Leading the Way– ACT Community Arts Office NAIDOC Exhibition

25 June–11 July

“NAIDOC stands for the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee. Its origins can be traced to the emergence of Aboriginal groups in the 1920s which sought to increase awareness in the wider community of the status and treatment of Indigenous Australians. Today, NAIDOC is a celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and an opportunity to recognise the contributions of Indigenous Australians in various fields.”

To celebrate NAIDOC Week the ACT Community Arts Office in conjunction with the Belconnen Art Centre and Gorman House Arts Centre present, “Leading The Way” NAIDOC 2010 Exhibition, featuring Leading ACT Indigenous Artists, John Raymond Johnson, Jenni Kemarre Martiniello, Liz McNiven, Duncan Smith and Renee Smith.

John Raymond Johnson is descended form the Warramunga and Wambya Peoples of the Northern Territory. He has lived in the ACT for the last 25 years and before that he grew up in Darwin and Queensland. John Johnson has been a practicing artist for the last 20 years and his works deal with social issues pertaining to Indigenous Peoples, such as, the Stolen Generation, Deaths in Custody and the Environment. Many of his Artworks are featured in collections around Australia and overseas, such as the, National Gallery of Australia, National Museum of Australia, the Art Gallery of NSW, Kyoto University and the ACT Legislative Assembly Art Collection.

Jenni Kemarre Martiniello is a writer, poet, academic, photographer and visual artist of Arrernte, Chinese and Anglo-Celtic descent. Jenni Kemarre Martiniello is of the Kemarre Skin, and her totem is the Mulga, or King Brown snake. Her textile and glass works are inspired by her Father’s and Grandmother’s country and use multiple layers of visual ‘texts’, inscribing their Ancestral connections to land, waterholes, rivers and place, and the flora and fauna associated with those places. Underlying them are references to spirituality, changed and changing socio-cultural landscapes, and the passage of inheritance of all of these through generations. Jenni has just recently received a 2010 ACT International Women’s Day Award for her contribution to Indigenous Community Arts in the ACT.

Renee Smith is a Canberra based practising artist, textiles designer and screen printer. She has lived in Canberra for over 20 years but she is originally from Tingha, New South Wales. Tingha is situated on the northern Tablelands within the Anaiwan/Gamilaroi language groups. This is where her waabe (mother’s mother in Gamilaroi) originates. Renee lived with her grandparents, sister, cousins, aunts and uncles throughout her childhood and she is one of 53 grandchildren (mother’s side). Renee has children of her own and her late father was a Wiradjuri man from Wellington, NSW. Renee’s Art Practice includes machine and hand sewing, drawing, etching, design, printing, painting, experimentation with Adobe Photoshop computer aided design, production of hand printed fabric, paper and glass depicting native animals, plants and her connection to the land.

Duncan Smith is a Wiradjuri man from Central Western New South Wales. He is a great nephew of Tracker Riley, the first indigenous Police Officer of the NSW Police Force; he was a legend for finding lost children and tracking down criminals. Duncan is a professional practicing Artist, well known in Canberra and the Region, for his traditional and contemporary Visual Art through a variety of mediums such as Glass, Painting and Digital Photography. Duncan Smith is also a professional Performer and he manages the “Wiradjuri Echoes” an ACT Indigenous Performance/Dance Group. Duncan is proudly a contributor and an Ambassador for the “CANTEEN for Kids” and a National Ambassador for the “Dare To Lead” program.

Liz McNiven is a member of the Barnba Clan of the Budjiti language group from the Paroo River country of remote southwest Queensland. She was, until very recently, the acting senior Curator of the Indigenous Collections of the Australian National Film & Sound Archive (NFSA) and remains a curator of the Archive’s website, Australian Screen Online. Liz is also a poet, writer and highly regarded painter and sculptor whose work has been acquired by the National Gallery of Australia and other key Arts collections. Liz McNiven’s work in “Leading The Way” seeks to explore themes around the use of illusion by the dominant society to persuade, manipulate or control the way people see and think. She uses abstraction to highlight the subliminal nature of conceptual illusions.

The “Leading the Way” Exhibition at the Belconnen Art Centre will feature these outstanding ACT Indigenous Artists during NAIDOC Week 2010. The “Leading the Way” Exhibition will feature Artworks in a variety of mediums from, Lithography, Digital Prints, Photography, Painting and Glass.

This Project is Supported by the ACT Government, Gorman House Arts Centre, Belconnen Arts Centre and the Australian Government's Regional Arts Program, the Regional Arts Fund.

Exhibition opening > Friday 25 June > 6:00pm
Meet the artists > Saturday 3 July > 3:00pm

Leading the Way

Photograph: Provided courtesy of Duncan Smith.

Photograph: Provided courtesy of John Johnson.

Photograph: Provided courtesy of Liz McNiven.

Photograph: Provided courtesy of Renee Smith.

Photograph: Provided courtesy of Jenni Kemarre Martiniello.

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