The Indigenous Jewellery Project

CONTENTS Introduction

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The workshops

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Artists & Art Centre Views

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Anne Thompson – Ernabella Arts

Alison Napurrula Multa Pantjiti- Ikuntji Artists

Artists Profiles Ernabella

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Niningka Munkuri Lewis

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Lynette Lewis

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Marissa Thompson

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Anne Thompson

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Other exhibiting artists

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Ikuntji

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Virginia Ngalaia Napanangka

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Walter Jugadai Tjungurrayi

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The workshop artists

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Kate Rohde

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Melinda Young

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Project Curator

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Emily McCulloch Childs

Ernabella Jewellery

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Niningka Munkuri Lewis

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Lynette Lewis

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Marissa Thompson

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Anne Thompson

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Other exhibiting artists

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Ikuntji Jewellery

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Virginia Ngalaia Napanangka

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Walter Jugadai Tjungurrayi

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Glossary 43 Acknowledgements 44

INTRODUCTION

The world’s oldest jewellery tradition, in contemporary form.

An evolving nation-wide curated project, The Indigenous Jewellery Project focuses on Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander contemporary jewellery and small object making from workshops undertaken on Country at Indigenous owned art centres. Mediums include resin, silver and other metals as well as traditional natural materials.

Part art project, part social enterprise, the aim of the Project is to strengthen and continue existing traditions and facilitate artists to develop a career as exhibiting contemporary artist jewellers through upskilling in the use of professional jewellery materials such as metal wires, clasps, silver hooks, silk thread and ‘tiger tail’ (fine plastic coated steel cable with copper crimps).

It is focused on developing and maintaining Aboriginal jewellery and small object tradition and practice, reinforcing the connection to traditional lands and the natural world and developing a sophisticated contemporary art craft practice, in which works are created that both sit on the body and outside it.

Clockwise from top: Lynette Lewis, Liritja (necklace), resin + mixed media. Marissa Thompson, Pinatja (Earrings), resin walka & sterling silver.

Niningka Munkuri Lewis holding quandong seeds.

Jewellery workshop, Ernabella Arts. Virginia Ngalaia Napanangka resin bracelets at Ikuntji. Walter Jugudai Tjungurrayi, Ininti Ring, sterling silver.

Marissa Thompson, Pinatja (Earrings), resin, natural materials + mixed media.

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The Indigenous Jewellery Project is curated by McCulloch & McCulloch co-director Emily McCulloch Childs who is linking up with contemporary jewellery galleries and jewellers to connect them with Indigenous art centres across Australia.

The contemporary development of these artists is backgrounded by cultural traditions of jewellery and small object making including punu (wood sculpting), the gathering and use of natural materials used in jewellery making and design, three-dimensional design traditions, weaving, contemporary ceramic skills and use of colour in painting.

Work made at Ernabella and Ikuntji were shown in an exhibition curated by Emily McCulloch Childs at JamFactory, Adelaide, as part of the inaugural TARNANTHI Festival in October 2015. The project also includes films detailing the traditions, techniques and sources of traditional jewellery and the studio workshops.

ST U DI O WOR K SH O P S The project’s workshops have included those at Erub Erwer Meta Art Centre, in Erub (Darnley Island), Torres Strait Islands, Ernabella Arts in the APY Lands and Ikuntji Artists at Haasts Bluff, Western Desert.

Workshop artists have included Melbourne jewellery gallery Pieces of Eight’s artists - resin artist Kate Rohde and Sydney contemporary jeweller and lecturer Melinda Young.

Clockwise from top: Virginia Ngalaia Napanangka, group of small resin objects.

Rachael Mipantjiti Lionel + Dreschelle Doolan, Ernabella Arts. Virginia Ngalaia Napanangka, Wanampi (water serpent) resin bangle. Mona Lewis, Stingray Liritja (Necklace), silver + wood. Alison Napurrula Multa Pantjiti, Ikuntji Artists. Thomas Tjilya, Ernabella Arts.

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E RNA B E L L A A RTS Established in 1948, Ernabella Arts is Australia’s oldest, continuously running Indigenous Art Centre. The art centre is based in Pukatja Community, a largely Pitjantjatjara community, in the beautiful Musgrave Ranges in the far north west of South Australia. Ernabella Arts is an Aboriginal owned and run corporation, which promotes and supports ethical practice in the creation and sale of Indigenous art.

Exhibiting artists: Niningka Munkuri Lewis, Marissa Thompson, Anne Thompson, Lynette Lewis, Malpiya Davey, Nicole Rupert, Janet Cole, Thomas Tjilya, Mona Lewis.

I KU NT J I A RTISTS Ikuntji Artists is located in the community of Haasts Bluff (Ikuntji), a predominately Luritja, and also Pintupi, community within the spectacular West MacDonnell Ranges, in the Northern Territory.

Ikuntji, established in 1992, is a member-based, not for profit, Aboriginal art centre with a board of seven Indigenous directors all of whom live and work locally.

Exhibiting artists: Virginia Ngalaia Napanangka, Walter Jugadai Tjungurrayi, Alison Napurrula Multa, Gordon Butcher Tjapanangka, Maisie Nungurrayi Jugadai.

Clockwise from top: Niningka Munkuri Lewis, Tjulpu Liritja (Bird Necklace), resin.

Marissa Thompson, Liritja (Neclaces), stirling silver.

Marissa Thompson, Eucalyptus seed ring, sterling silver. Virginia Ngalaia Napanangka, Resin Bangles, Ikuntji.

Anne Thompson with her resin Marajta (bangle), Ernabella.

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THE WORKSHOPS

Integral to the project are its workshops held on country in the art centres. These workshops are intensive: Anangu artists don’t get the opportunity to study at art schools in Australia’s capital cities, so we bring the art school to them.

Whilst these artists are already adept jewellers, having often studied jewellery making and techniques since childhood with their grandmothers and other senior relatives, they simply haven’t had the opportunity to develop their jewellery skills working in other mediums such as lost-wax for metals and resin – nor do they have access to the plethora of beads and other materials available to jewellers in Melbourne or Sydney.

We are only able to run the workshops for a short time, due to financial restrictions and everyone’s other commitments. The first workshops with Kate Rohde were five days in the art centre, with time spent on the weekends gathering materials out bush and exploring some of the artists’ country with them, and learning aspects of culture. We also made films in Ernabella and Haasts Bluff during this time.

The second workshop, held at Ernabella Arts with Melinda Young was longer: around 9 days. Again, our one weekend was spent gathering materials out bush with artists and visiting country.

Time is short and we attempt to do as much as we can in the time. The workshop numbers can be as high as fourteen, often with many tji tji (children) too! Many of our jewellers are mothers or grandmothers, and their future jeweller children love the bright colourful beads and often will be beading under the table while we are working above.

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ARTISTS & ART CENTRE VIEWS Anne Thompson – Ernabella

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ANNE THOMPSON ERNABELLA Interview with Anne Thompson, Ernabella Arts & Emily McCulloch Childs, November 2015

Emily McCulloch Childs (EMC): How do people make jewellery growing up in Ernabella, for example learning from their grandmothers? One really strong example for me is your sister, jeweller Marissa Thompson, who spent much time studying traditional techniques when she was young.

Anne Thompson (AT): Our jewellery has been around since old times, when our elders gathered materials out bush. These include gum nuts, seed beads and others to add interest. As for my sister, she watched our grandmother and how she worked and kept her focus on how she was making jewellery back then.

EMC: Another skill I noticed in our workshops: Ernabella artists were really clever with their hands, and so good at moulding in clay and wood…

AT: Well, I figured out that our hand does everything we touch, if we want to do something or make something, our minds work things out first, and then our hands start to move in place.

Knowing what we will make with our hands is the way which we have to work to make things carefully.

EMC: What did you and the other artists like about learning resin with Kate Rohde and jewellery with Melinda Young?

AT: They thought it was lovely, a new jewellery artform just got welcomed into our lives. Resin showed us another way to make our extinct/endangered animals. This gave us an opportunity, to show our young generations extinct local animals in the resin we made.

EMC: Do you think people enjoy making jewellery and small objects to show in exhibitions in other places?

AT: Making things surprises us, because as we make new things, we express ourselves. Seeing work in exhibitions that we’ve made we get to see our amazing works.

EMC: What was it like seeing your and your sister’s and friend Niningka’s work in Adelaide?

AT: Having a family member these was comforting, someone to share stories and have a laugh with. Niningka is my cousin and we have spoken a lot in Ernabella art centre.

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EMC: What comments did people make about your, Marissa and Niningka’s resin in Adelaide (in the exhibition ‘Jewellery has always been here’, JamFactory, as part of TARNANTHI Festival, October 2015)?

AT: Mostly they were really happy we were there. They love to see our traditional work.

EMC: Did you enjoy meeting other jewellers and seeing the jewellery studio in Adelaide?

AT: Yes, indeed. I enjoyed seeing their amazing jewellery: bracelets and necklaces. It was good to explore the lovely jewellery there that people make, and a lot of it was experimental.

EMC: I like making jewellery because it’s fun and can be quicker than painting, and you can make lots of things quite quickly, even though it’s a lot of work! Do you agree?

AT: I am a quick learner and pick things up quickly, if I focus.

I participate alone, but also need help and if I find things complicated I ask questions, which helps me to put things together.

EMC: I love the way Ernabella artists use colour in their jewellery: some people have said to me ‘Aboriginal people only use ochre colours’ but this is certainly not true, judging from the amount of bright colours I have seen! What do you think?

AT: Most people have seen our beads that are red, yellow and dark browns. Other colours didn’t exist in the past. For ochre, there are three colours we get: red, white and yellow. These days, our mob use paint to decorate with more colours on dry gumnuts, although some of our seeds have colours too.

EMC: I loved seeing artists using the walka (Ernabella design) in the jewellery: it’s unique to Ernabella. Do you think it’s important to keep ‘walka’ going in this way?

AT: Our designs have been around since (a very long time) and are still going strong. They represent us: as storylines, so we keep showing more.

EMC: I love Niningka’s birds and ninu (bilby): why is the ninu so important?

AT: Well Niningka, she is a lucky person to have seen those animals when she was young. I only know that they live in sand dune areas.

We are lucky she can show us younger generations that we had those animals before. You can’t find them here anymore.

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EMC: Do you think people are happy to be making jewellery and little animals and things and will want to make more?

AT: Definitely. I get people coming in and out of the art centre, saying that we have been doing wonderful things. We should ask if they want to join in!

EMC: I noticed everyone loved making jewellery: including grandmothers, quite a few young women, Thomas Tjilya our wati (man) jeweller, and even tji tji (children) too! Is it something people enjoy also because it’s a good group activity?

AT: Having all the people being in the studio: representing both children and adults, is mostly enjoyable. People sit and share stories, have a yarn, it’s a family activity.

EMC: I was interested to learn from your sister, Melissa Thompson, about jewellery being a ‘safe’ art practice, because it doesn’t contain jukurrpa (‘Dreaming’ designs, relating to ceremony, religion, law etc), which means everyone can do it and not get into trouble or have any problems…do you think so?

AT: That’s right: jewellery has no ‘story’, it’s just a fun activity for everyone to participate in. It has no law, and is mostly women’s work. Men’s work is wood carving artefacts, which enabled people to get some income, and to make special gifts for people who have been nice to us.

EMC: What is the future for you and the Pukatja jewellers?

Opals, pearls, gold diamonds?! Perhaps future workshops with other jewellers? Working internationally? These days there are lots of contemporary jewellers working in other materials: found objects, things from the tip: this might be something new to explore next time…

AT: For me, it’s not the future I have been thinking about but the past. As a child who would create new things, out of things picked up from the tip. I was really excited doing another project learning metal techniques. I really enjoyed this also.

Right: Workshops at Ernabella Arts, June 2014

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“Our designs have been around since (a very long time) and are still going strong. They represent us: as storylines, so we keep showing more.�

ARTISTS & ART CENTRE VIEWS Alison Napurrula Multa Pantjiti – Ikuntji

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Jewellery is Palya Lingku (very good) Alison Napurrula Multa Pantjiti – Ikuntji

We used to learn these skills from our grandmothers and grandfathers, sitting near the fire. Nowadays, kids learn in school.

Learning from the computer. Two ways. Palya!

Ininti [bat-winged coral seed] is just for making necklaces.

In the old days, they used hairstring, for putting beads onto, ininti beads, before plastic string.

We have necklaces, bracelets at our art centre. It was the first time we have done a jewellery workshop, and a resin workshop.

It was new for me. It was so new to us. I learnt new things in this workshop, this jewellery workshop.

And we also thought: ‘we’ve got to do our colours. Like we do in our painting, in our colours. I do paintings: ‘Stars at Night Dreaming’, the night sky. In jewellery, I did star tjuta: lots of stars.

I made a necklace, and rings.

The trees around here [used for materials], they are normal trees.

Growing in the creek bed, ininti, mungarta [quandong], seeds: they are normal trees. They grow in the bush. They grow near the airstrip.

For my star Dreaming jewellery, I was able to use colours in resin like blue, white and silver. Jewellery is palya lingku [very good].

We used to learn these skills from our grandmothers and grandfathers, sitting near the fire. Nowadays, kids learn in school. Learning from the computer. Two ways. Palya!

Opposite: Workshops at Ikuntji Artists, June 2014.

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Jewellery is Palya Lingku (very good)

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ARTIST PROFILES Niningka Munkuri Lewis – Ernabella

Niningka Munkuri Lewis is a senior artist who works in a variety of mediums including painting, weaving, punu and jewellery.

She is known for her craft design innovation; in particular for developing weaving skills to work in large-scale sculptural installations as seen in the more recent work of the Tjanpi Desert Weavers of which she is a founding member. Much of her art recalls her childhood holidays in areas around the APY Lands using bright, joyful colours; these works are important sociological studies of Anangu life.

She also depicts totemic ancestral creation figures in her craft: the ninu (bilby), and various birds in particular. These also function as documentations of local ecological study.

Her originality in jewellery making led to her designing bracelets featuring small punu birds and complex double-threading ininti bead techniques, which have found new expression in the medium of resin. Lewis’s skill in ceramic moulding and as a master punu carver have enabled her to design and create these totemic animals as small jewellery and object installations.

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ARTIST PROFILES Lynette Lewis – Ernabella

Lynette Lewis is a young Pitjantjatjara artist who has quickly become a leading ceramicist and jeweller. Her work as a jeweller features exceptional beading designs using beads and cast wayanu (quondong).

Her exhibitions include Yangupala Tjuta Waakarinyi, Many Young People Working, touring exhibition of ceramics from Ernabella Arts at Sabbia Gallery, Sydney and the Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, 2015 and the upcoming Pukatjalanguru kungka tjuta kunpu warkarinytja – Ernabella women: strong work, together, Sabbia Gallery, 2016.

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ARTIST PROFILES Marissa Thompson – Ernabella

Marissa Thompson is a young Pitjantjatjara artist. The daughter of Ernabella Arts board member and former Chairperson, artist Carlene Thompson, her father was prominent in the APY Land Rights Movement, and her cousin is the significant ceramicist Derek Thompson.

As a child, Marissa was fascinated by traditional Anangu jewellery techniques and making, and studied these skills with elder jewellers. Her jewellery work in the medium of resin includes necklaces using a variety of natural seeds and seeds cast in resin, earrings and pendants.

Her subject matter consists of totemic ancestral figures such as the perentie lizard and the well-known Ernabella ‘walka’: design, etched into pendants and rings. Her skill at piercing ininti for necklaces is adept and remarkable in one so young, and her jewellery practice now extends to working not only in resin but also lost-wax design for silver and other metals.

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ARTIST PROFILES Anne Thompson – Ernabella

Anne Thompson is a young Pitjantjatjara artist, illustrator, media worker, and interpreter. She has helped facilitate this jewellery project as a translator for the study and research of traditional Anangu jewellery techniques, which encompass knowledge of botany, materials, sites, techniques and design.

Her work as a jeweller includes both traditional, iconographic designs incised into bangles cast in resin, and small sculptural installations. She has created designs depicting traditional Anangu design anthropology, such as the design of a traditional campsite with the architecture of the wiltja (a traditional kind of shelter). She also now works in lost-wax for metals such as silver, often creating works incorporating the famous Ernabella ‘walka’ design.

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ARTIST PROFILES Malpiya Davey – Ernabella Malpiya Davey was born in 1959, and is a ceramicist, painter, printmaker and weaver. Ernabella Arts opened a ceramic studio in 2003, and Malpiya has since become one of its most prolific artists. She specialises in ceramic sgraffito. Malpiya is Pitjantjatjara. Her parent’s country is to the west of Pukatja between Watarru and Iltur, close to the border with Western Australia.

Her ceramics are often decorated with glazed or painted designs that often depict various traditional bush foods from her family’s country, such as kampurarpa (desert raisins), wayanu (quandong) and iIi (wild figs). These are the subject of many of her sgraffito pieces.

Malpiya’s ceramic work has been shown in several major exhibitions around Australia, including at Flinders University, Cudgegong Gallery, Strathnairn Homestead Gallery, and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. It was also featured twice at the annual Desert Mob exhibition in Alice Springs, in 2003 and 2004. Examples are held in the permanent collections of the Grafton Regional Gallery in New South Wales, the Art Gallery of South Australia, and the National Gallery of Australia. The National Museum of Australia also contains examples of Malpiya’s screen prints.

Mona Lewis – Ernabella Mona Lewis is a young Ernabella artist. Her mother is Anangu (Pitjantjatjara) and her father Gurindji, from the Top End. Her parents met while her father was visiting Ernabella as a rodeo rider. Her jewellery work for this project contains influences from both her parents’ backgrounds, such as her Stingray necklace with natural wayanu seeds, which symbolizes both her northern and Anangu heritage.

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ARTIST PROFILES Virginia Ngalaia Napanangka – Ikuntji

Born in 1985, Virginia Ngalaia Napanangka is an Ikuntji artist originally from Ntaria/Hermannsburg, where she learnt ceramic practice from her grandmother, a ceramicist at Hermannsburg Pottery. Her ceramic moulding skills have facilitated her transition into a resin jewellery artist, as in resin technique master designs are often moulded in clay or plasticine.

This series of Ngalaia’s symbolic sculptural bangles represents an hommage to the Western Desert area, its communities and artists. They symbolise the movement westwards of the artist herself through marriage to a Pintupi man, the artist Joseph Tjangala Zimran, and her life in Haasts Bluff and its relationship to surrounding communities.

These communities (Ntaria/Hermmansburg, Ikuntji/Haasts Bluff, Watiyawanu/Mt.Liebig, Papunya/Warumpi) and other significant sites in the Western Desert are depicted symbolically through associated Tjukurrpa/Dreaming totems: tjupi (honey ant) which refers to Papunya, the site for the honey ant; kanparrka (caterpillar) Ikuntji/Haasts Bluff being

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the main site for this but also the Macdonnell Ranges, maku (witchetty grub), perentie (goanna) whose main Tjukurrpa place is Kintore, and wanampi (water serpent) with eggs, who travels from Yuendumu to the South.

Ngalaia identifies herself, her community, fellow artists, family connections and artistic legacy with the totemic ancestral creation spirits of the land through the three-dimensional medium of jewellery and object making. The medium of resin brings a contemporary vitality to this jewellery practice yet also recalls a tradition of animal carving that stretches back thousands of years in these societies.

Ngalaia’s small-sculptural installation of a mother, child and coolamon references the significance of women as mothers and nurturers in Western Arrernte/Pintupi-Luritja societies, and her own role as a mother with young children. It symbolises the shift from the outsider gaze of the anthropologist observing Aboriginal women onto the artist documenting herself and her family members and own traditions. Ngalaia was heavily pregnant at the time of making the sculpture and was thinking about having to go to Alice Springs to give birth, yet traditionally women would give birth on country and carry their babies in coolamons. Thus the sculpture encapsulates a change between tradition and contemporary life.

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ARTIST PROFILES Walter Jugadai Tjungurrayi – Ikuntji Walter Jugadai Tjungurrayi was born in 1983, and is from Haasts Bluff. His genealogy reveals relationships with a variety of artists across the Western Desert, including his grandfather’s, Timmy Jugadai’s, second wife, Narputta Nangala Jugadai, who was a founder of Ikuntji Artists, and the Napaltjarri sisters, Daisy and Molly Jugadai Napaltjarri.

On the other side of his family his relations reach to Yuendumu and Ntaria/Hermannsburg; connecting him with the founders of the acrylic painting movement (Papunya), such as Uta Uta Tjangala, and influential artists from the watercolour tradition of Ntaria/Hermannsburg.

Jugadai’s Luritja/Warlpiri cultural traditions and knowledge are of foremost importance in his jewellery practice. Ideas he worked on in the first workshops included Tingari rings, perhaps the first works made in silver referencing the famous Tingari cycle geometric designs, a significant, largely secret-sacred religious law of the Gibson Desert usually explored in the medium of painting by the great masters of Western Desert art.

Known together with his brother as ‘Number One punu men’ in Haasts Bluff, Jugadai’s exceptional wood-carving skills and technique and his designer’s mind have enabled him to have an instantaneous ability with contemporary jewellery practice.

Jugadai’s work in jewellery as a designer and conceptual artist is emphasized by the understated beauty and simplicity of his ininti ring series. Recalling the practice of using ininti in necklace making and other jewellery design, Jugadai has referenced this practice and transformed it by using a single, elegant ininti cast in silver or left in its natural state, placed on a simple silver band.

These rings epitomise the strong jewellery tradition, in particular of men wearing ininti traditionally in their hair, and the simultaneously ancient yet highly-contemporary looking design practice of the Luritja, who are known for their often minimalist, strong sense of design.

Opposite: Lynette Lewis, Liritja (Necklace) resin tatü (gumnut) & resin, wayanu tatü (quandong seed), stone, wood, copper. 390 x 220 x 35 mm.

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THE WORKSHOP ARTISTS Kate Rohde

Kate Rohde was born in Melbourne in 1980, and graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours. Originally studying painting, Kate developed a love for using the medium of resin to create her ever more fantastical sculptures, installations and jewellery.

Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions since 2002, and was included in Melbourne Now, NGV, 2013, Rigg Design Prize, NGV, 2016, and recently in Magic Object, Adelaide Biennial, Art Gallery of South Australia, 2016.

She has collaborated with fashion duo Romance Was Born and says her work is inspired by the natural world and the Rococo, and her bright, psychedelic works have become larger and bolder as her artistic development has evolved.

Kate has more recently come to study jewellery techniques working in metal and silver, and exhibits as both a contemporary artist and as a jeweller. She began working with The Indigenous Jewellery Project as its first workshop artist, travelling to art centres including Erub Erwer Meta in the Torres Strait Islands, Ernabella Arts and Ikuntji Artists to conduct workshops in resin jewellery and small objects.

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THE WORKSHOP ARTISTS Melinda Young

Jeweller, lecturer and curator Melinda Young has participated in over 100 exhibitions in Australia and overseas since 1997, and has a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) and a Master of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. Her practice spans one-off exhibition pieces, bespoke jewellery and a production range through select jewellery galleries. She makes all of her pieces by hand and revels in the individuality and idiosyncratic edge that the hand brings to bear upon her work.

In addition to working from the jewellers bench Melinda has worked at several contemporary craft and design galleries, curated and co-ordinated numerous contemporary jewellery exhibitions, written about jewellery and craft practice for various publications and participated in workshops and master classes.

For the past 10 years Melinda has had an extensive involvement with education, teaching jewellery at the College of Fine Arts, Sydney College of the Arts, the Design Centre and others.

Her work is inspired by nature, and a recent residency in Broken Hill has fuelled her art’s influence from the desert and the Australian bush. She was The Indigenous Jewellery Projects second workshop artist, conducting an intensive, 8-day jewellery workshop at Ernabella Arts, teaching lost-wax jewellery technique, beading, necklace making, earring making and other contemporary jewellery elements.

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PROJECT CURATOR Emily McCulloch Childs

Emily McCulloch Childs is an art curator, writer, gallery director, publisher and researcher. She has a long-standing focus on Australian Aboriginal art, having studied Aboriginal literature as part of her Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) degree, and has worked with Aboriginal art and artists since 1994.

Emily has had a life-long interest in jewellery: she was even partly named after jeweller Emily Hope, a family friend, whose work is in the collection of the NGA and whose father the poet A.D Hope created a prestigious 3 dimensional award in memorium of. Her friendships with several Melbourne contemporary jewellery curators and jewellers were to develop into a deep exchange of ideas and skills across the contemporary jewellery and Indigenous art worlds.

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She has a strong interest in Aboriginal jewellery, which deepened through research into Aboriginal women’s art practice, and has been collecting pieces from around Australia for 15 years. Emily’s idea of introducing resin to Anangu jewellers came from their own brightly coloured necklaces in her collection: in particular painted quandong seed necklaces from the NPY Lands.

Working with the participating artists and workshop teachers as project manager, Emily works as curator, researcher, filmmaker, grant writer, photographer, writer, co-ordinator and sometimes even jewellery assistant.

Learning the skills used in jewellery and small object making is fundamental to her deep understanding of the artists’ process. With the artists, she learnt resin making and lost wax jewellery technique from Kate Rohde and jewellery technique from Melinda Young. This has enabled her to be involved in the studio with the artists as they make, leading to greater and deeper knowledge of their process and techniques.

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E R N A BELLA

ERNABELLA JEWELLERY Niningka Munkuri Lewis

Tjulpu Liritja (Bird Necklace) resin on linen thread, 410 x 70 x 25mm.

Tjulpu Liritja (Bird Necklace) resin on linen thread, 410 x 70 x 25mm.

Ninu (Bilby) and Tjulpu (Bird) resin objects, various sizes to 85mm (high).

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ERNABELLA JEWELLERY Lynette Lewis

Lititja (Necklace), resin wayanu Tatü (quandong seed) & resin gumnut, coral, glass, wood, 290 x 158 x 240mm.

Liritja (Necklace), resin tatü (gumnut) & resin wayanu tatü (quandong seed), stone, wood, copper, 390 x 220 x 35mm.

Liritja (Necklace), resin wayanu tatü (quandong seed) & natural wayanu tatü, wood, copper, 360 x 150 x 15mm.

Liritja (Necklace), resin wayanu tatü (quandong seed) & resin gumnut, agate, glass, 300 x 145 x 15mm.

Liritja (Necklace), resin wayanu tatü (quandong seed) & resin gumnut, coral, glass, wood, 470 x 190 x 28mm.

Lititja (Necklace), resin wayanu tatü (quandong seed) & resin gumnut, coral, glass, wood, 290 x 158 x 240mm.

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ERNABELLA JEWELLERY Marissa Thompson

Liritja (Necklace), resin walka, agate, coral, howlite, glass, wood, 925 silver, copper, 390 x 64 x 4mm.

Pinatja (Earrings), resin walka & sterling silver, 60 x 39 x 5mm.

Liritja (necklace) & Pinatja (Earrings) set.

Liritja (Necklace), resin walka, agate, coral, glass, wood, 925 silver, 353 x 64 x 4mm.

Pinatja (Earrings), resin wayanu tat端 (quandong seed), agate, coral, 925 silver hooks, 70 x 15 x 15mm.

Liritja (necklace), resin walka, resin ininti, quandong seed, wood, coral, 925 silver, 330 x 64 x 4mm.

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ERNABELLA JEWELLERY Marissa Thompson

Eucalyptus, seed ring, sterling silver, 40 x 5mm.

Liritja (Necklace), Sterling silver on silk thread, 470 x 40 x 1mm.

Lizard, resin, 160 x 50 x 120mm.

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ERNABELLA JEWELLERY Anne Thompson

Maratja (Bracelet), resin, 90 x 98 x 23mm.

Liritja (Necklace), resin & wood on linen thread, 330 x 170 x 15 mm.

Marajta (Bracelet), resin, 90 x 98 x 23mm.

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ERNABELLA JEWELLERY

Thomas Tjilya, Ring, sterling silver, 30 x 10mm.

Thomas Tjilya, Ring, sterling silver, 34 x 3mm.

Mona Lewis, Stingray Liritja (Necklace), silver pendant, natural wayanu (quandong seed), coral, agate, 190 x 180 x 20mm.

Hazel Rupert, Liritja (Necklace), silver pendant on silk thread, 390 x 170 x 1mm.

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IKUNTJI

IKUNTJI JEWELLERY Virginia Ngalaia Napanangka

Wanampi (water serpent): Yuendumu to the South, bangle (Western Desert bangle series), resin, 105 x 75 x 30mm.

Ngintaka: Walungurru (Kintore), bangle (Western Desert bangle series), resin, 120 x 90 x 30mm.

Ngintaka: Walungurru (Kintore) resin bangle (Western Desert bangle series), resin, 120 x 90 x 30mm.

Wanampi (water serpent): Yuendumu to the South, bangle (Western Desert bangle series), resin, 105 x 76 x 30mm.

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IKUNTJI JEWELLERY Virginia Ngalaia Napanangka

Tjupi (Honey Ant): Papunya, resin bangle (Western Desert Bangle Series), resin, 100 x 90 x 22mm.

Wanampi (water serpent): Yuendumu to the South, bangle (Western Desert bangle series), resin, 105 x 75 x 30mm.

Ngintaka: Walungurru (Kintore), bangle (Western Desert bangle series), resin, 120 x 90 x 30mm.

Ngintaka: Walungurru (Kintore), bangle (Western Desert bangle series), resin, 120 x 90 x 30mm.

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IKUNTJI JEWELLERY Virginia Ngalaia Napanangka

Ngintaka: Walungurru (Kintore), bangle (Western Desert bangle series), resin, 120 x 90 x 30mm.

Maku (Witchetty Grub) bangle, (Western Desert Bangle series, resin, 100 x 93 x 20mm.

Malu (kangaroo), mother with baby in piti (coolamon), wildflower bangle, various sizes.

Ngintaka, resin, 155 x 55 x 30mm.

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IKUNTJI JEWELLERY Virginia Ngalaia Napanangka

Resin bangles including Ngintaka, Wanampi (Rainbow Serpent), Maku (Witchetty Grub) and Tjupi (Honey Ant): Papunya designs from the Western Desert bangle series.

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IKUNTJI JEWELLERY Walter Jugadai

Ininti Ring 1, sterling silver, 20 x 25 x 1mm.

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GLOSSARY

Ininti: The bat-winged coral seed (Erythrina verspertilio), (Pitjantjatjara, Luritja) Wayanu: Quondong (Santalum acuminatum), (Pitjantjatjara) Mangarta: Quondong (Santalum acuminatum), (Luritja) Tat端: seed (Pitjantjatjara) Liritja: Necklace (Pitjantjatjara) Maratja: Bracelet (Pitjantjatjara) Pinatja: Earrings (Pitjantjatjara)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

With thanks to: The jewellers and artists of Ernabella Arts and Ikuntji Artists The communities and Traditional Owners of Pukatja (Ernabella) and Haasts Bluff Additional biographical research and text for Ikuntji artists supplied by Dr.Chrischona Schmidt, Manager, Ikuntji Artists The APY Land Council, Haasts Bluff Council, MacDonell Regional Council Ruth McMillan, Julian Green, Hannah Kothe, Ernabella Arts Dr.Chrischona Schmidt, Ikuntji Artists Australia Council Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support Country Arts SA Santos Kate Rohde, Melinda Young, Melanie Katsalidis & Laura Di Florio, Pieces of Eight Gallery Nici Cumpston, Art Gallery of South Australia Stephen Williamson, Araluen Arts Centre Clive Scollay, Maruku Arts Michelle Young, Tjanpi Desert Weavers Kate Podger, Talapi Gallery Anna Kanaris, Artitja Fine Art Rose Cameron, Nomad Art Gallery, Daniel Coutts Brian Parkes, Margaret Hancock-Davis, Lucy Potter, Emma Field, Christian Hall & all at the JamFactory Ian Thompson & Bruce Underwood, AnTep Susan McCulloch, Miranda Daniels, Allona Goren, Conan Young, Brett Gornall Designed by Lisa Reidy Images: Landscapes/ Workshops Daniel Coutts, Emily McCulloch Childs, Freya Ludowici.

Ernabella artists portraits: Yaritji Jack, Alex Craig.

Jewellery: Daryl Gordon/The Biz 44

mccullochandmcculloch.com.au aboriginaljewellery.com.au E: info@aboriginaljewellery.com.au /aboriginaljewellery /theindigenousjewelleryproject

Ernabella Arts was assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and through generous support through Country Arts SA.

Ikuntji Artists has been assisted through Santos