NIDA unveiled a permanent Acknowledgement of Country to hang in its main entry foyer and awarded the Luminis Foundation Indigenous Fellowship for Cultural Leadership.
Acknowledgment of Country banner featuring artwork donated by student Emily Pires on her mother, artist Sonia Kennedy’s behalf. Photographer: Merette Boutros
To mark NAIDOC Week in 2019, NIDA unveiled a permanent Acknowledgement of Country to hang in its main entry foyer and awarded the Luminis Foundation Indigenous Fellowship for Cultural Leadership.
‘We are proud to celebrate NAIDOC Week. It’s one way that we acknowledge the storytellers of the First Nations,’ said NIDA CEO Jennifer Bott AO. ‘We are 60 years old this year, and we are very proud of our achievements as an institution, but we are also very reflective on the areas in which we can improve.
NIDA CEO Jennifer Bott AO. Photographer: Merette Boutros
‘For the next 60 years, we want to remove the barriers to ensure that students from all backgrounds, and all parts of Australia have access to NIDA. We want our graduates to reflect the great and diverse culture that we have in Australia and in the world in which we live.
‘This year at NIDA we have the highest number of First Nations students ever in our history.
‘We have established an Indigenous Strategy Group, to grow and improve the way in which we support Indigenous students on their way through, and to integrate Indigenous culture into our governance, our programs and our identity. I’m thrilled that we’ve just elected our first Indigenous board member, Dr Sandra Phillips.
‘We have much to do in this space but we have strong commitment to do it.’
Simon Mordant AM, Chairman of the Luminis Foundation awards arts leader Marilyn Miller with the Luminis Foundation Indigenous Fellowship for Cultural Leadership. Photographer: Merette Boutros
Businessman, philanthropist and cultural leader Simon Mordant AM, Chairman of the Luminis Foundation, awarded the Luminis Indigenous Fellowship for Cultural Leadership to arts leader and Kuku Yalanji and Wanji woman, Marilyn Miller, who traveled from Cairns for the occasion.
‘Cultural leadership is absolutely essential to build thriving and sustainable institutions. Marilyn is a great example of someone who is highly accomplished and really deserves this Fellowship,’ said Mr Mordant.
The Fellowship allows Marilyn to undertake NIDA’s Master of Fine Arts in Cultural Leadership, a course for emerging and established leaders in arts and culture who are motivated to drive change in an evolving social and cultural environment.
Simon Mordant AM, Chairman of the Luminis Foundation with arts leader Marilyn Miller, awarded the Luminis Foundation Indigenous Fellowship for Cultural Leadership. Photographer: Merette Boutros
Ms Bott said, ‘The Cultural Leadership course digs deep into the powerful, transformative role that the arts and culture can have in creating a more inclusive, empathetic and engaging community and society.’
Marilyn’s longstanding arts practice has been in dance and choreography and she now engages in movement workshops with young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and community members.
She was previously the National Indigenous Dance Coordinator of Treading the Pathways, which she developed into BlakDance Australia, for which she was the inaugural CEO. Marilyn is also an active board member of the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair.
Arts leader Marilyn Miller accepts the Luminis Foundation Indigenous Fellowship for Cultural Leadership. Photographer: Merette Boutros
In Marilyn’s speech to accept the Luminis Fellowship, she framed her thank you around the three themes of 2019 NAIDOC Week: voice, treaty and truth.
‘Voice, because our people have been striving for a voice for many, many years. This is not to say that there hasn’t been one, but this is about the listening of that voice and the hearing of that voice and our collective peoples, our mob, here in Australia.
‘Here tonight, my voice, along with Simon’s, will become part of NIDA’s voice, and the archives of this institution, and will be the remnants of our being here.
‘Treaty. Yes, you and I have entered into one, along with NIDA. This [Fellowship] is a tripartite agreement based on shared values between all three of us, which I’m really excited about for the future…
‘Then we come to truth. Everything that we speak, our voice, our agreements, must be based on truth. The truth is that we live in a shared history, and once we acknowledge that shared history, truth will always prevail.
‘In finishing, I would just like to say that everything I speak will always be of truth.’
Acknowledgment of Country banner featuring artwork donated by student Emily Pires on her mother, artist Sonia Kennedy’s behalf. Photographer: Merette Boutros
The next part of the evening was dedicated to unveiling the eye-catching statement artwork banner that features a permanent Acknowledgement of Country to hang in the main entry foyer of NIDA’s Kensington campus.
Featuring the artwork of Gumbaynggirr woman Sonia Kennedy (now deceased), who painted under the name Puukoo, the striking image was kindly donated by her daughter, NIDA second-year Costume student, Wiradjuri woman Emily Pires (nee Kennedy).
NIDA second-year Costume student and Wiradjuri woman Emily Pires (nee Kennedy). Photographer: Merette Boutros
The artwork from Sonia’s untitled painting of coolamons, a subject Emily said her mother loved to paint, was printed on a large format Acknowledgement of Country banner, which now hangs in NIDA’s main entry foyer.
Speaking to invited guests, Emily told the story of her mother’s journey into art, and her love of depicting coolamons. She also said, ‘I had never heard of NIDA before, but as a family we used to always go for drives to La Perouse.
‘We went past NIDA and [my mother] said to me, “You see that school? That’s where the best of the best go.” I never thought that I would be standing here. I’m sure she’d be really proud of me.’
Emily Pires (nee Kennedy)’s family members at the unveiling of the Acknowledgement of Country banner featuring artwork from artist Sonia Kennedy. Photographer: Merette Boutros
NIDA Acting alumna and Wiradjuri and Gumbaynggirr woman Dalara Williams, who starred in Nakkiah Lui’s Blackie Blackie Brown, TV series Black Comedy, feature film Top End Wedding and Andrea James’ Winyanboga Yurringa, was also in attendance.
NIDA Acting alumna Dalara Williams in attendance. Photographer: Merette Boutros
During NAIDOC week, a collaboration between the textile designers and makers of Bábbarra Women’s Centre Maningrida (Arnhem Land) and NIDA’s second-year Costume students was also displayed in the foyer. Bábbarra Women’s Centre Maningrida was established in 1989.
Ms Bott also welcomed a collection of paintings by Gloria Tamerre Petyarre, Djawida Nadjongorle, Yuwati (Central Arnhem Land, attributed to) and Robert Burrarnu, on loan from the UNSW Art Unit, to be displayed around NIDA’s Kensington campus for the next two years.
NIDA’s second-year Costume students crafted 1950s–style dresses from fabrics designed and produced by the artisans of Bábbarra Women’s Centre Maningrida. Photographer: Merette Boutros
NIDA Kensington is learning and storytelling on Bidjigal and Gadigal land.
