Rise 4: Women and Water in the Djelk Region

RISE 4 presents bark paintings and weavings from Maningrida Arts and Culture and printed textiles (most linocut and woodblock) alongside drawings from Bábbarra Women’s Centre in Maningrida in central Arnhem Land. Women and Water in the Djelk Region, is the fourth in the RISE thematic series of exhibitions on the impacts of climate catastrophe.

The shimmering works reflect the artists’ existential concern about threats to their ancestral land, sea, and waterways. The exhibition offers a blueprint to protect and honour fragile land and water ecosystems under increasing threat from feral animals (pigs, buffalo) that make water undrinkable, noxious weeds and wildfire. More recent threats are from saltwater inundation of low-lying and freshwater habitats and the approval of mining and fracking proposals. The works relate to the area lying between the stone country of Arnhem Land plateau and the Arafura Sea—internationally renowned wetlands, monsoon rainforests, tropical savannas, rivers and estuaries which support significant collections of waterbirds and shorebirds — but excludes the inland stone country. This vast area is known as the Djelk Indigenous Protected Area, part of the National Reserve Estate, managed from Maningrida.

Artists

Bábbarra Designs: Verity Bangarra, Raylene Bonson, Joy Garlbin, Janet Marawarr, Abigail Namundja, Jay Rostron, Elizabeth Wullunmingu, Deborah Wurrkidj, Lucy Yarawanga with drawings by Verity Bangarra, Joy Garlbin, Jocelyn Koyole, Elizabeth Wullunmingu

Maningrida Arts and Culture: Maureen Ali, Gloreen Campion, Joy Garlbin, Samantha Malkudja, Simone Namunjdja, Sonia Namarnyilk, Deborah Wurrkidj (op cit), Lucy Yarawanga