Feature... From North To South: Arnhem Land To Tarntanya
Mary Dhapalany Woven Mat. Photographer: Connor Patterson.
Following a highly successful series of collaborations with first nations art centres across Australia, JamFactory is working with the artists of Bula’bula Arts in Ramingining, Northern Territory, to create new works in partnership with the Glass and Furniture Studios.
Words by Carly Tarkari Dodd
Carly is First Nations Engagement Coordinator / Assistant Curator at JamFactory.
Bula’bula Arts is located 580km east of Darwin in Ramingining, Northeast Arnhem Land. The art centre is internationally recognised for its fibre art, bark painting and sculptures. For over 30 years, Bula’bula Arts has been supporting more than 150 artists from the Ramingining community and surrounding outstations. The centre provides ongoing education that preserves Yolŋgu culture and traditions. The name Bula'bula translates to the voice/tongue of Gandayala (red kangaroo), Ramingining’s Creation Being. In the song cycle, Gandayala journeys from the Roper River to the Ramingining region and while there ate a particular yam that caused him to change his language to Djardewitjibi, the language of this area.
In December 2022, JamFactory at Seppeltsfield will showcase the beautifully crafted utilitarian objects of the highly skilled Bula’bula artists. The exhibition will also feature some early prototypes from a special project that sees the artists of Bula’bula, collaborating with JamFactory’s Glass and Furniture Studios. Together they will develop craft and design objects that merge traditional Yolŋgu ceremony and lore with the contemporary design elements of JamFactory.
JamFactory has a long history of working and connecting with Indigenous art centres, including for professional development workshops, commissions or collaborations for exhibitions. The four studios in Glass, Furniture, Ceramics, and Jewellery and Metal offer a diverse range of knowledge, technical ability and hand skills, which allow Yolŋgu to focus on their creative expression. Elder Bobby Bununggurr says:
“We have tried lots of things, like screen printing, making fabrics and turning them into bags. These new things are good for our enterprise, it is good for Yolŋgu to try new things.”
Bula’bula Arts Executive Director, Mel George recognises JamFactory
as representing the pinnacle of contemporary Australian Craft and Design, while First Nation peoples have been this country’s foremost designers and craftspeople. She describes how:
“Yolŋgu hand skills, design and knowledge of the material they use are unparalleled... Bula’bula artists want to work with the Glass and Furniture Studios on special projects to help push their ideas into new, accessible mediums in the hopes of making utilitarian objects based on Yolŋgu ceremony and lore accessible to new audiences.”
Bula'bula Arts in Ramingining, Northeast Arnhem Land. Photo courtesy of Llewelyn Ash.
Mary Dhapalany and Llewelyn Ash. Photo courtesy of Bula'bula Arts.
The creation of these high quality objects helps to maintain a steady flow of income to the Bula’bula artists and their families. George goes on to articulate that:
“Integrating handmade Indigenous designed glassware and furniture into non-Indigenous everyday lives [is] a meaningful way to connect culture and celebrate Aboriginality in an intimate, accessible home environment. A major benefit is connecting Yolŋgu artists and culture with new relationships and extending the reach of their activities and products to other parts of Australia.”
George also acknowledges the many symbiotic working methods and the shared connection to objects experienced by glassmakers and Indigenous people. “Glassmaking is a shared culture; it is not an individual pursuit, this is very similar to Yolŋgu ways of working,” George says. One of the main objectives of this special project is to design and develop a series of glassware for everyday use with JamFactory‘s Glass Studio. Llewelyn Ash, current Glass Studio Commissions Manager recounts working with Bula’bula Arts in Ramingining as both “life changing” and “truly humbling”. While the JamFactory Glass Studio begins the process of glass-blowing prototypes, the artists working at Bula’bula Arts are designing artworks to be etched onto the forms.
The designers of JamFactory’s Furniture Studio and the Yolŋgu artists of Bula’bula share a deep respect to making traditions in their approach to materials, particularly woven bark fibres and timbers. Andrew Carvolth, Head of JamFactory ‘s Furniture Studio, recognises that:
“These craft traditions are in many ways the heart of both organisations, inspiring a celebration of Yolŋgu culture woven into the objects we fill our homes with.”
Bringing any piece of art into your home has a special energy and has a story. The process of making art can take an object very far and wide. Through this project we see designs of paintings and bark fibre string from Northeast Arnhem Land making its way to the Glass and Furniture Studios at JamFactory in Tarntanya (Adelaide). There is a piece of the artist and their history on every piece no matter how far they may be.
Manymak girri’ ngarraku Something good that I can use is showing at JamFactory at Seppeltsfield from 17 December 2022 – 19 February 2023.