Last year, Fran Edmonds and artist Maree Clarke (Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung) recorded an episode for Artery, a podcast on art, authorship and anthropology. The recording took place in Maree’s backyard, and the pair spoke about the Living Archive, and Maree’s collaborative way of working and researching museum collections to reclaim the object/artefact/story. Maree’s nephew, Mitch Mahoney (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba/Barkindji) also joins in the discussion.
The podcast episode can be listened to HERE.
Throughout term three, 2022, a possum skin cloak-making workshop was held at the Newcastle High School, Cooks Hill Campus. Professor Kate Senior, Kerri Clarke (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba) and Mitch Mahoney (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba/Barkindji) worked with the students and staff to begin the creation of a major artwork – a possum skin cloak. Cloaks are traditional items that are connected to people from the southeast of Australia. Kerri and Mitch’s family are among the people from the southeast who are engaged in reclaiming cloak-making as a way of telling stories and passing cultural information on to the next generation. Our reason for cloak-making in Newcastle was also connected to the Living Archive project’s collaboration with the community of Ngukurr in southeast Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. For the Newcastle students, their role in learning to stitch the pelts of the cloak together corresponded with them listening and learning about the story of Dexter Daniels, great uncle of Daphne Daniels – one of the co-researchers on the Living Archive project. They learnt that Dexter was a renowned activist from the 1960-70s, who fought for the rights of his people. He was instrumental in organising and supporting the Wave Hill Walk Off (1966), which eventually led to the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, NT. (1976). Dexter spent some time in the southern states, including Newcastle, lobbying trade unions to support the land rights movement and equal rights for First Nations people.
The possum skin cloak-making workshop was a forum for knowledge exchange, as Kerri and Mitch shared their knowledge of cloak construction; from sewing. though to learning about using ochre to dye the cloak, as well as opening up the space for discussions about the types of design work that would later be marked on the cloak, as part of the storytelling process. The cloak will be taken to the Ngukurr community where artists in the community, along with Mitch and Kerri, will collaborate to complete the mark-making/cloak designs. Although, possum skin cloaks are not traditionally made in Ngukurr, as demonstrated in the Newcastle workshops, they are a medium for knowledge exchange through art-making. The cloak-making workshops also provided opportunities for students to engage in storytelling through yarning together with First Nations knowledge holders, as part of the learning process that emerges from and is connected to cloak-making. Taking the cloak to Ngukurr, as part of this knowledge exchange will provide opportunities for communities to come together, share ideas and tell stories that have been lying dormant in the archives, including the story of Dexter Daniels, who worked hard to focus attention on the histories and culture of his people to a broad audience.
The flyer for the event – which provides more information about Dexter Daniels, the Living Archive project and the possum skin cloak workshop – can be viewed HERE.
The Pursuit article ‘Bringing a Living Archive to Life’ by project team members Dr Fran Edmonds, Associate Professor Jeanine Leane and Dr Sabra Thorner describes the ways in which the Living Archive project ‘challenges the idea of what an Indigenous museum collection can be and could become’. The full article is available to read here: https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/bringing-a-living-archive-to-life
Maree Clarke (Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung), her husband Nicholas Hovington (Palawa), and her family, Mitch Mahoney (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba/Barkindji), Kerri Clarke (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba) and Molly Mahoney (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba/Barkindji) travelled to Massachusetts in April to facilitate possum-skin cloak making workshops at Mount Holyoke College. The students, who were enrolled in a course conducted by Dr Sabra Thorner called “Decolonizing Museums”, a subject which has evolved in concert with the Living Archive of Aboriginal Art and Knowledge project (ARC INDP 200100042), participated in four workshops. Maree and her family generously passed on their knowledge of this cultural art-making practice, which saw the students working hands on with the cloaks, sewing pelts and using wire-nib pyrography tools to burn designs on the skins of the pelts. Once complete, Maree photographed the students wearing the cloak. To find out more details about the workshops, please read the following articles:
‘Indigenous artists in residence present: Ancestral Memories!’, Mount Holyoke News.
‘Hands across the water: Australian artists join Mount Holyoke students to make traditional Aboriginal art’, Daily Hampshire Gazette.
Mitch using wire-nib pyrography tools to burn designs on the skins of the pelts.
Kerri and and another student burning designs on the pelts, alongside Mitch assisting students to weave bracelets from raffia.
Molly Mahoney and Juliette Gagnon Strong Heart (Anishinabee) beaded the possum tails on the cloak using a blend of traditional Anishinabee techniques with contemporary string bead-making. The inclusion of beading acknowledged the First Nations peoples of the lands of Turtle Island (North America) and paid respect to the practices of the traditional knowledge holders, a process the Australian artists insisted on including in the making of the cloak.
Kerri, Maree and Mitch painting the cloak.
The completed cloak!
All photographs by Dr Fran Edmonds and posted with permission.
Join Maree Clarke (Mutti Mutti/Yorta Yorta/Wemba Wemba/Boonwurrung), Kerri Clarke (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba), Mitch Mahoney (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba/Barkindji), Dr Fran Edmonds and Dr Sabra Thorner as they discuss The Living Archive of Aboriginal Art and Knowledge. In this lecture the concept of the Living Archive will be discussed in relation to the work of Maree, Mitch and Kerri Clarke, as they reflect on their art practices, including learning and working together in Maree’s backyard/artists’ studio to revitalise their Ancestral material culture and associated stories. These practices will be related to the current possum skin cloak-making workshop they are conducting at Mt Holyoke College, USA, where the workshop is providing new opportunities for students to engage with an Indigenous concept of a Living Archive.
The event will be held on Wednesday 20 April at 12pm. Register your place HERE.
In April 2021, Daphne Daniels and Karen Rogers (Ngukurr) visited Melbourne as part of the Living Archive of Aboriginal Art & Knowledge project. The film was created by Birriah/Gurreng Gurreng Murri filmmaker Simon Rose, and showcases Daphne and Karen’s visits to Museums Victoria, the Koorie Heritage Trust and Footscray Community Arts. It also contains footage of a visit to the home and creative space/backyard of Mutti Mutti/Yorta Yorta/BoonWurrung/Wemba Wemba artist Maree Clarke.
Please note that our recordings are made available for educational use and private viewing only and are subject to copyright. Please contact us with any queries regarding any other potential use.
On Wednesday 28 July Maree Clarke (Boonwurrung/WambaWamba/Mutti Mutti/Yorta Yorta) and her nephew, Mitch Mahoney (Boonwurrung), featured on Episode 13 of ABC’s Art Works. In the episode, Maree is interviewed by Kimberley Moulton (Senior Curator, South Eastern Aboriginal Collections, Museums Victoria) about her solo exhibition ‘Ancestral Memories’ at the National Gallery of Victoria. The following story is about Science Gallery at the University of Melbourne and Mitch as one of the young curators. The episode can be viewed via the ABC iView website: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/art-works/series/1/video/AC2012H013S00
Artist Maree Clarke’s (Boonwurrung/WambaWamba/Mutti Mutti/Yorta Yorta) exhibition Ancestral Memories is the first solo show by a living Victorian Aboriginal artist to be featured in the National Gallery of Victoria. Read two articles about Maree’s newest exhibition here:
- ABC Arts, by Maddee Clark, ‘Artist Maree Clarke’s extraordinary practice celebrated in first solo show by a living Victorian Aboriginal artist at the NGV’, go to: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-13/ngv-exhibition-maree-clarke-ancestral-memories/
- Also see the NGV Magazine, Issue 29, Jul-Aug. 2021, pp.18-29 for an article by Dr. Fran Edmonds titled ‘Maree Clarke: Making Memories’ , go to: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/ngv-magazine/issue-29-jul-aug-2021/#dearflip-df_157094/27/
A major catalogue of Maree’s exhibition is also available, Maree Clarke, Ancestral Memories. Edited by Myles Russell Cooke, it features chapters by Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics and curators, including: Fran Edmonds, Kimberley Moulton, Charlotte Day, Clair Coleman, Hannah Presley, Helen Ennis and Judith Ryan.
Maree Clarke: Ancestral Memories is showing at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia (Melbourne) until 3 October 2021.
(Image credit: NGV/Maree Clarke)
Following their trip to Melbourne in April, Daphne Daniels and Karen Rogers (Ngukurr) visited the University of Newcastle Library in New South Wales to view Dexter Daniel’s (Ngukurr) archive. Dexter was a campaigner for Aboriginal equal rights in the 1960s/70s. Associate Professor Kate Senior reflected on her visited to the University of Newcastle Library with Daphne and Karen in the following blog post: https://hunterlivinghistories.com/2021/04/30/ngukurr/
“Aborigines 1970” Folder in the Merv and Janet Copley Archive
Two weeks ago, project Senior Knowledge Holders Daphne Daniels and Karen Rogers travelled from Ngukurr to Melbourne to undertake a field trip as part of the Living Archive of Aboriginal Art & Knowledge project. Daphne and Karen’s first day entailed viewing the Ngukurr Collection at Museums Victoria, followed by a visit to the Koorie Heritage Trust to view the Victorian feather flower collection and the Maree Clarke collection. The following day, the project team visited the Footscray Community Arts Centre to admire Mitch Mahoney’s river reed canoes, displayed within the gardens behind the cafe. Finally, Daphne and Karen visited the home of Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung artist Maree Clarke where they had the opportunity to make some feather flowers of their own.
Karen Rogers and Daphne Daniels (Ngukurr) viewing material at Museums Victoria.
River reed canoes by Mitch Mahoney, displayed in the garden at Footscray Community Arts Centre.
Flower feathers made at the home of Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung artist Maree Clarke.
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