The tamarind tree, which has significant meaning in the culture of the Bugis people of South Sulawesi and Indigenous Australians of the Northern Territory, is a highlight of the exhibition in Australia.
Running from 4 October to 6 December, the Awakening Histories exhibition features works by 27 artists and collectives from Australia, Indonesia, China, and the Philippines, exploring the historical connections between Australia's First Nations peoples and Makassan seafarers from South Sulawesi.
Read the conversation with Darrell Sibosado, a carving artist from the Kimberley Coast, discusses his works 'Niman Aarl' and 'Umbun (Eagle Ray)', to learn more about a history that transcends colonial narratives.
I have two works in the Awakening Histories exhibition at MUMA, one of them is Niman Aarl, and it’s a series. It’s about 600 individual pieces that are carved out of mother of pearl, trochus, ebony, turtle shell and dugong bone. It represents the reef and the contact we had with the Makassan fisherman – they came onto the reef for trochus, that was the main thing.
And then the other work is Eagle Ray, which is metal and LED, and that work is the symbol we carved into mother of pearl. Traditionally, we’re mother of pearl carvers, that’s what we’re most known for. The Eagle Ray symbol I have on the wall in metal and LED and Perspex is one of the symbols we would traditionally carve onto pearl shell.
For me to carve all those fish I brought one of my nephews on, which I do all the time anyway, and it’s about passing on that tradition of carving. But it took us about… between four and five weeks, everyday, you know working.
I’m represented by a gallery in Sydney, Nick Smith Gallery (N.Smith Gallery), and I think it was a conversation between Monash and MUMA and my gallery. Just about the possibility, I think they’d seen my work before, and they were trying to find as many artists from the west coast and Arnhem Land to represent the Australian side of it.
My people are from the Kimberley Coast in Western Australia, I’m a Goolarrgon Bard man, and our contact with the Makassan fisherman wasn’t as pronounced as most people would understand. Like with NT (Northern Territory), we didn’t have so much engagement but they were present on the reef.
The reason I included this work Niman Aarl with all the trochus – that was the common thing between the Makassan’s and us, and that was the thing we noticed most from them collecting on the reef. So I’ve included a whole lot of trochus in the shells.
I think this show, it’s a very important show, and it’s awakening histories anyway because… for me I’m hoping this show will remind people that history didn’t start with colonisation, there was lots of engagement already happening between my people anyway, from across Asia.
I’m hoping what people’s take away from it is that they’re reminded that our history didn’t start, our contact with different people, didn’t start once western society decided to start recording things. Our history goes beyond the recorded history.
For me it’s a reminder as well, for us not to let our engagement with other cultures be overshadowed by the colonisers, the colonising nations. Just to remind us we did have contact with other people and other cultures.
Well I love it (the exhibition). I’m sort of still trying to grasp it? What is it that is being said really? You know, not just the imagery, but what is being said. Like the weaving to me, I know is a really spiritual thing anyway. With carvers and weavers, it’s all hands on, it’s a spiritual thing that people do. It’s tradition, and it’s something you pass on.
Traditions, the things that make all cultures unique in their own way, they’re the things that have to be maintained and passed down.
