{"id":3190,"date":"2023-03-03T16:58:37","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T16:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madayin.kluge-ruhe.org\/?p=3190"},"modified":"2023-05-01T17:58:22","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T17:58:22","slug":"her-campus-au-museum-highlights-global-status-of-aboriginal-australian-bark-paintings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madayin.kluge-ruhe.org\/her-campus-au-museum-highlights-global-status-of-aboriginal-australian-bark-paintings\/","title":{"rendered":"Her Campus: AU Museum Highlights Global Status of Aboriginal Australian Bark Paintings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Her Campus<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MA\u1e0eAYIN: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala at American University Museum, 2023. Photo by Tom Cogill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A collection of bark paintings on display at the American University Museum this winter honors Aboriginal Australian people\u2019s connection to their land and promotes the genre\u2019s prominence in the contemporary art scene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMa\u1e0fayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala\u201d stages paintings created in the Northern Peninsula of Australia by the Yol\u014bu people. Achieving meticulous detail with fine brushes of human hair, the artists applied ochres and other natural pigments to create scenes on strips of eucalyptus bark, said Director of the AU Museum Jack Rasmussen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The depth found in the artwork is not immediately evident to the uninformed viewer, said Dhuka\u1e3b Wirrpanda, an artist featured on the Ma\u1e0fayin exhibit website<\/a>. When non-Aboriginal people view bark paintings, sometimes they see \u201conly pretty pictures, nice patterns and all that,\u201d he said. Within these pictures of sea and land creatures, weather events and ceremonies exists a series of narratives of ancestral beings that illustrate the Yol\u014bu people\u2019s connection to their land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MA\u1e0eAYIN: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala at American University Museum, 2023. Photo by Tom Cogill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Depictions of unity with the land are more than a cultural display. For decades, bark paintings have been used as legal evidence in court cases for Aboriginal land rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to a federal plan to build a mine on an Aboriginal reserve in 1963, Yol\u014bu people created the Yirrkala Bark Petition. These bark paintings became the first documents prepared by Aboriginal Australians to be formally recognized by Parliament, according to the Ma\u1e0fayin exhibit website.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of bark paintings in the fight for land rights continued into the early 2000s, said Lauren Maupin, the manager of education and programs at the University of Virginia\u2019s Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection,<\/a> the organizing institution of the Ma\u1e0fayin exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yol\u014bu leader and artist Djambawa Marawili, whose work is featured in the Ma\u1e0fayin exhibition, collaboratively presented a claim for ownership of the intertidal zones so Yol\u014bu could control who could access those waters and whether they needed permission from traditional owners, Maupin said. Bark paintings were made as supportive evidence for this High Court sea rights case, which was successful in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MA\u1e0eAYIN: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala at American University Museum, 2023. Photo by Tom Cogill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Because Ma\u1e0fayin is composed entirely of art produced within the past 85 years, Rasmussen said the exhibit is an opportunity to view bark paintings as modern art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are all contemporary artists,\u201d said Rasmussen. \u201cThey\u2019re living now. They\u2019re choosing to work within this tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ma\u1e0fayin is the first exhibit of Aboriginal Australian bark paintings to tour internationally, and Yol\u014bu artists participated in the decision-making processes associated with the exhibit, according to an American University news release.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a history marked by the removal of Aboriginal people from their lands, Rasmussen calls Ma\u1e0fayin a form of reparations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia is \u201cacknowledging the great importance and beauty of the work,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it becomes a really great symbol of Australia itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Yol\u014bu artists involved in developing Ma\u1e0fayin preferred that their work be displayed in a location that had previously shown Aboriginal art. After hosting the \u201cAustralian Indigenous Art Triennial: Culture Warriors\u201d<\/a> exhibition in 2009, the AU Museum met this qualification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MA\u1e0eAYIN: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala at American University Museum, 2023. Photo by Tom Cogill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ma\u1e0fayin\u2019s relevance to American University, which is home to the School of International Service, promotes diversity in its strategic plan and has a politically involved student body, also motivated Ramussen\u2019s team to host the exhibit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AU Museum is Ma\u1e0fayin\u2019s second stop on its tour after a premier at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. <\/a>The bark paintings are \u201cliving things,\u201d Rasmussen said, so the challenge in transportation is preserving their flexibility while preventing cracks in the art. Individual crates housed each piece during the move, and the art must be kept in temperature and humidity controlled conditions, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yol\u014bu artists and curators of Ma\u1e0fayin will visit the AU Museum on March 31 for panel discussions and cultural ceremonies open to the community. The exhibit will be on display at the AU Museum until May 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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