Darwin 2025 – The Big Picture

Thirteen exhibitions in three days might seem indigestible. But that’s precisely what people travel to Darwin for in early August each year (along with the sun), a fact it seems that’s little appreciated by the new CLP Government in the Northern Territory. My fellow commentator, John McDonald had these thoughts on his website:

“The second week of August is one of the major dates on the Australian art calendar for anyone who wants to know what’s happening in the Indigenous art world – who the leading artists are, and who’s emerging. It’s a truly uplifting experience to see people from so many diverse communities all gathered in one place, determined to have a good time. If only the NT government understood the story about the goose and the golden eggs…”.

Which they don’t in the eyes of those depressed by two government decisions diminishing new art galleries in the NT, nor in the mind of ALP Federal Minister Marion Scrymgour, who opened a busy Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair (and fashion show), reminding them that the NT economy benefited from art business of $11.3m annually. To which Arts Minister Charls would say he was doing his bit with the opening at the weekend of a new art centre at Gapuwiyak – “a stunning hub for Yolŋu creativity, cultural exchange and economic opportunity in East Arnhem Land”.

But back to that torrent of art. Of course the peak, against which all others inevitably pale, is the Telstra NATSIAAs – 71 of the best art created by First Nations people in the past year, selected from 216 entries. I’ve already offered my first impressions of that, and don’t feel inclined to recuse from them after a third visit to the show at MAGNT. Indeed, I feel confirmed by the choice of picture editors everywhere showing the roadsign rear of Gaypalani Wanambi’s Big Telstra-winning artwork rather than her engraved panels hinting at blossoms and bees on the front. She was offering several identical panels at the Art Fair, but she made a much more complex version of her ancestral honey story for last year’s Award and missed out. So don’t miss it in Sydney at the Art Gallery of NSW’s brilliant Yolŋu Power show. Size isn’t everything, even when a work is 3 mtrs square and cleverly suspended by curator Kate ten Buuren in the middle of a gallery.

In pursuance of those NATSIAAs used to be the Salon des Refuses, the near-misses from the 216 entries chosen by two local gallerists. This year, the pair – now Siamese-twinned together as Outstation – seem to have downgraded the Salon in favour of no fewer than six solo shows. Their spanking new waterfront gallery has three of those solos while Salon selections are uncomfortably split between its windows and a rented space nearby. Hard to get the sort of impression I used to take away of that fine balance between the pre-selectors’ taste and the commercial eye of the dealers.

Nevertheless, I reckon three artists survived the downgrade to, deservedly, sell well. They were Betty Campbell’s bold textures and subtle flow of colours, Josie Kemarre Pitjara’s post-Emily burst of yam roots, and Julie Nangala Robinson’s refresh on familiar Mina-Mina imagery.

After a fine smoking ceremony – the local Larrakia are getting plenty of ceremonial practice these days – the brand new gallery was crammed with people and art, though, for me, only Muuki Taylor’s multi-coloured representations of his Martu seasons had the variety needed to sustain a solo show. Covering a canvas in unvaried black dots may conjure a bush plum or tomato for Motorbike Paddy Ngal, but doesn’t whet my appetite. Instead. I’d draw Outstation’s attention to Aileen Napaljarri Long’s “abstract modernist” bush tomato work in the NATSIAAs – random strings of black dots within a wild landscape of colourful brushstrokes. It may well be the future of Aboriginal art as hungry artists of younger generations paint their worlds in their own ways without need to add to their descriptive panel words like “This artwork embodies cultural knowledge of the Anmatyerre and Alyawarre people. It was created with the consent of the Custodians of the community”.

That was a novelty for me accompanying many artworks at the NATSIAAs. And I wondered why they needed this confirmation. For none of the eight Yolŋu artists from Buku Larrnggay Art in Yirrkala needed it. Perhaps their ancestral authenticity was obvious?

As it was in Outstation’s outstanding selection, another Yolŋu, Dhalmula Burarrwannga’s Djulpan – From the Stars. Of course, memories of the great Gulumbu Yunpingu’s celestial barks were conjured. But Dhalmula stood up strong in her variety of heavenly images; justifiably selling-out at prices up to $22,000.

Last year’s Big Telstra-winner, Noli Rictor from the Spinifex mob in the depths of the Great Victoria Desert – his 2024 painting traditionally used to promote this year’s Award – turned up strongly again in a show of the three Rictor brothers. The Rictors are genuinely ‘The Last Nomads’, being brought into ‘civilisation’ only in 1986 by fellow Anangu. Their painting styles are quite varied – Ian and Mick happy to tell stories in their less complex ways and accept much lower prices than the dense decorative dotting mastered by Noli. As I’ve often said, it’s not all about the market when First Nations art is made; the culture is much more important.

Of course the Tiwi can’t resist popping across the water from their islands north of Darwin at this time of year. So much so that a cruise ship scheduled to visit went straight past the empty islands! Two Outstation shows revealed some exciting new carving from the Wurrumyanga community. But the big numbers, as usual were at the Hilton Double Tree Hotel where the 114 artworks were almost shaded by a series of enthusiastic dances around that same theme that won the Big Telstra – looking for sugarbag.

Over the road, the Charles Darwin Uni seems to have come into town in a big way, offering two thoughtful exhibitions of ideas rather than art. Milkum Ga Walnga examined the ideas of Yolŋu man Paul Wunugmurra who believed that “through co-creative attunement, image-making and collage, a new expression for Yolŋu knowledges and values can emerge, using media to enliven Country and kinship, while radically reimagining anthropology as an art of relationship making”. Upstairs, the desert came to Darwin in the form of an exhibition about the many, many Warlpiri books produced over the years in that troubled community of Yuendumu to help literacy there.

And then one heads for Parap for laksa and yet more art. The Northern Centre for Contemporary Art offered Larrakia woman, Jenna Mayilema Lee’s Of Smoke and Rain, delicate works mostly in paper, as part of Lee’s ongoing exploration of language, materiality, and the transformation of inherited histories. Finally, the prosaically named Laundry Gallery brought an earthier flavour from the Kimberley as the likes of Mervyn Street and John Prince Siddon reminded us of their good ol’ days as stockmen. Mervyn, of course, has just lead the legal pursuit of wages from those less-than good ol’ days.

But then, it’s often events in the background that take fire in this rich setting. An ANKA artworkers graduation ceremony drew an inspiring speech from Marcia Langton. And Melbourne-based facilitators Agency put on a series of talks, of which I found the one about the hidden history of anthropological drawings the most fascinating. Lead by academic John Carty, it emerged that the famed Yirrkala Drawings commissioned by Ronald and Catherine Berndt when they found transport of barks out of remote NE Arnhemland logistically difficult in the late 40s – widely seen around Australia in 2014 – were actually a follow-up to an earlier 1945 commission in Birrundudu. Never heard of it? Not surprising, for the Berndts had actually been sent by cattle barons, the Vesteys to their remote station, half-way between Balgo and Lajamanu, to report on the pastoral industry. But they found the human rights abuses of the Aborigines so bad, they turned to documenting ceremony – through no fewer than 810 drawings.

Why haven’t we seen them over the last 80 years? It seems they spent a lot of that time beneath the Berndts’ bed! Rolled up and hidden because they had nothing to do with the anthropologists’ supposed commission. Now they’ve been unrolled and a book about them is imminent. I look forward to reporting – especially because a speaker/singer at the Agency talk was Jimmy Tjapangarti Tchooga, elder at Balgo and the man through whom John Carty was able to establish the protocols necessary to achieve public access to the drawings. It took four years and ten visits to other elders across the region.

Tchooga himself was deeply moved by this whole experience, moved enough to make his own drawings, pastel-on-paper in response. They’re now talking to the originals in Perth’s Berndt Museum. But, little noticed in the NATSIAAs was another suite of 15 drawings by him telling of the songline journey of the Luurnpa (Kingfisher), a sacred ancestor in the Tanami Desert. Such specifically ceremonial work in dusky shades could easily have been overlooked by the Award’s pre-selectors in the face of bright roadsigns, abstract modernist canvases, woven mats, giant ceramic bowls and Jennifer Kemarre Martinello’s sensational glass eggs. Thank you guys – Keith Munro, Karen Mills and Kate ten Buuren – for recognising their worth.

And finally a boo to the Award judges who failed to recognise the supreme quality of Daniel Walbidi’s magnum opus Desert painting, Kirriwirri, which, incidentally has sold for $220,000 after competition from three buyers. Oddly, my enquiry to Walbidi’s Short Street Gallery came up with a price of $195,000. But it seems the Gallery had handed the deal over to uber-dealer D’Lan Davidson, who seems to know just where the money lies! In Darwin, Walbidi was only Highly Commended.

An addendum: John McDonald’s report mentioned earlier tended to mock Telstra’s generosity to the NATSIAAs, contrasting their $190,000 annual involvement to their muli-million dollar, multi-year sponsorship of rugby league. What he left out was Telstra’s additional support for MAGNT’s own collection, which, for 33 years, has included a number of artworks from the annual Award.

This year MAGNT has picked three works – Owen Yalandja’s 3D Award-winning Ngalkodjek Yawkyawk, Mervyn Rubuntja watercolour ‘Post Stamps’, referencing Albert Namatjira’s 1950s recognition by Australia Post, and Tiwi Graham Tipungwuti’s wacky bark, Yinkiti jilamara/Food design. Further funding has added another pair of more traditional Tiwi barks by Kaye Brown reflecting the puoja/wooden comb marks that facilitate body-painting for cermony.

 

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