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Gilchrist, Stephen: Belonging and Unbelonging: Indigenous forms of Curation as Expressions of Sovereignty, PhD Thesis, Department of Art History, The University of Sydney, 2020

Table of Contents        ¦         Cover Text        ¦         Review⁄Abstract

Table of Contents

Abstract -i-

Acknowledgements -ii-

List of Illustrations -iv-

List of Abbreviations -xi-

Authorship attribution statement -xi-i

Notes to the reader -xii-

Warning -xii-

Introduction: Unbelonging -1-

0.1 Toward a theory of Unbelonging -2-

0.2 Critical Frameworks -3-

0.3 Decolonisation and Indigenisation -7-

0.4 Unbelonging to the State: Irreconcilable Differences -12-

0.5 Unbelonging to the Disciplines: Disciplinary Reformulations -17-

0.6 Unbelonging to the Institution: Locational Disturbances -20-

0.7 Overview of the Study: Chapter Outlines -22-

0.8 Cultural Positioning: An Indigenous Research Methodology -27-

Part One 30

Chapter One: Lingering: The Aboriginal Memorial curated by Djon Mundine -30-

1.1 The Aboriginal Memorial (1987-1988) -33-

1.2 Djon Mundine’s Curatorial Methodology -36-

1.3 Djon Mundine and the Indigenous Curatorial Field -38-

1.4 The Bicentennial and the Biennale of Sydney -40-

*1.5 UnAustralian Art at the National Gallery of Australia -44-

1.6 The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Collection at the National Gallery of Australia -46-

1.7 Aboriginal forms of Memorial Art -47-

1.8 Grief cannot be hurried, trauma cannot be forgotten: Reconciliation and the politics of ‘healing’ -50-

1.9 Alternative histories and The Culture Wars -52-

1.10 Spatialising the National and the Deep Local: Yolngu, Ngunnawal and Ngambi Lands -56-

1.11 Singing-in and Opening up: Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Thresholds of the Sacred -60-

1.12 Conclusion -67-

Chapter:Two:Insisting fluent curated by Hetti Perkins and Brenda L Croft -72-

2.1 History of Australian Representation at the Venice Biennale -74-

2.2 Indigenous Representations in the Australian Pavilion -80-

2.3 Curatorial Methodology -84-

2.4 Political Disturbances and Elisions -90-

2.5 Cultural Protocols: Disturbances and Continuations -95-

2.6 Typological Identities: Remote, Urban and Regional -97-

2.7 Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative and Institutional Curation -101-

2.8 The Insistent Artist: The Artists of fluent: Yvonne Koolmatrie -105-

2.9 Emily Kame Kngwarreye -107-

2.10 Judy Watson -109-

2.11 Conclusion -112-

Part Two 116

Chapter Three: Refusing Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia

curated by Stephen Gilchrist -114-

3.1 Curatorial Methodology -117-

3.2 Renaming, Reclaiming, and Returning at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology -121-

3.3 Indigenous Temporality: The ‘Ethnographic Present’ and the ‘Eternal Present’ and Contemporaneity -131-

3.4 Reciprocal Recognitions: Indigenous Sovereignty and Visibility -140-

3.5 Remembrance and Performance as Refusal: Lena Nyadbi -151-

3.6 Yhonnie Scarce -153-

3.7 Vernon Ah Kee -157-

3.8 Conclusion -159-

Chapter Four: Voicing Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilisation curated by Gaye Sculthorpe and Unsettled: Stories Within curated by Kelli Cole -162-

4.1 Gaye Sculthorpe and The British Museum -166-

4.2 Dja Dja Wurrung: Unheard Requests -167-

4.3 Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilisation: The Curatorial Methodology -173-

4.4 Voices from History -177-

4.5 Oral testimonies -185-

4.6 Kelli Cole: Curatorial Autonomy -188-

4.7 Julie Gough: With and Without -190-

4.8 Jonathan Jones: Determined and Indeterminate -195-

4.9 Dialogue and Dissonance: New Encounters -199-

4.10 Conclusion -201-

Chapter Five: Resurfacing

barrangal dyara (skin and bones) Project 32, Kaldor Public Art Projects curated by Jonathan Jones -205 -

5.1 Jonathan Jones: Artist and Curator -210-

5.2 The Kaldor Public Art Projects -211-

5.3 The Royal Botanic Garden -216-

5.4 The Garden Palace and the International Exhibitions -219-

5.5 Ethnological Court -222-

5.6 Shields -224-

5.7 Kangaroo Grass: Knowledge and Dormancy -233-

5.8 Awakening Languages -238-

5.9 Conclusion -244-

Conclusion: Belonging -247-

Bibliography -253-

Review⁄Abstract

Abstract: Indigenous art has been one of the most important vehicles for promoting intercultural understanding in Australia. It visualises Indigenous ways of seeing, knowing and experiencing the world. Indigenous forms of curation have been instrumental in creating these profound moments of intercultural connection, and in doing so, they have contributed to new theorisations of Indigenous art. This research project seeks to identify an Indigenous critical framework with which to apprehend the complexity of Indigenous art exhibitions. Through detailed case-studies of six exhibitionary projects by Indigenous curators, running from the Aboriginal Memorial of 1988 to barrangal dyara (skin and bones) in 2016, I demonstrate that Indigenous curation is not only an important political act of recognition and visibility, it is also deeply indebted to Indigenous cultural practices and philosophies. The projects chosen are situated within sites of high national and international value, including the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra); the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale; the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, Mass): the British Museum (London); the National Museum of Australia (Canberra) and the Kaldor Public Art Projects in the Royal Botanic Garden (Sydney). Through these case studies I chart a curatorial manoeuvre that I describe as ‘unbelonging’. Unbelonging is not a position of statelessness, but a deliberative model of both subversively unsettling and detaching from the imposition of statehood. In many instances, it uses the resources of leading institutions, but agitates to create self-determined spaces within them. Through a process of unbelonging to the state, to the institution, to disciplines and to history, Indigenous curators are rewriting their own ways of belonging. In this way, I understand Indigenous curation as not politically reactive to colonisation as is often presumed, but emerging from Indigenous political formations of governance and sovereignty, value and heritage, consensus and relation. This is caring for country, caring for culture and caring for community in practice. By creating new and broadening complacent formulations of art and social history, identity, museological practice and temporality, Indigenous curators have reshaped institutional and disciplinary cultures and have contributed to the strengthening of Indigenous art and culture.