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Aboriginal peoples make little distinction between art and culture, living and being. Art enacts both the material and the immaterial; a painted or sculptured landscape, animal or ancestral being is the thing itself. In this way the 'real', the immaterial and the imaginary, exist both interchangeably and at the same time.
What can we learn from traditional indigenous knowledge and cultural practices (in the wake of pandemics and bush fires) which provides an integrated approach to sustainable living?
Join us for a conversation with Uncle Badger Bates, Travis de Vries, Jennifer Newman and Garry Jones to discuss how we can collectively work towards a non human centric future.
This Forum was held on 10 July, in conjunction with our previous exhibition and to mark NAIDOC Week 2020.
Badger Bates
Uncle Badger has been a long-time collaborator and friend of Bankstown Arts Centre. He is a respected artist from Wilcannia NSW, who has mastered a variety of mediums including printmaking, as well as carving and sculpting with wood, steel, emu egg and stone. His works of art incorporate the patterns, landforms, animals, plants and stories of Barkandji country and the Baaka.
In 2018, Badger created a site-specific permanent sculpture piece called West to East, in the Arts Centre courtyard. This was part of an ongoing Indigenous Artist Exchange with Broken Hill, our sister city. More information on West to East below.
Travis is a concept artist, podcaster and producer best known for creating artwork grounded in storytelling. His works draw on myth and his own heritage, to create interconnected storylines that spans the globe.
To find out more about Travis' work, check out his Instagram.
Jennifer Newman
Garry Jones is an Indigenous printmaker, painter and sculptor whose early experiences of racism in western Sydney inform much of his practice today. Jones was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2003 and is lecturing in Creative Arts at the School of Visual Arts at the University of Wollongong.
