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Big Journey, Big Destination
Cross-Country: Canning Stock Route Project
From left Vera Anderson, Friday Jones, Kay Bingham, Niesha Long, Sheila Friday Jones, Elaine Williams, Sharon Anderson, Clifford Brooks, Annette Williams, Lizzie Minor, and Adena Williams.
Across Western Australia stories define the history of the many communities that dot the landscape. Historically, most often heard are colonial interpretations of early European experiences. That however, is about to change! With support from Lotterywest, FORM are about to add a whole new dimension to the way an iconic Australian story, the Canning Stock Route, is about to be perceived.
The Canning Stock Route Project is being driven by FORM’s Cultural Relations Manager Carly Davenport. Carly has a deep commitment to providing a voice for Aboriginal custodians in Australian history. Together with partner Tim Acker, she saw the Canning Stock Route, which arcs nearly 2,000 kms through nine remote Aboriginal communities, as a fantastic opportunity to record a compelling diversity of stories.
From Halls Creek to Wiluna, the Project will effect a return to country by artists, elders and young people, to portray the traditional Aboriginal significance of the land traversed by the stock route. The wholesale displacement and dispersal of the people of these lands – initially due to European settlement and exacerbated by weapons testing during the 1950s and 60s, has until now, prevented the Aboriginal perspective being given.
Although separated by many thousands of kilometres, those involved in the Project share kinship through their connection to the land. They formed an artist’s steering committee to guide the program of consultations and workshops culminating in a major bush trip in mid 2007. The epic convoy of participants – normally living far removed from each other in remote communities – will paint, carve, weave and retell stories, as they travel along the Stock Route. The artworks and the stories will be collated by FORM into a world-class exhibition, launching at the National Museum of Australia in 2010.
Carly and Tim attribute the genesis of the Project to the leadership and dialogue of eminent Aboriginal artists and custodians of Country. Collectively they saw the Project as a way of celebrating the extraordinary and unparallel desert regions of Western Australia through the eyes and voices of its own people. Carly points out some of the project’s spin-offs are promoting awareness of the thriving communities and successful business enterprises of Aboriginal art centres in remote communities: "The Canning Stock Route Project will feature these centres, their artists and families and create a window into the many chords of connection belonging to the Walmajarri, Kukutja, Ngaanyatjarra, Wankajunka, Mardu, Pintubi, Mandiljarra, and Yulparija peoples."
FORM has encouraging training and employment opportunities by building over forty one Aboriginal positions into the project including artists, project facilitators, a mechanic, a nurse, cultural liaison officers, emerging curators and translators. Carly points out "One of the key aims of the Project is to educate and engender the intergenerational sharing of knowledge and stories."
Commenting on the first of the workshops, Carly reported: "Among the artists and communities there is a genuine buzz, a vibration. There has been an excitement in community meetings, people talking over the top of each other, a readiness to share, lots of humour exchanged – people saying ‘write my story now’." Fuelling the excitement is the powerful desire to get back to Country with senior artists expressing ‘worry for the young ones’, feeling the imperative to convey important stories, cultural information and land management practices to the next generation.
The Canning Stock Route Project has attracted partners that seek to embrace the deep knowledge repositories of Australia’s remote communities. In addition to receiving a grant for $194,940 from Lotterywest, FORM has secured far-sighted funding partners in the Indigenous Land Corporation, Visions of Australia, the National Museum of Australia and BHP Billiton Iron Ore. The interest and engagement from at all levels, including in-kind support of the Arts Centres confirms the confidence placed in FORM’s ability to manage the initiative effectively.
Through the Canning Stock Route Project, a vital group of Aboriginal artists will share an irreplaceable wealth of stories for their own community members, with the rest of Australia and the world. The Project is a timely celebration of Western Australian Aboriginal culture and relationships to Country. It will aid the many participating Aboriginal people and their communities to build and share their way of seeing Australian land and history for our shared future.