800 km from the nearest main city Cairns, the Lockhart River community can be reached by a 10 hour car journey only in the dry season. Kate Orchard seizes a chance to speak to artistic members of this remote Aboriginal community, who are briefly in London for an opening of their work at the October Gallery.
The October Gallery features some exciting new paintings by young aboriginal artists kniown collectively as ‘The Lockhart River Art Gang’. They are: Adrian King, Samantha Hobson, Evelyn Sandy, Rosella Namok, Fiona Omeenyo and Silas Hobson.
Together their paintings are beautiful expressive pieces and a vibrant testament to the creative potential of people and of relationships, life and land in a remote area of Cape York, on the northernmost tip of Queensland, Australia.
I met artist Adrian King of the Lama Lama language group and Sue Ryan arts centre coordinator to speak about their work, the art, the links to country and the importance of Aboriginal culture.
Looking at their art, you will discover some of the spectacular diverse landscape around Lockhart River – incredible rainforests, wild rugged beaches, open eucalypt and banksias and lands and mountains. These areas ‘belong’ to the different indigenous people and language groups – seven of whom live in and around the community.
Evelyn Sandy - Grasstree Everywhere (2005) "Grass trees are everywhere as you are driving out of Lockhart, so if you are camping or broke down in the bush, if you see the thuulu (grass tree), pick them and burn them…they’re good for mosquito…so you and your family can’t get sick."
The Arts Centre of the Lockhart River Gang was officially opened in 1997 in a donated, disused Queensland Health building. From a core group of mainly teenagers on a ‘work for the dole’ scheme (C.D.E.P) the ‘Art Gang’ began to form using culture and creativity as an alternative to the secondary schooling programme.
Now it is self-supporting and in just ten years it has created a nationally recognised reputation, with work in art collections across Australia. The inception of this painting group is also unique, as unlike the central or western desert, which has a long standing painting tradition over generations, in the Lockhart River region there is no great painting tradition – apart from body painting for ceremony.
The tensions and impact resulting from 200 years of forced movement of indigenous people away from their traditional lands into ‘township’ communities is still felt, as it is across Australia. The Lockhart River Art Gang presents strong contemporary perspective from people having to face, as Sue Ryan put it, the ‘awkward’ strain between their traditional ways and imposed culture and ethics.
Adrian King - Aunty and Uncle 2002 "On the Saturday, my aunty and uncle went to go fishing at the lake…my uncle went to go down to the river, he went to spear some fish and turtle"
Their artwork is witness to ‘community’ and cultures in dramatic flux. The success of the art gang is made even more powerful when you consider the traumatic history of European contact and the resulting enforced physical and cultural displacement that followed it. It is not easy to counter, after generations, the disaffection of poverty, the tension of enforced township life, the loss of language and the lack of employment and opportunities.
These artists also speak of the inherent pressures of life in remote indigenous communities where there are few options for entertainment, problems with alcohol and a tragically high suicide rate. Few young people make it through secondary education away from their community (in Cairns) – falling into patterns of truancy and abuse.
Responding to these problems a key theme of land and country emerges. The concept of ‘country’ embodies the way indigenous people in the east Cape York (and across Australia) look on life. Country is not just a physical thing, it is the spiritual interconnection of people, land, plants and animals, through generations. The inherited relationship of Aboriginal people is about living on the land as it is, without clearing or farming.
Rosella Namok - Quiet Night on Party Street (2005) "When pay day comes they like to party on party street…all night ‘till day break. That’s why we call it ‘Party street’ they just party every day until Sunday. But tonight something’s different…quiet night on party street."
Adrian King is from the Lama Lama language group. He spoke about the idea of ‘country’ in his work.
“When I started painting at first I started doing animals, then I changed, in 1997, to places my family go fishing, or out hunting for Dugong (a bit like a seal) and turtle. Places where family are from - out Portland Road, Chili beach.”
Like snippets of stories or maps Adrian paints the places he travels. There is something comforting about these pictures; in ‘Aunty and Uncle’ he depicts a family going to their country at Wenlock outstation - with its giant anthills, the remains of a former cattle station and fences cut open, as two figures fish.
Another painting, Portland Road, which is about ¾ hr drive from Lockhart, we see a place where friends stand and wave on the shoreline at white fishermen on prawn trawlers glide as dogs trot by. A malevolent, large crocodile cruises near the horizon watching.
Sue Ryan puts the attraction of these paintings succinctly: “The time when people are happiest is when they’re on their land, their country. All the paintings here, just about all the work done by artists at Lockhart River, explore family and landscape.”
Fiona Omeenyo - Generations 2005 "From generation to generation the culture has been passed down to us and we will pass to our children".
Fiona Omeenyo’s (Umpila) work explores family relationships – their closeness and a sense of ‘standing up together’. Other pieces are about ancestors. Her large canvases show sweeping figures that look out longingly as they stand together in groups – rather like trees. The upright figures are those who are alive – those with heads tilted upside down are dead.
The Art Centre also has other roles it is a focal point in the community. It buys artefacts to keep and preserve the traditional crafts. Only four people in the community still speak indigenous language. “The centre runs a language programme to try to keep the language alive and is compiling a traditional dictionary,” explains Sue. One of the functions of the arts centre is to go out with the ‘old ladies’ to gather grasses to weave puunya (baskets). Only a few elders know about how to make these anymore as young people aren’t interested in weaving baskets.
The centre’s Artist in Residence programme also means there is an interesting dialogue between established Australian artists outside the community – allowing sharing of techniques and ideas.
Samantha Hobson - Goes with the Moon…Coral Spawn (2005). "When the moon changes…the reef comes alive at night. When the moon is right... the coral spawns. It lets millions of eggs out. It froths up to the surface and drifts along the reef."
The show has already generated great interest in London. “People are curious to see what sort of work that this community are producing,” says curator Rosalind King. “It is not a ‘different interpretation’ of tradition; but what they are doing is taking from stories that have been passed down by elders and taking bits from those stories – maintaining traditions and wanting to hang on to the old ways because they are disappearing with westernisation”
Samantha Hobson (Kuuku ‘Yau) works her vast and intimate observations into beautiful energetic landscapes – “Goes with the moon - Coral spawn” is a reef painting depicting the coral spawn phosphorescence recorded by Charles Darwin on the Beagle voyage.
This phenomenon only happens once or twice a year at night- after a full moon with vibrant blues and turquoise. This and her 3 bush fire paintings have a strong sense of intimate detail together with a larger majesty.
Samantha Hobson Fire Down Tozer (2005) "As you drive out from Lockhart River...go back through rainforest out to mountains…you can see big flat country…all short scrub…with big mountain in the back. We call that mountain Kutini…not Tozer. Kutini means cassowary..mountain has cassowary cap…it’s the story of the Claudie people."
“Aboriginal people have burning the land for thousands of years,” explains Sue. “In the dry season the grass and vegetation gets dense, its not good to walk through –it’s snake mating season and they get very aggressive! A lot of plants won’t germinate without controlled fires.” Whilst Samantha paints these – even right outside the centre there’s the smell of burning everywhere – on some of them you can even see the ash settled in the paint.”
Rosella Namok - Soft Rain (2005) "When it’s a nice sunny day…gets too hot…then a nice shower of soft rain makes it cool…cool ‘im down the place…bit of soft rain on a sunny day makes you feel good."
Rosella Namok (Aangkum / Umpila) uses traditional stories handed down, in an ‘understanding of her world’ that is informed by traditional and contemporary themes. She uses symbolic patterns handed down from ancestors and a ‘house’ motif that you can see in –“Quiet Night on Party Street”. More than just a ‘house’it is a person, family group or a house. She also paints about traditional relationships – the Kaapay and Kuyan system of correct relationships and identity. This system is necessary to prevent inter marriage and is part of the Aboriginal system of relationships and responsibility to one another.
Silas Hobson - Spirit Place (2005) "It’s about…when people used to meet and talk about things that happen in the past and present."
So what of the future – how to generate interest of more young people in spite of the very real obstacles? It is hard to maintain the momentum and connection and it takes time and physical resource. “It’s hard to get new people in,” says Sue, “we need an artist to be there to run around, gather them and do workshops”
It is crucial to recognise the importance of their support to the continued work of the centre. With a ruthless art market where ‘carpet baggers’ exploit and ultimately damage the aboriginal artist’s cultural expression, let’s hope the work of Lockhart River is encouraged to flourish.
The collected works of Lockhart River artists can bee seen at the October Gallery until May 6 2006 with late night openings until 7.30pm on Wednesdays.
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