Eastern Indonesia - Northern Territory Partnership
The first stage of Asialink Arts' pilot Eastern Indonesia - Northern Territory Partnership took place in early 2007, with promising results. Building on the successes of the Northern Territory's Indigenous arts sector, the program brought together arts practitioners working with and in remote communities to develop strategies to encourage the transmission of traditional culture to future generations. The program encompassed a variety of culturally significant art forms that inform and complement the broader cultural systems of the two regions.
Through this program our aim has been to foster the creation of regional, national and international networks and markets that will provide long-term support for the communities involved and promote confidence and pride in their artistic traditions.
This Asialink project is part of the Eastern Indonesia-Northern Territory Partnership Program, funded by the Ford Foundation, Jakarta and Arts NT, and produced in partnership with Yayasan Kelola, Nomad Art Productions, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Charles Darwin University, Yilila, Red Flag Dancers, and supported by the Consulate of the Republic of Indonesia, Darwin.
Please read Engaging Cultures Across the Timor Sea [pdf, 308kb,1 page], a recently published article in the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) Journal for background information on the project.
Three projects form the core of this partnership:
Visual Arts Program: Ta Teut Amarasi - Awakening
In January 2007 Joanna Barrkman (Senior Curator of South-East Asian Art and Material Culture at MAGNT and project advisor) accompanied Winsome Jobling (papermaker, Darwin) and Leon Stainer (printmaker, Darwin) to Baun, Amarasi in West Timor to introduce fine art print and paper-making techniques to Sanggar Uim Nima, a local weaving collective. Further workshops were conducted to make additional work and a series of prints produced for exhibition and sale. The show Ta Teut Amarasi – Awakening: contemporary textiles and prints based on the cultural traditions of Amarasi, West Timor was presented by Nomad Art Productions at the 2008 Darwin Festival, the textile motifs illustrating the relationship between the community’s traditional work and new endeavours in the form of print-making.
Exhibition dates and venues:
Sofi’s Lounge, Level 1, Sofitel on Collins, 25 Collins Street, Melbourne: 7-24 October 2008
UPDT Museum Daerah NTT, Kupang in West Timor: November 2008
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Floor talk by Simon and Robert Koroh, Wesleyan Church, Darwin Festival, August 2008.
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Exhibition opening, George Brown Botanical Gardens, Darwin Festival, August 2008.
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 Amarasi: Winsome Jobling sharing papermaking techniques with local Baun artists, West Timor 2007. |
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For further information regarding this program, please contact:
Ms Lesley Alway
Director, Arts Program
Asialink
Level 4, Sidney Myer Asia Centre
The University of Melbourne
Victoria, 3010
Telephone: (03) 8344 3595
Email: a.carroll@asialink.unimelb.edu.au