NAIDOC Week

NAIDOC Week is an important national event in Australia, celebrating the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) is proud to be a part of NAIDOC Week and to recognise the vital contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curators, artists and writers to our programs, collections and life on campus.

MUMA recognises and acknowledges First Nations peoples as the first artists and custodians of the lands and waters where we teach, study and host our museum work.

Christian Thompson at MPavilion, Monash University, Clayton Campus
Visit the newly built, OMA-designed MPavilion at Clayton campus during NAIDOC week to be immersed in Bidjara artist, Christian Thompson’s sonic artwork Phantom 2018, in which the artist sings in his father’s endangered language. Thompson is increasingly recognised for his works in language, which are motivated by the idea that if even one word of Bidjara is spoken, it continues to be a living language.

In 2017, MUMA presented the highly acclaimed Christian Thompson: Ritual intimacy, which was co-curated by MUMA’s Director Charlotte Day and leading Indigenous curator, Hetti Perkins. This was the first survey exhibition of Thompson’s work and toured to Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane and UNSW Galleries, Sydney.

First Languages
First languages of the Monash University Collection brings together newly commissioned texts by First Nations and non-English-speaking writers to contextualise artworks held in the collection of Monash University. This program recognises the profound role language plays in understanding and transmitting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, law, art, philosophy, astronomy, biology, spirituality and much more.

Yorta Yorta and Wamba Wamba woman, Belinda Briggs, has curated this year’s languages program and we are pleased to launch new writing in palawa kani, Yorta Yorta, Yolŋu and English by First Nations writers and linguists: Kerrie Clarke (Gunai and Monero), Shonae Hobson (Kaantju), Ebony Joachim (Yorta Yorta), Ngarra Murray (Yorta Yorta and Wamba Wamba), Zoe Rimmer (Pakana) and Theresa Sainty (Pakana).

We are grateful to the Copyright Council for their support of this program.

Recent acquisitions into the Monash University Collection
With this year’s NAIDOC Week dedicated to the power and leadership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait women, we celebrate a number of important recent acquisitions to the Monash University Collection, prominently displayed across our campuses. These include works by Teresa Baker and Clarise Tunkin (Caulfield Library), Maree Clarke, Fiona Foley, Tracey Moffat and Vicki West (Matheson Library), and Yhonnie Scarce, Judy Watson and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu (Monash Business School).

These acquisitions build upon significant MUMA partnerships with Monash Libraries and Monash Science in recent years that have led to the acquisition of a number of other significant works by First Nation artists, including: Thung-ung Coorang (Kangaroo teeth necklace) by Maree Clarke, a Mutti Mutti, Yorta Yorta, BoonWurrung/Wemba Wemba woman renowned for her work in reviving south-eastern Aboriginal Australian cultural traditions; and the installation Kulata Tjuta, which comprises 277 hand-carved spears suspended at the entrance of the newly renovated Matheson Library at Clayton.

MUMA Education in partnership with Melbourne Indigenous Transition School (MITS)
Through MUMA Education, we have invited Indigenous artists to lead workshops with students from the Melbourne Indigenous Transition School, including Megan Cope, a Quandamooka woman. Cope’s sculptural installations, videos and paintings explore myths related to colonisation and issues concerning identity and the environment.

Following a series of workshops with Cope, students worked with archives to explore ways of expressing their own connection to Country through maps, language and totems, with twelve Indigenous languages represented in the finished site-specific installation, Our Country.

MUMA is privileged to work with the many Indigenous artists, curators, writers and academics who enrich the cultural life of Australia. We are particularly proud to work with many strong female Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and to share their commitment to community, culture and Country.