Collaborating art centres
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Foundations: developing Gululu dhuwala djalkiri
4 February 2021
An exhibition created in collaboration with Yolŋu communities
For the Yolŋu people of eastern Arnhem Land, the foundation of their knowledge is expressed through art. Curator Rebecca Conway shares the ideas and process behind this powerful exhibition.
The University of Sydney holdsclose to 1,000 items of Yolŋu culturalheritage. Most recently we acquiredan award-winning video work forthe current exhibition. Other workswere created and brought here, somenearly 100 years ago. Together, theyrepresent three major centres ofYolŋu settlement and art-production– generations of art and artistsfrom Milingimbi/Yurrwi Island,Ramingining, and Yirrkala in easternArnhem Land.
Through these collections we seethe concerns, politics, key players andartists who were actively engagingwith balanda (non-Indigenous)academics in order to make themunderstand the veracity of theirculture. We also see glimpses backmillennia, to creation times andwaŋarr (ancestral beings), theinfluences that shaped the Yolŋupeople, their land and waters. Proudly,Yolŋu continue to develop within thisdeep inheritance.
Indigenous art historian, StephenGilchrist in his introduction for thebook, Djalkiri: Yolŋu art, collaborationsand collections (to be launched inconjunction with the exhibition)comments that, “…working with eitherhistorical collections or contemporaryobjects demands a commitment tothe unvoiced dimensions of worksof art, their cultural signification,biographical elements and politicalpotency. Indigenous curation ispremised on this cultural mandate tospeak with and listen to the objects.”
Museum staff installing Gululu dhuwala djalkiri:welcome to the Yolŋu foundations, 2020.Photo: Chau Chak WingMuseum
How do you honour this, especiallywhen one is a non-Indigenous curatorworking with Indigenous collections?We need to think deeply aboutwho can speak most meaningfullyfor collections, who most needs tolisten, and how such conversationsand interactions can be facilitated inpresent circumstances.
I have been privileged to have beenmentored by several Yolŋu Elders andacademics. One of my most influentialwas Gupapuyŋu clan leader andhonorary doctorate of the university,Dr Joe Neparrŋa Gumbula (1954–2015)who I worked with at the universityfrom 2009. He urged me and otherslike me, “… to start digging into thatwhole historical message”. He said, “Itisn’t just for balanda anthropologists[or curators] to find and give theinformation, there should be amixture. We are all brought up in this world, we all have different cultures tobe respected.”
“It isn’t just for balanda anthropologists [or curators] to find and give the information, there should be a mixture. We are all brought up in this world, we all have different cultures to be respected.”
Dr Joe Neparrŋa Gumbula (1954–2015), Gupapuyŋu clan leader, honorary doctorate of the University
Tolbert Dharramanba and Djon Mundine OAM examine documentation of artworks painted at Ramingining, museum curator Rebecca Conway looking on. Raymond Bulambula and Joe Dhamanydji from Milingimbi Art and Culture working in the background. University Museums storerooms, Sydney, December 2018. Photo: Chau Chak WingMuseum
Flash forward to 2018, when agroup of six Elders, representatives ofthe three Yolŋu communities we holdwork from, came to Sydney to viewthe collections and advise and directus how to develop the exhibition fromtheir perspective. In a presentationto university alumni, Rirratjiŋu clanleader and artist, Wanyubi Marika,stated, “We are being taught in ourown professional manner to becomea professor or doctor or whatever.We sit it in that ‘lab’, that dalkarra[knowledge base of Yolŋu law, songs,sacred business]. First, you have tobe an artist … then you are going intoanother level of qualification, youare qualified to go step by step. In asimilar way that you are learning inuniversities, we have the same thing.”
Yälpi Yunupiŋu and Wanyubi Marika discuss grouping of worksfrom Yirrkala with curator Matt Poll. University Museums storerooms, Sydney, December 2018. Photo: Chau Chak WingMuseum
There are more than 40 clansand many Yolŋu matha (languages).Yolŋu miny’tji (clan designs) asrepresented through their art arecore aspects of their intellectualproperty. Rich with metaphor andcomplex interrelationships, theysignal and protect deeper meanings.Visually striking, the exhibition wehave developed collaborativelyover the last two years, showcasesthe miny’tji of more than 20 Yolŋu clangroups and over 100 artists. Morethan 350 works have been grouped torepresent the artists’ clan inheritancesand estates and to loosely map fromeast to west the geographical andcultural landscape of much of easternArnhem Land.
The title of the exhibitiondeveloped by the Yolŋu project teamis an invitation, Gululu dhuwala djalkiri:welcome to the Yolŋu foundations.
Rebecca Conwayis Curator,Ethnography, Macleay Collections,Chau Chak Wing Museum. She co-curated the exhibition with Matt Poll,Assistant Curator, Indigenous Heritageand Repatriation, and representatives ofMilingimbi Art and Culture, Yurrwi Island,Bula’bula Arts, Ramingining, and BukularrŋgayMulka, Yirrkala Art Centre.
This article was first published in Issue 26 of Muse Magazine, November 2020.