Media Release
June 20 2007
Painting a bright future
Drawing from the past to help paint a brighter future – that’s the
goal of a special new project aimed at Aboriginal youth.
UniSA is collaborating with an Aboriginal artists’ collective in the Northern Territory, the Waralungku Arts Centre, using art to help bridge the generation gap in their community and sustain an exciting Indigenous business enterprise.
The intergenerational art project is underway in the remote Northern Territory community of Borroloola, 1000 kilometres southeast of Darwin and has been made possible by a two-year grant from the Telstra Foundation.
“The enterprise and cultural goals of the project are a powerful combination,” Professor Alan Mayne, co-leader of the project and Director of UniSA’s Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies says.
“It is providing a model for successful community development that links social, educational, creative and economic goals.
“Already Waralungku Arts Centre artists have created enough work to stage a special exhibition of youth art in Tennant Creek later in the year, which will showcase the role art is playing in developing community. We’re also planning an exhibition in Adelaide during 2008 to highlight Waralungku art across the generations.”
Prof Mayne says the Waralungku art style was pioneered during the 1990s by the community’s elders and now they wanted to engage the next generations of Indigenous youth in their celebration of country.
“The hope is that the Art Centre, with support from researchers at UniSA, will connect its deep knowledge of local history and culture with the creative interests of young people.
“The artwork that is being created expresses the complex culture of the Borroloola region through a mixture of traditional and contemporary styles that capture the ecology, the history, and the songlines of this country.”
Prof Mayne says the artwork being sold through the Waralungku Arts Centre is highly regarded by collectors all over the world.
“The Art Centre has all the potential to develop as an Indigenous business enterprise which can provide a sustainable future for the community’s young people on many levels – personal, economic and cultural,” he says.
“The project is challenging the entrenched assumptions of some opinion leaders and policy makers that remote desert communities are intrinsically dysfunctional or unsustainable.
“In so many ways there’s nothing remote or marginal about the place
depicted in this artwork. Its power lies in its centredness, and in the
opportunities this artistic expression is offering across generations,
to grow as a self empowering and culturally and commercially sustaining
enterprise.”
Contact for interview
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Prof Alan Mayne office (08) 8302 4032 email alan.mayne@unisa.edu.au
Media contact
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Tess van Straaten mobile 0412 102 662 email tess.vanstraaten@unisa.edu.au