THE Maari Ma Indigenous Art Awards Exhibition opened at the Broken Hill City Art Gallery last Friday night, and multiple winners were announced.
Open Art Prize recipient Bilyara Bates won for his sandstone carving work Karnu Tharlta, which depicts a kangaroo carved into stone using ancient, traditional methods.
“I wasn’t going for perfection,” Bates said.
“I was more trying to go for authenticity, and also challenging my own obsession with trying to find perfection when it comes to my work.”
Bates said he hadn’t tried stone carving for many years, since first learning the process at about eight years old.
“The trickiest part was actually manufacturing the carving tools, so shaping them into chisels to actually do their work,” he said.
“It’s stone on stone knapping essentially.”
The carving tools are exhibited alongside the artwork.
“I kept the tools next to it because it looks pretty authentic and I had to put people’s concerns at rest to show them I wasn’t stealing artefacts,” he said.
Bates said the win wasn’t just his, but a win for Indigenous people more generally.
“I’ve had so many amazing comments about people taking pride in that style of artwork because it’s something that we as Aboriginal people own,” he said.
“So, it’s a win for my people. There’s pride in something we all own being acknowledged, and also a pride in knowing the technique won’t be lost.”
Winner of the Nhuungku Prize for Excellence for her work Old Bones was Krystle Evans, who said she was thrilled to receive the award.
“It’s very much a surprise and honour to win, and it’s such amazing company to be in,” she said.
“There’s so much deadly talent out here.”
Evans said her work was a reinterpretation of traditional rock art, reimagined and reinterpreted through textiles.
“I really like the medium of textiles,” she said.
“And as a feminist artist I like to reinterpret things under the female gaze.
“For a long time textiles weren’t considered an art form and were considered in the realm of women’s work and craft. I think there’s so much potential outside of that.”
Evans said she was currently working on a large showcase of works for an exhibition next year at Broken Hill’s Slag Heap Projects gallery that will follow a similar theme to her award-winning Maari Ma work.
Eric Magoga won the Emerging Artist Award for Change, and Makayla Symonds won the Young Artist Prize for Rainy Day.
