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UN celebrates indigenous art

12 July 2008 - INDIGENOUS artists from the Torres Strait Islands brought their distinctive artworks to the UN this week to celebrate the survival of their culture.

The exhibition featured prints and traditional carvings from the Mua Island of the Torres Strait, which are based on oral traditions predating the arrival of Europeans.

The limited edition linocuts depicted merchants, witchdoctors, head hunters and wildlife of the islands, all carved from a linoleum surface.

"I want to record and capture the traditional knowledge from my ancestors so that future generations will know their heritage," said David Bosun, one of the four featured artists.

"The marketing of our art and culture in New York is a big achievement," he said.

The exhibition was part of NAIDOC Week, which honours the history, culture and achievements of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The display, named Gelam Nguzu Kazi (Dugong My Son) by the islands' elders, marked the first time traditional stories of the Mua Island have been recorded in a visual medium, organisers said.
The dugong is a sacred marine mammal that lives in Torres Strait waters and has been hunted for centuries for oil and food.

But modern hunting methods led to its near extinction. As a result, the Mua people asked the Australian authorities to restrict the number of animals that can be hunted as well as destructive modern hunting methods.

"We have traditional ways of hunting but now hunters are chasing them with power boats," said Bosun, who will succeed his father as Mua tribal chief.

NAIDOC Week also involved a panel discussion at the Australian consulate in New York at which Anita Heiss, one of Australia's best-known Aboriginal authors, hailed indigenous writers who are "breaking new grounds in the literary and academic world".

Heiss said that indigenous literature sought to break down stereotypes about Aboriginal people.

"I don't tell time by the sun. I tell the time by Dolce and Gabbana," she told the amused audience, referring to her watch.

The panelists also discussed the significance of the historic apology made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the stolen generation of the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

Rudd won accolades in February for his apology for historic injustices inflicted on Aborigines, particularly the so-called stolen generation forcibly removed from their families.

The apology "validated the history of indigenous people and gave non-indigenous people honesty about their (own) history," Heiss told the symposium.

Source: The Herald Sun

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