Date: Thursday 5 March 2020
Time: 2.30pm
Location: CAT Gallery
A FREE EVENT
Limited places // Bookings essential
Be part of a conversation with Marcus Hughes, Ruth Langford and others to speculate on what a First Nations festival in Tasmania could be. Reserved for Healing is an adjunct to walantanalinany palingina (WaPa) and is an evolving series of interventions in the CAT gallery made up of installations, symposium and other forms of information sharing. We hope that the conversation space within Reserved for Healing will provoke an enquiry into what the wider community and arts sector can do in preparation for the festival and to truly hear the depth of story. This symposium will follow a discussion held earlier in the day between members of the local Aboriginal community that focussed on identifying cultural protocols and processes to ensure the telling of story is a healing journey for Indigenous people.
Caroline Briggs Martin is a direct descendant of the Briggs family and Custodian of Boonwurrung Country; her Ancestral lands extend from the Werribee River inland Melbourne, Port Phillip and Westernport Bays and along the Mornington Peninsula coast to Wilson’s Promontory. Caroline is the Creative Director of YIRRAMBOI, Melbourne’s premier biennial First Nations arts and cultural event. Caroline managed Koorie community engagement and involvement in the development of the First Peoples exhibition, Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Melbourne Museum in 2013 and in 2015 she created her own cultural strengthening and consultancy business, Yalukit Marnang. Yalukit Marnang Consultancy in partnership with ILBIJERRI Theatre Company were recently awarded the State of Victoria’s largest investment, through Creative State for a single project that enables them to give voice to the strength and resilience of Boonwurrung Matriarchal Ancestor Louisa Briggs, titled: Bagurrk meaning ‘Woman’ in the language of the Boonwurrung. This production will be presented in late 2021.
Marcus Hughes is a descendant of the Mununjali peoples of the Yugambeh nation. He has worked within the arts and cultural sector throughout Australia and the UK as a producer, presenter and advocate, and is currently the Head of Indigenous Engagement and Strategy at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS) at the Powerhouse Museum. In 2014 he addressed the 6th World Summit on Arts and Culture in Chile and was Adjunct Associate Professor at Victoria University’s Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit. Marcus sits on the Australian Museums and Galleries Association National Council, the National Film and Sound Archive’s Indigenous Connections Committee, and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Western Sydney University’s School of Humanities & Communication Arts.
As a Song woman and Story Teller, Ruth Langford draws upon the cultural knowledge of her Yorta Yorta mother and the Tasmanian Aboriginal community where she was born and continues to live. Ruth is WaPa Creative Producer and established the Aboriginal owned and operated social enterprise, Nayri Niara, that incorporates the LongHouse, a communal creation hub in Hobart. Combining over twenty years traveling the world sitting with Indigenous Elders, Senior Knowledge Keepers and World Wisdom Teachers with conscious research, Ruth’s vision is to connect people to the ancient wisdom of Indigenous teachings in a contemporary and relevant context through the expression of cultural arts, ceremony and ritual.
This symposium will be held in the CAT Gallery the day before the Reserved for Healing exhibition opening. Reserved for Healing has been developed through CAT and walantanalinany palingina (WaPa) working with support from the Australia Council’s Chosen initiative. WaPa and CAT partner on building capacity for delivering the First Nations festival, WaPa 22Ten22.
