Join us for a special evening artists talk and discussion as part of the HRC 50th Anniversary Celebration. Light refreshments from 5:30pm, talk commencing at 6pm.

Maree Clarke is a Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung multi-disciplinary artist and curator. She has contributed to contemporary arts and First Nations cultural sectors for over thirty years. She is a pivotal figure in the reclamation and revification of South Eastern Aboriginal cultural material objects, including possum skin cloaks, kangaroo teeth necklaces, and river reed necklaces. Moreover, her contemporary production of traditional material culture has seen her produce supersized river reed necklaces which not only pay tribute to the embodiment of those objects, but act as a metaphor for the scale of loss felt by her people. Clarke’s research into the history of traditional objects of cultural significance has seen her travel extensively nationally and internationally to research and investigate holdings of cultural materials in institutional collections.. In these ways Clarke’s practice directly relates to the concept of the Everywhen – by respecting, understanding and amplifying the knowledge of the past through contemporary means so that it can be held for, and shared with, future generations. Her Visiting Fellowship in Canberra focuses on a River Reed Necklace made in 1862 on display at Canberra Museum and Gallery.

In this special evening session, Maree Clarke will discuss her artistic practice, including a recent residency at the Florence Anthropology Museum and work developed for her current exhibition at Vivienne Anderson Gallery which features microscopic images of the cellular structures of the roots and stems of river reeds rendered in hand cut and blown Murrini glass. She will be joined in discussion by Dr Laura Rademaker from the ANU School of History and Virginia Rigney from Canberra Museum and Gallery. Introduced by ANU Humanities Research Centre Director, Professor Kylie Message.

Event supported by: ANU Humanities Research Centre, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra Glassworks and the Ginninderry Conservation Trust.

Speakers:

Maree Clarke is a Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung multi-disciplinary artist and curator. She has contributed to contemporary arts and First Nations cultural sectors for over thirty years. Clarke was commissioned to paint the first green and gold tram for the Koorie Heritage Trust in 1988 and later became curator of the Trust where she took on a strong mentorship role. She has been affirming and connecting young people to culture ever since, by leading the way for promotion of Southeast Aboriginal artistic diversity and excellence. Maree often works collaboratively and focuses on regenerating cultural practices using new technologies and cross-generational methodologies. Maree Clarke has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally, and in 2021 was the subject of a major survey exhibition Maree Clarke – Ancestral Memories at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Other recent exhibitions include Tarnanthi, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2021), The National, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2021), and Reversible Destiny, Tokyo Photographic Museum, Japan (2021). Maree held residencies at the Pilchuck School of Glass, Seattle, and Museum of Glass, Tachoma, USA (2023), and has recently completed a multi-media work for the Women’s Project in Mildura. Maree was the recipient of the 2020 Australia Council Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Fellowship, a finalist for the Victorian Australian of the Year in 2023, and was also awarded the Yalingwa Fellowship for a Senior First Peoples artist who has made a significant contribution to contemporary art and culture in Victoria. Clarke is a published author and is associated with the University of Melbourne’s Living Archive of Aboriginal Art & Knowledge, a pilot program which is recording, digitising and documenting Maree’s broad practice with the aim to conserve and make accessible the collated materials to community.

Dr Laura Rademaker is an ARC DECRA research fellow in the ANU School of History. She is the author of Found in Translation: Many Meanings on a North Australian Mission (University of Hawai’i Press, 2018) on language and cross-cultural exchange at Christian missions to Aboriginal people, awarded the 2020 Hancock Prize. Her work explores the possibilities of ‘cross-culturalising’ history, interdisciplinary histories as well as oral history and memory. At present, is contributing to the Deep Human Past project, seeking to tell the ‘deep’ history of Australia and expand notions of history and the past. She is also working on a book about the Tiwi Islands and Aboriginal encounters with Catholicism as well as researching the closing of Christian missions, secularisation and Indigenous self-determination. She is co-editor of the Journal of Religious History and associate monographs editor for Aboriginal history Monographs.

Virginia Rigney is the Senior Curator Visual Arts at Canberra Museum and Gallery. Recent curatorial projects include Materiality But Not as we Know it, eX de Medici Sidney Nolan Guns and Flowers. She has collaborated with First Nations artists and curators on a range of projects including touring exhibitions Kuru Alala Eyes Open with Tjanpi Desert Weavers and Saltwater Country co curated with Michael Aird and the development project the South Stradbroke Island Indigenous Artist Camp project.

If you require accessibility accommodations or a visitor Personal Emergency Evacuation plan please contact the event organiser.