Two Gippsland artists driving home from a workshop in Meeniyan started a conversation about how an Aboriginal person and a non-Aboriginal person could collaborate through art.
Morwell painter Ronald Edwards Pepper and photographic artist PollyannaR have since secured a grant to explore that very idea then trial the process by making art together and create a kind of manual for future artists.
The conversation will keep rolling once the artists run a series of workshops throughout Gippsland’s regional galleries open to anyone who wishes to learn more about cross-cultural collaboration and Gunai/Kurnai protocols in art.
“This is my first time I’m working with a non-Indigenous person in my life, in collaboration,” Ronald Edwards Pepper said.
The Morwell artist said most people did not know there were certain protocols in Gunnai/Kurnai culture, such as painting with lines.
“In Gunai/Kurnai we can’t do dots,” he said.
He said the work he and PollyannaR aimed to create through a seven-day intensive process would hopefully educate others about simple and easy to understand Gunnai/Kurnai language.
The pair will work under the guidance of artist Leisa Shelton and Aunty Doris Paton from the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages.
PollyannaR said the collaboration would be like a “dance”.
“There’s going to be things that really fire us up and there’s chemistry … but when you do it over seven days, you know, making that art, especially Ronald’s art is coming from a very ancient place, and that can affect things,” PollyannaR said.
“We’re also exploring the fact both of us come from prominent Gippsland families.”
For more information, contact the artists via Facebook.
