FRESHWATER - Curatorial Introduction
SAM Director, Dr Rebecca Coates talks about the exhibition, FRESHWATER, showing at SAM from 31 March to 4 June 2017.
FRESHWATER considers how water reflects ecological, cultural, political and economic realities. Through the works of over 20 Australian artists and artist collectives, alongside historic works drawn from the SAM Collection, FRESHWATER highlights how water remains central to identity, and to how and where we live.
Issues range from ecological concerns about rising salinity, plant and animal environments, refuse and waste, to the inevitable contest around sustainable balances between environmental and agricultural needs. Rivers and waterways also have cultural and historical significance as they sustain work and life and remind us of stories that stretch across time and place.
Two major waterways meet at the heart of Shepparton: The Goulburn River (or Kaiela River as local Aboriginal people refer to it); and the Broken River. The Goulburn River then runs from Shepparton through to Echuca, where it joins the Murray River. This region is rich and fertile, sustaining economies and agricultural practices from cattle and dairy, to the orchards for which Shepparton is known.
FRESHWATER artists include: Ian Abdulla, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, Louis Buvelot, Vera Cooper, Nici Cumpston, Bonita Ely, Jackie Giles Tjapaltjarri, Eugene von Guerard, Brent Harris, Andrew Hazewinkel, Jonathan Jones and Tom Nicholson, Rosemary Laing, Sir John Longstaff, James Morrison, Albert Namatjira, Nyurapayia Nampitjinpa, Rosie Nanyuma, Wintijya Napaljarri, Lin Onus, Jill Orr, Tiger Palpatja, Eva Ponting, John Skinner Prout, Sally Ross, The Telepathy Project, Gloria Thanacoupie, Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula, Fred Williams, and John Wolseley.
Curator: Dr Rebecca Coates Curatorial associates: Anna Briers, Belinda Briggs
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander audiences are advised that the exhibition may contain images and voices of people who have since passed away.
FRESHWATER is part of CLIMATE’s ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2017 - a festival of exhibitions and events harnessing the creative power of the Arts to inform, engage and inspire action on climate change. artclimatechange.org
Kaiela Arts Shepparton
Connecting and Inspiring Aboriginal Stories
Established in 2006, Kaiela Arts is an Aboriginal art centre located in Shepparton. We provide an important space for artists and the community to connect with art and culture. Our work drives important outcomes for both our artists and the broader Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community.
With a rich Indigenous heritage, the Kaiela Dungala (Goulburn Murray) region is home to many talented artists – Kaiela Arts represents more than 80 of those artists and helps to share and support their work. Artists receive training and mentoring at the centre, and the work of many artists has been exhibited around the State, in some cases winning prestigious awards.
We offer an accessible studio and social space for local artists to connect, create and share art. The centre is a welcoming environment for everyone to learn about Aboriginal cultural arts.
We provide training and professional development opportunities for member artists at all levels, including exhibitions and collaborations with artists and non arts organisations outside the gallery.
We are active in promoting the South Eastern Australian Aboriginal linear art styles, which is traditional to the Aboriginal peoples of the Kaiela-Dungala region.
We provide employment and training for Aboriginal people both as staff and artists. There are many opportunities to connect with the wider community through events, exhibitions, projects and workshops.
Our Gallery and shop is a point of sale for the work of our artists, providing them with a channel to market their work, connect with their buyers and earn income. The gallery and shop provides locals and visitors with a place to acquire local Aboriginal art.
We educate the community about Aboriginal art and culture, through our in schools program – Galyan Manu, for students and teachers. We also offer workshops and cultural arts information sessions to the general public.
All artwork is produced locally by members of the Dungala Kaiela Aboriginal community and includes paintings, didgeridoos, woven baskets, woodwork, ceramics, clap sticks, boomerangs, jewellery,carved emu eggs and poker work and well as books, cards and textiles..
Our Vision
Kaiela Arts strives to facilitate opportunities for Aboriginal people in the
Kaiela-Dungala (Goulburn-Murray) Region to connect to culture through the arts; empowering future generations.
Our Mission:
Kaiela Arts enable Aboriginal artists in the Kaiela-Dungala (Goulburn-Murray) Region
To tell their stories through art and build pathways to professional excellence and recognition, connecting with and sharing culture across two worlds and further enabling the physical, spiritual and emotional wellbeing of the whole community.
SAM 2016 Indigenous Ceramic Art Award
The Indigenous Ceramic Art Award (ICAA) is an acquisitive Award that celebrates and supports the rich and diverse use of the ceramic medium by Indigenous artists and acknowledges the special industry of ceramic art.
2016 Project Curator, Joanna Boose talks about the 2016 ICAA shortlisted artists and this year’s Award.
The 2016 Indigenous Ceramic Art Award exhibition is on at the Shepparton Art Museum from Saturday 6 August to Sunday 25 September.
The 2016 shortlisted artists are:
◾Janet Fieldhouse, Torres Strait (QLD)
◾Deanne Gilson, Wadawurrung/ Wathaurung (VIC)
◾Sean Miller, Kamilaroi (NSW)
◾Raymond Young, Gunnai / Yorta Yorta/ Gunditjmara (VIC)
◾Alison Murray, Girramay (QLD)
Gallery Kaiela Artists (VIC)
◾Jack Anselmi, Yorta Yorta
◾Cynthia Hardie, Yorta Yorta
Ernbella Women Potters, Pukatja Community – Pitjantjatjara Language (SA)
◾Lynette Lewis
◾Yaritji Jack
◾Marissa Thompson
◾Anne Thompson
◾Tjimpuna Williams
◾Janelle Thompson
◾Rachael Mipantjiti Lionel
◾Alison Milyika Carroll
◾Carlene Thompson
Weaving Across Walls
In 2010 Shepparton Art Gallery hosted an artist in residence to facilitate an open workshop space and exhibition with 25 participants from an emerging Aboriginal woman's weaving group and other community members.
For the project Shepparton Art Gallery partnered with the Centre for Koori Education, GOTAFE bringing together Elders, TAFE students, woman and men from the local Aboriginal Community. This group explored the traditional coiling method of weaving with Patricia Harrison (Yorta Yorta/Guni Kurni woman) and over three weeks of weaving and sharing of ideas, the group under Patricia's guidance and tutorage completed woven works that came together in the visual narrative of the exhibition. Traditional techniques and materials were used to express a contemporary response to ancestral and cultural traditions; weaving across the generations and referencing traditional Aboriginal life and connection to the Goulburn River (Kaiela) country.
THE PROJECT had many connotations. A series of public programs allowed the general public the opportunity to engage with the participants and the making of the work. The workshops were a great opportunity to begin to build cultural literacy, helping to move people towards respect and understanding of diverse cultures. Weaving Across Walls opened Friday June 25, 2010 to an excited crowd of participant's families, friends and Art Gallery supporters.
By Angie Russi.
Documentary Director: Cecelia Russi Hedditch.
Music: Sonny Cooper
2018 Dungala Kaiela Oration - Dr Moana Jackson
Prominent Māori lawyer and social justice advocate Moana Jackson explores treaty, sovereignty and self-governance at the 10th annual Dungala Kaiela ‘Defining Goulburn Murray’ Oration on Yorta Yorta country in Shepparton on Tuesday, 24 July 2018.
Co-hosted by the Kaiela Institute and the University of Melbourne, the oration brings together Shepparton and the wider community to promote social and economic prosperity in the Goulburn Murray.
Dr Jackson’s lecture, At home on country, at home in the world, will explore the United Nations drafting of Rights of Indigenous Peoples and its desire to allow Indigenous people to determine their own destinies.
Dr Jackson is Director of Ngā Kaiwhakamārama i ngā Ture (the Maori Legal Service) and lecturer at Te Wānanga o Raukawa, Ōtaki.
“Yorta Yorta people, like all Indigenous peoples, deserve to not just be safe and secure at home in country, but to be confident and brave at home in the world,” Dr Jackson said.
“I’ve learned about some of the exciting initiatives that have begun in the Goulburn Murray, and in Australia, to make this possible. These indicate that the hopes shared by so many during the drafting of the UN Declaration can be made real with imagination and bravery.
“To do this, we must have a voice and a seat at the table when it comes to treaty discussions and sovereignty more broadly.”
More information on the Dungala Kaiela Oration can be found:
6:25 Paul Briggs, Co-convenor of the Dungala Kaiela Oration
20:04 Professor Glyn Davis AC, Co-convenor of the Dungala Kaiela Oration
26:39 Jill Gallagher A0, Victorian Treaty Advancement Commissioner
45:05 Dungala Children's Choir
1:08:33 Dr. Moana Jackson
1:56:39 Closing remarks by James Atkinson
Yorta Yorta Beyachad 2015
Description: In partnership with Stand Up, a number of Year 9 students at Mount Scopus Memorial College with an interest in learning about Indigenous culture have just returned from the Yorta Yorta Beychad trip. In the lead up to the trip they participated in five workshops exploring the dreamtime, the Northern Territory Intervention, and the history and culture of the Yorta Yorta nation. They also heard from guest speakers including aboriginal nurse Vera Webber, Stolen Generations survivor Kutcha Edwards and had a tour of the Yarra with Dean Stewart.
On the trip, the students have visited a number of sacred places to the Yorta Yorta people in the Barmah forest, learnt about the turtle dreaming at Gallery Kaiela in Shepparton, and paid their respects at the graves of rights leaders William Barak in Coranderrk and Sir Doug Nichols in Cummeragunja. They met a number of descendants of William Cooper, an elder of the Yorta Yorta nation who has been honoured by Yad Vashem for his courageous protest in 1938 after Kristallnacht.
Finally, they participated in unique cultural exchange with the girls from Worowa Aboriginal College at the Sandra Bardas Gallery in Healesville. They are very much looking forward to welcoming the Aboriginal girls they met back to Scopus for a return visit in August. The students have returned with a renewed interest in the history of the many countries and languages of this land.
Program Co-ordinator and teacher, Mr Ittay Flescher said, “By providing tangible experiences of learning and cooperation with the Yorta Yorta nation, students will hopefully be inspired to investigate what it means to be Australian Jews, and use their knowledge of history to create a better future”.
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Music: Land of a Thousand Dances, Jessica Mauboy
Waiting for Love, Avicii
Ngarra Burra Ferra, Sapphires Soundtrack
Online Museum Training - Developing Diverse Audiences - Kirsten Paisley, SAM
Shepparton Art Museum (SAM)
Kirsten Paisley, Director
Kirsten Paisley explains how the SAM have broadened their audiences by developing programs to partner with and invite communities from culturally diverse cultural backgrounds into their gallery.
The Developing Diverse Audiences seminar addressed methods to make museums accessible and inclusive, considering new audiences, audiences with disabilities and audiences from diverse backgrounds.
Presented in partnership with the Public Galleries Association of Victoria and NETS Victoria.
Thank you to the City of Melbourne and the National Gallery of Victoria for their generous support of this project.
See our YouTube channel for further presentations from this event, past seminars and practical online training for museums & galleries.
Museums Australia (Victoria)
Pecan Summer - Empowering Voices - Part 1_a
Talent search for the first Indigenous Australian Opera, Pecan Summer composed by Deborah Cheetham & premiering on October 9, 2010.