Perth Voice Interactive

“THIS land is ours” is emblazoned across a rusty ute at FORM gallery. “Always was, always will be,” a fender says.

It sums up artist Reko Rennie’s feelings on an issue close to his art.

“I painted [that] because the land was stolen, pastoralists are squatters on Aboriginal land.”

With WA’s 99-year pastoral leases expiring in 2015 it’s a timely reflection, and Marlbatharndu Wanggagu, or Once Upon a Time in the West (apologies to Sergio Leone) is an exploration of the untold stories of Aboriginal workers of the land. Until 1966 they were mostly unpaid: “It was tough and many worked as slaves, not paid and doing 12 to 15 hours days,” Rennie says.

The image of the heroic solitary rider herding cattle is part of imagery of settlement—but the fact is the figure was most likely Aboriginal.

Men and women herded cattle or were farm hands, and mission raised girls were sent north, by Native Welfare, as domestic servants.

Rennie, a Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay/Gummaroi man, spent weeks in WA’s far north west as part of the project.

“[Camping] with one of the elders, who took me out bush to Roy Hill Station where he worked for a long time.”

Rennie’s bold neon works explore issues of identity, race, law and justice, land rights and the stolen generation, from the perspective of an urban Aboriginal. He’s exhibited in Paris, Berlin, Italy, Jakarta, Shanghai and the US.

Once Upon a Time in the West, a collaboration between the IBN Aboriginal Corporation and FORM Gallery, is part art/part oral history. Curator Sharmila Wood and anthropologist Andrew Dowding interviewed indigenous people from Tom Price, Paraburdoo and Karajini National Park about their time working on stations.

Aboriginal workers were forced off the land once owners had to pay them: “Everyone had to move…there was no more work left,” Adrian Condon says.

Now 49, as a kid he watched the men go mustering: “Then it was up to my mum and her sisters to take over the horse riding, to keep the station running. They used to love riding horses.”

Claire Martin’s powerful images and portraits will also be on display. The multi-award winning Perth photographer uses her camera to focus on marginalised communities in prosperous countries such as Australia, including a recent series on people choosing a life of poverty in Nimbin’s forest communes.

The third artist is US national Jetsonorama, who came to art late in life and has won a slew of awards for his massive wheat paste art/graffiti, stuck to walls, silos, and just about anything large he can find around his Navajo dessert home, with flour, sugar and water.

Like Rennie and Martin the African/American spent time in WA’s far north creating images from photos taken during his weeks there.

Once Upon a Time in the West is on at FORM Gallery, Murray Street, Perth, November 6 to January 2015. Reko Rennie will give an art talk at the opening Thursday Nov 6, 5–6pm.

You’ll need to RSVP to belinda@form.net.au 

by JENNY D’ANGER