We know that Pacific Island populations spread out well beyond the islands themselves. Countries like Australia are home to many from the islands who proudly continue to engage with their culture beyond the seas. But what does it mean to be a Pacific Islander living in a wide brown land like Australia? Maryann Talia Pau [...]
Posts under ‘Indigenous’
A world vision for Mapuche
Like most other colonies, the nation of Chile was established through a forced dispossession of Indigenous peoples from their land. One group proved particularly hard to displace. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the Mapuche had successful resisted an invasion from the Incas. After this, they held off the Spanish for nearly 300 years, [...]
Timor-Leste – A king’s granddaughter helps re-weave a nation
The following text is from Sara Niner, courtesy of the Alola Foundation: The back-strap loom common to Timor and surrounding islands was brought down by migrants from the Bronze-age Dongson culture in mainland South-east Asia around 500BC. Today, geometric Dongson patterning and designs from Indian cloth traded by Arabs and Europeans for slaves and spices [...]
From a hard to a soft place – national identity in metal and fibre
It’s always enlivening when Damian Skinner comes to town. We gave at talk together at RMIT in the unusual setting of Hoyts Cinema 7 in Melbourne Central. It was disconcerting to see the students and jewellers lying back in their comfy seats as though waiting for a blockbuster. Damian began with his reading of the [...]
Children can be the link between craft and design
The Tradition for Modern Times was an intense workshop to complete the Selling Yarns conference. Participants brought a range of skills and experiences, particularly from Indigenous and artisan craft centres. In first considering the kinds of objects that have value in life, there was a great emphasis on some knowledge or connection to those who [...]
From a hard to a soft place – national identity in metal and fibre
It’s always enlivening when Damian Skinner comes to town. We gave at talk together at RMIT in the unusual setting of Hoyts Cinema 7 in Melbourne Central. It was disconcerting to see the students and jewellers lying back in their comfy seats as though waiting for a blockbuster. Damian began with his reading of the [...]
Review of From the Earth, contemporary Indigenous ceramics
From The Earth – Contemporary Indigenous Ceramics from Alice Springs Pottery, Ernabella, Hermannsburg Potters, and Tiwi Islands Gallery One, JamFactory Adelaide 13 December 2008 – 25 January 2009 Reviewed by Christine Nicholls for World Sculpture News, Hong Kong From the Earth is a survey exhibition of contemporary Indigenous Australian ceramics from the Tiwi Islands (situated [...]
