In 1988 the artists of Ramingining, a remote Central Arnhem Land community, were responsible for perhaps the most-moving political statement made during Australia’s bicentenary year. Djon Mundine tells UK-based anthropologist Howard Morphy, how this extraordinary monument came to be made.
Supplementary bibliography to the major work by Adrian Marrie 1987 'A Topical bibliography of Australian Aboriginal Visual Arts 3' ed ASTEC SA College of Advanced Education (now the University of South Australia) Underdale SA.
"From the time that whites arrived in Tasmania and up until 1983 Aboriginal performing arts especially theatre arts, had become almost as extinct as whites would have people believe Tasmanian Aborigines were. Not so!"
In the 1940s the name Albert Namatjira became a household word and the skill of this Arrernte artist brought the vivid colours and beauty of the central Australian landscape into the galleries and living rooms of Australia. He and other painters who lived around Hermannsburg mission and in Alice Springs came to be known as the Arrernte watercolour school.
Emerging from the heart of central Australia is the most exciting and dynamic development in modern Australian art. The materials are modern -acrylic on canvas. But the content is traditional - mythical and ritual.
Two people suspended in a soundscape - a space punctuated by a stark and corrosive sound. The wail of a dingo, an owl, the grating beat of an iron lung, a gasp, a cry for breath and above all a cacophony of memory.
"I joined the Jabiru Cabaret in Cairns as one of the ten founding cast members in November 1988. The excitement for me as a performer, is to bridge the gap of understanding between various races, colours, cultures and countries. To witness the audience reaction to us as a group performing in three distinct areas makes us all feel very close to achieving the message of a minority through our art."