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MEDIA RELEASE 12 Oct 2007
Tracks in the Desert
BRIGHTSPACE
8 Martin Street, St Kilda
03 9593 9366
kylie@brightspace.com.au
Opening: Thursday15 November (6 – 8pm)
Welcome to Country by Boon wurrung elder Fay Stewart-Muir
Exhibition: 15 Nov – 2 Dec 2007
Gallery hours: 12-6 Wed – Sat & 1-5 Sunday
For further contact with artists or the curator (Lyn Hovey), please contact Kylie Greer at BRIGHTSPACE.
http://www.brightspace.com.au/exhibitions/2007/tracks/index.htm
Tracks in the Desert is a unique art exhibition by Indigenous artists from the Marree Arabunna community in South Australia and visiting artists who return regularly to Marree, drawn by their friendships with local people and by their attachment to the land and includes painting, photography, sculpture, installation, music and film.
For the first time Marree Arabunna artists will travel to Victoria to showcase their artwork, not only giving Non-Indigenous people the chance to understand how Aboriginal people feel about the land, but also gaining the opportunity to exchange creative and cultural ideas with the local Boon wurrung community.
To achieve this cultural exchange, a two-day creative photographic workshop titled URBAN Tracks will be conducted by re-nowned Marree Arabunna photographer, Reg Dodd. Reg will lead a workshop focussing on the discovery and documentation of local tracks of importance. These photographs and images will become an element of the exhibition.
SOUND Tracks from the Desert is a project involving students from the Marree Aboriginal School. The students will record traditional and contemporary sounds of the land and music from their community to create a sound-scape for the exhibition.
In the past, Reg Dodd and other Arabunna could look at the creature tracks in the desert and know what it was, how many, how fast, where they were going and why. Now there are other tracks in the desert. Today the Arabunna’s ability to look after their country is impacted by government decisions, pastoral issues and mining companies including The Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine at Roxby Downs.
“Tourists come through this place and say that there’s nothing to see out there. They say it’s a big country with nothing in it. But I can go out and photograph any number of things just in a tiny area. I take photographs of things in their natural habitat. Nearly all my photos are of this area because I can identify with the places and the images: they’re part of me.” Reg Dodd
ARTISTS:
Reg Dodd (Arabunna) – photographer
Samantha Lester (Arabunna) – painter
Patsy Gepp (Arabunna) – painter
Lyn Hovey – painter/curator
Malcolm McKinnon – film maker, painter
Ben Laycock – painter and sculptor
Robin Cooke – sculptor, fireworks/installations/events,
Pauline Ahern – a fibre artist/sculptor
Sue Edmonds – installation/sculptor
Benny Zable – painter, sign writer installation and performance artist.
Students of the Marree Aboriginal School
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Marree is a small town in South Australia, south of Lake Eyre and north of the spectacular Flinders Ranges. To many visitors it is outback Australia. To the Arabunna people who live there, it is the centre of the universe.
The Arabunna have welcomed many diverse people to their land. Artists are embraced and encouraged to create. To be an artist in Marree is a valued, joyful and purposeful occupation. Art is not icing on the cake but an ingredient of existence. The Marree Arabunna Centre, although under funded, is the hub of the Marree community and it keeps many services in the town and culture afloat.
Many Arabunna grew up on Finnis Springs Station and mission, some 60K north west of Marree. Finnis Springs Station is at the heart of Arabunna country and is jointly managed by the Arabunna and the South Australian Aboriginal Lands Trust. Despite being desert dwellers, the Arabunna see themselves as the water people as they are the custodians of Lake Eyre and the mound springs. Mound springs are vents from the Great Artesian Basin and are unique arid land habitats that support rare and delicate flora and fauna. They have high cultural significance to the Arabunna.
Today the Arabunna’s ability to look after their country is impacted by government decisions, pastoral issues and mining companies. The Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine at Roxby Downs presents local aboriginal people with heartache and trauma. The mine uses over 30 million litres of water daily, drawn from the Great Artesian Basin. Sites of significance and mound springs have been adversely affected by the siting and quantity of this water extraction. The proposed expansion of the mine threatens the integrity of the land. |
