The Seventh Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

DJAMBAWA MARAWILI Australia b.1953 Madarrpa people NT Mundukul (Lightning serpent) 2005 Natural pigments on bark / 200 x 79.5cm / Purchased 2005. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery Since the inaugural exhibition in 1993, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists have maintained a strong presence in the Asia Pacific Triennial: at least one Indigenous Australian artist has been included in each of the seven APT exhibitions, and Indigenous artists have made up a significant proportion — roughly half — of the Australian contingent over the APT’s 20-year history. Indigenous Australian artists are culturally and geographically part of the wider Asian and Pacific region. Indeed, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have longstanding connections to peoples from other nations within the region, and the colonial and postcolonial experience of Indigenous Australian people is part of a greater narrative that includes Pacific island nations, North and South America, Africa and Asia. While the APT has often been framed as Australians engaging with art that is fresh and new, there are deeper and longer links between Australia and the Asia Pacific. The inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and artists in the APT — and in many other Australian art surveys — may therefore be seen as an important intervention, able to reinforce or unsettle ideas and to provoke dialogue. In recent decades, Australians have come to embrace the idea of looking out into the Asia and Pacific region, but they have often failed to acknowledge the presence and potential significance of Indigenous Australian art for this framework. The APT project allows First Nations narratives to be read alongside other histories, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists’ voices add to, and benefit from, critical engagement with these important dialogues. On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of APT, it is timely to look back at the contributions made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, as well as look forward to their significant roles in future exhibitions. The inclusion of Indigenous artists in the first incarnation of APT was framed by the increasing awareness and general acceptance of Aboriginal art over preceding decades. In 1979, the Biennale of Sydney, subtitled ‘European Dialogue’, featured three Aboriginal artists from Ramingining — David Malangi, George Milpurrurru and Johnny Bonguwuy — sparking debate about the place of Aboriginal art amongst the European-derived traditions of Australian and international art. 1 The inclusion of works by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri in ‘Australian Perspecta 1981’ built on the inroads made in 1979, bringing Aboriginal art into mainstream consciousness and encouraging increased critical dialogue. Aboriginal art was again shown in the 1982 Biennale of Sydney, with the members themselves of the Northern Territory Lajamanu community presented almost as ‘art’, in an installation that combined ‘traditional theatre, body painting, chanted verse, dance, music and sand sculpture’. 2 By 1983, Aboriginal art had begun to be profiled in international biennials and triennials, with Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri exhibiting in the XVII Bienal de São Paulo, in Brazil. At the same time, a community of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists — mostly based in urban centres and many with some degree of ‘Western’ art tutelage — had been growing: 1984 saw the first major exhibition by urban-based Indigenous artists, ‘Koori Art ‘84’, which was soon followed by the ‘NADOC ’86 Exhibition of Aboriginal and Islander Photographers’, curated by Tracey Moffatt and Anthony (Ace) Bourke; ‘Urban Kooris’ was also staged in 1986. Through these exhibitions, Aboriginal artists, many based in Sydney where these changes were taking place, were able to use contemporary art to present their Aboriginal voice. The formation of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Kooperative (BAAK) in 1987 strengthened this new urban-based Indigenous consciousness. For the Queensland Art Gallery, an auspicious moment arrived in 1990 with the exhibition ‘Balance 1990’. Exploring collaborations and dialogues involving Indigenous and non-indigenous Australian artists, the exhibition provided a platform for contemporary Aboriginal art to be seen in the art museum context. Although some aspects of the exhibition were viewed as problematic, it was responsible for placing contemporary Aboriginal art into both the public institution and the minds of audiences at a critical moment, just as the curatorial processes for the first APT were being formulated. SUSTAINED INTERVENTION: INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN ART IN THE ASIA PACIFIC TRIENNIAL BRUCE MCLEAN 44