CIAF 2023 Symposium
Weaving our future; claiming our sovereignty CIAF 2023 places the voices of First Nations peoples in the creative arts front and centre. Those voices are as diverse as the First Nations across Australia, and the Clans across Queensland. Expressing sovereignty can be a provocative political art piece, or the soft but culturally assured practice of sourcing black palm fibres for traditional weaving from Country. Weaving our future may be expressed in the past informing the present, to weave a self-determined future.
JULY 14 AND 15
BULMBA-JA
This year’s Symposium brings together leaders in the arts from the Torres Strait to South East Queensland and from across Australia with timely conversations on how sovereignty is expressed in practice from arts to architecture.
Day 1 of Symposium
Friday, July 14
11.00am – Acknowledgement and Opening Address by CIAF Artistic Director Francoise Lane
Opening Speaker: Dr Danièle Hromek
Dr Danièle Hromek is a Budawang woman of the Yuin nation. She centres Country in her design process in order it can be the driver for the design of the built environment. Working at the intersection of architecture, urban design, performance design and fine arts, Danièle is a spatial designer, cultural advisor and researcher. Danièle’s research is grounded in her cultural and experiential heritage. It contributes an understanding of the Indigenous experience and comprehension of space, investigating how Aboriginal people occupy, use, narrate, sense, dream and contest their spaces. Danièle is director of Djinjama, offering cultural design and research.
Speech Overview
Title: Falling in love with Country
Together we will explore the act of making (art and design) through a matricentric worldview in which love for Nura [Country] is centred. As art and design professionals, it is our opportunity to step up and make our own connections with Nura in order to change feelings, decisions and actions from possession and personal gain towards reciprocity. A series of narratives and lessons from Elders and Knowledge Holders commence the learning/unlearning/relearning process beyond current ideas of ecological maintenance to care for Country, from conservation to restoration and cultural futures, from taking and demanding to giving, and from work to love, from experiences of dispossession to claiming sovereignty. As artists and designers, everything we use is Country, every material we choose or specify comes from Country, and belongs to a place. Together we will explore the relationship between place, making from Country and how all can engage with Nura through their practice in order to fall in love.
Question time: 11:30 – 11.45 am
Conversation Group A
Time: 12.00 pm
Question time: 12:30 pm
Finish: 12:45pm
These leading First Nations designers and town planner are playing an integral role in affecting change in Australian architecture and Planning systemically, educationally and in practice. The cultural lens through which relationship to Country is viewed is emerging in current design and planning practice. Project considerations are no longer confined by site boundary lines, time or contextualised to the neighbouring sites and services. Listen to how these designers consider a wholistic approach to designing and planning better places.
Yarning Circle Members
Facilitator CIAF Artistic Director Francoise Lane
Francoise Lane is a Meriam and Kaurareg woman. Her background is in the Built Environment as an interior designer (interior architect) and in First Nations built environment engagement for over 20 years. She is an artist at heart and started investing into her multi-disciplinary practice 10 years ago which includes fine art, visual art, designing textiles, curation of exhibitions and arts community work. She has participated in CIAF since 2013 as an industry specialist (design), artist, art market vendor and co-curator for the 2021 CIAF Where’s your permit? and 2022 Fashion Story exhibitions. Last year she secured an Australia Council residency at the Helsinki International Artist Program, Finland creating fine art in development around matriarchy, legacy and ceremony.
Dr Danièle Hromek
Dr Danièle Hromek is a Budawang woman of the Yuin nation. She centres Country in her design process in order it can be the driver for the design of the built environment. Working at the intersection of architecture, urban design, performance design and fine arts, Danièle is a spatial designer, cultural advisor and researcher. Danièle’s research is grounded in her cultural and experiential heritage. It contributes an understanding of the Indigenous experience and comprehension of space, investigating how Aboriginal people occupy, use, narrate, sense, dream and contest their spaces. Danièle is director of Djinjama, offering cultural design and research.
Sarah Lynn Rees
Sarah Lynn Rees is a Palawa woman descending from the Trawlwoolway people of North-East Tasmania. Based in Birrarung-ga (Melbourne), she is an architectural practitioner, academic and writer. She is a prominent advocate and advisor with a firm commitment to Indigenising the built environment.
Sarah is a Senior Associate at Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, lecturer at Monash University, co-chair of the Australian Institute for Architects First Nations Advisory Committee, Program consultant and curator of the BLAKitecture series at MPavilion, member of the Living Cities Advisory Group, co-creator of Deadly Djurumin, Director of Parlour: gender, equity, architecture, member of the Victorian Design Review panel for the OVGA, National Advisory Panel member for the Architects Accreditation Council of Australia and technical Advisor to the City of Melbourne Design Excellence Advisory Committee, Member for the Design Excellency Committee for MAPCO and a Director on the board of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.
Andrew Lane
Andrew is a Northern Territory born Architect who has focussed the last 30 years of his professional life on Indigenous housing and infrastructure. His work has led to life experiences in remote communities in Central Australia, East Arnhem Land, South Australia, Western Australia and across Queensland. This includes 5 years living in Alice Springs working as a Project Manager and Researcher in some of the most remote communities and outstations. He believes architecture and urban design can be used to foster feelings of being safe and secure, can encourage interaction between people and the broader community through the activation of spaces, and can improve the quality of life of people by creating infrastructure and spaces that adds to people’s social, emotional and physical well-being. Andrew is a member of the Dhanggati nation of central New South Wales, a proud father of three and Poppy to two wonderful grandchildren.
Jesse Marnock
Jesse graduated with his Bachelor of Planning (Honours) in 2020. Since then, he has worked in the private and public sectors where he applies an in-depth understanding of the aspirations of, and challenges facing, Indigenous communities. He is a proud advocate for Indigenous culture and knowledge, drawing on personal experience living and working in regional and rural areas to influence the development of locally relevant and culturally considerate solutions. He is also an inaugural member of the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) Planning with Country Knowledge Circle, which guides PIA through a whole of organisation response to action on reconciliation.
Conversation Group B
Time: 1.00 pm
Question time: 1:30 pm
Finish: 1:45pm
Indigenous Creative Allies – what the?
Recognition and advancing Indigenous values, perspectives and knowledges in the workplace continues to face challenges and obstacles today. The creative professions are well placed to raise the social conscience through provocative works and socially challenging exhibitions to name a few. What happens when First Nations creative leaders are confronted with the onslaught of colonialist narrative in the workplace that supports organisational and institutional systems that are foreign and developed in ignorance to First Nations values? Should the systems be broken down and rebuilt to be inclusive of First Nations and minorities? What do First Nation’s allies look like? When do allies give their seats at the table back to First Nations? Listen to First Nation allies and accomplices leading the way.
Yarning Circle Members
Facilitator Dr Bianca Beetson
Dr Bianca Beetson is a Kabi Kabi (Sunshine Coast) Wiradjuri (NSW) woman and has been a practising artist for over 28 years. Bianca works across a broad range of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, fibre arts and public art. In 2018 Bianca was awarded a Doctor of Visual Art from the QLD College of Art, Griffith University.
Bianca carved out a path for herself in the Indigenous arts as a trainee curator at Fireworks Gallery, where she worked on major projects, including the 1996 Campfire Group "All Stock Must Go" Installation as a part of the 2nd Asia Pacific Biennial. From 1999 to 2007, she worked in various arts worker roles, including the regional Indigenous community arts officer for Access Arts, artistic director of Catalyst Youth Arts and the community arts officer for Brisbane City Council. These previous roles greatly informed her community-engaged and collaborative arts practice.
Currently, Bianca is working on a collaborative arts-led research project called "Listening to Country", which explores the impact of sound, and in particular, the impact of sounds of Country on the health and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within Institutions. This collaborative approach has allowed Bianca to mentor and support many generations of young and emerging artists as an educator and through her practice and passion for cultural sharing.
Bianca lectured into and directed the Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art (BCAIA) degree at the Qld College of Art, Griffith University, between 2007-2020 and is currently the Director of Indigenous Research Unit at the same institution. Bianca was also a founding member of the seminal Aboriginal artist collective proppaNOW Aboriginal artist collective.
Her current board and advisory group memberships include the board of trustees of the QLD Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art and its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory panel. She is also a member of the Museum of Contemporary Art Artist Advisory Panel, on the board of Digi Youth Arts and a member of the newly formed Arts QLD First Nations Arts and Cultures Advisory panel.
As a visual artist, Bianca works in a broad range of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, photography and public art.
To sum the work up: "It's all about skin, the skin I am in, thick and thin, the need to win, to shed my skin, to be free from sin. If you face the truth, there is no proof that the skin I am in is the skin of sin!"
As a member of the now defunct Campfire Group - Aboriginal artist's co-operation, she has been involved in many projects based on cultural collaboration. Including “All Stock Must Go” in the 2nd Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery in 1996-97. Bianca was also formerly a member of ProppaNOW aboriginal artists Collective between 2004 – 2011. Bianca has worked in public and private collections around Australia and Overseas, including Art Bank, QPAT, Redcliffe Art Gallery, Kluge Ruhe Museum, Virginia, USA.
Cathy Hunt AM
Cathy has spent her working life in the cultural economy across the UK, Australia, and Hong Kong, as a producer, festival director and a founding director of consultancy company Positive Solutions. Cathy was the founder of the QuickstART microloan fund for artists and has written widely on cultural policy and the funding and financing of the arts. She has served on numerous arts boards and is currently a Board Director of Screen Queensland. As Executive Director of non profit Of One Mind Cathy has led the development of the WOW (Women of the World) Festivals in Australia, including in Cairns in 2022.
Kade McDonald
Kade McDonald is the CEO and founder of Agency - a not-for-profit organisation which he established in response to an identified need, with the full support and permission of Indigenous cultural leaders and members of the Agency Board.
Prior to starting Agency, Kade was the Executive Director of Durrmu Arts Aboriginal Corporation for three years and the Coordinator for Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Arts and Cultural Centre for six years. He has been engaged as a cultural consultant for several years implementing cultural maintenance and repatriation projects in collaboration with Community leaders, having worked across Arnhem Land, the Kimberley and the Tiwi Islands.
Kade has been appointed to the Visual Arts Grants selection committee for the Ministry for the Arts, Australian Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria and Arts NT Visual Arts Board for his knowledge on Indigenous Contemporary Arts, and is currently an appointed Expert Examiner of Indigenous Cultural Objects for the Moveable Heritage Act on behalf of the Federal Government and the Department of Communications and the Arts. He holds a Diploma of Business Governance through the Institute of Company Directors and is a Honorary Research Fellow at the Melbourne University’s Centre of Visual Art (CoVA).
Dr Russell Milledge
Russell Milledge has received national awards in performing arts, media and visual arts. He has a Masters from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and a PhD from James Cook University (JCU). Currently he is a Research Fellow within the Cairns Institute, a member of the Tropical Urban Design (TUD) and Social Enterprise in the Tropics (SENT) cluster groups at JCU. His teaching portfolio includes undergraduate media arts and postgraduate creative arts students. Russell has been an Associate Artist with Creative Industries Precincts at QUT and has toured internationally with Bonemap. He is a Founder and previous Director of KickArts Contemporary Arts Ltd at the Centre of Contemporary Arts, Cairns, and has contributed to the organisational and governance as well as creative programs of many contemporary art enterprises in Queensland and Australia.
Day 2 of Symposium
Saturday, July 15
Arrival time: 10:30am
Start time: 11.00am – MC: CIAF Artistic Director Francoise Lane
Conversation Group C
First Nation Creative Expression – as diverse as First Nations
Respected First Nations artists come together in this yarning circle to talk to the expression of Queensland contemporary art through the lens of their own practice. Our ancestors were dancers, storytellers, singers, weavers, hunters and designers. Everyday living was embedded with arts, design and cultural practices. Is it surprising that today a multi-disciplinary arts practice continues?
Start time: 11.05 am
Question time: 11:35 am
Finish: 11:45am
Facilitator Merindi Schrieber
Merindi Schrieber, a multi-disciplinary Kuku Yalalnji/English/Irish artist brings songs, stories and weaving to audiences of all ages. Her work is community driven and centred around language and culture. As co-founder of Ngamumu, Merindi supports mamas and the first 1000 days through an arts and cultural lens. Merindi is also founder of Bulkaway Muruku, supporting artists, cultural practitioners and elders to share stories and activities through song and yarns at early years settings, private functions, festivals, events and more. She was involved in the First Nations Children’s Festival 2022 and was honoured the Australian Council of the Arts Fellowship (2023) for her continued work in community and cultural development. With 20+ years experience in the industry, Merindi has performed alongside some of Australias greats including Tiddas, Emma Donnovan and more. Merindi wrote her very first theatre piece “Birmba” which saw 3 sold-out performances at Cairns Children's Festival 2023 and is set to tour in the very near future.
Elverina Johnson
Elverina Johnson (Bunya Badjil – good woman) is a Gunganji Gurugulu woman of Yarrabah from her grandfather’s lineage and of Yidindji Gimuy from her grandmother’s lineage. She is a direct descendant of King Menmuny of the Gungganji Nation of Yarrabah and King Yinnie of the Gimuy Walubara nation. Elverina has been involved in the arts and creative industries for over 30 years as a multi-disciplinary artist in visual and performing arts. As a performing artist in her own right, she has performed as a singer for various major events including 'Yarrabah the Musical' by Opera Australia, the Yarrabah Music and Cultural Festival by the Queensland Music Festival, and at numerous community events. Elverina has also performed with Women of Austranesia Choir, Jessie Lloyd, The Briscoe Sisters, Paul Kelly, the Wiggles and many more. She has been particularly instrumental in bringing to life the history of the Yarrabah Brass Bands story, which became a major exhibition for the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane and she also wrote the play called ‘Blow’im’ which toured Old schools. Elverina Johnson is a recipient of major civic awards, such as the Rona Tranby Trust Award for her work recording and preserving the oral histories of Australian Indigenous elders, and the state of Queensland's Smart Women/ Smart State Award for Community Innovation. In 2017 she was awarded the National Naidoc Artist of the Year. She has been a strong advocate for her community and for the rights of Indigenous people and over the years has taken her to present at the United Nations and other international forums around the world speaking for Indigenous Women’s rights. In most recent years Elverina artworks has been recognised through wearable art and the fashion industry with her fashion designs exhibited in Paris and the Powerhouse Museum is Sydney and at the 2022 Australia Fashion Week in Sydney for First Nations Fashion Design and also articles in Vogue Australia, Vogue USA, Marie Clare and Harpers Bizaar Magazines. This year she launched her second clothing line collection in collaboration with ‘Taking Shape’ clothing company. Her collection can be bought in stores and online in Taking Shape/Myer in stores around the Australia. Elverina is very passionate about her culture and creative works but she also loves being part of advocacy and change making in community and in the national and international leadership space. She is currently doing a Master’s Degree with the University of Qld. Her business Paperbark Arts & Exclusive Cultural Tours is something she is very proud of and loves talking to people and educating them on Gungganji culture and our beautiful community of Yarrabah.
Warraba Weatherall
Warraba Weatherall is a Kamilaroi visual artist, Lecturer at Griffith University and PhD candidate, who is currently based in Meanjin (Brisbane). Warraba’s artistic practice has a specific interest in archival repositories and structures, and the life of cultural materials and knowledges within these environments. Warraba is also a lecturer for the Contemporary Australian Indigenous Arts (CAIA) degree at Griffith University’s, Queensland College of Art. Warraba is passionate about shifting cultural norms within the Australian visual arts sector and contributes to the sector through artistic practice, education and curation.
Ian Waldron
Ian is a Kurtjar man from the Gulf of Carpentaria. His country incorporates pristine coastline bordering the Arafura sea, running inland to Savannah plains. Ian has engaged with art since childhood and made a career from his practice, winning national awards including the Telstra Award (NATSIAA) and the Glover Prize. His practice incorporates both 2 and 3D work, and has been featured in large scale public art commissions around Australia. Historical and contemporary life of Kurtjar people is captured in Ian’s artwork. His clan totem, the Bloodwood tree, and personal totem, the Palm Cockatoo, have become recognisable motifs.
Solomon Booth
Solomon has been a practicing visual artist for 23 years and is of both Aboriginal and Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait Island) heritage, but he produces work predominantly from his Mualgal heritage. Solomon is an award-winning artist and has been involved in numerous group exhibitions both nationally and internationally and has works acquired by the major intuitions nationally and also by high profile private collectors.
In 2009 an opportunity was presented for him to set up an art centre in Kubin village on Mua Island and he has been the inaugural and concurrent Chairman since inception.
In 2010 Solomon was also the founding President for the Indigenous Art Centres Alliance as known as IACA, which is a peak body that provides advocacy and support for its member art centres of the Cape York and the Torres Strait Islands. He has been the longest serving director for IACA where he also serves as the current President.
Conversation Group D
“Our future – what we see”
The young people are our future leaders. This generation of First Nations young adults are becoming known for their intelligence, the ability to bring the ancient into a modern expression of culture, articulated and persuasive arguments and just their sheer boldness of spirit. In the creative arts, this is evident with artists’ challenging the status quo. Jamaylya Ballangarry a Djabugay and Gumbangirr woman and multi-disciplinary artist will be facilitating the conversation “Our future – what we see.”
Arrival time: 11:45am
Start time: 12.00 pm
Question time: 12:30 pm
Finish time: 12.45pm
Facilitator: Jamaylya Ballangarry-Kearins
Jamaylya Ballangarry-Kearins is a proud Djabugay and Gumbangirr woman who has a keen interest in art, design, performance art and culture. She studied at the University of NSW’s College of Fine Art (COFA) and has previously worked at Tjapukai Cultural Park and for the department of education Queensland. Commencing as a paid intern in 2020, she now supports retail and gallery operations at NorthSite Contemporary Arts. In addition, Jamaylya is coordinator of IndigeDesign Labs, a partnership between NorthSite and Ingeous Studios that introduces young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to digital design and the creative industries through the culturally safe and multigeneration learning Lab. Ballangarry-Kearins recently embarked on a short 7 week tour performing and delivering theatre workshops to communities around the cape and she continues to make efforts to grow into a highly skilled and multidisciplinary artist.
Trinity Clarke
My name is Trinity Clarke and I’m a Kuku Yalanji, Kuku Nyungkul, Lama Lama and Ayapathu woman. I’ve been learning my native language for the last 8 years, working with my Nannies to preserve, revitalise, and to speak Kuku fluently. I have been writing and performing my poetry for the last 7 years. My identity is shaped through language, my Wawu (spirit) is nurtured by it. I'm passionate about Mob, about maintaining our connection to Culture, Country, and Community. Our young people exist in a rapidly changing world where belonging to constant is hard, I'm dedicated to supporting our young people to belong to themselves, their world, and their culture.
Serena Rae
Serena Rae is a Waribarra Mamu woman from Millaa Millaa, up on the Atherton Tablelands. A proud rainforest woman, Serena Rae lived in Naarm (Melbourne) for 7 years where she honed her creative writing skills as a poet and has since moved back north, to be closer to family and Country. This year Serena Rae has begun a new role as a Stage Manager with JUTE Theatre Company that has already seen her travel to and work with communities across the Cape. While this is a new role for Serena Rae, she is passionate about conveying important strengths-based messages for young mob through the Creative Industries.
Dylan Mooney
Dylan Mooney is a proud Yuwi, Torres Strait and South Sea Islander man from Mackay in North Queensland working across painting, printmaking, digital illustration and drawing.
Influenced by history, culture and family, Mooney responds to community stories, current affairs and social media. Armed with a rich cultural upbringing, Mooney now translates the knowledge and stories passed down to him, through art. Legally blind, the digital medium’s backlit display allows the artist to produce a high-impact illustrative style with bright, saturated colour that reflects his experiences with keen political energy and insight.
This blending of digital technology and social commentary is a uniting of the artist’s sense of optimism – pride within the works exude with profoundness and substance.
Dylan is among artists who are rethinking digital technologies and artistic practices to consider contemporary issues around identity, desire and representation. Interested in the ways in which we can reframe the conversation around some of the voices that have been left out, the artist has made an important body of work that embodies a shift in representation of queer love among people of colour.
Conversation Group E
From across the seas Indigenous Atayal Taiwanese and Skolt Sami arts practice
Indigenous peoples across the world are confronted with common and uncommon experiences. One of the common experiences can be the decision to practice or revive cultural traditions bringing a sense of belonging, identity and healing when surviving a legacy of generational trauma left in the wake of colonisation or expulsion from ancestral lands because of war. In this session, we hear from artists about their creative practice and the challenges and opportunities they face.
Arrival time: 12:45am
Start time: 1.00 pm
Question time: 1:30 pm
Finish time: 1:45pm
Facilitators: Francoise Lane and Dr Sophie McIntyre
Dr Sophie McIntyre
Sophie McIntyre is Senior Lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, and a curator and writer specialising in art from Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific. She is the author of Yao Jui-chung (姚瑞中) (Scheidegger & Spiess, 2023) and Imagining Taiwan: The Role of Art in Taiwan’s Quest for Identity (Brill, 2018), and has published widely on the visual arts. Sophie initiated and is co-organiser of an ongoing First Nations Arts Exchange program between Australia and Taiwan which has included an international symposium (2021 – recordings available online), a publication (Pacific Arts, UCLA, 2022 – available online), and two field research trips involving four Indigenous artists from Queensland and Taiwan, that will culminate in an exhibition.
Sophie has also worked in art museums and galleries in Australia, Taiwan, and New Zealand, and has curated over 30 exhibitions including: Ink Remix: contemporary art from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong; Penumbra: New Media Art from Taiwan; Islanded: Contemporary art from New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan (co-curated with Lee Weng Choy and Eugene Tan); and Face to Face: contemporary art from Taiwan. She has received awards and grants for her academic and curatorial projects and has been a visiting research fellow in universities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom.
Anchi Lin (Ciwas Tahos)
Anchi Lin [Ciwas Tahos] is a visual artist with performance and new media art practice, she is of Taiwanese Indigenous Atayal and Hō-ló descent and is based in Taipei, Taiwan. Following a Bachelor of Fine Art in Visual Art at Simon Fraser University (Canada), Lin is currently undertaking a Master of Fine Art in New Media Art at the Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA). Through her practice and interest in language, identity, gender, and the environment, Lin seeks out new forms of understanding beyond the hetero-patriarchal status quo, using video, performance, cyberspace, and installation.[Text Wrapping Break][Text Wrapping Break]She is the curator of the 2023 ADAM Artist Lab from the Taipei Performing Art Center. Her recent significant work Pswagi Temahahoi was in the Wagiwagi Project as part of Kassel Documenta 15th (Indonesia/Germany) Perhaps She Comes From/To__Alang in Phantasmapolis Asian Art Biennale, 2021(Taiwan); The Land in the Middle of the Pond commissioned by the Green Island Human Rights Art Festival, 2021.
Mari Gauriloff
Mari Gauriloff is a Skolt Saami woman and influencer from Finland. Skolt Saami’s are a small minority group of Europe’s only indigenous people called Sámi people. As an artist, graphic designer, event planner and active member of Saami community Mari has spread awareness of Saami people and united Saami’s together in Finland and across national borders in Saamiland. Working as a Secretary General in Skolt Saami Cultural Foundation Mari directs the functions of 2008 established foundation, which task is to nurture and protect the vitality of critically endangered Skolt Saami language, culture and livelihood.
Aimo Aikio
Aimo Aikio is an Inari and Skolt Saami musician, performer, voice actor and sing/songwriter from Finland. He composes, arranges, records, mixes and masters his own works and also performs in various ensembles. He has also composed music for other artists. Aimo has studied 2018-2020 at Sámi Music Academy, where he studied both traditional and modern Sámi music. The strengthening of his Saami identity has influenced Aimo’s way of making music; a music hobby that has lasted almost a lifetime has found new channels in his own strong musical tradition, Inari Saami Livđe and Skolt Saami Leu ́dd. In addition to his musical career Aimo is working as a development manager in Skábmagovat Film Festival in Inari, which is the world’s northernmost Indigenous peoples’ film festival.