A Matriarchal Energy
This essay on the exhibition Drifting Sands appears in the Tarnanthi 2021 catalogue
The drifting of sand is an impressive sight when travelling through Country. The wind energy scoops and carries the contours of sand dunes to evolve new forms, realigning its living creation. The timepiece of nature is eternal, and has always been. Within the Drifting Sands exhibition, one witnesses a similar force.
Marika Davies, a Wangkangurru woman from the Birdsville area of the Simpson Desert, is the curator of Drifting Sands. Marika has selected seven accomplished artists, and their combined artistic energy is transformative of time. These are ‘standing strong’ women who use various art mediums to create new forms, intertwining the physical influences of women who shaped their past with their spiritual love of Country and family. This exhibition is an anthem to Aboriginal women.
The seven-woman theme continues in a notable collection of portrait paintings by Ngarrindjeri artist and activist Sandra Saunders. Sandra pays tribute to seven women who inspired her personal journey, including some of those involved in the women’s protest at Hindmarsh Island in the 1990s. These were pivotal women speaking against the patriarchy, staunch women giving volume to women’s rights and the right to achieve. The medium of oils is appropriate here – it has the ability to wipe out mistakes and to create deep textures of richness and dimension.
Heather Kemarre Scherer is a Stolen Generations advocate and survivor. She paints her Western Arrernte Country, where her maternal grandmother’s ancestral creation story nestles among the western McDonnell Ranges north of Ntaria (Hermannsburg). Heather, who now lives in Port Augusta, carries this ancient country in her mind, allured by the desert plants and flowers and breathtaking ambience of dusk and purple sunsets. This is red sand country and the willy-willy winds remind her of the peacefulness and reflection of matriarchal country and lore.
Another stalwart from the Port Augusta region is Lavene Ngatokorua, who resides in Davenport community. A Wangkangurru, Adnyamathanha, Kuyani and Luritja woman, Lavene has established a contemporary artistic practice focused on exploring and expressing her cultural role and strong humanitarian beliefs. Her work of art is immediate, using found objects, painting and photography as a powerful emotive medium of storytelling.
Yankunytjatjara/Mirning artist Annette Lawrie Dodd Walyingka remembers her young years at Davenport listening to first-hand stories about her gubli (grandmother) living along the railway line at Ooldea siding, south of Maralinga. As the train engines paused to refill with water from the Ooldea soak, gubli sold artefacts to the passengers as her only income to survive in harsh times. Annette paints a strong statement centring on punu, the mulga wood artefacts of that time. The beautiful border of her work depicts cultural women and children gathered in the practice of teaching, as they have always taught – the kinship of learning marking the family for life.
Jessica Turner is an artist from the Nukunu nation of the Upper Spencer Gulf area and from the Adnyamathanha and Kokotha nations. There is no shyness in her bold and vivid paintings that link all aspects of traditional cultural existence – family, language, law and spirituality. Jessica reiterates her connection to her Ancestors and the responsibility of custodianship of Country. Here is a resonance of sand energy interlacing with the ever-changing seas.
Marli Macumba, from Iwantja (Indulkana) and now based in Port Augusta, is from Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Arrernte, Gurindji and Warlpiri peoples. Marli shares her culture and family stories through her art, with knowledge and skills passed on through Tjukurpa, the law and way of life governing her Country. Marli uses traditional storytelling techniques to create new ways of sharing her cultural knowledge. Her unique style brings elements of nature into imaginative, vibrant, contemporary work. She depicts the women in her family – aunties and daughters – stories of her Country good and bad, and the desert flowers that she has grown up with.
The youngest featured artist is Yana Tschuna, an accomplished Wirangu Gugada woman from South Australia’s west coast. Inspired by the teachings of her grandmother Christine Tschuna, Yana’s artwork is soothing in its iconic dot design and her use of colour is uplifting. Yana’s inclusion in the exhibition is testament to women’s teaching. The Drifting Sands of kin and sisterhood exist here.
Time is winding and unwinding through the careful and committed curatorship by Marika Davies. This beautiful exhibition allows the opportunity to celebrate and honour these matriarchal connections to the past and the present.