NINUKU PROJECTS

A residency in partnership with the Newcastle Art Space (NAS) was undertaken by four artists to spend time in an alternative studio and to visit two Indigenous cultural centres; the Wollotuka language centre, and Murrook, the Indigenous Cultural Centre at the Worimi Land Council. Artists from Ninuku have made two previous visits on separate occasions to Newcastle, initiating a friendship with these local organisations and galleries. The artists each worked on their own canvases in a studio provided at NAS who also hosted a community bbq where they met with local artists, Indigenous and non-Indigenous. An information session was held about Ninuku Arts and the local communities of Pipalyatjara and Kalka. Ninuku Artists are always warmly welcomed and anticipated and likewise are enthusiastic to visit an urban environment in relation to their own culture and painting. Old friendships also exist with people from Newcastle who once worked in Pipalyatjara and these highly valued long distance connections are very hard to maintain.

Building on the Aralya 2020 Bush Trip, a group of eight artists visited Walytitjara Homelands, 45km to the northeast of Pipalyatjara for a six-day camp. The site of a small village last occupied in the 80's, the camp is central to important surrounding homelands and Tjukurpa sites. The artists worked on three large collaborations and several small individual works. During the evenings, talk turned to the impending Voice to Parliament Referendum and the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which was contributed to by Sally Scales, daughter of eminent Pipalyatjara Elder, Josephine Mick. The discussions led to remembrance of past wrongs and the aim to try and put them right, like the return of stolen remains. The trip was part of an ongoing project to map stories and country in a deliberate way for the archive and education of future Ninuku Artists. The long discussions into the night made up the cultural content of the camp, along with, of course, the paintings. The trip was supported by Ninuku staff and two outstanding volunteers; Judy and Alison Killen, who were camp cooks and resident medical personell. Local community support along with financial support from Country Arts SA and Ku Arts, helped make the trip possible.

The Aralya Project was an intensive remote indigenous artist painting camp originally planned for 14 days in September, 2016 and was finally completed between 19-28th of September, 2018 under new art centre manager, Mandi King. A few important changes were made to the structure and scope of the original project to preserve its focus as an intergenerational reconnection to Country for Ninuku indigenous artists through traditional practices and collaborative painting while ensuring high, museum-quality work. Notable changes to the execution of the project include postponing collaborations with APY land management around mapping Tjakura (Great Desert Skink) movement on the Aralya homelands and the removal of children’s IPAD drawing component and the camp was shortened to seven days and studio-based workshops in colour mixing, drawing, and storytelling were added to prepare artists for the undertaking. An additional outside studio staff member was hired to help prepare materials and support artists working on the ground.

Walka Waru Kalawtjanga’s aim is to provide much needed new creative pathways to both capture the imaginations of young artists wishing to explore non-traditional mediums outside of canvas as well as providing easier, more practical and portable processes for older painters suffering failing stamina and eyesight, and therefore unable to tackle large canvases as they once were able to.