Content area
Full Text
Indigenous artist Tjungkara Ken – joint winner of the Wynne Prize, and one of the famous Ken sisters – says the practice of interference in Indigenous art, revealed in a major investigation by The Australian, began at Tjala Arts when the now general manager of the APY Arts Centre Collective, Skye O’Meara, was its manager.
Ms O’Meara worked as the manager at Tjala for almost 10 years, before setting up the collective in 2016.
Tjungkara Ken said over the time Ms O’Meara spent at Tjala, she became more and more involved in interfering in the works of Indigenous artists. “I suppose … she got in her mind how the designs work and she started painting with the older people,” she Ken said.
“The longer she was at Tjala, the more she was doing that.” Ken claims when Ms O’Meara went to Adelaide, she took the designs from Tjala and taught them to other artists, and the practice of interference followed her.
Former NT minister and Indigenous leader Bess Price said for years she had been hearing stories of interference in Anangu art at the APYACC’s studios, but when she saw The Australian’s video on Saturday of a white woman painting on a canvas at Tjala Arts, she was still “shocked”.
“There is no doubt she is interfering in the Tjukurpa (the ancient stories of culture and law),” she said of the video.
“It is complete disrespect for the artist, and for our culture.” Ms Price said these were sacred Indigenous stories that could be told only by Indigenous people.
In an investigation by The Australian, published on Saturday, five...