Arnhembrand: Living on healthy country
Blog 1 March 2015
Arnhembrand: Living on healthy country
is a new art, science and story project which Mandy Martin and David Leece scoped at the invitation of the community with the Djelk Rangers in Maningrida, Arnhem Land, in March 2015.
We firstly thanked the Traditional Owners for permission to visit Country and acknowledged the elders past and present. We then presented some models of how Arnhembrand would work with community participation on art and stories about environmental preservation. This would raise awareness both nationally and internationally of the work the Indigenous communities living in the Djelk Indigenous Protected Area in Arnhem Land undertake to preserve their culture and environment. The Arnhembrand project is designed to support the Karrkad-Kanjdji Trust which is working in the long term to achieve these preservation objectives. Arnhembrand aims to create a multi-disciplined and participatory project following the successful model of the Paruku Project. We presented examples of possible outputs including a book, a DVD, a website, blogs, an archive and exhibitions.
We were then invited to meet with artists and artist/ rangers in the community and we e presented our ideas in more depth and showed examples of ideas and techniques for drawing, painting and digital art that we could experiment with to foster a new wave of contemporary art which builds on each individual artist's distinct style while extending their traditional practice. The new wave art and new media created will assist in raising awareness of the environmental issues the Djelk communities deal with.
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