Last Tuesday I 'dragged' my Aboriginal students (without much difficulty I might add) to an informal talk given by Barbara Matters. Barbara is the Assistant Curator of the Berndt Museum and her boss is none other than John Stanton. It was a real pleasure to have an honest un-self-conscious conversation with a well educated, really switched on Noongar woman (of which I have met quite a few in the last few years) who is an artist herself.The core of the discussion was aimed at making local Noongar artists aware of what was going on in the wider Australian community in regard to Aboriginal art and where Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian relations might be going. Barbara was concerned, and I think she is right, that we here in the south-west are being left behind. She stated quite clearly that the rest of Australia seems to have moved on without us.
So after a lively chat I e-mailed her some of my thoughts and we are now in the process of setting up some further 'round-table' discussions to dispel some unhelpful myths and clarify some issues about 'culture', 'tradition', contemporary Aboriginal art and so on for both non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people, mainly those in the arts or working with/teaching Aboriginal people. When Barbara went back to her office and told her boss what she had discovered here in the south, he wanted to be involved...... which I think is just wonderful. For those who don't know him, John Stanton is an anthropologist with quite a solid reputation. The blurb states that:
Dr John Stanton is the Director of the Berndt Museum of Anthropology, and was its Founding Curator. He has extensive experience and involvement in the area of Aboriginal arts, which he has developed primarily since his appointment in 1978 as Curator of the Anthropology Research Museum (later renamed the Berndt Museum of Anthropology)
We want to give the forum an inclusive title which is basically about 'speaking up', because as I said to her in one of my e-mails, I am concerned that that is not happening. We talked a lot about and both agreed that to move forward now, we need to start talking more honestly, unhindered by some of the 'cultural cringe' we feel about saying the 'wrong' thing. I know that has been true of my own journey. So, any Noongar language experts (of which I believe one may be reading this blog hopefully) - what is Noongar for speaking up??
image: Michelle Frantom, charcoal drawing done as a teaching demo for my Aboriginal students.
