Behind the Scenes at the UWA Museum and Indiana Jones

Second day of classes as UWA, but today with John Stanton, who is the foremost expert on Carrolup art. Our trip to the campus was fairly uneventful, but I was looking forward to today’s classes as John also curates the University’s anthropology museum, which houses an incredible collection of Carrolup art. In fact, he is an incredibly knowledgeable man on the topic, and though most of the details are reiterations of content I have already been studying, it was interesting to put that into a larger picture of the how his work with Aboriginal art, including the Carrolup pieces, fits within the academic schema of the Australian academy. While at Colgate the pieces are valued for their art history and culture, here they are of little interest to fine art historians. They are dismissed as both child art and Aboriginal art, and not seen for their true beauty and value (if you ask me).

After a lecture from John which was delightful because of the depth with which he was able to converse about artists and pieces and the history, we had a lecture from Cindy Solonec, a University lecturer in Indigenous Studies. Though she is an Aboriginal woman from the Kimberly, she shared her family story which is pretty symbolic of relations among different racial groups: white, part-Aboriginal and Aboriginal peoples. Her father, a Spanish immigrant with little English language initially, was accepted by his Aboriginal wife’s family, as he was similarly accepting and faced comparable discrimination from white Australians. I was particularly impressed with her lecture, which outlined her master’s thesis, as it focused almost entirely on documenting and interpreting family history though oral histories and her father’s journals. Having recently undertaken family-based research of my own, I was impressed with her courage to interpret and divine academic theory from a complex family past; this was my greatest struggle in creating my film in the fall.

Our group had lunch at one of the University cafeterias before visiting John’s museum to look at the Carrolup pieces. With some extra time, I wandered around some of the little shops and stands next to the cafeteria and found a great children’s book about a dog named Walter who farted and ruined this stodgy couple’s vacation and was expelled from the beach. In the end, though, he saved the couple, found buried treasure for his family, and was allowed to vacation at the beach again. I thought the book was great, but it didn’t fall within my price range (less than $7) so I left it at the stand.

We were only able to see six Carrolup pieces at John’s museum, as they are currently preparing for a new facility, and have moved most of the collection off site. Still, the works that we did see were absolutely incredible! I was particularly impressed by a tray decorated with a corroboree scene that was given by Noel White to his friend Percy (there is an inscription on the back). To physically hold such an object was an incredible reality; it made the academic study tangible.

After our museum visit, we bused back to Perth. Iris and I did some shopping – I got postcards and some souvenirs and a beautiful necklace that I am in love with. We met up with Megan for dinner at this café with half price waffles on Tuesday (delicious!) and then met Professor Kraly to watch the new Indiana Jones movie (bizarre!) All in all, it was a relaxing, entertaining night. Early bus to Curtin University tomorrow, though, so have to get some rest!

Peace,

Jill