My country, I still call Australia home: Contemporary art from Black Australia

Gordon Hookey’s ‘Kangaroo Crew’ In the space, children physically explore each of the kangaroos’ habitats, as well as create their own kangaroo personality in the You Roo multimedia poster activity and the Make a Roo mask-making activity. They also take up the challenge to reach the top of the sacred hill in Kangarcade , a multimedia arcade-style game. In addition, a film in which Hookey shares the story of the sacred hill screens in the space. In the children’s picture book, Hookey draws on his trademarks of high-key colour, humanised animals, playful language and ironic humour. Hookey explains: ‘there are lots of devices that I use and those devices range from humanising animals to using bits of text and colour and humour. It’s about being playful . . . children are playful. And if you’ve got an imagination you are able to play, you’re able to hit the nail on the head’. 7 The display of The Sacred Hill paintings in the exhibition space allows children to follow the kangaroos’ journey, from the first canvases showing the kangaroos relaxing on the hill before the arrival of the mynas, to those depicting the kangaroos on their journey home, and the many challenges they face along the way. Ol’ Clevared, ‘the spirit of an old roo from long, long ago’, tells the kangaroos that ‘if they formed one mob, together they would become strong. They must MOB bilise’. 8 As the animals work together to get back to the hill, Hookey’s witty pictograms, reminiscent of cartoons and comic books, come into play: Rocko slips on a banana skin placed on a rock by the mynas; Treez declares that it will take intelligence to achieve their goal, so images of a brain and a light bulb point to the hill; and Potsy tells the roos that together they will make it to the top — a heart motif with pictures of the four roos appears at this point. Hookey plays with language and humour that children can relate to. 9 The vibrantly coloured imagery of The Sacred Hill is paired with sharp text; the ‘rhythm’ and ‘bounce’ 10 of the words draws readers in as they negotiate the narrative’s layers of meaning. As the story progresses, the kangaroos — together with the young readers and Gallery visitors — discover the power of working together to overcome a challenge. Hookey’s stylised kangaroo is a motif central to his visual language, and is used as a heroic representation of Indigenous Australians. The Sacred Hill can be read as a powerful metaphor and enjoyed as an inspiring narrative that tells how even the smallest kangaroo can find the strength to be heard over the loudest of voices. In his paper ‘Can politically orientated Australian urban Indigenous art be more effective by simplifying its aesthetics and content?’, 11 Hookey explains: ‘in minimising, my aim is to clarify a single issue’. In ‘Kangaroo Crew’, all aspects of the project are intrinsic to the story of The Sacred Hill , and, arguably, the power of the narrative succeeds as a result of its simplicity and clarity. While Gordon Hookey is recognised as an ‘overtly political artist’ and ‘activist’, 12 for ‘Kangaroo Crew’, his aim was for children ‘to have fun and play and laugh. Learning, you don’t put that on anyone really . . . I want children to come and engage with everything on their own terms’. 13 1 The other artists are Anne Wallace, Callum Morton, Pip & Pop, and Fiona Hall. 2 Gordon Hookey, interview with the author, Brisbane, 25 March 2013. 3 The sacred hill in Hookey’s story represents all the sacred places and hills in Australia. As Hookey explained, it is a ‘metaphor for any place that is of great importance to Aboriginal people’. Hookey, interview with the author. 4 Unlike the noisy miner bird ( Manorina melanocephala ), which is native to Australia, the common myna bird ( Acridotheres tristis ) is an introduced species. 5 The kangaroo species featured in The Sacred Hill and ‘Kangaroo Crew’ represent the diversity of Indigenous Australians. ‘With kangaroos, there’s well over 100 species and types of kangaroos. Even within wallabies, it’s quite diverse as far as species go. I’ve only used four types of kangaroos in the story but there are so many types . . . Aboriginal Australia is [also] diverse, with there being over 500 different nations and so many different language groups . . . So using just those four kangaroos symbolises the difference within each other, within the Aboriginal nations.’ Hookey, interview with the author. 6 Hookey, interview with the author. 7 Gordon Hookey, interview with the author, Brisbane, 17 March 2013. 8 Gordon Hookey, The Sacred Hill , Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 2013, p.21. 9 According to Hookey: ‘Children laugh and they have a sense of humour so being silly, being corny, there is sophistication to that kind of humour and for an adult to enter that is quite a gift.’ Hookey, interview with the author, 25 March 2013. 10 Hookey describes his use of text and colour: ‘I’m using colour in a way, but also simple text, poetic text, text that had rhythm, text that had bounce, text that is repetitive, text that plays off each other is a foot in the door to the picture’. Hookey, interview with the author, 25 March 2013. 11 Gordon Hookey, ‘Can politically orientated Australian urban Indigenous art be more effective by simplifying its aesthetics and content?’, Master of Visual Arts paper, June 2012, p.27 and p.40. 12 Daniel Browning, ‘It’s a black/white thing: proppaNOW Artists’ Collective’, Artlines , no.2, 2007, p.22. 13 Gordon Hookey, interview with the author, 17 March 2013. The Sacred Hill Gordon Hookey’s work, The Sacred Hill , consists of 25 paintings on display in the Children’s Art Centre, which also illustrate a picture book and a film of the same name, narrated by the artist. The Sacred Hill (detail) 2013 / Oil on canvas / 25 panels (dimensions variable) Make a Roo Children personalise their own mask based on the kangaroo species in ‘Kangaroo Crew’ — the plains kangaroo, the rock wallaby, the potoroo and the tree kangaroo. Wearing their masks, the children can explore the kangaroos’ habitats — the plains, rocks, scrub and trees — in the Children’s Art Centre. Children’s activity workshop, Make a Roo / Photograph: Brad Wagner You Roo You Roo is a photography interactive which introduces Blue, Treez, Potsy and Rocko. Children select a character and design a kangaroo poster incorporating their own image. Posters are customised using Hookey’s palette of vivid colours and playful text, and are then added to a virtual display in the exhibition space, or shared with family and friends via email and social media. You Roo 2013 (working poster design) Kangarcade Kangarcade is an arcade-style space in the ‘Kangaroo Crew’ exhibition. To achieve the objective of reaching the top of the hill, children assume the role of one of the kangaroo characters, and face challenging obstacles in four classic arcade games set in the plains, rocks, scrub and trees. Kangarcade 2013 (working gameplay still) GordonHookey’s ‘KangarooCrew’,an exhibitionorganised bytheChildren’sArt Centre, QAGOMA,at theGalleryofModern Art, 1 June 2013— 27January 2014. 169 168