The Significance of Continuity and Change: Understanding and Preserving Aboriginal Catholic Church Art in Wadeye

Abstract

The concept of national significance is used for a number of purposes including access to funding, across a range of sectors. It is embedded in a complicated set of assumptions that do not align easily with how cultural material held in remote Indigenous communities across Australia is most usefully assessed. In the Aboriginal community of Wadeye (Port Keats) in the Northern Territory the Kanamkek-Yile Ngala Museum supports the preservation of local cultural material. Of particular importance are paintings produced for the altar of the Port Keats Church more than 40 years ago by senior Aboriginal men, and which formed an important aesthetic in the Old Church. Currently under the care of the Kanamkek-Yile Ngala Museum, these paintings remain more or less intact, despite some loss and damage. Their maintenance and conservation, however, presents a range of complex issues, highlighting difficulties encountered in the preservation of cultural material in remote and regional Australia, and suggesting the need for new ways of assessing significance.

Keywords:

• Aboriginal art
• Wadeye
• community conservation
• significance assessment
• cultural materials conservation

Notes

1 A small grant from the University of Melbourne's Vice-Chancellor's ‘Dreamlarge’ Student Engagement Award that supported technical examination and documentation, and on-site interview; and from the Gordon Darling Foundation for community engagement programs.

2 Mark Crocombe (2012, pers. comm., 1 August) explained how Bunduck, other senior Murrinhpatha man and artist Charlie Brinken approached Father Docherty, asking if they would be renumerated if they were to paint barks. These men were thus playing a specific and active role in the introduction of commercial painting practices in the region. It is possible that Bunduck, who spent time in Darwin in the 1930s as a witness in the court case relating to two Japanese murders, observed the practice of trading barks, and brought back this commercial practice to Port Keats (Ward & Crocombe 2008, p. 51).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Isabelle Waters-Lynch

isabelle waters-lynch is Manager and Art Coordinator at Hermannsburg Aboriginal Potters Inc.

Robyn Sloggett

robyn sloggett is Director of the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, University of Melbourne. Address: Grimwade Centre for the Conservation of Cultural Materials, University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010 VIC, Australia. Email: [email protected].

Mark Crocombe

mark crocombe is Manager of the Kanamkek-Yile Ngala Museum, Wadeye, Australia.

Leo Melpi

leo melpi is a senior community member and artist in Wadeye, Australia.