The land ✿ Caring through making

Anne Nginyangka Thompson on NPY lands

Issue 35 is the second in a series, Together Spaces, reflecting the contexts where we assemble. Making spaces to come together is critical to meet the key challenges of our time.

In this issue, we come together as custodians of the land we share. This shared identity draws especially on the learnings of First Nation peoples and the relationship to Country, an Australian value that resonates with Indigenous concepts elsewhere, such as Māori whenua or Pachamama for the Quechua. The stories in this issue demonstrate a nexus between making and caring for the land. Using what nature provides brings us into a reciprocal relationship: caring for the environment that provides us with materials to tell our stories.

The guest editor for this issue is Angie Martin.

This issue brings together stories about crafts that have been made from the land and inspired by the land. For me personally, as an Aboriginal person, the significance of the land resonates deeply with me. It is not only a source of sustenance, nourishment and healing, but a sacred repository of my ancestors’ spirits.

Thanks to Ernabella Arts, ANKA Arts, Nubuke Foundation Ghana, Australia Galleries, Craft Design Canberra, East Gippsland Gallery, Artesol Brazil, Craft History Workshop, Gary Wornell and Sachiko Matsuyama.

On Country

Visiting Country

With Country

Honouring Country

Dedication

This issue is dedicated to the memory of Thancoupie “wattle flower” (1937-2011) an Australian sculptural artist, educator, linguist and elder of the Thainakuith people in Weipa, in the Western Cape York area of far north Queensland.

 

Stories

Angie Faye Martin ✿ At home on Country - Guest editor Angie Martin finds resonance with the stories in The Land: Caring Through Making
Russell “Wossy” Davey ✿ Carving stories, protecting Country - Russell "Wossie" Davey talks about the many uses of the boab nut and how it helps him tell the stories that keep the connection to Country strong.
Phoenix: A forest reborn in jewellery - Bahareh Zaman is gifted the branch of a yew tree as the perfect jewel to honour an Iranian forest.
Toro Atua: Sentinels for living well on the land - Inspired by ancestral rock art, Areta Wilkinson's public art installation recognises the Māori spirits that guard whenua.
The Purun Project: Fashion offers hope for peatland communities - Myra Suraryo profiles the Purun Goods collection designed by Merdi Sihombing with the communities of South Sumatra & South Kalimantan.
FLOAT ✿ Lakeside with an arts residency on water, a feral MBA and a float-keeper - The FLOAT crew share their journey of creating an arts residency and Observatorium on Lake Tyers, while Isaac Carne shares his day as a float-keeper.
Bamboo bridges: Firman Djamil’s Seni Lingkungan  - Caitlin Hughes reflects on regenerative bamboo sculptures by a Macassan artist that bridge far-flung worlds.
Hortus Malabaricus: How the garden of Malabar travelled the world - Rachna Shetty from MAP Academy presents a seventeenth-century Dutch botanical treatise about the Malabar coast that has been recently revived in India itself.
making jewellery for the land - Melinda Young introduces the Trellis via her own journey of terrestrial and marine jewellery.
The world at our feet: Shoemakers of Dehradun  - LOkesh Ghai honours the shoemakers of his neighbour and argues for the continuing value.
Upside-down: The land is the limit to the sky  - Salome Katamadze records her residency at the Domaine de Boisbuchet working with landscape to bridge sky and land.
Parched: An artist research residency about drought in regional Victoria - Jacqueline Millner reveals what artist residencies can tell us about the lived culture of drought
Between the quarry and paradise: Grafting rubbish onto nature - Lauren Downton shares her journey from the dazzling nature of South Africa to the withered landscape of South Australia, from which has emerged hybrid porcelain forms.
Mike Crawford ✿ Facing South - Lucy Hammonds recounts her journey to the southern islands with glass artist Mike Crawford and what it revealed of a whenua (land) remote from human control.
Walking light: A bush journey suspended in glass - Holly Grace wanders through the Australian bush that inspires her enchanting glass works.
Alpaca shawls: A love woven from life on land - Douglas Brodie asks Louiseann King about falling in love with alpacas and the processes involved in weaving shawls from their wool.
Nation Building practices in an on-going colonial era - Jules and Jayne Christian share their journey to bring Dharug people together as mob on Country to help contest ongoing colonisation.
Bonyi ✿ A seasonal gathering of weavers on Country - Freja Carmichael reflects on a gathering of weavers at Munimba-ja to celebrate the bonyi nut harvest.
The Uuseum of the white desert: A showcase of Kutchi crafts - Aashka Jadeja reveals the contents of the House of Amoda at Rann Utsav - Tent City, Dhordo village.
The piaçava revival: Afro-indigenous crafts save a local tree species - Egnaldo Rocha da Silva finds that crafts play an important role in reviving the piaçave tree for descendants of Brazilian communities of escaped slaves.
Syd Bruce Shortjoe & Bernard Singleton ✿ Men of Country - Jack Wilkie-Jans writes about two artists from Cape York Peninsula whose connection to Country includes Men’s Shed and cultural maintenance. 
Forest of Craft ✿ A map of nature’s treasures - Robin Agemi helps map a Kyoto forest, including trees used by its traditional crafts.
The Dreamhome paradox - Inga Walton reviews the exhibition Dreamhome in the context of a local and global housing crisis.
Kokrobitey ✿ Ghanaian paradise regained - Renée C. Neblett reflects on the idyllic village life she found in Ghana, how it lost its way with commercialisation, and the institute she founded to help recover its vitality.
Creative Conservation: Art for nature - Chrissy Wickes and Sonia Frimmel share their journey gathering artists across NZ Aotearoa whose creativity is focused on care and appreciation of land.
Wayne Martin Maranganji ✿ Painting culture, painting country - Angie Faye Martin writes about a cattleman painter, who connects to their shared Country through his art and commissions.
Art of meditation: Attitudes to nature in Japanese gardens & Ikebana - Shoso Shimbo identifies the essence of Japanese Ikebana in the interior process of meditation.
Cerdeira: An artist village of stone and wood - Tatiana Simões introduces Karine Locatelli, whose work flourished in this idyllic Portuguese village. 
Chitral shu: Resisting climate change - Adil Iqbal finds a remote valley in Pakistan where women gather on a winter evening to keep their culture alive through weaving.
Long dance to home - Dominic White continues the dance of his forebears with a material art that rediscovers Country. 
Japanese knotweed with a silver lining - Maxwell Fertik works with a globally invasive species to tell a story of local industrial devastation.
The Kalange ✿ Local knowledge created from recycled denim and clay - Katesi Jacqueline Kalange works with the children of Nubuke in Ghana to create a home for the story of Badere, the spider who hoarded knowledge.