To gallery or not to gallery?

Todd Mall is the pedestrian heart of Alice Springs. It sports a range of shops and many galleries selling indigenous art. We have, thank goodness, moved on from the days of tea towels with stolen indigenous art on them.  But I have heard so many stories about the artists being exploited by galleries, I am reluctant to go into any of them...even if they have signs purporting to support community arts and one that sells 'proper indigenous art'.
















I do feel comfortable in suggesting a few,  of what I consider, 'must support' shops in the mall.

Red Kangaroo has an extensive selection of Australian books and literature of all genres. They also have an online shop with an ever-changing catalogue at: Red Kangaroo Books

Ininti gallery and gift shop sports all kinds of art, clothing, bags, jewellery, made by indigenous people from all over the globe. Siri Omberg, the owner is an accomplished jeweller and there are some of her lovely pieces in her shop. Siri also has a studio only five minutes walk from the town centre. Check out this link on Red Hot Arts.

Lovely Lesley from Leaping Lizards makes a visit to her shop almost mandatory. She is a delightful,

chatty and helpful person. Her gallery and shop are full of local arts and crafts with something

to suit most taste and pockets. Allow plenty of time to browse and chat. 

Not pictured here, are the indigenous women who sit under the trees and on the grass outside the Flynn Church and old hospital with their canvasses laid out in front of them. They are there most days, and definitely on market days and weekends. I really admire their determination. I happily bought one of these, probably a rather cliched bush tucker painting, because I knew my money was going straight to the source.

Harmony and Art in Alice

Yesterday was Harmony Day in Alice Springs, with a celebration of diversity, in the park. There was music, dancing and drumming, national costumes, activities and delicious food.  For a smallish town, Alice is quite diverse with representatives from Sri Lanka, India, Africa and South America. I especially loved the junior Bollywood dancers, but my favourite, was Drum Atweme. The group is made up of indigenous children from the town camps and the program is run by the Tangentyere Council.

The town camps were established early in the town's settlement by europeans. The indigenous people were pushed together on the edges of the town. Not a very unique story, sadly.  The people were treated at as one homogenous group, whereas the continent consisted of many nations, cultures and language groups. The map below is an attempt to demonstrate this diversity. There is an interactive map here, if you want a closer look. Life has always been tough in these camps and today it is no different.  Programs, such as Drum Atweme which promote harmony and provide positive experiences and opportunities are vital.

 

Incidentally, I also attended the opening of two art exhibitions on Friday night. One of these was at the Tangentyere  Gallery.   The artists are all women and the paintings are a wonderful mixture of naive and contemporary depictions of traditional stories. The second exhibition, also showing art from indigenous women, was at the Raft Artspace and featured paintings and textile sculptures, I spent ages admiring these sculptures. Click on the link and scroll through the site to see some of them. They are made from old blankets and embroidered. I was lucky enough to meet a couple of the artists and they were rightly proud and happy to show their work. 

Tjanpi desert weavers

Situated at the NPY Women's Council, 3 Wilkinson Street, Alice Springs is the Tjanpi Desert Weavers Gallery. Tjanpi, means 'dry grass'.  Basket making is not a traditional craft of the Western Desert but builds on traditions of using fibre for medicinal, ceremonial and daily purposes. It evolved from a number of workshops run in remote western communities by the NPYWC in 1995. Today over 400 women across 28 communities are involved in making baskets and fibre sculptures. Tjanpi weavers is aboriginal owned and run. The baskets and sculptures are sold at the gallery and the marked price reflects the amount of money which goes back to the women. 

When collecting desert grasses, women visit sacred sites and traditional homelands, hunt and gather food for their families and teach their children about country. The grasses are bound with wool, string or raffia and sometimes decorated with emu feathers and the red seeds from the bats-wing coral tree. 

Indigenous grasses, raffia and emu feathers.

My purchases

Each item has the name of the artist on the tag. My basket was made by Pollyanne Smith and here is some information from her biography:

'Pollyanne was born well in the bush near Ernabella in South Australia around 1957. She grew up and has spent most of her life in nearby Kaitjiti( Fregon), where she now works as a teacher at the school, as well as look after her grandchildren. In school holidays Pollyanne also paints at Kaitjiti Arts.  She first started making baskets in 2010 after seeing lots of other ladies in the community doing it.'

Thank you Pollyanne and the NPYWC.