Crown Bugalaa
Artist & Weaver
Amy Hammond Gamilaroi Yinarr
Support Weavers
Sophie Honess Gomeroi Yinarr and Lorrelle Munro Gomeroi Yinarr
Materials
Lomandra, lomandra seeds, wattle seeds, possum skins, local parrot feathers, banksia flower and echidna quills
dimentions
40 cm height, 20 cm diameter
Crown Bugalaa, 2021
Crown Bugalaa was created in response to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collections held without consent at the University of New England, on Anaiwan Country. The work was informed by First Nations oral histories and my own PhD research on Gomeroi weaving via UNE. My People provided me the appropriate cultural and historical knowledge, and UNE enabled access to research collections at the Australian Museum, National Museum, British Museum, Cambridge University Museum, Musée d’Orsay, Florence University Museum and The Vatican. Although there is significant geographical distance between these institutions and UNE, their collections share many commonalities. Like the normalisation of institutions ‘acquiring’ and trading stolen cultural belongings and human remains. At any opportunity or following a massacre settlers and researchers would routinely raid and loot items from our family camps, personal dilly bags, and sacred, ceremonial and burial sites. The reality is that the UNE’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collections came to be through acts of attempted genocide of all First Nations Peoples and UNE knowingly benefit from those acts.
To me, these ‘conquerors’ trophy cabinets’ are not filled just with piled-up artefacts, but with our families’ personal belongings and our cultural inheritance – visual reminders of the beauty, intimacy and intricacy of our ancestors, countries and cultures.
This crown is my interpretation of St Edward’s coronation crown, the central ceremonial piece of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Where is my Gomeroi women’s ceremony? If you were to take the crown apart (again), the jewels and gold would drip a global trail telling the story of attempted genocide against black and brown countries. How bloody royal and holy.
Collection Conversion
Amy Hammond, Angus Nivison, David Darcy, Katherine Harvey, Rowen Matthews, Vic McEwan
27 March - 11 July 2021
Tamworth Regional Gallery
‘Collection Conversion’ investigates the Tamworth region’s identity by inviting six regional artists working in different mediums to explore, investigate, research and mine six local museums and develop new artworks in response to their collections.
Three of the collections are owned by Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) and three by the University of New England (UNE). The identified collections and nominated artists are as follows:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collections (UNE): Amy Hammond
Australian Country Music Hall of Fame (TRC): David Darcy
N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium (UNE): Angus Nivison
Natural History Museum (UNE): Katherine Harvey
Tamworth Fibre Textile Collection (TRC): Vic McEwan
Tamworth Powerstation Museum (TRC): Rowen Matthews
The resulting artworks not only respond to the identified collections, but also push boundaries and will deliberately challenge existing perceptions of these collections. The exhibition has been developed by Tamworth Regional Gallery in partnership with the University of New England. It is on display during the Tamworth Regional Council Heritage Festival (23 April to 3 May) and also on International Museums Day, 18 May.
The project was made possible by the Regional Arts Fund, a federal government initiative that supports sustainable cultural development in regional, remote and very remote Australia. The Fund is provided through Regional Arts Australia, and in NSW through Regional Arts NSW.