WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.500 Hello everyone. Welcome to our session on the art of nature. 2 00:00:06.340 --> 00:00:09.820 I'm Gary Stewart, the Artistic Director of Australian Dance Theatre. 3 00:00:10.120 --> 00:00:13.900 And we've just finished a season of The Beginning of Nature 4 00:00:13.900 --> 00:00:18.720 and I'm making a number of works over the next few years called The Nature Series 5 00:00:18.720 --> 00:00:23.340 and sort of interrogating different aspects of nature through my choreographic practice. 6 00:00:23.880 --> 00:00:29.900 And given that our dance festival is on concurrent with the Adelaide Festival of Ideas, 7 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:35.100 and we thought it was kind of a great opportunity to assemble a number of artists 8 00:00:35.100 --> 00:00:40.260 to speak about their relationship with nature through their own work. 9 00:00:40.440 --> 00:00:48.060 So today we have the wonderful and esteemed Dr Lisa Slade, who's a curator and writer. 10 00:00:48.100 --> 00:00:52.040 She's currently the Acting Co-Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia 11 00:00:52.040 --> 00:00:55.300 and the Chair of ArtLink Magazine. So welcome, Lisa. 12 00:00:55.500 --> 00:00:56.120 Thank you, Gary. 13 00:00:56.800 --> 00:00:59.820 And then next, Victoria. 14 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:05.900 Victoria Hunt. Victoria is an Australian Maori performance artist living on Gadigal land in Sydney. 15 00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:12.220 She works to reinstate the power of Indigenous creativity and knowledge into contemporary staging. 16 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:18.080 And finally, on the end, we have Dr Julie Goff, a visual artist. 17 00:01:18.220 --> 00:01:23.000 So Dr Julie Goff is a Tasmanian Aboriginal artist, writer and curator of Indigenous cultures 18 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:29.980 at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and continues her visual arts practice in Tasmania. 19 00:01:31.520 --> 00:01:37.200 So interesting that this Adelaide Festival of Ideas is titled with the question, 20 00:01:37.360 --> 00:01:38.240 Who's at the Wheel? 21 00:01:38.460 --> 00:01:45.220 And I was thinking of a quote by Kurt Vonnegut about artists being at the wheel. 22 00:01:46.180 --> 00:01:47.920 And this quote says, 23 00:01:48.160 --> 00:01:52.040 I sometimes wondered what the use of any of the arts was. 24 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:57.460 The best thing I could come up with was what I call the canary in the coal mine theory of the arts. 25 00:01:58.080 --> 00:01:59.820 The theory says that artists, 26 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:02.340 they're useful to society because they are so sensitive. 27 00:02:02.540 --> 00:02:03.800 They are super sensitive. 28 00:02:04.100 --> 00:02:07.800 They keel over like canaries in a poison coal mine, 29 00:02:07.940 --> 00:02:12.060 long before more robust types realise there is any danger whatsoever. 30 00:02:13.460 --> 00:02:15.300 Which I thought was a really wonderful quote. 31 00:02:15.620 --> 00:02:19.860 Lisa also chimed in and said that artists are like cockroaches 32 00:02:19.860 --> 00:02:22.140 because we hang in until the very end as well. 33 00:02:22.540 --> 00:02:25.340 And we're sort of there long before everyone else has disappeared. 34 00:02:26.980 --> 00:02:28.860 So, you know, controversially, 35 00:02:28.860 --> 00:02:29.800 we're in the... 36 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:31.000 Anthropocene period. 37 00:02:31.280 --> 00:02:33.300 And which is... 38 00:02:33.300 --> 00:02:36.960 I don't think it's kind of like a textbook geological era. 39 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:39.700 It's more sort of like a popular culture term. 40 00:02:39.820 --> 00:02:43.280 But it seems that we are in this point in history 41 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:47.060 where the impacts of human action are creating mass extinctions 42 00:02:47.060 --> 00:02:50.640 of plant and animal species and pollution of the oceans 43 00:02:50.640 --> 00:02:54.960 and the altering of the atmosphere amongst other lasting impacts. 44 00:02:55.220 --> 00:02:59.040 So a lot of artisan now will have been... 45 00:03:00.140 --> 00:03:02.580 had practices focused on nature. 46 00:03:02.740 --> 00:03:04.920 But sort of, I think, increasingly, 47 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:08.700 we're seeing more and more artists responding to nature. 48 00:03:10.060 --> 00:03:15.300 So first off, it's Lisa to talk about a number of artists 49 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:18.140 and their relationship to nature and their work. 50 00:03:18.260 --> 00:03:18.740 Thank you, Lisa. 51 00:03:19.040 --> 00:03:19.700 Thanks, Gary. 52 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:20.360 Hi, everyone. 53 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:22.160 Thank you for joining us here today. 54 00:03:22.380 --> 00:03:24.400 I'd like to commence by acknowledging, of course, 55 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:26.600 that we meet on Kaurna country and pay my respects, 56 00:03:26.740 --> 00:03:28.640 my deep respects to elders past, present, 57 00:03:28.720 --> 00:03:29.980 and the emerging elders. 58 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:30.620 And to the elders of the future. 59 00:03:31.300 --> 00:03:33.880 It's a real delight to be here in such wonderful company. 60 00:03:34.120 --> 00:03:35.560 And I'm kind of going to speed through 61 00:03:35.560 --> 00:03:37.600 so that we can get to Victoria and Julie. 62 00:03:37.860 --> 00:03:41.260 Because like you, I feel as though I'm in the audience today. 63 00:03:41.600 --> 00:03:45.120 A very special thank you to Gary to comprising this panel, 64 00:03:45.220 --> 00:03:46.580 particularly in the midst of a festival. 65 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:49.240 It's a very difficult thing to do when there's so much going on. 66 00:03:49.380 --> 00:03:51.860 So congratulations to ADT and to the team. 67 00:03:52.820 --> 00:03:56.460 I'd like to kick off by announcing that yesterday, 68 00:03:56.660 --> 00:03:58.580 and in fact today, somewhere in the world, 69 00:03:58.680 --> 00:03:59.700 it is international. 70 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:01.200 International Non-Binary Day. 71 00:04:01.620 --> 00:04:05.760 Now, whilst Non-Binary Day in this context alludes to gender, 72 00:04:06.100 --> 00:04:10.380 I'd like it to be an invitation for us all to consider the non-binary 73 00:04:10.380 --> 00:04:13.500 with regards to the relationship between art and nature 74 00:04:13.500 --> 00:04:16.180 or the relationship between culture and nature. 75 00:04:16.360 --> 00:04:19.120 And that provides the kind of conceptual framework 76 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:22.800 for the quick trot we're going to have to do now 77 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:24.700 through a series of case studies. 78 00:04:25.020 --> 00:04:28.480 As Gary mentioned, I'm a curator, probably first and foremost, 79 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:29.180 and a writer. 80 00:04:29.180 --> 00:04:31.320 So I'm going to just talk about a number of projects. 81 00:04:31.520 --> 00:04:32.920 Some of them are current, 82 00:04:32.940 --> 00:04:35.440 and some of them may be quite familiar to you. 83 00:04:35.660 --> 00:04:38.760 But I want to talk about them within this kind of crucible 84 00:04:38.760 --> 00:04:43.320 of thinking around these oppositions that we cling to 85 00:04:43.320 --> 00:04:45.840 and are so comfortable with in the West. 86 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:49.280 And the first one I'd like to kick off with is an exhibition 87 00:04:49.280 --> 00:04:52.000 that opened just a week ago, the MCA in Sydney. 88 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:55.440 And it's a co-developed exhibition between the Art Gallery of South Australia 89 00:04:55.440 --> 00:04:57.600 and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. 90 00:04:57.680 --> 00:04:59.160 And it positions the four, 91 00:04:59.160 --> 00:05:02.320 40-year career of Gunungu artist John Mawunjul 92 00:05:02.320 --> 00:05:04.020 at the heart of the exhibition. 93 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:08.720 Now, what John Mawunjul's work does is blow apart 94 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:11.540 all of the binaries that we've become so accustomed to. 95 00:05:12.280 --> 00:05:13.560 It positions the local. 96 00:05:13.780 --> 00:05:14.700 And when I mean local, 97 00:05:14.980 --> 00:05:18.220 John Mawunjul is one of only 200 Gunungu speakers. 98 00:05:18.520 --> 00:05:20.320 He, in fact, is from a part of the world 99 00:05:20.320 --> 00:05:23.980 that is argued to be the most linguistically diverse part of Australia 100 00:05:24.760 --> 00:05:26.940 and, in fact, part of the world itself. 101 00:05:27.060 --> 00:05:28.560 So he speaks... 102 00:05:29.160 --> 00:05:32.180 He speaks one language among many from this particular area. 103 00:05:32.400 --> 00:05:35.320 So he proves to us that the local can be international. 104 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:40.860 He also underscores that tradition can be concurrent 105 00:05:40.860 --> 00:05:44.180 or confluent, if you like, with innovation, 106 00:05:44.860 --> 00:05:48.920 and that the ancient can be absolutely contemporary. 107 00:05:49.660 --> 00:05:53.580 Through the materials he uses, he, of course, also informs us 108 00:05:53.580 --> 00:05:56.580 that, indeed, nature can be culture. 109 00:05:56.780 --> 00:05:59.080 This particular image that you can see, 110 00:05:59.160 --> 00:06:00.440 which is actually on screen, two images here. 111 00:06:00.660 --> 00:06:03.380 One, the image on your left-hand side, 112 00:06:03.580 --> 00:06:06.280 is the artist himself, John Mawunjul, 113 00:06:06.400 --> 00:06:08.400 and he's holding manjilk. 114 00:06:08.400 --> 00:06:11.760 And manjilk is the sedge grass that grows prolifically 115 00:06:11.760 --> 00:06:14.380 on Gunungu country and through most of Arnhem Land. 116 00:06:14.580 --> 00:06:17.980 It's actually the brush that's used to make the extraordinary raak 117 00:06:17.980 --> 00:06:20.660 and the crosshatching that you know, 118 00:06:20.700 --> 00:06:22.600 that kind of vibrates with that incredible brilliance 119 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:23.900 across the top end. 120 00:06:24.120 --> 00:06:27.060 On the right-hand side is namamware, 121 00:06:27.200 --> 00:06:28.400 which is the saltwater crocodile, 122 00:06:28.400 --> 00:06:31.180 and that's a work from the Art Gallery of South Australia's collection from 1988. 123 00:06:32.740 --> 00:06:36.300 So he's demonstrating this ancient and contemporary technology, 124 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:40.100 this local and global reality, using, of course, 125 00:06:40.200 --> 00:06:43.160 nature to become culture, nature to become art, 126 00:06:43.260 --> 00:06:44.460 in this particular instance. 127 00:06:45.020 --> 00:06:48.340 I'd really encourage you to see this exhibition in Sydney if you can. 128 00:06:48.380 --> 00:06:50.880 Of course, if you can't, it will be here in Adelaide in October. 129 00:06:51.460 --> 00:06:55.100 Now, the first artist, when I was invited to be part of this panel, 130 00:06:55.200 --> 00:06:57.700 the artist who did spring to mind immediately 131 00:06:57.700 --> 00:07:00.080 was the inimitable Fiona Hall. 132 00:07:00.220 --> 00:07:01.240 She needs very little introduction. 133 00:07:01.660 --> 00:07:03.580 She's recently moved from our fair city 134 00:07:03.580 --> 00:07:06.560 and she now lives in Julie's Fair City in Hobart, as it happens. 135 00:07:07.840 --> 00:07:09.020 Fiona once said to me, 136 00:07:09.100 --> 00:07:10.180 art is my nature, 137 00:07:10.320 --> 00:07:12.820 and it was that quote that did spring to mind 138 00:07:12.820 --> 00:07:14.800 in being invited to be part of this panel. 139 00:07:15.340 --> 00:07:17.140 On screen is the artist herself, 140 00:07:17.320 --> 00:07:20.420 but also one of her works that began here in Adelaide in 1990 141 00:07:20.420 --> 00:07:22.740 with the first Adelaide Biennial of Australian art, 142 00:07:22.820 --> 00:07:25.480 and it's a work from the Paradisus Terrestris series. 143 00:07:25.800 --> 00:07:27.680 She takes the human and natural world 144 00:07:27.700 --> 00:07:30.020 and the anatomy and creates a statement of equivalence 145 00:07:30.020 --> 00:07:33.320 between botany, between the natural world and the human body. 146 00:07:33.580 --> 00:07:36.820 The resonances here are even deeper than they appear. 147 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:39.400 Of course, there is a visual semblance 148 00:07:39.400 --> 00:07:42.200 between the lotus form and the human navel, 149 00:07:42.320 --> 00:07:44.100 but it goes much deeper than that. 150 00:07:44.220 --> 00:07:46.440 The lotus form, as many of you would be aware, 151 00:07:46.580 --> 00:07:48.340 has a real polyvalence cross-culturally 152 00:07:48.340 --> 00:07:51.280 and is a very important symbol cross-culturally. 153 00:07:51.440 --> 00:07:57.340 The navel is sprouted...sprouts from the dirt 154 00:07:57.700 --> 00:07:58.260 and is the... 155 00:07:58.260 --> 00:08:00.660 Sorry, the lotus, I mean, sprouts from the dirt, 156 00:08:00.700 --> 00:08:02.740 but is the ultimate kind of symbol of purity. 157 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:06.780 The lotus is a Buddhist symbol, it's a Hindu symbol, 158 00:08:06.860 --> 00:08:07.940 it's connected with Vishnu. 159 00:08:08.060 --> 00:08:09.680 In fact, Vishnu's... 160 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:11.920 The lotus grows from Vishnu's navel. 161 00:08:12.100 --> 00:08:14.800 So you've got this wonderful polyvalence 162 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:17.120 or many levels happening in this work 163 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:20.460 between nature and culture, between nature and art. 164 00:08:21.640 --> 00:08:25.760 The lotus is played out here, and we are back in Adelaide. 165 00:08:25.840 --> 00:08:27.020 This is, of course, 166 00:08:27.020 --> 00:08:29.280 the Botanic Gardens, and this is a body of work 167 00:08:29.280 --> 00:08:33.860 that was produced very recently for Erica Green's 2018 Adelaide Biennial. 168 00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:40.700 This work is a ricochet back to pre-Raphaelite imagery, 169 00:08:40.880 --> 00:08:42.920 and I think of Ruskin immediately. 170 00:08:43.220 --> 00:08:45.040 It was Ruskin who, mid-19th century, 171 00:08:45.300 --> 00:08:48.100 believed that art could rarely compete with nature 172 00:08:48.100 --> 00:08:51.660 and urged artists to emulate nature in all of their forms. 173 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:53.900 Tamara Dean, 200 years on, 174 00:08:54.040 --> 00:08:56.920 creates an allusion to that very reality 175 00:08:57.020 --> 00:09:00.320 working very closely with the dancers from ADT. 176 00:09:00.460 --> 00:09:02.300 Tamara produced a body of photographs 177 00:09:02.300 --> 00:09:05.700 which were shown at the incredible Museum of Economic Botany, 178 00:09:05.780 --> 00:09:07.760 and this is one of them among many. 179 00:09:08.100 --> 00:09:14.020 She created a series of statements around seasonality and around age, 180 00:09:14.300 --> 00:09:18.840 which enabled a kind of meeting in the middle of art and nature 181 00:09:18.840 --> 00:09:21.580 for this series, which is called In Our Nature. 182 00:09:21.880 --> 00:09:25.940 This painting is on view if you come down to the gallery any time soon. 183 00:09:25.940 --> 00:09:28.180 It's called Kangurukanguruku, 184 00:09:28.260 --> 00:09:31.480 which in Pinjarra translates as A Sister's Story. 185 00:09:32.020 --> 00:09:34.180 And this painting, to me, 186 00:09:34.340 --> 00:09:38.680 is an extraordinary reminder of the custodial responsibilities 187 00:09:38.680 --> 00:09:41.340 when it comes to nature, when it comes to country. 188 00:09:41.680 --> 00:09:45.400 Now, we've got the five Ken sisters here, Anangal sisters, 189 00:09:45.700 --> 00:09:49.560 painting for the very first time with their mother, Panini Mick, 190 00:09:49.680 --> 00:09:51.760 who's pictured on the right-hand side, 191 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:53.940 to create these incredible renderings 192 00:09:54.520 --> 00:09:55.800 of two very important, 193 00:09:55.940 --> 00:09:56.620 dreamy stories. 194 00:09:57.040 --> 00:10:00.600 One of them is the Kungurankupa, which is the Seven Sisters. 195 00:10:01.040 --> 00:10:04.620 And if we had time, we could look at the Seven Sisters in great detail, 196 00:10:04.740 --> 00:10:08.940 because that story in itself underscores the confluence of art and nature 197 00:10:08.940 --> 00:10:11.220 and the confluence of culture and nature, 198 00:10:11.340 --> 00:10:14.020 because it is the sisters themselves who create the universe 199 00:10:14.020 --> 00:10:17.580 as they spring from the celestial down to the terrestrial 200 00:10:17.580 --> 00:10:18.900 and every space in between. 201 00:10:19.420 --> 00:10:20.320 So this... 202 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:20.660 One more minute. 203 00:10:20.660 --> 00:10:22.460 One more minute. Good. That's good timing. 204 00:10:22.520 --> 00:10:23.280 I've only got one more slide. 205 00:10:23.920 --> 00:10:28.480 So this painting, this triptych, really kind of underscores 206 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:33.380 how very deeply held those entwined relationships are for Anangal 207 00:10:33.380 --> 00:10:35.220 and for this particular family. 208 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:38.760 And very finally, what does it mean then? 209 00:10:38.900 --> 00:10:43.380 You know, what does it mean to play between the space of art and nature 210 00:10:43.380 --> 00:10:48.520 if you're an artist who, like Rico Reni, has been removed from his family history 211 00:10:48.520 --> 00:10:50.060 or has been... 212 00:10:50.060 --> 00:10:53.260 It has been in some ways kind of repurposed, 213 00:10:53.260 --> 00:10:54.120 I suppose. 214 00:10:54.440 --> 00:10:56.580 What Rico Reni does in this work, 215 00:10:56.740 --> 00:10:59.840 and he chooses a car made in the year he was born, 216 00:10:59.960 --> 00:11:02.340 it's a Rolls Royce Rico Reni RR, 217 00:11:02.500 --> 00:11:06.660 and he drives that Rolls Royce painted with this incredible camouflage 218 00:11:07.300 --> 00:11:09.300 performatively back on his own country, 219 00:11:09.420 --> 00:11:10.180 Ongamilaroi country, 220 00:11:10.520 --> 00:11:12.360 a country that's known for Bora rings 221 00:11:12.360 --> 00:11:14.620 and as a male initiation ceremony site. 222 00:11:14.940 --> 00:11:20.420 So here he creates his own revisiting or repatriation of that ceremony. 223 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:22.140 Thank you. 224 00:11:22.640 --> 00:11:23.900 Wonderful. Thank you, Lisa. 225 00:11:25.660 --> 00:11:26.360 Thank you. 226 00:11:28.100 --> 00:11:29.880 Brilliant in eight minutes. 227 00:11:30.340 --> 00:11:33.820 And next we have Victoria Hunt, 228 00:11:34.740 --> 00:11:37.140 choreographer and performance artist from Sydney. 229 00:11:37.880 --> 00:11:38.360 Thank you. 230 00:11:38.460 --> 00:11:38.960 Thank you. 231 00:11:40.940 --> 00:11:43.180 Please be gentle with that one-minute call. 232 00:11:44.560 --> 00:11:46.680 I was born in the land of the Yugambeh people. 233 00:11:46.740 --> 00:11:48.100 That's at the Gold Coast in Queensland. 234 00:11:48.900 --> 00:11:52.060 I was raised in the land of the Turrbal and Jagera nations, 235 00:11:52.140 --> 00:11:52.380 and I was born in Brisbane. 236 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:55.220 And as you said, I'm living in Gadigal, 237 00:11:55.380 --> 00:11:57.600 on the land of the Gadigal people in Sydney. 238 00:11:58.100 --> 00:12:01.980 And I'd also like to acknowledge the traditional custodians, 239 00:12:02.260 --> 00:12:03.080 the Kaurna people, 240 00:12:03.220 --> 00:12:05.340 and pay my respects to their elders past, present, 241 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:06.420 and yet to be born. 242 00:12:07.160 --> 00:12:09.920 I acknowledge your mountains and your lakes and your rivers 243 00:12:09.920 --> 00:12:12.500 and your lands and your languages, your culture, 244 00:12:12.640 --> 00:12:16.620 your relationships and your commitment to communities, 245 00:12:16.880 --> 00:12:18.560 and also to your activisms. 246 00:12:19.280 --> 00:12:21.900 I acknowledge that we are gathered here on unceded land, 247 00:12:22.700 --> 00:12:24.180 always was, always will be. 248 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:29.020 And I acknowledge myself as a settler on these lands, 249 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:31.940 or in my mother's tongue, we call it maruhiri, 250 00:12:32.580 --> 00:12:33.860 which means guest. 251 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:38.680 And as a guest on the whenua, the whenua is the land, 252 00:12:38.800 --> 00:12:40.540 but the whenua is also the placenta. 253 00:12:42.060 --> 00:12:46.120 So tangata, meaning the people, we bring those two concepts together, 254 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:48.220 tangata whenua, the people of the land. 255 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:52.820 So I extend my respects to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 256 00:12:52.820 --> 00:12:56.020 who are here today, and to all of you, 257 00:12:56.040 --> 00:13:01.220 and all of the places and ancestors and languages 258 00:13:01.920 --> 00:13:04.740 that you have brought to this gathering. 259 00:13:05.760 --> 00:13:09.760 And I'm very humbled to be sharing this platform with you all. 260 00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:12.540 And so tena koutou katoa. 261 00:13:12.780 --> 00:13:15.240 So I've always wanted to understand the world as an artist. 262 00:13:15.740 --> 00:13:17.780 My body is the site of my art. 263 00:13:18.680 --> 00:13:23.000 How do I, as a dancer ancestor, embody the transitional spaces 264 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:25.680 of an ancestral meeting house, hinemihi? 265 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:31.760 How do I, through a performative language based on Maori cosmology, 266 00:13:32.040 --> 00:13:35.280 body weather and personal practice, dance the house? 267 00:13:36.140 --> 00:13:38.920 Body weather is a synthesis of eastern and western dance 268 00:13:38.920 --> 00:13:42.340 and theatre practices and thought, and it originated in Japan with Mintonaka, 269 00:13:42.520 --> 00:13:45.920 and it considers the body as an environment within a greater environment 270 00:13:45.920 --> 00:13:47.760 that is constantly changing and infringing. 271 00:13:48.820 --> 00:13:50.340 So I'm very humbled to be sharing this platform with you all. 272 00:13:50.340 --> 00:13:50.860 And I'm very humbled to be sharing this platform with you all. 273 00:13:50.860 --> 00:13:51.740 And I'm very humbled to be sharing this platform with you all. 274 00:13:52.740 --> 00:13:55.080 So I'm going to start with a story about Hinemihi. 275 00:13:56.240 --> 00:14:01.120 So there are multiple ways to tell the story of Hinemihi. 276 00:14:01.660 --> 00:14:05.000 It's a story of origins, a story of traumatic events, 277 00:14:05.140 --> 00:14:06.920 and it's a story of colonial violence. 278 00:14:07.640 --> 00:14:10.100 So I'm just going to start with her materialist history. 279 00:14:11.700 --> 00:14:15.640 Hinemihi is a female ancestor, a meeting house, a marae, 280 00:14:15.700 --> 00:14:17.680 and a ceremonial space where people gather 281 00:14:17.780 --> 00:14:19.180 for the important rituals in life. 282 00:14:19.520 --> 00:14:21.600 It's where the core business is relationships, 283 00:14:21.740 --> 00:14:24.120 and it's where the living ritually engage with the dead, 284 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:25.780 who in turn guide the living. 285 00:14:26.840 --> 00:14:31.060 Her carvings are imbued with complex Maori concepts 286 00:14:31.060 --> 00:14:32.580 of creation and cosmology, 287 00:14:32.780 --> 00:14:36.800 and the deeper feelings that connect Maori with their marae remain intangible. 288 00:14:37.580 --> 00:14:40.800 It is a place of belonging, a standing place, 289 00:14:41.560 --> 00:14:43.500 expressing a deeply spiritual relationship 290 00:14:43.500 --> 00:14:46.320 in which one identifies as tangata whenua. 291 00:14:46.520 --> 00:14:47.760 On the north island of New Zealand, 292 00:14:47.780 --> 00:14:50.080 just outside Rotorua on Te Arawa land, 293 00:14:50.280 --> 00:14:51.820 is our sacred mountain, Tarawira. 294 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:54.920 This is a photo I took not so long ago. 295 00:14:56.740 --> 00:15:00.660 In 1886, Tarawira erupted and wiped out the pink and white terraces, 296 00:15:02.540 --> 00:15:05.820 which were the eighth wonder of the world at the time, 297 00:15:05.900 --> 00:15:08.580 and entire sub-tribes vanished under ash and mud. 298 00:15:09.980 --> 00:15:12.800 Hinemihi was one of the only buildings not to collapse, 299 00:15:13.060 --> 00:15:15.600 and the 60 people who took shelter inside Hinemihi 300 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:17.700 were the survivors of that fateful night. 301 00:15:18.300 --> 00:15:20.640 So I owe my life to Hinemihi for her protection. 302 00:15:21.080 --> 00:15:25.820 My great-great-uncle, he carved the Hinemihi, 303 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:28.380 and my great-great-grandfather-in-chief, 304 00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:30.800 he commissioned the building of Hinemihi on behalf of the people. 305 00:15:32.040 --> 00:15:34.980 The sacred burial grounds within the mountain 306 00:15:34.980 --> 00:15:36.640 were scattered during the eruption, 307 00:15:36.880 --> 00:15:40.720 which turned the land into a mass grave, into a urupa, 308 00:15:40.900 --> 00:15:42.720 so no Maori could live there. 309 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:47.240 To non-Maori people, leaving the land was interpreted as abandonment, 310 00:15:47.240 --> 00:15:49.320 and the land was acquired by the New Zealand government 311 00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:51.880 and subsequent settlers, and has not been returned since. 312 00:15:53.760 --> 00:15:55.120 Three years after the eruption, 313 00:15:55.420 --> 00:15:58.900 Governor-General of New Zealand, Lord Onslow, 314 00:15:59.020 --> 00:16:02.100 he acquired or bought Hinemihi for 50 pounds 315 00:16:02.100 --> 00:16:04.740 from a decimated tribe who had lost their land and heart 316 00:16:04.740 --> 00:16:06.360 for the moment to the eruption. 317 00:16:07.280 --> 00:16:10.640 So Hinemihi now sits in the grounds of an English mansion in Surrey Hills. 318 00:16:10.900 --> 00:16:12.300 But that's a whole other story. 319 00:16:13.860 --> 00:16:15.820 The removal of Hinemihi, 320 00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:18.520 from her place of origin, 321 00:16:18.760 --> 00:16:21.020 her dislocation and alienation, 322 00:16:21.080 --> 00:16:23.480 is experienced as an ongoing act of colonial violence. 323 00:16:24.460 --> 00:16:27.880 She's been used as a boathouse, goat house, cubby house, nightclub, 324 00:16:28.040 --> 00:16:29.080 and a backdrop for weddings. 325 00:16:29.960 --> 00:16:32.220 All this perpetuates a state of pain and shame 326 00:16:32.220 --> 00:16:34.800 which can only be healed when Hinemihi is returned to her homeland. 327 00:16:36.060 --> 00:16:39.420 The intergenerational nature of this pain and shame 328 00:16:39.420 --> 00:16:41.520 cannot be underestimated as it is ongoing, 329 00:16:42.180 --> 00:16:44.060 and pain is not the same as loss. 330 00:16:45.300 --> 00:16:47.220 I visited Hinemihi in 2008, 331 00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:49.660 2007, 2010, and again in 2013, 332 00:16:50.200 --> 00:16:52.420 and I have produced a suite of works since then 333 00:16:52.420 --> 00:16:54.220 about Hinemihi and stolen artefacts. 334 00:16:55.040 --> 00:16:57.040 But I just want to touch on three projects. 335 00:16:57.660 --> 00:16:59.420 This work is called Day of Invigilation. 336 00:16:59.760 --> 00:17:02.440 It's a directional gallery performance. 337 00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:07.140 I'm in a plinth for one to three hours. 338 00:17:07.520 --> 00:17:10.080 I keep my eyes open for the entire time. 339 00:17:10.780 --> 00:17:13.880 My body is covered in a thin layer of Rotorua mud from my homeland, 340 00:17:14.060 --> 00:17:16.800 and the eyes go through a stage of welling up with tears, 341 00:17:16.800 --> 00:17:20.320 and then crying, and then welling up, and drying, and welling up. 342 00:17:20.380 --> 00:17:22.540 So over the time, there's groove of... 343 00:17:22.540 --> 00:17:25.940 It comes through the mud and leaves a puddle at the base of the plinth. 344 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:29.520 So this work looks critically at Western ways of knowing 345 00:17:29.520 --> 00:17:33.240 that approach subject-object positions very differently to how I feel 346 00:17:33.800 --> 00:17:36.100 and what I know from an Indigenous Māori perspective. 347 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:39.900 The work raises questions about ethnography, objectification, 348 00:17:40.060 --> 00:17:41.680 and the guardianship of culture. 349 00:17:42.420 --> 00:17:44.540 By performing both the observer and the observed, 350 00:17:44.660 --> 00:17:46.220 the invigilator and the invigilated, 351 00:17:46.220 --> 00:17:48.900 this work implicates the audience into the colonial gaze. 352 00:17:49.360 --> 00:17:52.560 It is an intervention into colonial museums and gallery spaces. 353 00:17:53.080 --> 00:17:55.640 This draws attention to the debilitating mechanisms 354 00:17:56.220 --> 00:17:58.400 which maintain cultural artefacts as commodities. 355 00:18:00.940 --> 00:18:01.920 Copper Promises. 356 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:06.000 My practice is bound up in relationships and accountabilities, 357 00:18:06.140 --> 00:18:07.940 and these relationships take time. 358 00:18:08.580 --> 00:18:11.420 So Copper Promises was my first major dance solo, 359 00:18:11.520 --> 00:18:15.320 and it took 10 years before I was ready to perform this work. 360 00:18:15.320 --> 00:18:17.720 And this is my auntie, Roses. 361 00:18:18.300 --> 00:18:21.560 A key question in this work is how do I dance the history of the house? 362 00:18:21.840 --> 00:18:24.800 And I was guided by Minnie to gradually understand my role 363 00:18:24.800 --> 00:18:26.240 as a kaitiaki, or custodian. 364 00:18:26.740 --> 00:18:28.660 I am the house, and the house is me. 365 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:31.860 I dance the history of the house, and she reveals my history. 366 00:18:33.140 --> 00:18:36.160 This dance allowed me to perform my cosmology in whakapapa 367 00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:39.700 and make it comprehensive to a non-Māori audience. 368 00:18:41.180 --> 00:18:44.380 So Tangi Wai is the last work I want to speak about briefly here. 369 00:18:44.380 --> 00:18:49.160 It's a large-scale ensemble work which merges installation, theatre and dance, 370 00:18:49.340 --> 00:18:52.520 and it embodies female authority, ceremony and protest. 371 00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:56.280 And it also works to reinstate, as I was introduced, 372 00:18:56.480 --> 00:18:59.980 the Indigenous knowledge and creativity, but into contemporary staging. 373 00:19:00.420 --> 00:19:02.400 So this is Hinemihi's carved door lintel. 374 00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:06.220 It's the door lintel on Hinemihi. 375 00:19:06.360 --> 00:19:13.280 And it's currently in Paris under an auction for two million. 376 00:19:14.380 --> 00:19:15.640 I found out that online. 377 00:19:16.900 --> 00:19:22.660 I was disgusted to know that Lord Onslow had gifted my grandmother's pelvis 378 00:19:22.660 --> 00:19:26.240 to his friend HG Robley, and this is a trigger warning. 379 00:19:27.020 --> 00:19:31.740 So he was very instrumental in trading shrunken heads 380 00:19:31.740 --> 00:19:34.100 to Eurocentric institutions in collections. 381 00:19:34.360 --> 00:19:35.260 And that's probably enough for that one. 382 00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:41.500 So the deeper purpose of the work began as an honouring of Hinemihi's carved door lintel, 383 00:19:41.580 --> 00:19:44.220 and it was also an entering into knowledge that is specific 384 00:19:44.380 --> 00:19:48.360 in the realm of female and feminine energies. 385 00:19:51.040 --> 00:19:51.780 I'll just finish. 386 00:19:51.900 --> 00:19:53.560 Tangi. Tangi wai this water. 387 00:19:53.720 --> 00:19:55.860 Tangi is tears. It's the tears when you're happy. 388 00:19:55.940 --> 00:19:59.440 It's also the tears, for instance, if you see a friend that you haven't seen for a long time 389 00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:02.620 and you start to cry because you can't work out what happened in my life 390 00:20:02.620 --> 00:20:03.560 to create a disconnect. 391 00:20:03.880 --> 00:20:05.600 Why haven't we seen each other for so long? 392 00:20:06.260 --> 00:20:09.460 Tangi hanga is the tears when you're farewelling the dead at a funeral. 393 00:20:09.880 --> 00:20:10.740 Wai is spirit. 394 00:20:11.420 --> 00:20:14.120 It's short for wairua, which is the meeting of the two waters. 395 00:20:14.120 --> 00:20:15.060 Form and spirit. 396 00:20:15.600 --> 00:20:17.180 And waiata is to sing. 397 00:20:17.500 --> 00:20:22.000 So just finishing, I've been invited to talk on this panel about art and nature. 398 00:20:22.300 --> 00:20:25.640 We are all indigenous to the earth, but it's important to know where you come from, 399 00:20:25.740 --> 00:20:27.940 who you come from, what lands you come from, 400 00:20:28.080 --> 00:20:32.000 because we all have a responsibility to the future generations. 401 00:20:32.760 --> 00:20:34.560