THE CITY OF PERTH URBAN SCREENS PRESENT
GOOLOGOOLUP NAIDOC SCREENINGS 24
INDIGENOUS ART ON THE SCREENS
Northbridge Piazza superscreen + Forrest Place Screen
3 – 30 July
Northbridge Piazza + Forrest Place Arts Screen
–
FREE
Screenarts in collaboration with Community Arts Network present a week-long program of Indigenous Art on the Northbridge Piazza and Forrest Place Superscreens in celebration of NAIDOC Week.
This incredible schedule of Indigenous art and culture features animation, sculpture and painting from across Australia.
Above image credit: Meow meow
SCREENING SCHEDULE
EXHIBITIONS
ARTITJA | ACROSS THE WATER
“Across the Water” unites the vibrant and culturally rich artworks of Tiwi Islands artists from Munupi Arts with those from remote community Aboriginal art centres in the East Kimberley, including Kira Kiro Artists at Kalumburu, Waringarri Arts in Kununurra and Marrawuddi Artists in Kakadu.
This exhibition features a diverse collection of paintings and sculptures, celebrating the interconnectedness and unique artistic expressions of four distinct First Nations communities.
“Across the Water” was first exhibited at the Early Works Gallery from June 8 to June 30 and is now presented through digital screenings daily on the City of Perth Urban Screens as part of the Goologoolup NAIDOC Screenings.
This Goologoolup screening is made possible with the kind assistance of Artitja Fine Art Gallery. Based in South Fremantle, Western Australia, Artitja Fine Art Gallery specialises in Australian Aboriginal Art. Celebrating its twentieth year in 2024, Artitja has developed ongoing, trusting relationships with over twenty Aboriginal-owned art centres in remote communities. The gallery continues to bring exciting Indigenous art directly from these communities.
NINUKU ARTS
Ninuku Arts was founded in 2006 by a small group of Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra artists in a small mud-brick building in Kalka Community, located in the far northwest corner of South Australia. Currently, the art centre supports a rotating roster of close to forty artists and makers living in both Kalka and Pipalyatjara, which are the most remote communities of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.
Artists come to work on a near daily basis and the studio is the social and cultural beating heart of both communities. It is a place not only to sit and work alongside family, but to gossip and share stories of near and distant past.
Over the course of the last decade the art centre has exhibited work nationally and internationally, becoming known for its powerful colour palettes as well as the diversity of styles, techniques, and mediums of each artist. Whilst the origins of Ninuku’s creative output lay in the traditions of Western Desert dot painting, artists have grown over time to incorporate loose brush techniques as well as tjanpi (grass) and punu (wood) sculpture into their practices.
Tjarlirli and Kaltukatjara Art
Tjarlirli Art Centre represents artists from Tjukurla in the Ngannyatjarra lands of Western Australia, while Kaltukatjara Art Centre is based in Docker River, Northern Territory. Both art centers have strong ties to the Papunya Tula movement, as families relocated from Kintore and Kiwirrkurra to return to their homelands in the mid-1980s.
Tjarlirli & Kaltukatjara Art is recognised for producing culturally significant work by both elders and young artists who are passionate about continuing the traditions of their parents.
These two community-owned Aboriginal art centres are united by family and a shared commitment to preserving stories, culture, and history. They serve as places where artists paint, share stories, maintain their culture, and connect to Country.
Ikuntji Artists
A lot of stories are still being recounted of long journeys of people from various language groups, who travelled from rockholes and waterholes to caves and mountains finally arriving at Haasts Bluff. The locals, Luritja people of Haasts Bluff, were already here. Thus Haasts Bluff is a community rich of diversity in language and culture.
Ikuntji Artists was first established in 1992, the artists draw their inspiration from their personal ngurra (country) and Tjukurrpa (Dreaming). They interpret the ancestral stories by using traditional symbols, icons and motifs. The artistic repertoire of Ikuntji Artists is diverse and includes for example: naive as well as highly abstract paintings told by each artist in their personal signature style. Throughout the 27 years of its existence the art movement in Ikuntji has flourished and constantly left its mark in the fine art world. At the same time the art centre has been the cultural hub of the community, maintaining, reinforcing and reinvigorating cultural practices through art-making.
Today Haasts Bluff has a population of around 150 people, Ikuntji Artists has eight key artists, who exhibit in Australia and internationally and are represented in major collections across the globe.
Martumili Artists | Kujungka
Kujungka is the third exhibition following Mirrka (2023) and Waru (2022), which respectively celebrated many of the bushfoods that have sustained Martu people over thousands of years, and the importance of traditional fire uses.
Kujungka speaks to a sense of connectedness, reflecting the Martu vision to preserve cultural traditions, knowledge, and Country. Whilst desert life has moved away from mobile hunter-gatherer subsistence throughout the course of the twentieth century, bush tucker continues to be a significant component of the modern Martu diet. Hunting and gathering bush tucker remains equally valuable as an important cultural practice that is passed on intergenerationally, and still practiced today
Martumili Artists was established by Martu people living in the communities of Parnpajinya (Newman), Jigalong, Parnngurr, Punmu, Kunawarritji, Irrungadji and Warralong, and it draws on strong influences of aboriginal art history. After long and cautious observation of other desert artists’ experiences of the art market.
The artists and their families are the traditional custodians of vast stretches of the Great Sandy, Little Sandy and Gibson Deserts as well as the Karlamilyi (Rudall River) area.
COMMUNITY ARTS NETWORK | DOCUMENTARY
Community Arts Network (CAN) present two narrative documentaries from the archive: Welcome to Balardong, a delightful yet poignant oral history from the town of York in Balardong set to stop motion animation, and Noongar Boodja (Noongar Country), created by young Aboriginal people from Albany.
True to its roots planted firmly in the social activism of the 1960s and the early international community arts movement, CAN slates projects where the creative process itself drives the change CAN wish to achieve. Often, as with these documentary films, the process not only resonates deeply with the community, but the resulting works find their place on national and international stages.
Welcome to Balardong | York
The Welcome to Balardong animation was produced during CAN’s Rekindling Stories on Country program in York.
Director Mat Sav together elements from the program to create an impactful short film that shares previously untold stories about Noongar life in and around York.
Stop-motion animated sequences were created by animator Steve Aiton and Noongar artist Bradley Kickett, which were then blended with narration by community storytellers.
Noongar Boodja | Albany
‘Noongar Boodja’ is a documentary made by young Aboriginal people from Albany.
This stunning cinematic story with Noongar Elders explores significant places, their Noongar names, and culture in Albany and surrounding areas.
This film was developed as part of the Community Arts Network (CAN) Place Names program, which looks to engage Noongar communities in exploring the meaning of language and culture through place.
other screenings
Makuru Tv
Djilba (August-September) is the fifth season in the Nyoongar Calendar. This is the season of growth, as the weather begins to warm up. Djilba season is a time to look for the yellow and cream flowers starting on mass. As the season progresses and the temperatures continue to rise, we’ll start to see the flower stalks of the balgas emerging in preparation for the coming Kambarang season. This program is a collection of three pieces of footage taken from locations around Perth during the season of Djilba. The first scene is of the creek running down from Lesmurdie Falls in the Perth Hills. The second scene is the beginnings of the wildflowers blossoming in the bush around Kalamunda. The third scene captures the multifarious bird life at Manning Lake in Cockburn. The vivid beauty and life of Perth’s natural wonders are paired with small pieces of information found on the KURONGKURL KATITJIN page of the ECU website.
Makuru sunset
Kambarang (October-November) is the sixth season in the Nyoongar Calendar. This is the season of birth, as the weather continues to warm up. This 53 minute program of nature footage was taken at Yallingup Beach, as the sun sets on the sweeping and majestic coast. Surfers can be seen bobbing amongst the waves as the colours transform kaleidoscopically over the course of the video.
Screenarts acknowledges the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation as the traditional custodians of this country and its waters and that we operate on Noongar country. We pay our respects to Noongar elders past, present, and emerging. Always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
