Hi, I’m Maggie and Welcome to the National Gallery of Australia.
I am a Kabi Kabi woman and the First Nations lead artist educator here at the Gallery.
Today I’m going introduce you to Anmatyerr artist Emily Kam Kngwarray but before we get started – I’d like to first acknowledge the Ngunnawal and the Ngambri people, the traditional custodians of this land that we’re on today. I’d like to thank them for caring for this Country that we’re lucky enough to live on and give my respects to their elders both past and present.
I would also like to extend that respect today to the Anmatyerr people, Emily Kam Kngwarray’s people. I give my respects to their elders both past and present and I’d like to thank the community for sharing so much about their culture and her life with us.
The Making It activity we’re going to do today is inspired by Emily Kam Kngwarray and her artwork behind me, Yam Awely. Throughout her life Emily Kam created works of art about her identity, drawing on her ancestral knowledge and a deep understanding of Anmatyerr Country, it’s eco systems and her responsibilities in caring for the lands.
In particular, the anwerlerr or the pencil yam plant.
Kam, her birth name, means the seed or the seed pods of the anwerlerr plant.
In this work of art, the vines of the anwerlerr are spread across the ground, overlapping and weaving around the other plants nearby. Underground its roots will follow a similar path and pattern – they’re also a delicious source of food for the community.
Kngwarray’s family say –
‘that powerful Country changes colour, just like the paintings do. The Country transforms itself, and those paintings do that as well. That’s why the old woman is famous’. Let’s get into some making – I am going to demonstrate one way to do this activity however I encourage you to do whatever works best for you.
Here are my materials.
I have a pencil, I have some paintbrushes, I have some pens and textas. I have my watercolours and some watercolour paper.
Most importantly I have some dried out and frozen leaves and sticks. This is done to make sure that they aren’t bringing any insects into the Gallery.
You can participate alongside me and pause the video at any time.
The first thing that I am going to do is arrange my plants to see if I can create any pattern and movement using the shadow of the torch. I hope you have someone to work with – you might need an extra pair of hands for some help.
Emily Kam spoke about using colour as a way to represent people in different stages of their life.
This is also an aspect of how the artist paints the anwerlerr in it’s different stages of its growth.
I have chosen a few colours here– one to convey a bit of growth, and one to convey a bit of maturity, something a little bit older and wiser.
You can see I’ve overlapped some of my leaves creating a little bit of movement in the painting.
I’m going to add one more and then I’m going to let it dry a little bit. I’m going to show you how you can add maybe some pencils or coloured pens or different coloured textas. I have picked two colours that go with the ones I’ve already chosen. I’m just going to follow the lines of the shapes that I’ve already made.
This is my work so far; you can see I have started to create a work of art that shows some growth and some movement from the way I’ve placed my plants.
I’m going to add one more colour and a little bit more, so feel free to do the same.
This is my finished artwork for today.
I’ve enjoyed using the torch to stretch and connect the leaves in different ways, the three colours I chose add some depth and interest to the work. I hope you had a nice time creating today with me and being inspired by Emily Kam Kngwarray’s beautiful artworks.