ANAT and Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute (Adelaide) have joined forces to develop a new media arts partnership in 2002. The first project as part of the partnership commenced in late 2002, and is a collaborative research project between Adelaide based artists Stephen Kadlibarti Goldsmith and Francesca da Rimini. This project has been supported by a joint initiative between the New Media Arts and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Boards of the Australia Council, to provide professional development and creative development opportunities for Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists within a new media arts context.
Stephen and Francesca will be collaborating in the research, development and public presentation of a new media artwork. Steve – a performance artist with international experience – is passionate about the retrieval, maintenance & development of his cultural heritage. A Kaurna (Aboriginal people of the Adelaide Plains) descendant, Steve intends to gather images of people, landscape and objects (of secular, material culture) pertaining to his people’s tradition and contact experiences.
Steve and Francesca will work with these images, texts, objects and will create new images & sound of this altered landscape, objects and people in order to develop a new media installation and website which evokes the secular traditional culture, history and contemporary issues of the Kaurna people.
The artists wish to explore the intercultural nature of past and present relationships.
Stephen Kadlibarti Goldsmith (SA) is a descendant of the Kaurna people. His role will be to lead the research component of the project. Stephen is a musician and performer, with experience in exhibition development as a Cultural Protocols consultant. This project will enable Stephen to acquire advanced new media skills. Francesca da Rimini (SA) a non-Indigenous, new media artist, mainly working on web – has established links with Indigenous communities, most recently as artist in residence with Irati Wanti – a group of young activists working with
Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta -the senior women of the Coober Pedy region – an area effected by British nuclear testing in the 1950s.
Tandanya and ANAT view this project as an exciting opportunity to assist Indigenous artists in creating new modes of cultural and artistic expression. The anticipated research and skill development outcomes resulting from the processes inherent in this project will significantly enhance Tandanya’s ongoing public programming. For ANAT, this project will provide an important link with a major Indigenous cultural organisation, providing an opportunity for longer-term support of Indigenous new media artists.
Tags: Kaurna people, Tandanya, tradition
