Indigenous Community Volunteers

It seems that for many people a sense of identity is closely linked with ones place of birth, parents’ background and growing up. I was born on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean and have not been back since leaving at 18 months old. My parents were both born in Britain, but spent most of their lives in Perth, Western Australia where I lived until following the family tradition of the overseas pilgrim at 19. As a child my mother took my sisters and I camping all over this wonderful continent and as we grew it become part of us — our memories, our idea of beauty, part of our identity. The land, the nature became a place of refuge in times of need, a place of quiet reflection, a coming home. I now live in Gracetown, in the Margaret River region, and have been using drawing to deepen my connection with my environment.

While growing up in West Australia I had almost no contact with its indigenous population, and the education system kept us at a safe distance, referring to times gone by, often grossly misrepresenting them. It was not until I was studying visual arts, that an opening began and I was able to see the fear and distance, which had been instilled in me.

My initial interest in volunteering with ICV came out respect for indigenous people and their relationship with this land, and an attempt to address my fear and ignorance. With a passion for art and the beauty of the Australian landscape, a yearning to know more about the land and its indigenous people, I offered my services as an artist.

A position soon came up at the Warmun Art Centre, who were looking for skills transfer in relation to photographing and cataloguing art works, and possibly some print making and drawing workshops for those interested.

Warmun is an Aboriginal Community, about 200 kilometres south of Kununurra. It is the home to some of Australia’s top artists, and is also the home of the Krill Krill, a performance ‘found’ by Rover Thomas, which inspired his move into painting, with the original paintings being made for the performance.

On the 8th of July 2003 I travelled to Warmun from Perth, arriving in the dark after two flights and a two hour bus ride from Kununurra. The second flight was in a small 30 seater plane from Broome to Kununurra, over some spectacular country. Below, the land changed from water ways cutting their way through the earth like veins in a leaf, amazing milky green colours on white sand, to deep cut snake like rivers in red earth scattered with low ‘dot’ like bushes. More change revealed dryer land and I travelled for some time over some quite flat country before the hills began, with their rings and lines. I was inspired to draw — and hoped that some of those images would stay with me and make their way into my cells to emerge in drawings to come. Later, Hector Jandany, the oldest and most respected artist at Warmun, informed me that the lines on the earth and around the hills are water marks from when all that area was under water.

Having arrived in the dark, it wasn’t till the morning that I saw where I was. Turkey Creek seems to be in a valley with long bushy dry grass and the oc casional tree, surrounded by relatively low ranges of reddish orange hills. In some areas the ranges are quite flat and in other areas they appear round and lumpy. In seeing the land I gained a better understanding of some of the Warmun art. Much of the work is made with a ‘profile’ perspective, as Mark Nodea a young but well-established artist explained, while some has a topographical aspect.

On my first day at Warmun I was introduced to the artists who arrived to paint.

I watched the ochre’s being ground and mixed with acrylic binder to make paint, and charcoal drawings being laid down on canvas as the initial stage of the painting, and the paint being applied bringing to life the country and stories of the painters.

I wondered what I could offer these accomplished artists, and soon realised that it was I who would be gaining the most from the volunteer program.

It amazed me how busy the Centre was and I became swept up in the day to day running of things, minding the shop, showing visitors around, assisting artists, cataloguing works, making endless cups of tea, packing art ready for freight, cleaning up, photographing art and writing up the stories which accompany the work as dictated by the artist. Canvases were generally stretched and gessoed by two of the local fellows, and artists supplied with various sized canvases, brushes and acrylic binder, ready to mix into paint once they had ground the ochre to their liking.

I was astonished at how many commitments the community members had outside the art centre, and it appeared to me that the centre provided a quiet haven for those who attended.

The first weeks of my two months stay in Warmun, few artists arrived to paint on a regular basis, due to other obligations, from negotiations with Argyle Diamond mine, Woman’s business, Woman’s health, and family obligations, to mention a few.

At the art centre there was a constant stream of tourists, art collectors and visitors, including a fly in group from Sydney, Michael Broun from Arts WA, and Brenda Croft a senior curator at the National Gallery of Australia.

A film crew from SBS joined us on a school trip where Lena Nyadbi taught some of the older children about her ‘country’ near the Argyle Diamond Mine, and about grinding and mixing ochre ready for painting. Another day we went to Mable Julie’s ‘country’ to collect white ochre, probably the most precious of all the ochre’s, and which like all the others is shared among the artists at the centre.

What I found most striking about the Warmun Artists and their work is the strength of unity with the land.

My time at Warmun taught me so much about myself and on my return home I began a whole new approach to drawing which involved an inward gaze, somehow reflecting my experience and relationship with the land. This resulted in a series of charcoal drawings, which won first prize at the Bunbury Regional Art Galleries 2004 South Western Times Survey. For this I thank the artists at Warmun and the support of ICV.

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