Thursday 4 March 2021
Decolonising Visual Culture on Nyungar Boodjah
6.30-9.30pm, Hackett Hall
In solidarity with the protests, the names of some of the hundreds of Indigenous people who have died in custody were projected on a landmark sculpture in Walyalup (Fremantle) during 2020, bringing into focus place, visibility, history and the resonance of the BLM movement in Western Australia, the state with the largest number of Indigenous deaths in custody.
To launch our 2021 In Visible Ink Symposium we convene conversations around the themes of deconstruction and reconstruction of visual and civic culture.
From a powerful opening conversation led by Aboriginal women and women of colour, to a dynamic panel discussion on the reconstruction and reclamation of sidelined cultural identities through subverting music, design and pop culture, we conclude with a series of projections and playlist that speak to the ongoing history of deconstruction and appropriation of cultures.
Join the Museum of Freedom and Tolerance and special guests on a multi-sensory journey as we provoke our audience to question the visibility of dominant civic and cultural landscapes and landmarks, learn how to see differently, and actively seek a fairer and more just approach to systemic racism, discrimination, incarceration and inequality.
Friday 5 March 2021
Illuminating the Darkness: Shining a Light on Forgotten History Through Film
6.00-9.00pm, Hackett Hall
The Furnace is a film that illuminates the forgotten history of Australia’s ‘Ghan’ cameleers, predominantly Muslim and Sikh men from India, Afghanistan and Persia, who opened up the Nation’s desert interior, and formed unique bonds with local Aboriginal people. It shines a light on a crucial yet little known chapter of Australia’s history, celebrating the cultural diversity of early pioneers.
We convene a screening and conversation about the importance of shining a light and giving visibility to the multiple and diverse histories of the Australian landscape.
Saturday 6 March 2021
Cultural Safety: Teaching Aboriginal Ways with Shaun Nannup
8.30-9.45am, Hackett Hall
Sharing stories of Australia’s colonial past is a difficult process. As we journey through truth-telling, people can become emotional, feel anger, guilt, sorrow and fear. How do we confront the truth in ways that heal, rather that hurt? In sharing lessons from his own journey, Shaun Nannup will lead us through how we process strong emotions that stop us connecting with the truth or each other.
We also invite you to register for WISDOM in your life’s online Earth School 1 Foundations for Life, ten lessons to stay solid throughout life for anyone, using art, song and story. All profits from Earth School go towards eliminating Aboriginal disadvantage by healing generational trauma.
https://www.wisdominyourlife.com.au/earth-school/
Noongar Place Names: Moodjar Consultancy and Community Arts Network
10-11.30am, Hackett Hall
There are more Aboriginal place names in south western Australia than any other cultural bloc in the country – proof of the passive, but powerful resistance of the Noongar people to colonisation. With less than 400 fluent Noongar speakers left, decoding these place names is not only critical, it is the responsibility of a nation that has tried to erase its first nation culture and history. In this interactive session, Professor Len Collard will share his life work in researching Nooongar place names and joined by Community Arts Network's CEO, Monica Kane, they demonstrate how their collaboration is helping communities reclaim the cultural meaning of local places and identity.
That Was My Home: Voices from the Noongar Camps
12-1.00pm, Hackett Hall
That was my home: voices from the Noongar Camps explores the hidden histories of the Noongar camps around Fremantle, Swanbourne and Shenton Park in the suburbs of Perth along the Swan River. The focus is the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, a time when many Noongar people lived with their families in camps. The voices of Noongar people, juxtaposed with information from the archives, photographs and stories from others in the community, tell of life in the camps, work, cross-cultural tensions and friendships. Enjoy stories from this popular book with Denise Cook and Lynette Coomer.
Lines of Sight: Imagining Local Landscapes Differently Through Multimedia Storytelling
1.30-3.00pm, Hackett Hall
Galup is an immersive work about the history of Lake Monger in Perth created by Noongar theatre-maker Ian Wilkes and artist Poppy van Oorde-Grainger. It includes an oral history from Elder Doolann Leisha Eatts about a massacre at the lake and was originally commissioned by International Art Space as part of the Know Thy Neighbour #2 program. That Was My Home explores the hidden histories of the Noongar camps around Fremantle, Swanbourne and Shenton Park in the suburbs of Perth along the Swan River. Always Wadjemup is a multimedia digital exhibition by Indigenous curators Samara King and Vanessa Smart and a reflection of their experiences working on Wadjemup (Rottnest Island). We convene a conversation around how local creatives are using the arts in innovative ways to reveal and bring back to life hidden and erased landscapes in Perth.
Ngalang Koort Boodja Wirn
3.30-5.00pm, Ngalang Koort Boodja Wirn gallery
This exhibition shares the stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Western Australia. It honours traditional knowledge systems, protocols and ways of communication, and is an acknowledgement of the endurance, survival and strength of all Aboriginal peoples. Enjoy this guided tour of the difficult histories shared in Ngalang Koort Boodja Wirn with Michelle Broun.
From Dark to Light: A Centre for Truth-telling
5.30-7.00pm, Hackett Hall
The Carrolup artworks were produced by Aboriginal children stolen from their families and detained at the Western Australian Carrolup Native Settlement in the 1940’s. The power of their artworks to illuminate a dark history and help us understand the impact of intergenerational trauma is enormous.
We convene a conversation about how Curtin University is catalysing the artworks into a Centre that will become a focal point for understanding the history and consequences of dispossession.
Sunday 7 March 2021
Boatbird
11.00-12.00pm, outside Ngalang Koort Boodja Wirn gallery
Boatbird is a story of perpetual arrival. A fable for a different kind of landing. An artwork that journeys in your hands. Enjoy an all-ages creative workshop and artist reading of Boatbird, an illustrated poetic storybook for children and adults created by artists Lilly Blue and Jo Pollitt, exploring dislocation, journey, and connection - offering a poetic way of telling the stories we are finding increasingly difficult to hear.
Call Them Home
1.00-2.00pm, Connections gallery
Call Them Home is a memorial to those who have died while seeking asylum, be it on the way to Australia, within the detention centres or as a result of the trauma endured through Australia’s asylum seeker processing program. The mixed-media installation contains names of the dead, gleaned from official reports, media coverage and personal accounts. It also refers to the vast number of people who are unknown and unremembered, those who may have been lost beneath the waterline in their struggle to find safety.
Out of Sight and Out to Sea: Telling Stories of Childhood Lost Through Theatre and Creative Narrative
2.00-3.30pm, Level Three foyer
Children of the Sea is the culmination of a research project by Jay Emmanuel, a play that shares the journeys of young maritime refugees who came to Australia by boat. Using satire and humour, the play centres around the stories of four characters who struggle with ideas of home, identity, adolescence and love as they navigate the absurdities of the adult world in which they drift.
Join Jay Emmanuel, artists Lilly Blue, Jo Pollitt and Marziya Mohammedali in a conversation about voice and agency for diverse and creative voices to tell stories that make visible universal themes of childhood, profound loss and unexpected joy, and bring stories out of sight to front of mind in 2021, the 20th anniversary of the Tampa Crisis in Australia.