Aboriginal Women’s Business in the New England North West

Arts North West is delighted to announce that it has successfully secured funding through the Australia Council for Arts, to deliver a new project as part of its Aboriginal Cultural Support Program. Yinaar is a creative exploration of Aboriginal women’s business in the New England North West.

“2 Rivers are extremely honoured to be able to deliver on the aspirations of the Aboriginal women from the region through delivery of the Arts North West Yinaar project. This is a project very close to our hearts, developed by Aboriginal women, for Aboriginal women.” Said Lorrayne Riggs, 2 Rivers Managing Director.

The project will be delivered in three stages over two years. Stage one is focused on furthering informed community consultation, which will see the project team, including lead Elder Aunty Yvonne Kent, consult with Aboriginal women from the 12 Local Government Areas within the Arts North West boundary. Stage two of the project is focused on documenting research into traditional Aboriginal women’s business and capturing stories of women’s practices.

“We will be able to research and retrace traditional practices and document oral histories that strengthens identity and celebrates key element that make us unique such as women’s practices, gali, food, medicine, kinship responsibilities and healing.” Ms Riggs continued.

The second stage of the project will be focused on providing skill development to build capacity for Aboriginal artists in our region. Artists will develop a body of work that responds to the documented research and stories conducted in stage one.

Yinaar will culminate in an exhibition curated by Aboriginal curator, Lyniece Keogh, at two regional galleries in the New England North West, where the artists will share their experiences with the community through their works and artist talks, alongside recorded stories.

“We are so pleased that through this funding we will be able to continue the important work of our Aboriginal Cultural Support Program which is vital to providing professional development opportunities for Aboriginal artists and organisations in our region” said Caroline Downer, Executive Director of Arts North West.

“The Yinaar project is particularly special, as it is the first time that we are delivering a project solely focused on women, from management, to artists, through to exhibition curation; it is a real celebration of Aboriginal women within our region.”

This project is supported by Aboriginal Regional Arts Alliance, Dhiiyaan Centre Moree, Outback Arts and Tamworth Local Aboriginal Lands Council. The Project Steering Committee is led by Aunty Yvonne Kent.

For more information, please visit the Arts North West website or contact 2 Rivers via pene@2rivers.com.au.

Narrabri Community Consultations!

Narrabri Aquatic Centre Multi Purpose Room
Tibbereena Street, Narrabri

Friday, 27 September 2019
10am – 3pm
Light lunch provided

Arts North West are committed to delivering consultation, professional development and mentoring to Aboriginal artists and organisations in the Narrabri Shire. We are seeking input from community to allow us to effectively provide outcomes for the Narrabri community. This workshop will help Arts North West develop a program of services to be offered to Aboriginal people and organisations from the Narrabri Shire and will also contribute towards the Arts North West Regional Aboriginal Arts and Culture Strategy.

Aboriginal artists, arts workers and organisations are especially encouraged to attend.

For further information please contact Pene Riggs on 0428 406 744 or Lorrayne Riggs on

0467 668 977

Expression of Interest for Aboriginal Videographer and Post Production Editor

Arts North West are seeking expressions of interests from a suitably qualified Aboriginal videographer and post production editor to work on an exciting new project.

Yesterday Today Tomorrow is a professional development program for six Aboriginal artists in the Arts North West region. The project will equip Aboriginal artists with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to draw inspiration from their region to create and exhibit contemporary works based on their local region. Further to this, the project will support and preserve traditional and contemporary Aboriginal stories through documenting culturally appropriate stories from three key sites in the Arts North West boundary. The six Aboriginal artists will be mentored to develop a portfolio of new works inspired by Country, culminating in a small exhibition in 2019.

The videographer will be required to attend 3 sites, 1 each in the Tamworth, Inverell and Moree Local Government Areas to film stories as told by local knowledge holders and a short clip on the participating artists.

OUTPUTS

3 x 3-5 minute short film on the chosen location

6 x 1 minute grabs on the participating artists

Arts North West will provide a project manager / creative consultant to coordinate and produce the project including locations, artists, themes etc.

SCHEDULE DATES OF FILMING

Tamworth 6 - 10 May 2019

Inverell 29 April to 3 May 2019

Moree 20 - 24 May 2019

PLEASE NOTE

Rough cuts must be provided to the project manager on the last day of each filming date.

Films must be provided to the project manager completed by 7 June 2019 for review and required edits.

Final films with all changes made must be provided to the project manager by 14 June 2019.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Yesterday Today Tomorrow Community Consultation Sessions

Yesterday Today Tomorrow is a professional development program for six Aboriginal artists in the Arts North West region. The project will equip Aboriginal artists with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to draw inspiration from their region to create and exhibit contemporary works based on their local region. Further to this, the project will support and preserve traditional and contemporary Aboriginal stories through documenting culturally appropriate stories from three key sites in the Arts North West boundary. The six Aboriginal artists will be mentored to develop a portfolio of new works inspired by Country, culminating in a small exhibition in 2019.

Arts North West supports the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities to celebrate and practice their cultures, to fulfil creative aspiration and govern their cultural material and stories associated with cultural objects and cultural knowledge. Furthermore, we recognise and respect that Aboriginal people have a right to self-determination, particularly in respect to cultural matters; this includes making decisions about preserving and sharing their traditional and contemporary cultural knowledge and practices.

Arts North West invite members of the community to participate in consultation sessions in the three key locations where we intend to draw inspiration. These consultation sessions are designed to allow the local Aboriginal community to make key decisions regarding how the project will progress and develop. During these consultation sessions we hope to establish which Aboriginal site or area from each of the three locations is suitable to film and digitally record stories in multi-media format, who the community endorses as a knowledge holder to share the stories and how the community would like the stories protected in terms of distribution and viewing. These consultations will also be an opportunity for community to meet the artists and hear about their practice.

Tamworth
Tuesday 26 March
9.30am - 11.30am
Long Gully Cafe
Piper Street, Tamworth

Moree
Wednesday 27 March
10am - 12pm
Dhiiyaan Centre
Cnr Balo and Albert Street Moree

Inverell
Thursday 28 March
10am - 12pm
Armajun Medical Centre
Rivers Street, Inverell

Morning tea will be provided so we do ask that you RSVP for catering purposes.
Please contact pene@2rivers.com.au or call (02) 6725 4023

Supported through the Australian Government’s Indigenous Languages and Arts program

Creating Creative Careers for Aboriginal Curators in the New England North West

The Create the Curator project is in its final stages this week as three emerging Aboriginal curators put their new skills into play, preparing for their first group curated show. Three Perspectives, an exhibition of selected works from Aboriginal artists in the Gomeroi region will be opening at Weswal Gallery Tamworth on the 28th of February at 6pm.

The emerging curators from the New England North West region have successfully completed the three-part professional development project to build up their skills, experience and networks while gaining significant insight into the various environments curators work in.

“I have learned so much in relation to the technical and legal side of curating and exhibition.  This includes protecting the integrity of not only the gallery reputation but also the integrity of the artist and their artworks which is vital especially in the passing of knowledge and practices in Indigenous art making and preservation of art collections” said emerging curator Lyniece Keogh.

Professional curators Sandra McMahon (Weswal Gallery, Tamworth), Caroline Downer (Arts North West), Rachael Parsons (NERAM, Armidale) and Sharni Jones (The Australian Museum, Sydney),  have worked with Lyniece Keogh (Tamworth), Kylie Benge (Moree) and Raquel Clarke (Moree) through a series of workshops and site visits. These visits have included a variety of creative spaces from, Aboriginal owned and run galleries, regional galleries, commercial galleries to community spaces throughout the Armidale, Tamworth and Moree region.

“This is an excellent opportunity for experienced arts workers to develop into regional Aboriginal curators enabling them to promote not only their own skills but also that of other regional Aboriginal artists” said Project Manager Lorrayne Riggs.

“This project is the result of community consultation and identifying a real gap in the market for regional Aboriginal curators, it will promote long term cultural, social and economic outcomes”.

The program was created as a result of the government’s Create NSW funding initiative and aims to engage and promote regional Aboriginal artists, arts and culture by introducing more Aboriginal people to curatorial positions in regional NSW. 

Rivers to Ridges Project Reaches its Final Destination at Tamworth Regional Gallery

Arts North West is working alongside Tamworth Regional Gallery this week to install their much-anticipated Rivers to Ridges and the Stories In between exhibition. This the final stage of the two-year project funded by the Federal Government’s Indigenous Languages and Arts Program.

Through the lens of filmmakers Brendon Blacklock (Blacklock Media) and Tim Leha, (The Kainga Project) the Rivers to Ridges project has travelled to the far corners of the New England North West region to gather and documents the stories of Elders and local Aboriginal history.

The stories of twenty Elders have inspired a new body of work from four New England North West Aboriginal artists. Loren Ryan (Tamworth), Ronella (Dolly) Jerome (Tenterfield), Jade Porter (Moree) and Anthony (Jack) Conlon (Gunnedah) have used a variety of mediums including virtual reality, song and sculpture to share these stories with the broader Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community. These works will be exhibited alongside the recorded Elders stories in the gallery space.

Lorrayne Riggs, Project Manager said “this is the first time that we know of where the stories recorded will be focused on the unique cultural value of our region. Too often Aboriginal culture from NSW is not valued as highly as in our neighbouring states. By translating and sharing the stories from our region we can show the world that Aboriginal culture is alive, important and highly valued in the New England of NSW.

Rivers to Ridges and the Stories In between exhibition will be officially opened at the Tamworth Regional Gallery on Friday the 8th of February at 6pm by Gomeroi man Peter White with a ceremony by Len Waters.