Coming Home Gertrude Street
Coming Home Gertrude Street The Collie Print Trust has had a longstanding relationship with Australian Print Workshop. This important partnership has grown and strengthened over the years and has enabled APW to provide a range of innovative programs that have provided support for scholarship and technical education in the field of fine art printmaking. The Collie Print Trust is a philanthropic foundation established in 1967 by the late Barbara Collie in memory of her father Robert Collie, who created the highly successful Collie printing ink business. The Trust supports education in the print and design sectors through the provision of scholarships. The trustees of The Collie Print Trust are Mr Colin Lewis (Chairman), Mr Harry M. Hearn AM and ANZ Trustees. The Collie Print Trust was proud and delighted to make a grant to APW to help realise this innovative pilot project. The project had appeal as it combines APW’s printmaking expertise and established track record of success in working with culturally diverse communities, to deliver a groundbreaking program of community outreach printmaking workshops in regional Victoria. The Trust was particularly drawn to the project due to its regional reach which resulted in APW being transported from suburban Melbourne to work with more than 80 Indigenous artists in communities throughout the East Gippsland region. The project outcomes have exceeded the Collie Print Trust’s expectations. The trustees congratulate all involved on this ground breaking work, which they hope will be built on by the APW and others into the future. Mr Colin Lewis Chairman, The Collie Print Trust
This exhibition is a culmination of an ambitious year-long project that took APW from its Gertrude Street home, to work with Indigenous artists living in communities located throughout the East Gippsland region of south-eastern Victoria. The limited edition prints showcased in this exhibition, represent a very small selection of the many wonderful works that were produced as a result of a series of printmaking workshops conducted by APW Printers during 2010 – 2011. Working in partnership with East Gippsland Aboriginal Arts Corporation (EGAAC), a small community-based Indigenous organisation located in Bairnsdale that services Aboriginal artists living in the East Gippsland region, APW Printers Martin King, Simon White and Chris Ingham visited the communities of Lake Tyers, Sale, Orbost, Bairnsdale, Lakes Entrance and Morwell. In addition to the series of workshops held in regional centers, artists from these areas also traveled to Melbourne to attend workshops conducted at APW’s studio in Fitzroy. APW thanks EGAAC for their valuable contribution to the project that enabled APW to connect with the Artists and their communities. APW also acknowledges and thanks the many project participants and artists who ensured that this project was such a success and resulted in so many fantastic works in the print medium. Special thanks are extended to The Collie Print Trust for their ongoing support of APW and for their generous donation that made this project possible. Anne Virgo Director, Australian Print Workshop
In a small hire car, loaded with the APW traveling etching press, paper, inks and tools of the trade, APW Printers Simon White, Chris Ingham and I embarked upon the first of the EGAAC Printmaking Workshops. Our destination, the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust, situated on the shores of the Lake Tyers in Far East Gippsland to work with Indigenous artists from this region. In a flurry of activity, in a room overlooking the lake, the artists produced intaglio drypoints and monoprints, first making pencil drawings on paper and then scratching into the plate, using watercolour and oil based inks to produce vibrant monoprints and drypoints. We talked of the rich and complex history of the Aboriginal Trust, the families and the region. The artist’s energy, and the work produced was exhilarating. This was the first of six workshops we conducted in communities throughout the region. Back in Fitzroy we prepared for some of the artists to visit APW to work on a series of etchings. It became clear as the artists talked and recollected memories that Gertrude Street Fitzroy, APW’s home, held significant stories and relationships for many of the artists we were working with in regions far away from Melbourne. The artists of East Gippsland and the APW had discovered a link that was realized in the etchings they produced. The project had come full circle. Martin King Senior Printer, Australian Print Workshop
Marjorie Thorpe Meeting Place Etching Image size: 20 x 30 cm Paper size: 28 x 38 cm Drawn on the plate by the artist and printed in an edition of 10 by APW Senior Printer, Martin King at Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne, 2011 ▼
I remember this building when I was growing up, I used to go in there when I was sixteen with my grandmother. I used to stay at my grandmothers in Carlton every weekend. I was a boarder at MLC. The Builder’s Arms was a meeting place for Aboriginals from all over the country, people that had lost contact with their families and their place of birth, they came from all over Australia looking for work or trying to find their families. The Builder’s Arms was a starting point for people to find their families, it was a social hub, a meeting place for aboriginals to find each other and support one another or to just keep in contact. My grandmother met her Scottish husband during the depression and began their life together in Fitzroy. My grandmother established the ‘Aboriginal Funeral Fund’, so that Aboriginal people could have a decent burial.
Trina Wilmot Fella in the Bullrushes Etching Image size: 30 x 20 cm Paper size: 38 x 28 cm Drawn on the plate by the artist and printed in an edition of 10 by APW Senior Printer Martin King at Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne, 2011 ▼
Black fella hiding from the Junga’s/cops. It’s about my aunty who was taken away from the family …it’s about the stolen generation.
Arika Waulu Onus Rose Chong Etching Image size: 20 x 30 cm Paper size: 28 x 38 cm Drawn on the plate by the artist and printed in an edition of 10 by APW Senior Printer, Martin King at Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne, 2011 ▼
My family went there to hire all their wedding dresses and clothes for special occasions, but for me and my cousins we used to go there to have fun when I was young, more recently we went there to hire clothes for the ‘Fitzroy Stars’ football break-ups. This place holds great memories for me and it is a landmark destination for fancy dress and costume in Melbourne.
Leann J Edwards Champion Etching Image size: 30 x 20 cm Paper size: 38 x 28 cm Drawn on the plate by the artist and printed in an edition of 10 by APW Senior Printer, Martin King at Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne, 2011 ▼
I lived in Napier St and Nicholson St when I was 7 and 8 years old, I remember the time well because it was the same time as the collapse of the Westgate Bridge. I would walk across the Exhibition Gardens to attend the Rathdowne St, Primary School. Fitzroy was the worst part of Melbourne, I hung out with the Italians, Greeks and ethnic communities because they copped the same sort of shit that kooris did. I spent a lot of time in the Exhibition Gardens, as a child of only 7 or 8 I presented myself as a tour guide to the Japanese tourists. Then we moved from Melbourne to Queensland. This is an etching of the Champion Hotel… it was always full of black fellas, everyone hung out there, my mum used to hang out there. The youth club looked after me on weekends, they took us to Melbourne to swim in the heated pool and I remember going to Torquay once to spend a day on the beach.
Steve Thorpe Back to the Stars Etching Image size: 20 x 30 cm Paper size: 28 x 38 cm Drawn on the plate by the artist and printed in an edition of 10 by APW Printer, Simon White at Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne, 2011 ▼
My connection with Gertrude St. My Grandmother lived in Fitzroy near the Cop Shop, Kent St, a lot of aboriginals lived here from the 1930’s onwards because of the transition from the missions to find work, my mum Alma lived here too. I was bought up in Yallourn, we were evicted from there, my mum had 7 kids. Dad worked for the SEC in Yallourn. Mum moved to Carlton, Pitt St, with all us kids and initiated the original ‘Aboriginal Health Services’(community controlled), soon the government came on board, with some pressure from the aboriginal community. The Health Service started at 229 Gertrude St, but moved to 186 Gertrude St and now is in Nicholson St Fitzroy.
Louisa Stephens Bebop Dreaming Etching Image size: 20 x 30 cm Paper size: 28 x 38 cm Drawn on the plate by the artist and printed in an edition of 10 by APW Printer Simon White at Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne, 2011
My etching depicts the success of an aboriginal football team I was part of in 1974-1991, I played in over 300 games, we were called the ‘Fitzroy Stars’, we played on the old Fitzroy ground in Brunswick St, I saw the football team in the form of a corroboree, where all of us met, every Saturday and wore our colors... in the game of ‘Marngrook’ (Football).
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Bebop is the first etching I have ever done. The lizards represent myself and my partner. The circles are the women. The waves are my family connected to the lizards.
Australian Print Workshop 210 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065 PO Box 1236, Collingwood, Victoria 3066 Telephone 03 9419 5466 auspw@bigpond.com www.australianprintworkshop.com Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am–5pm
Australian Print Workshop gratefully acknowledges the generous and ongoing support of the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria and The Collie Print Trust which is managed by ANZ Trustees
Australian Print Workshop 210 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065 PO Box 1236, Collingwood, Victoria 3066
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Telephone 03 9419 5466 auspw@bigpond.com www.australianprintworkshop.com Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am–5pm Australian Print Workshop gratefully acknowledges the generous support of The Collie Print Trust which is managed by ANZ Trustees, and the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria.
Allan Mitelman Australian Print Workshop Collie Print Trust Printmaking Fellow