Earlier this year, with guidance from Ngukurr School Art Teacher Sophia, students from Ngukurr school created paintings on billy cans that had been sustainably sourced. These paintings reflected family stories that the students shared, which were then turned into an in-school exhibition to show the families of the students. Sophia and the students then came up with the idea of doing a proper exhibition in Darwin! So along with WANTA, we made that dream come true.
On Thursday the 7th of November, students travelled the long 7 hour journey from Ngukurr to Darwin, with a stop at everyone’s favourite, Katherine Maccas, for lunch. Once we got to Darwin and checked in at our fantastic accommodation, Big 4 Hidden Valley, we headed to Kingpin Darwin to play a game of laser tag to move our bodies around after sitting all day. There, we played some arcade games then had a delicious dinner of pizza’s, burgers and fried chicken! We headed back to the Big 4 and all fell asleep very quickly.
We had a very exciting day on Friday. After waking up and sorting ourselves out with breakfast, Sophia met us and we travelled to Charles Darwin University to check out the Art Galleries and Studios of the students with our awesome guide Matty. This gave our senior students the opportunity to visit the University and get a bit of an introduction, in case any of them want to pursue further studies. Some students were particularly interested and asked lots of questions. The students also got to try out riso printing, and made some posters to then sell that night at the exhibition.
After visiting CDU, we had a quick stop to check out Laundry Gallery where they had just finished setting up a new installation, and we were the first to see it and give feedback! Students loved looking at the different artworks from artists across the NT.
After looking at plenty of art, we headed to Casuarina for students to get their shopping and food fix, before having some downtime at Big 4 in preparation for opening night of the Exhibition. The Exhibition is being held at Untitled Gallery+Studio in Coconut Grove until the 28th of November. On Friday night we headed there to celebrate the opening!
Biliken im bla wi fren la kempfaiya. Im boilimap strongwan bush medisin en wada ba migi kapati bla wi. Det biliken, im lugunat wi. Wen wi gugum daga, wen wi toktok stori la Ropa. Loda steishin la Ropa kantri, loda majirrimapbat, mishinri, buligi en mirriji. Thei bin toktok gada feimiswan atis burru Ropa, Karen Rogers. En thei bin leigim wanbala stori bla Maureen Hodgson gulum “Hanting gada Biliken”. Ola biginini burru Ngukurr School bin meigim dismo atwek la biliken.
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‘Biliken’ is a friend around the campfire. It boils up healing bush medicine and water for a big cuppa tea. It witnesses the cook ups and big yarns around Ngukurr. A place of cattle stations and Country, mustering and missions, bulls and barramundi. Inspired by Maureen Hodgson’s Kriol story ‘Hanting gada biliken’ and class discussions with renowned local artist Karen Rogers, the students of Ngukurr School have created a body of work exploring important family memories. Every billycan shares a literal or figurative moment of connection.
To open the exhibition we had a beautiful Welcome to Country from Larrakia Nation Representative Jeanneen McLeenan, and speeches from Ngukurr Artist Karen Rogers and Ngukurr student Patrick Richards. Each had beautiful words to share about the wonderful exhibition. We continued the celebrations, chatting with those who came along, enjoying delicious nibbles and drinks. After spending the night at the exhibition, we headed back to the Big 4 to enjoy pizza and movies before the busy day ahead. Saturday morning, the students with Sophia, hosted a Billy Can painting workshop, where families were invited to come along to paint their own billy can inspired by the exhibition. It was great to see lots of people there, and to share stories, especially with those who had their own stories of Ngukurr!
After the workshop we then headed to have some fun and reward the students for their hard efforts at the exhibition and throughout the year. We had a swim at the Darwin Waterfront Wavepool, cooled down with some ice-cream, another swim and then headed to our sunset cruise with Sea Darwin! We were greeted with the lovely staff from Sea Darwin, hopped in our seats and were served the most delicious Fish and Chips, with fresh Barramundi, yum! Once we finished our food, the boat sped up and we had great views of the Darwin Harbour, learning stories as we passed important monuments and buildings. Then got to watch the gorgeous sunset. On the way back, as students and staff were getting tired, some falling asleep on the boat, suddenly the boat started to do doughnuts, that certainly woke everyone up! Once we were back at the Wharf, we thanked the amazing Sea Darwin staff, then topped everything off with another ice-cream!
We had a truck full of sleepy students on the drive back to Ngukurr on Sunday, but hearts full of wonderful memories and stories that I have heard being shared in the week after.
To visit the exhibition visit:
Untitled Gallery+Studio 3/1 Caryota Court Coconut Grove, Darwin, NT, Australia, Northern Territory
8 Nov – 28 Nov
Wed – Fri 10-4pm, Sat 10-12pm
This project was made possible by the Australian Governments Regional Arts Fund, which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia.
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We have many people to thank for creating this amazing experience.
Sophia, Ngukurr School Art Teacher, for having a great vision and executing it amazingly, involving students in a once in a lifetime experience.
Untitled Gallery+Studio for hosting the exhibition in their wonderful engaging and safe space. And thank you for letting us use some photos.
VampTV for capturing the excitement of the students, we can’t wait to see how it turns out.
CDU and Laundry Gallery for allowing us to visit.
And all of the operators who welcomed our students and encouraged them to have fun!
Written by Indi Drendel, Director Ngukurr Academy.
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