Jilamara
Arts & Crafts Association
Arthurina Moreen
Barbara Puruntatameri
Chris Black
Conrad Tipungwuti Kamilowra
Mary Elizabeth Moreen
Michelle Bush
Michelle Pulatuwayu Woody Minnapinni
Mickey Wilson Fogarty
Pedro Wonaeamirri
Raelene Kerinauia Liddy Lampuwatu
Timothy Cook
Jilamara Arts & Crafts Association is a Tiwi-governed, non-profit art centre established in 1989 in the remote community of Milikapiti on Melville Island, overlooking the Arafura Sea.
Jilamara artists are renowned for their innovative contemporary practice grounded in Tiwi traditions. Drawing upon ceremonial body painting designs, clan totems and creation stories, they work with natural ochres to produce paintings on bark, canvas, linen and paper, alongside carved ironwood birds, Tutini poles, limited-edition prints and hand screen-printed textiles.
For more than three decades, artists of Jilamara have emerged as leading figures in Indigenous art, achieving national and international recognition while sustaining a vital role in the cultural renewal and continuity of the Tiwi people. This exhibition celebrates the enduring strength and vibrancy of Tiwi cultural expression as it continues to evolve, bringing ancestral knowledge into the present with renewed vitality.
‘My interdisciplinary art practice about water and light forms my own ritualised creative response to place and its impact on my sense of identity. The Pacific Ocean, the physical boundary between Korea and Australia, defines my geographical and cultural identity, identifiable as a specific geographic entity, yet being comprised of water, simultaneously formless and in a perpetual state of flux. Also, in Korean belief systems, water represents the boundary between the mortal world and the afterlife. Water and ritual have become significant aspects of my practice since my parents passed away. Making work is the way I understand the boundary in the world I live in. It is to understand the relationship between the world and myself. For me, the feeling of insecurity arises from the uncertainties that come with inhabiting not just the boundary between cultures but also between past and present, physical and psychological, life and the afterlife. My art practice has become a way for me to make sense of the untimely loss of my parents and to come to terms with my sense of never fully belonging.’
Personal message from Jilamara
CONTACT US
info@artatrium.com.au
Ph. +61 411 138 308
FOLLOW US
OPENING HOURS
Wednesday - Friday 12:00 - 5:00 pm
Saturday 12.00 - 4.00 pm
Other times by appointment
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we live and work– the Gadigal/Bidjigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay respects to their elders past, present and emerging.