Mwerre Anthurre
A very proper art studio
Introduction
Mwerre Anthurre (‘very good’ or ‘very proper’)
is a professional, studio-based art program located at Bindi Inc in Alice
Springs. Bindi offers supported employment, adult training and assistance
to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It is a not-for-profit,
cross-cultural service funded primarily by the Department of Family and
Community Services (FaCS). Bindi initially established the art program
in response to the particular needs and interests of Indigenous people
who use the service. Mwerre Anthurre artists participate in mainstream
exhibitions and sell their work through national art galleries.
Seeking mainstream recognition for artists with an intellectual disability
and supporting their work in a studio setting has an important precedent
in Australia. Arts Project Australia (APA), located in Melbourne, has
been exhibiting work since 1974, and in 1982 established a workshop studio
which employs professional artists and provides quality art materials.
For decades it has recognised the capacity of people with an intellectual
disability to make art, and their right to mainstream recognition and
an income for their work.
The story of Mwerre Anthurre
Apmere atyinhe Artetyerre, Agkerrepe uthene, Alyawarre antekerrepenhe
Arrernte ikngerripenhe uthene. Apmere atyinhe antenhe. Apmere atyinhe
antenhe aknganentye intelhentye-arlke. Atyinhe altharte aknganentye alheke
Alcunpa-werne, ampere arrpenhe mapekenhewerne, ayerrere alturle Angkerrepe-ngentyele.
My country is Harts Range, Utopia, South and East Arrente. My country,
painting. My country is dreaming antenhe [possum]. My dreaming, corroboree.
My dreaming goes to Alcunpa, to another people’s country, north-west
from Utopia.
Billy Benn Perrurle, Alyawarre language group
Perrurle’s central Australian landscapes possess a depth and
serenity that resonate this relationship to country as the motivation
and core significance of the work. Perrurle has emerged to be recognised
as an artist of importance and integrity. He is represented in key national
collections.
Karen Brown Gallery, press release, 2003
For over 20 years, Billy Benn Perrurle was employed as a sheet metal
worker with Bindi. While he made metal boxes for his work, he was also
a practising artist. A space in the metal workshop was his painting corner,
and any available flat surfaces, particularly old boards discarded by
the Alice Springs timber mill, were his canvases. His tools and materials
were those that were most accessible — fingers, cloth, glue and
paint. He often sold his work for the price of a cool drink. There was
one occasion before 2000 when his paintings were exhibited. Beyond Passions,
an exhibition held in Alice Springs, showcased artworks by people with
a disability. Billy Benn’s work sold out.
In 2000, Alison Brash, then Program Manager at Bindi, took up the issues
that Billy Benn’s determined and powerful work presented: the need
for culturally appropriate employment in a context like Bindi and, with
75% of Australian art market sales attributed to Indigenous artists, the
importance of locating it in a professional framework. With the help of
the Indigenous arts marketing organisation Desart Inc, she established
Bindi’s professional arts development program.
The first artists involved in the program were Billy Benn, Seth Namatjira
and Aileen Oliver Ampetyane. They decided to name their studio Mwerre
Anthurre, an Arrente phrase meaning ‘very good’ or ‘very
proper’. It is also known as Bindi Centa Arts.
The founding artists were introduced as ‘Bindi artists’
at the annual Desert Mob exhibition in 2000. Over the next two years they
worked in an area created for them in the Bindi Centa storeroom, and their
work was sold from the Bindi showroom alongside other Bindi products.
National gallery owners and curators were amongst the purchasers. In 2002,
federal funding was secured to support the employment of ten artists,
renovate the existing space as a working studio and employ an Art Coordinator.
Bindi people, Bindi art
[How did you become an artist?]
Awenhe mape, altyele mape, yaye
mape aremle.
By watching my aunties, cousins
and sisters.
[Where do you get your ideas from?]
Itelaremle. Anwerne ulyenye alhermele. Ayenge intelhe-iletyeke ahentye
anemele apetyeme.
By memorising. When we go out bush.
I like coming in for painting.
Aileen Oliver Ampetyane, Eastern Arrente language group
About ten artists regularly come to the Bindi studio for between three
and 14 hours per week. Remote community members who come to Alice Springs
for respite also access the studio while they are in town. The age range
of the artists is from 18 to 63 years. Their first languages are diverse
and include Central and Eastern Arrente, Alyawarre, Anmathere, Pintupi,
Warlpiri, Pitjintjajara, Ngaanyatjarra, Yankunytjatjara and English.
Landscape is the predominant subject matter of the artists’ work
and often reflects country of cultural significance. Some artists continue
a style learned from family members in their community. For some, Mwerre
Anthurre is their first opportunity to paint. Whatever their subject matter,
the artists bring diverse and distinct ways of seeing to it.
In the first group show at the Karen Brown Gallery in Darwin in 2003,
the artists who exhibited were Billy Benn Perrurle, Seth Namatjira, Aileen
Oliver Ampetyane, Randal Dickson and Sandra Darlene White. Their work
included interpretations of colour and light in the Central Australian
landscape, the representation of places such as St Teresa Church, portraiture
and studies of horses. Writing in The Australian about the second Karen
Brown show in 2004, Nicholas Rothwell also highlighted the work of other
artists in the show:
18-year-old Kukula Macdonald, a Warlpiri artist from Papunya, who
paints only black cockatoos or wheelchairs, and Adrian Robinson, from
Yuendumu, a painter whose mountain landscapes in false colour carry a
disconcerting emotional charge.
Nicholas Rothwell, ‘Barriers given the brush’, The Australian,
26 March 2004, p. 17
While Mwerre Anthurre is the main focus of the Bindi arts program, Bindi
has also run the Ti-Tree program to support artists with disabilities
in the more remote parts of the 800-kilometre area the service covers.
The intention is to help people stay in their own country to paint by
providing them with materials and professional contact. The Ti-Tree program
connected with about 16 outstations that are up to 50 kilometres away
from each other and up to 200 kilometres north of Alice Springs. A coordinator
was employed to work with the communities on a part-time basis and fluctuating
numbers of artists were involved.
Ngujunya yirdiji KuKula manu Ngajuju Papunya-wardingki. Nguju-nyanyi
Warrki. Ngaju Karna ngapurrpa nyina manijaku yardiwajiki yina yirrarni
Kuruwarrki maruku lapaji. Warru mani larnarlu yalyu-yalyu pinkirrpa Nganyukirli
Colini-kirli manu Tonyi-kirli Manu Carli-kirli. Ngapurrpa-nyanyi karna
nyina yungurna Nguju-mani ngami yalyu-yalyu pinkirrpa Kurlu. Yungurna
yani ngampurrpa yani Docker-Kurra.
My name is Kukula and I am from Papunya. Nice hard work. I like to take
photos for paintings of black cockatoos. I collect red feathers with Colin
and Tony and Carl. I like to do baskets with red feathers.
Kukula Macdonald, Warlpiri language group
Managing and marketing
Mwerre Anthurre receives funding from FaCS on the basis of its certification
as a business service. As a professional arts centre, it operates on a
collective principle. This means that after deduction of the gallery consignment
from the sale of a painting, a proportion of the figure remains with Mwerre
Anthurre to cover the cost of administration and purchase of materials,
while the remainder is income for the artist. This practice ensures income
to foster and support new artists.
The work of Mwerre Anthurre artists is sold through Gallery Gabrielle
Pizzi (Melbourne), Gallery Gondwana (Alice Springs), Alcaston Gallery
(Melbourne) and Karen Brown Gallery (Darwin). As the artists do not create
the same amount of work as other artists working through Indigenous arts
centres, once federal funding for the program was secured, the decision
was made to cease sales from the Bindi showroom and concentrate on exhibitions
and marketing through mainstream galleries.
Conclusion
Mwerre Anthurre is as much about quality of life and the process of creating
art as the finished work and income generation. It is also a professional
art program with a national market and growing recognition. Giving equal
focus to these intentions, as well as encouraging the participation of
people with high support needs, is an enormous challenge.
Funding which is tied to productivity is an inevitable issue. Mwerre Anthurre
is looking at changing from a business service to a supported employment
service that will allow current participants to remain in the program.
FaCS’ interest in services moving to case-based funding —
that is, funding based on the needs of each individual in the program
— is another challenge the studio will need to respond to.
The Ti-Tree outreach program is an important feature in the context
of remote Central Australia. Developing and maintaining it has included
dealing with the high turnover of coordinators, the fluidity of community
life and the differences between communities. The Ti-Tree program has
not been run since 2003. A first step for consideration in its future
management is the development of partnerships with other agencies who
have contact with the communities.
The obvious achievements of Mwerre Anthurre owe much to the vision and
skills of individual workers and the supportive work environment they
provide. Recruitment and retention of skilled staff and the impact of
staff turnover on program continuity is a common difficulty in regional
and remote areas, especially where an organisation has few staff. Bindi
Centa Arts is committed to the arts program and its continuing success
as the only organisation of its type in Central Australia.
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