 | |
| project name: artist name: artforms: science engagements: science partners: project description: The Ngurrara Canvas is a collaborative piece measuring eight metres by ten metres which maps the lands that form part of the Great Sandy Desert. The canvas was presented to The Native Title Tribunal as evidence during a land claim in 1997. "The work [is] a collaborative effort with each of the claimants painting his or her own piece of country, the area for which they have special responsibility." "While the main intention behind the work was political, the aesthetic result of the work of so many different artists is extraordinary. There is no grid-like effect to demarcate separation of territories but a blending of adjacent areas, the flow of the painting imitating the flow of people's movement through the country and of family connections over space." Pat Lowe Marrawarra and Jila was painted by a group of Mangkaja artists for the Festival of Pacific Arts in Noumea, September 2000. The work shows the river (marrawarra) country of its Bunuba and Goonlyandi painters, and the desert country (jila _ desert waterholes) of its Walmajarri and Wangkajunga painters. As such it comprehensively reflects the membership of MARA. The Fitzroy Crossing township is placed on Bunuba and Goonlyandi country. The desert people moved off the cattle stations and into town with the introduction of 'equal pay' laws in the late 1960s. It is unusual for these artists to work together and Daisy Andrews acknowledges this when she says: 'It's really good now how we can all sit down and work together, it's really good, river and desert together, whole lot'. The painting hints at the massive relocations and associated dislocation that Aboriginal people in and around Fitzroy Crossing have endured. It celebrates the resilience and pragmatism with which relatively foreign groups have realised and reconciled their relationships. | movies:  Ngurra Canvas |