Sovereignty

LISA BELLEAR
Born 1961, Melbourne
Minjungbul/Goernpil/Noonuccal
Died 2006, Melbourne

Sovereign tea from
Selected photographs c.1985-2006
digital images from c-type photographs
Koorie Heritage Trust Collection

Fondly remembered as a gifted poet, a lively radio broadcaster, and a committed activist with a passion for social change, Lisa Bellear was also a prolific and compulsive photographer, who left an archive of over 20,000 photographs, taken over two decades from the mid-1980s to 2006, documenting the rich and dynamic cultural life and lived experience of the community in which she lived.

Much of Lisa’s photographic output was achieved under the guise of reportage. Her role as an intrepid radio broadcaster took her to community, public and memorial events, political rallies, cultural festivals and community celebrations with a tape recorder slung over her shoulder, a microphone in one hand, and camera in the other.

STEVEN RHALL
Born 1974 on Wautherung Country
Taungurung
Lives and works in Melbourne

The biggest Aboriginal artwork in Melbourne metro 2014-16
synthetic polymer, vinyl, aluminium composite, wood, neon
361.0 x 386.5 x 100.0 cm
Courtesy the artist

Steven Rhall’s multidisciplinary practice repeatedly dwells within and upon cultural landscapes and their manifold significations. His work frequently involves interventions into public space, utilising pre-existing signs and symbols and altering them to transform their meaning.

Bringing a fragment of the urban environment into the gallery, The biggest Aboriginal artwork in Melbourne metro relocates an advertising sign, previously located on the exterior wall of a supermarket in Melbourne’s western suburbs, that read ‘The biggest IGA in Melbourne metro’. Modified by the artist in 2014 and retrieved from the site in 2016, Rhall adopts the sensational language of advertising, ironically addressing the notion of what constitutes ‘Aboriginal art’, its market value, and its relation to the contemporary urban environment.

STEAPHAN PATON
Born 1985, Mildura, Australia
Gunai/Monero
Lives and works in Melbourne

Cloaked Combat 2013
single-channel HDV
Courtesy the artist and Tristian Koenig, Melbourne

Cloaked combat 2013 wryly dramatises the ongoing resistance of Gunai people in the face of colonialism and dispossession of Country in East Gippsland. The Victorian region of Gippsland is known for its brutal colonial conflicts and massacres, and the dispossession and relocation of Gunai people onto missions, and it continues to be a site for deer hunting and duck shooting – favoured pastimes of European ‘settlers’.

In a performative video, Paton adopts camouflage fatigues and high-tech archery equipment to enact the drama of frontier conflict, contested ownership of land, and the ongoing resistance of Aboriginal people in defence of their culture and Country.

WARRIORS OF THE ABORIGINAL RESISTANCE (WAR)
Established 2014

Melbourne members include:

GABI BRIGGS
Born 1990, Armidale, New South Wales
Himberrong, Anaiwan and Gumbangier
Lives and works in Melbourne

MERIKI ONUS
Born 1987, Naarm/Melbourne Brayakaloong, Yigar and Tjapwurrung
Lives and works in Melbourne

ARIKA WAULU
Born 1985, Naarm/Melbourne Brayakaloong, Yigar and Tjapwurrung
Lives and works in Melbourne

DTARNEEN ONUS-WILLIAMS
Born 1993, Gunditj country
Yigar, Yorta Yorta, Wakka Wakka, Bindal and Dja Dja Wurrung
Lives and works in Melbourne

Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance (WAR) was established in 2014 as a collective of young Aboriginal people committed to decolonisation, resistance and revival; and the amplification of community voices through protest.

The Melbourne chapter of WAR initially came together for a bannermaking workshop for Invasion Day 2015 and have been actively involved in diverse grassroots Aboriginal campaigns across the country. The collective has been responsible for large mass protests in Melbourne in response to Invasion Day celebrations, and, in the words of WAR members, ‘the continual torture of Aboriginal children, the forced closures of Aboriginal communities, police and corrections brutality and Deaths in Custody’.

The banners on display were made by members of WAR and community groups involved in workshops for the purpose of protesting and shutting down the streets of inner-city Melbourne. Informed by the collective legacy of earlier activism and campaigns for self-determination and resistance in Victoria, WAR continues to ‘keep the fire burning’.

MAREE CLARKE
Born 1961, Swan Hill, Victoria
Mutti Mutti/Yorta Yorta/BoonWurrung
Lives and works in Melbourne

Born of the Land 2014
Video (1:48 mins), particle board, sand, tree branches, plaster bandage, plaster
Dimensions variable
Courtesy the artist and Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne

Maree Clarke’s multidisciplinary practice has focused upon the restoration of traditional practices as a means of asserting a connection to culture and Country. Through meticulous research and careful study of traditional techniques, Clarke has been a key protagonist in the revival of making possum skin cloaks, necklaces, and string headbands. Clarke’s monumental and skillfully crafted necklaces affirm the power of art to rebuild and repair, exemplifying a culture which is regenerative and resistant to the damages of colonisation.

Her video installation Born of the Land expresses this sense of connectedness and union with Country, as the artist literally emerges from the earth. Clarke describes the work as ‘about my connection to Country. We are all born of the land and we will go back to the land. It is also about mourning and loss. The black dress represents our mourning practices today, the sticks represent traditional mourning practices and the red dirt represents the country where I was born’.

JIM BERG
Born 1938, Melbourne
Gunditjmara Elder
Lives and works in Melbourne

from Silent witness – A window to the past 2005
c-type photographic prints
30.0 x 20.0 cm (each)
Courtesy the artist

Jim Berg is a respected Gunditjmara Elder, author and educator, and former chief executive of the Koorie Heritage Trust. These photographic images of scar trees on Wotjobaluk Country depict places of cultural significance and the literal trace of past presences. Berg refers to the scars as ‘a testimonial to the skills of the People’ who, through minimal intervention into the bark, are able to produce sophisticated objects and technologies including canoes, coolamons and shields. Each image is emblematic of a respectful and humble use of resources; though a mark is left on the tree, its life is not terminated, exemplifying a reciprocal reverence and connection to Country.

As author Tony Birch has noted, Berg’s project is at once ‘an act of documentation and creation. Uncle Jim’s project is also an act of collaboration, between Jim’s heart and eye and those who originally carved out a space on the trees that he photographed’. They might also be seen, in the words of the artist, as ‘a window to the past. They reflect both the spiritual uplifting presence of the traditional owners and the often chilling events that happened after mish times’.