After the flood: restoring Warmun art

It was the ‘big wet’ of 2011, but no one in the Warmun community could have predicted just how devastating that year’s flood waters would be. On 13 March, buildings were destroyed, vehicles upturned and precious Indigenous artworks were either washed away or significantly damaged. 

The community’s Art Centre is home to both a contemporary collection, which was virtually destroyed, and the historic collection, saved from the force of the flood but not from the rising water levels.

The extraordinary collection documents the beginning of the Warmun Art Movement, which began in the mid 1970s and has been used for many years to teach Gija children about their culture.

It is one of the country’s most significant collections – both historically and culturally – one which Arts Centre manager Jonathan Kimberley believes is possibly the country’s largest community-owned collection documenting the origins of an Indigenous art movement in Australia. Warmun art has a national and international reputation thanks to the leadership of highly successful Warmun artists like Rover Thomas and Queenie McKenzie, George Mung Mung, Mabel Juli and Paddy Jaminji.

In partnership with the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation (CCMC), staff and masters students have restored around 200 pieces of the flood-damaged collection here in Melbourne, preparing the works to be returned to Warmun in April, a fitting celebration to mark the end of the wet season.

Since returning as manager to the centre after some years, Mr Kimberley has been working with the Warmun community over the past 12 months reflecting on the flood event, and working together with community members to rebuild the organisation and safely house the collection. 

“A lot of people in the community still talk about the flood,” Mr Kimberley says, “but what we’re really focusing on is the positive story that has come out of it and our relationship with the University is one of the most significant.

“There’s a renewed desire from the community to really focus on what is important to Gija people and the Warmun Community Art Collection is one of those things. It’s expanding the dialogue and communicating across cultures the strength and vision that Gija people share.”

From that first call seeking expertise and assistance as the flood waters were rising, director at the CCMC Robyn Sloggett and her team have worked in collaboration with the Warmun Art Centre to restore the works.

She says partnership work has been integral to the project’s success, with Argyle Diamonds and Toll Holdings assisting with the safe removal and transport of the collection to Melbourne. Fundraising support from the Melbourne arts community has also contributed significantly to seeing the works re-installed at the Arts Centre.

“I was contacted by ANKAAA (the Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists) as the flood waters were ripping through, and knew we had the expertise and knowledge to provide some assistance,” Associate Professor Sloggett says.

“At that time there wasn’t anything we could do from Melbourne, so CCMC staff member Marcelle Scott and PhD candidate Lyndon Ormond-Parker immediately flew up and were on-site with ANKAAA staff as the works were air-lifted into Kununurra.

“They spent nearly three weeks working on the collection, cataloguing it and making sure the works were documented, and performing first aid triage treatment to then transport to Melbourne.”

For the following 12 months students at the CCMC worked with staff to restore the works, embedding the project into the curriculum and providing a unique learning experience. When Gija elders visited the University last year to gain a better understanding of the treatment program, masters students were able to also expand their knowledge and ask about the meaning of the objects and watch the elders make decisions about what level of conservation and intervention was appropriate.

The shared learning has been so significant, that both the University and the Warmun Art Centre are now exploring ways to expand the partnership.

This year will see the development of a new curriculum that is co-ordinated and driven by Gija people in Warmun, an approach which Mr Kimberley says is about addressing the two-way education gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

“It’s fairly ambitious,” he says.

“Young Gija people have limited access to education and resources and at the same time University of Melbourne students have limited access to direct engagement with Indigenous communities.

“We see this as an extraordinary opportunity to draw on the power of the Warmun community collection and all that goodwill after the flood, to develop a new approach and a new tertiary-level education program that provides opportunities for Gija students as well as Gija artists and cultural leaders to become senior lecturers and to develop new careers in education and the arts.”

The restored works will be returned to Warmun Art Centre following celebrations in Melbourne and Warmun in April this year. There are also plans to build a museum to house the collection now so that the public can share in the great cultural legacy of the origin of the Warmun Art Movement.

www.warmunart.com.au

www.cultural-conservation.unimelb.edu.au