In March 2016, Melbourne-based Indigenous activist Nayuka Gorrie wrote a piece for VICE titled Fuck Your Constitutional Recognition, I Want a Treaty – and it went a bit viral. In April, Moreland Council voted to begin Treaty negotiations with the traditional owners of the land, the Wurundjeri. In May, a two-day summit of stakeholders held by the Victorian government body Aboriginal Victoria led to the formation of the Aboriginal Treaty Interim Working Group – and a tentative consensus around progressing towards Treaties in other regions.
As Stan Grant said, “You just cannot overestimate how potentially groundbreaking this is. Australia is the only Commonwealth country that does not have a treaty with its first peoples. And now Victoria has opened up the space, not just for the discussion, but potentially real commitment to following through as well.”
Tonight, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art opens an exhibition titled Sovereignty that seeks to encapsulate the history behind the current debate around Treaty versus Recognition, as well as presenting contemporary responses by artists and activists. The line-up, all local to Melbourne and Indigenous, includes new commissions and big names like Brook Andrew, Vicky Couzens, Destiny Deacon and Virginia Fraser, Gary Foley, and Reko Rennie.
At the centre of Sovereignty, however, is a lesser known artist: 19th century Ngurungaeta Elder and Wurundjeri leader William Barak, a leading figure in the Coranderrk rebellions of the 1870s and 1880s who is now recognised as a significant Indigenous artist for his paintings in ochre and charcoal. ACCA director Max Delany, co-curator of the exhibition (and before that, of the behemoth Andy Warhol/Ai Weiwei exhibition at NGV), identifies Barak as “exemplary” within an exhibition that fuses art, politics and community.
“While the exhibition is focusing on contemporary art by First Nations artists from Victoria, it also features some really important historical figures – including Barak, Bill Onus, Bruce McGuinness, Lisa Bellear and Gary Foley – and specific regional practices that might not usually be seen within a visual arts context. It’s a rich and complex weave of cultural, social and political contexts.”
The title ‘Sovereignty’ is used advisedly. Co-curator Paola Balla, a Wemba-Wemba and Gunditjmara artist, curator and academic, says: “Our sovereignty as Indigenous people is inalienable. You can’t give it away, and it can’t be taken off you. Indigenous Australians never ceded it. And that means that your laws do not apply to us. And yet we are forced to send our children to colonial state schools, pay taxes to a government that stole our lands and doesn’t repatriate the royalties in return for the use of our lands…”
Works in the exhibition range from a 19th century shield to contemporary woven eel traps by Bronwyn Razem, work by young activist group Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance (WAR), music by hip hop artist Briggs, and Steven Rhall’s subversive artwork ‘The Biggest Aboriginal Artwork In Melbourne Metro’ (2014), originally installed on a supermarket shop front in Footscray.
Balla, who like Rhall lives in Footscray, says, “Steven is responding to Footscray and the western suburbs changing,” says Balla. “It’s becoming gentrified now, and it’s quite trendy to live there.” Delany sees the piece as an apt emblem for the show as a whole: “It’s re-appropriating urban space in a subversive, humorous but thoughtful way.”
For Balla, all work by Indigenous artists is an expression of that inherent sovereignty – whether it’s overtly political or based primarily in cultural practice. But in selecting the line-up, the focus was on artists who make work that speaks to the theme of sovereign people and the state of sovereignty, or responds to the current Treaty talks.
“In this show, we’re being responsive to what’s happening at the moment. We’re saying we [Indigenous Victorians] didn’t go anywhere – we’re still here. And we make really good art – we want you to come and see it. Sometimes art is the best vehicle for changing people’s minds.”
Sovereignty runs until March 26 at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and has an extensive public program of events, talks and screenings.
Check out what else is on this summer in Melbourne art and exhibitions.