm plant and was chosen as a mark of respect for the older women who used the fibres of the plant to make their dillybags and baskets. Over time tutors and later managers with various skills were brought into Nauiyu to assist the business of promoting and selling the art. In 1992 a dedicated screen-printing studio was added to Merrepen Arts and in 1999 a new gallery and residence established. These days both men and women are making art and exhibiting there—although women have always remained the backbone of the centre (as artists, board members, arts workers, and general support staff). We Are Strong Women—Ngagurr awa falmi, lurrity napa ngannim, is a celebration for all the Nauiyu women artists. Their combined talents, strength, resilience, and tenacity have come to Godinymayin. Curated by Merrepen Manager Dr Cathy Laudenbach, the work of six artists is featured: Patricia Marrfurra McTaggart AM, Marita Sambono, Christina Yambeing, AnnCarmel Mulvien, Nola Jimarin and Carmen Gilbert. These powerful women work in a variety of mediums, from textiles, painting, print making to ceramics and unique merchandise. At Godinymayin, we are grateful for their presence here, and for the partnership with Merrepen Arts. The strong women of Nauiyu hope you enjoy their work.
Laneway Gallery
HEALING COUNTRY AND COMMUNITY Photographs by Renae Saxby for the Strong Women for Healthy Country Network
B
ack in 2019, Rembarrnga, Dalabon, and Mayili elders invited women caring for Country from across the Territory to meet at Bawurrbarnda in central Arnhem Land. There, women from 32 ranger groups came together and articulated a shared vision: We are strong Indigenous women of the Northern Territory. We stand united as one strong voice. We commit to a network that gives equal power to the rights of all our women. Strong Women means Healthy Country.
Today this network is known as Strong Women for Healthy Country and is proudly hosted by Mimal Land Management. It continues to grow in size and in May 2021 over 260 women from across the Territory met at Banatjarl on Jawoyn Country for the second Strong Women for Healthy Country Forum. While there the women connected with one another and affirmed a commitment to a collective vision of strong and strategic advocacy, collaboration, communication and governance. The images in this Godinymayin exhibition, Healing Country and Community, are all photographs taken at that landmark gathering. This gallery project began only a few months ago, when Banatjarl cultural advisor Miliwanga Wurrben and network coordinator Kate van Wezel made a visit to Godinymayin. They met new chief executive Eric Holowacz and began discussing plans for the centre's upcoming International Women's Day exhibitions. After learning more about Strong Women for Healthy Country, Holowacz suggested an exhibition of photographs to fit Godinymayin's new Laneway Gallery—and that led to the documentary work of photographer Renae Saxby you see here. In this exhibition, Saxby distills the beauty and power of the gathering held at Banatjarl, where women travelled from far and wide to share experiences, creative conversations, and intercultural exchange. Through the photographer’s intuitive eye and lens, we get a close look at an important gathering—and meetings filled with honest brave conversation, art therapy, weaving, and healing spaces.
GODINYMAYIN GIVES THANKS
G
odinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Culture Centre was established in 2012 as the flagship cultural facility for the Katherine Region, and later this year we will mark our 10th anniversary—with some exciting expansion plans in store. Our founders were a visionary group of local artists, elders, civic leaders, station adn business owners, educators, and government partners who wanted to make a special place for the community. And they did. We thank you for being part of our history, programs, events, and future growth. With these three 2022 International Women’s Day exhibitions, we offer gratitude to the Godinymayin team—Trish Aspey, Richard Starr, Robert Paynter, Eric Holowacz—for their work to deliver cultural events, gatherings, and experiences. We express abundant thanks to gallery volunteers Jake Qunlivan and Danny Murphy, as well as Jherry Matahelumual, Alec Moylan, and Adelaide Laqere. And we give gratitude to board members and Women of Kath-ryne coordinators Toni Tapp Coutts and Siobhan Mackay, to Cathy Laudenbach of Merrepen Arts, and to the dozens of people involved in making these exhibitions possible. We would also like to acknowledge support from ANKA—Arnhem Northern and Kimberley Artists Aboriginal Corporation, Katherine Womens Information & Legal Service, Strong Women for Healthy Country Network, and every wonderful artist who has work in these International Women’s Day exhibitions. Here at the Centre, we are forever grateful for the ongoing support of our principal partners the Northern Territory Government and Katherine. And in everything we do, we acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land and region we inhabit—the Jawoyn, Wardaman and Dagoman people—and their Elders past, present, and emerging. Image on Cover: Detail of photograph by Renae Saxby, from the Healing Country and Community exhibition
THREE GODINYMAYIN EXHIBITIONS