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‘Online OnCountry Gallery’ is a cultural initiative that has been created in partnership between Community and Taragara Aboriginal Corporation. This project is funded by the NSW Government through Create NSW and is supported by the University of New England.
‘Yarning Online OnCountry’ has been created in partnership between Community and Taragara Aboriginal Corporation. This project is funded by the NSW Government through Create NSW. It has received funding from Western Local Land Services NSW and is supported by the University of New England. Special thanks to partners Maranguka Community Hub, Bourke Aboriginal Health Service and Morralls Bakery for their support of this project.
Frank Wright, Seven Sisters, 2007, acrylic on canvas
‘Online OnCountry Gallery: An exhibition of Aboriginal Contemporary Artists’ will launch for NAIDOC Week 2020. The digital showcase will open at 6pm, Wednesday 11 November and will be available online at taragara.org
“This exhibition will provide some insight into the great range and quality of contemporary art being produced by NSW Aboriginal artists,” said exhibition curator and Badtjala/WakkaWakka artist Michael Brogan. “The artists each bring their own unique creative styles and at the same time reflect the broad and dynamic nature of the cultural footprint of this region.”
Exhibiting artists for the inaugural exhibition are Warwick Keen (Gomeroi/Gamilaraay), Brentyn Lugnan (Gumbaynggirr) and Frank Wright (Gamilaroi).
The showcase had originally been planned as a physical exhibition earlier in the year. However, COVID-19 restrictions made the possibility of exhibiting and gathering in a physical space impossible. Instead, it will be the first exhibition to be held digitally on Taragara Aboriginal Corporation’s new platform – Online OnCountry Gallery.
“The Gallery will be a safe place for cultural and community connection – connection that has been impacted due to this year’s ‘unprecedented’ circumstances,” Mr Brogan said. “The value of the showcase, originally conceived pre-COVID-19, has in fact grown in importance. It offers an opportunity for artists who are seeking news ways to reach audiences, and for the community who have been feeling the impacts of cultural and social isolation.”
Online OnCountry Gallery will also create a register of Aboriginal artists – a database enabling ongoing professional employment opportunities for artists. It will create a platform for cultural exchange, and a marketplace that will benefit Aboriginal artists across the region.
“Some artists have been forced to leave this region (or work in other industries) to find employment and/or audiences,” said Mr Brogan. “Online OnCountry Gallery can bring their work back to Country.”
‘Online OnCountry Gallery: An exhibition of Aboriginal Contemporary Artists’ opens 6pm, Wednesday 11 November 2020. The exhibition and links to a program of video artist talks will be available online at taragara.org
‘Online OnCountry Gallery’ is a cultural initiative that has been created in partnership between Community and Taragara Aboriginal Corporation. This project is funded by the NSW Government through Create NSW and is supported by the University of New England.
Aunty Ellen Trevorrow and Jelina Haines On Country
Ngarrindjeri Elder Ellen Trevorrow will be weaving and yarning online with Elders and young people in Bourke as part of the Yarning Online OnCountry project.
Aunty Ellen is a world-renowned artist and cultural weaver. Her woven works and sculptures are exhibited around the world.
She leads weaving and cultural storytelling workshops in collaboration with Jelina Haines on the Ngarrindjeri Country at Camp Coorong in South Australia. For this project, though, she will be Online On Country.
“We are very excited and grateful that Aunty Ellen will join us Online OnCountry,” said Lorina Barker, Yarning Online OnCountry Project Manager.
“She is a Senior Knowledge Holder, highly regarded artist and weaver. The opportunity to meet and learn from Aunty Ellen is very special.”
The Yarning Online OnCountry project began in August. Since then, Elders and others in the Bourke community who have a shared history and experience, have been gathering weekly in small, socially distanced groups in Bourke – and via zoom.
“The online creative workshops aim to improve Elders’ health and wellbeing by minimizing the impacts of social isolation due to COVID-19 restrictions,” Dr Barker said.
“Importantly, though, the workshops are providing a culturally safe place for sharing knowledge, stories and skills – enabling the transference of cultural knowledge between Elders and extended family.”
‘Yarning Online OnCountry’ has been created in partnership between Community and Taragara Aboriginal Corporation. This project is funded by the NSW Government through Create NSW. It has received funding from Western Local Land Services NSW and is supported by the University of New England.
Special thanks to local partners Maranguka Community Hub, Bourke Aboriginal Health Service and Morralls Bakery for their support of this project.
Images from ‘the TERRA within’ exhibition, Shoalhaven Regional Gallery. Details in post.
“The ‘Online OnCountry Gallery – an exhibition of Aboriginal Contemporary Artists’ will celebrate the work of Aboriginal artists across NSW in a new digital format for NAIDOC Week 2020, curated and directed by UNE researchers Michael Brogan and Dr Lorina Barker.
The initiative aims to connect, raise the profile and support the work of artists across the state.
Online OnCountry exhibitor Warwick Keen, an award-winning artist from the Gomeroi (Gamilaraay) language group, will curate an exhibition, ‘the TERRA within‘ at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery from 10 October … “
Barbara Kelly, Nancy Kelly, Lacey Barker, Gwen Barker, Gertie Darrigo and Dot Martin– weaving as part of the Yarning Online OnCountry project. Photo by Sandra Kelly.
“Aboriginal Elders from Bourke will be Yarning Online OnCountry as part of a new creative project that will provide a culturally safe place for sharing knowledge, stories and skills, while aiming to improve Elders’ health and wellbeing by minimizing the impacts of social isolation …” Read more HERE
Aboriginal Elders will be Yarning Online OnCountry as part of a new creative project that will provide a culturally safe place for sharing knowledge, stories and skills, while aiming to improve Elders’ health and wellbeing by minimizing the impacts of social isolation.
“Opportunities to gather in person, have been drastically limited due to COVID-19 restrictions,” said Yarning Online OnCountry Project Manager, Lorina Barker.
“While the restrictions are necessary to ensure the safety of our Elders and our communities, the increased isolation has impacted health and wellbeing. Elders are missing the chance to participate in their usual activities – and to gather with extended family and friends.”
Dr Barker is a Wangkumara/Muruwari oral historian, filmmaker and storyteller from Bourke. For many years, she has worked alongside Elders in community projects OnCountry. COVID-19 has forced them to devise new ways of working.
“Yarning Online OnCountry provides a culturally safe place for Elders, and others in the Bourke community who have a shared history and experience, to gather online,” she said.
“Online creative workshops will be offered to mitigate the social isolation and loneliness being keenly felt due to COVID-19 restrictions; and enable the transference of cultural knowledge between Elders and extended family.”
It is hoped that this creative project will promote wellness, and relieve anxiety, depression and loneliness. And that it will support the maintenance of Elders’ connectedness to people and place, with stories and memories.
The activities of the project will be facilitated by Elders who will be able to teach the next generation in their households the skills, traditional practices and stories of Country. They will be supported by specialist artists and OnCountry Coordinators.
“Yarning Circles, Deadly Feeds and Campfire Yarns will use weaving, artmaking, and bush tucker preparing/cooking led by individual Elders, to share skills and knowledge,” Dr Barker said.
“Extended families will support Elders to share their stories of growing up in Bourke, with its racial discrimination and enforced separation of Aboriginal people under colonisation. In this way, the project will support the re-establishment of the kinship networks that remain – while sharing and preserving creative and cultural skills/knowledge. It will contribute to reframing the contemporary narrative of Bourke – replacing it with a cultural history and the living histories of Aboriginal people.
‘Yarning Online OnCountry’ has been created in partnership between Community and Taragara Aboriginal Corporation. This project is funded by the NSW Government through Create NSW and supported by the University of New England.
Special thanks to local partners Maranguka Community Hub, Bourke Aboriginal Health Service and Morrall’s Bakery for their support of this project.
Artwork: Ngaaru (Water) by Brentyn Lugnan, 61 x 91.5cm, ink and paint on canvas, 2019.
“This online space is a way of reclaiming our cultural and social practices and empowering our communities to continue doing what we’ve been doing for millennia, but in a future-focused and pandemic-proof format …”
Lacey Barker, Dr Sue Anderson (University of South Australia), Dr Sadie Heckenberg (Swinburne University of Technology), Tony Briggs (Typecast Entertainment), Cherene Spendelove, Damienne Pradier (Typecast Entertainment), Dr Lorina L. Barker (University of New England). Photo by Moorina Bonini.
Typecast Entertainment will work with Community and oral historians to create a major documentary film sharing Aboriginal Songlines with younger generations and popular audiences.
Typecast Entertainment will work with Community and oral historians to create a major documentary film sharing Aboriginal Songlines with younger generations and popular audiences.
Founder Tony Briggs, a Yorta Yorta/Wurundjeri (Woiwurrung) theatre and film practitioner, internationally known as the creator and writer of award-winning film ‘The Sapphires’, said he is excited to be working on the project.
“Songlines are the history of Australia,” Mr Briggs said.
“Songlines have always been shared from generation to generation – until colonisation damaged that ongoing process as well as the widespread understanding and respect of traditional knowledge.
“By creating a documentary film, we will use contemporary, accessible media to share Songlines and give younger generations and non-Aboriginal people some access to that knowledge.”
“One of the core visions of Typecast Entertainment is to support and provide visibility to First Nations filmmakers,” said Mr Briggs, who along with Typecast co-founder Damienne Pradier and their team, brings many years of experience and an impressive range of credits to the project.
“Through this project we will have an opportunity to mentor young and emerging filmmakers and artists in regional and remotes communities,” he said.
The documentary film will be a large and essential part of a broader project.
“We are thrilled that Typecast Entertainment will be joining us on this journey,” said UNE’s Dr Lorina L. Barker a Wangkumara/Muruwari scholar and Lead Chief Investigator of the ‘Songlines of Country’ project.
“The experience, skills and vision that they bring to the project will ensure the creation of a beautiful film – one that reaches across generations and cultures.”
‘Songlines of Country’ is an oral history and multimedia project tracking three significant Songlines (Baiame, the Mundaguddah and the Seven Sisters) and their travelling routes – from the Flinders Ranges in northeast SA into the Corner Country, to southwest QLD and to the Baaka (Darling River) in northwest NSW.
On Country Gatherings and workshops will be held at significant sites during field trips – creating space for Elders/Community to share stories of Songlines – utilising contemporary media that enables transfer of ancient knowledge to younger audiences.
Dr Barker in partnership with the President of International Oral History Association Dr Sue Anderson (University of South Australia), and Wiradjuri scholar Dr Sadie Heckenberg (Swinburne University of Technology) form the oral history research team, and together bring a depth of cultural knowledge, dedication and experience that interweave with the core visions of Typecast Entertainment.
‘Songlines of Country’ has been created in partnership between Community and Taragara. It is supported by the University of New England, communities, organisations and funding bodies in South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.
Research was funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council.
Taragara 