Page 66 - 10th Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference and Festival Magazine

June 2018 Charles Town Maroon International Conference Magazine

Lyn starts the day with weaving cumbungi reed then The conviviality of the day carries through to the end.
the New Zealand cabbage tree frond, but changes to After tea we disperse with promises of other meetings
her favoured Madagascar grass which is less unwieldy and doings with our hands, heads and hearts at other
and less likely to break. Like the other artists her places in Ngunnawal Country.
basket reflects her creative practice and combines
Cullunghutti, her ancestral home, with materials found Learnings
other-where. She mentions that we have come together The cumbungi is a direct connection to Country for
but we have brought our families and way of speaking Wendy and Lyn and it conjures the mountain envi-
with us. ronment. The ways and styles of baskets vary around
Australia as do the materials available. This reflects
Wendy is an avowed non-artist. She has a picture in
mind of what her basket should look like but is disap- the diversity of art and craft practice of the past that
pointed when her fingers and brain do not work the continues today and reaches into the future. What were
way of the artist. Her basket seems lumpen and once practical, artistic, and decorative items that were
mundane whilst the works of the others are light patterned to reflect aspects of clan and Country
enough to fly. She leaves her weaving until she comes connections are still being produced in ways that speak
to understand that her basket will tell a story of to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
ancestry, heritage and memory through being brought connectedness to each other. This story took place in
into existence in the world, no matter the lack of Canberra, the heart of the government of the
artistry on display. The basket will be placed on her Commonwealth of Australia.
desk as a reminder of the day as well as a receptacle The language we used and spoke was about our
of memories of her ancestral Country. heritage and identity; our connection to our ancestors;
our sense of who we are through place. Through our
When fingers are too cold from working with wet
reeds and as the detritus produced by the weaving coming together we have co-created a space in which
circle is being collected for imminent removal indoors, we can learn and share who we are in the world which
the first of our collective leaves. The world outside of builds connecting pathways back to our own
our circle intrudes with everyday demands of buying Countries.
and cooking for Lyn. Michelin man coat donned she
leaves with farewells and hopes for another meeting
at another time. Janet suggests the group spends a day References
or afternoon in her (current) potter’s studio. Kwaymullina, A. 2005. “Seeing the light: Aboriginal
Sitting around the kitchen table Janet and Kimiah find law, learning and sustainable living in country“,
they have much language of food in common and they Indigenous Law Bulletin. vol. 6, iss 11.
share that with us as the day turns to night and tea time Martin, K. & Mirraboopa, B. 2003. Ways of knowing,
gets closer. Janet’s basket reflects her Torres Strait being and doing: A theoretical framework and methods
Islander ancestry. She has shaped it as her ancestor for indigenous and indigenist re‐search. Journal of
mothers and aunties would have. Her art works are Australian Studies, 27, 203-214.
held in collections at galleries throughout Australia.
We learn at the beginning of the day that Janet made
an appearance in Gretchen’s thesis when Gretchen Wendy Somerville is a PhD student at the
says that she has (academically) stalked Janet for University Of Canberra. The topic of her
PhD research is Rummaging for histories
seven years. The basket Janet makes is closed with through place, archives and memories which
reeds placed inside. She gives Wendy the basket to sit focusses on her Aboriginal family and their
beside ceramic work done by Janet that lives in a glass connection to the sacred mountain,
fronted cabinet in the Somerville house. Cullunghutti.

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