### Record Author:: [[Kevin Murray]] Zettel:: PubType:: #article Tags:: #km/kmtext ### Highlights Craft practitioners in traditional and indigenous communities It is an iconic tale of antipodean craft. New Zealand jeweller Warwick Freeman tells of travelling through Afghanistan and finding living craft traditions that give authentic expression to place. This experience provides him with an ideal of ‘necessity’ in craft to counterbalance the ‘indulgence’ of much western form. With a familiar irony, our craft finds its direction on the other side of the world. During the 1990s, it was tempting to ridicule this kind of pilgrimage as escapism from the hard realities of the marketplace. But as our perception of the reaches of globalisation has become more acute, an increasing number of Australian craft practitioners have sought a place outside the Western monoculture. In its time, Craft magazine contained articles by Karl Millard, Sara Thorn and Ilka White on the transformative experiences while in traditional Asian communities. What seemed special about their stories is that they continued Warwick Freeman’s resolve not to imitate ‘ethnic craft’, but to attempt instead to develop a craft that might be as much indigenous to the modern world as those traditions were native to their place. The trail has begun to turn homewards. Recently, makers have found ways of working in Aboriginal communities by providing workshops on particular skills. New Aboriginal crafts began with the missionaries in places such as the Hermannsburg in order to keep their charges busy. Now such residencies are supported by the arts centres themselves, such as Balgo which recently brought in glassmaker Kristen McFarlane to supervise glass kiln work. This kind of collaboration has begun to raise questions. The ideal of collaboration is reciprocity—both partners have something to gain. We are used to questioning the indigenous benefit in such partnerships. But power is in the giving, not just the receiving. In the case of residencies, then, what do the Western craft practitioners gain for themselves through teaching Aboriginal artists? How does it affect their creative development? The answers to such questions are of national significance. Reconciliation in Australia seems to have been dominated by political process. It has become an abstract process. In cities liked Melbourne, residents can take part in a reconciliation march on a pleasant Sunday afternoon without encountering one Aboriginal person along their path. At this point in time, reconciliation seems the more productive at an individual level. Here, craft practitioners have been able to sort out for themselves their own sense of what’s proper in the creative relationship between black and whitefellas. Their experience has something to tell other Australians. Between You and Me was a national forum for craft practitioners to gather and listen to individual stories. It was opened by Tony Birch, a local Aboriginal writer who had previously been engaged in a collaborative exhibition with the Scottish metalsmith Gordon Burnett. He placed the collaborative relationship in the context of the historical encounters between colonisers and Woi wurrung—exchanges whose lack of reciprocity laid down the challenge for succeeding generations. The first destination was Ernabella. This Pitjantjatjara community in central Australia had a particularly rich craft history. Their pre-contact tradition of spinning provided a neat match between tradition and the new wool industry. It was in Ernabella that the legendary encounter occurred in the school room, when the teacher R.M. Trudinger invited his pupils ‘kura kura walkajura’—to draw ‘badly’. Though this legend has been reinterpreted in different ways, it is commonly seen as generating a sui generis language of design particular to the community. The designs that the children subsequently produced have appeared on prints, batiks, rugs and paintings. ^okhbxo3 Robin Best, a ceramist from the Jam Factory in Adelaide, spoke about her work with the Ernabella artists where she produces ceramic forms on which they paint their designs. Best implied a sense of affinity between herself as an artist and the Aboriginal culture, particularly her appreciation of landscape. But it wasn’t a unanimous fusion. Despite her attempts, it seemed impossible for Best to interest the men these workshops. Sydney ceramist Toni Warburton then spoke of her engagement with the Warburton community and the introduction of ceramic ware for water vessels. Hers was a more accidental journey of poetic happenstance. It was at this point in the day that the much anticipated criticism came from the floor about the relative lack of community representation in the seminar. There are many difficulties in having representatives from remote Aboriginal communities. Those who had been invited had to cancel because of family business. Forums such as Between You and Me tend to be quite formal events that are not always appropriate to the subtle exchange that needs to occur in the development of trust and understanding. Between You and Me was primarily an opportunity for craft practitioners to share their stores, but it certainly was not presented by itself as evidence of collaboration. Gujarat was the next destination: textile artist Jemma Dacre discussed her involvement with Indian weavers and their cooperatives. Dacre spoke most passionately about the common bond between makers that seems to transcend cultural divides. Perth-based textile artist Maggie Baxter also contributed, with a story similar to the Ernabella experience in trying to encourage the artisans to make mistakes in their work in order to make it more ‘interesting’. The Tiwi islands have been a rich source of craft over recent years. Artists like Ali Limb and Andrea McNamara have travelled to Tiwi in order share skills. The recent exhibition of Tiwi ceramics, Yikwani, is touring Australia to broad acclaim. This work arose from the recently revived potteries, originally established by ceramists Michael Cardew and Ivan McMeekin. Previously at Craft Victoria, Stewart Russell had shown work using prints from original Tiwi designs which were formed into doona covers by members of the Country Women’s Association. While excited by the creative challenge of transforming a spontaneous art into durable form, Russell was quite frank about his disappointment in the opportunities that didn’t seem to have been realised in his collaboration. Finally, the day ended in East Timor, which contains the promise of collaboration, with calls for assistance in developing their local craft industry, particularly the production of traditional scarves, known as Tais. Sarah Niner, biographer of Xanana Gusmao, described the fraught history of the craft, closely identified with resistance. She then introduced a new fashion designer from Dili, Melena Verdial, who had made garments that incorporated these scarves. The day ended with a fashion parade, attended by four East Timorese clans and one king, who all enjoyed greatly the sight of young East Timorese sporting modern garments including their revered national symbol. Between You and Me was dense with stories of hope, disappointment, camaraderie and play. It touched on a range of issues that certainly bear further thought. One of the surprising lessons of the day was how it revealed the dialogical structure linking craft and design. Many of the collaborative relationships seem to be based on a partnership of skill and creativity. While Indian artisans are often called on to give their craftsmanship to Western designs, the reverse situation occurs in Aboriginal communities, where white visitors offer skills to realise local designs. Along the way was the sense of a Western attitude a little like jazz, which stresses the expressive power of the badly made, by contrast with the more classical sensibility of the traditional artisan. Funny how we manage to find ourselves in dialogue with another. Between You and Me provided the beginning of a conversation about the way craft mediates between modern and traditional worlds. Now we’ve talked about it among ourselves, the challenge is to share these experiences with those travelling along parallel paths—South Africa and New Zealand. Kevin Murray is Director of Craft Victoria. Papers from Between You and Me will be online at www.craftculture.org.