Visiting ACCA

Today is Australia Day, with differing viewpoints about whether this is a day to be celebrated in its current form by all Australians.

Having said that, I’ll now say this:  today I went to the ACCA where there is an exhibition looking at contemporary art of the indigenous people of south-eastern Australia.  I see this exhibition as a fitting place to visit on Australia Day and one where opinions of the artists may not always be aligned with those opinions of non-indigenous Australians.

It was also a visit that deleted one of the items on my ‘bucket list’.  I had only limited time to look about the ACCA building, as I wanted to concentrate on the Sovereignty exhibition.

Walking into the building I headed to an entrance where this banner was hanging.  If you look closely you will find words on this banner.

In the next room were a series of artworks reflecting indigenous views of  white settlement.

As you can see, the idea of Australia Day as the non-indigenous population views it, does not always accord with the view of the present day indigenous population.  

 Walking through to the next area I found more than one display of interest.  Above is a possum skin cloak, these were worn for warmth on a regular basis, particularly in southern regions, and were sometimes use as burial cloaks.

On the wall behind me hangs a beautifully woven example of an eel trap. The indigenous people had two forms of eel traps here in the south of the country.  One form was creating  a trap within a watercourse by using rocks to divert the eels and the other was the portable variety shown above. It  was lowered into the water, to trap any unsuspecting eel who swam into it. One swift manoeuvre and the basket was lifted out of the water and the eel was captured.

On a wall near the possum skin cloak was a collection of black and white photographs of scar trees.  This collections showed the scars left on trees after the bark was removed to make shields, canoes or coolamons, shallow containers used to carry water or food. 

My interpretation of the above poster was that of the original indigenous  hunting grounds being taken over by the sheep belonging to European settlers and the large orange dollar sign  representing the wealth the sheep brought to their owners.

My last stop was to admire  examples of cloaks ..........

Glenda Nicholls used jute as the basis for the cloaks and added possum skin, seeds, shells, feathers and other symbolic materials.

.......................  and beads.

The beads are the work of Maree Clarke and are long, up to over 40 metres in length, seeds, nut and feathers are used to make the finished necklace.

For anyone interested in a closer look, they can take an online walk around the exhibition; it's as easy as clicking on this link.

Enjoy.