BEGIN:VCALENDAR METHOD:PUBLISH VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN PRODID:-//NONSGML Sandhills Development\, LLC//NONSGML Sugar Calendar Fe eds v3.8.2//EN X-WR-CALNAME:Gulamanmanha "bringing something closer” X-WR-CALDESC:Salamanca Arts Centre X-WR-TIMEZONE:Australia/Hobart BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Australia/Hobart BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+1000 TZOFFSETTO:+1100 DTSTART:20251004T160000 TZNAME:AEDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Australia/Hobart BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+1000 TZOFFSETTO:+1100 DTSTART:20251004T160000 TZNAME:AEDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Gulamanmanha "bringing something closer” DESCRIPTION:Presented by Yamaji Art + Nicole Monks + Ku'arlu Mangga Abor iginal Art Centre\n\n\n\nExhibition Dates :Friday 10 - Friday 31 October 2025Monday - Friday 9:00am - 5:00pmSaturdays / Sundays / Public Holiday s CLOSED\n\n\n\nOpening Event : Thursday 9 October 2025\, 6:00pm - 8:00p m\n\n\n\nThis Exhibition spans both the Studio Gallery (Level 2) and the Lightbox (Ground Floor)\n\n\n\nContent Warning : May contain photograp hs of deceased Aboriginal people\n\n\n\nYamaji people journeyed to TMAG\ , lutruwita/Tasmania to reconnect with belongings unseen for 125 years. Artists re-cloaked ancestors in culture\, gifting new cloaks for exchang e of the belongings return. With Ku’arlu Mangga the project expands re making\, honouring\, and keeping culture alive.\n\n\n\nIn 1897\, Alexand er Morton from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) journeyed to Wajarri Yamaji Country. He collected cultural belongings\, adornments\, tools and took photographs of Yamaji people. These items\, held at TMAG for over a century\, had not been unseen by Yamaji mob until now.\n\n\n\ nGulamanmanha\, led by Nicole Monks and Yamaji Art\, marks the first tim e Yamaji people have directly responded to the Morton Collection. A grou p of Yamaji Knowledge Holders\, artists\, and arts workers\;  \;men\ , women\, and young people\, spent a month in Hobart thanks to the Salam anca Art Centre Arts Residency.  \;They were located at TMAG catalog uing\, photographing\, and sitting with the collection\, reconnecting wi th ancestors’ and with the deep histories carried in these belongings. They brought home the images\, sketches and stories\, and gathered with Community out on Country to share what they had seen.\n\n\n\nFrom this experience\, one moment stood out in the photographic lantern slides - Y amaji women appeared to be wearing kangaroo skin cloaks\, yet on close i nspection they were wrapped in rags. Community knew what should have bee n there. The kangaroo cloaks: - warm\, protective\, richly worked\, and heavy with meaning. These are not just artworks. They are living keepers of memory and identity.\n\n\n\nAnd so the decision was made to create a new communal kangaroo skin cloaks for women\, men\, non-binary people\, boys\, and girls. In the Yamaji Arts studio\, artists responded directl y to the Morton Collection. Each pelt was transformed into a powerful st atement\, carrying connections to Country\, a contemporary response to w hat had been taken\, stolen\, or traded for curiosity and collection.\n\ n\n\nThese newly-made belongings are gifts to TMAG\, a gesture of cultur al reciprocity\, in exchange for the original belongings to be repatriat ed to Country. The catalogue of Morton’s Collection now rests with Yam aji mob who are reviewing belongings\, adding cultural context\, and gat hering the information needed to formally request their return.\n\n\n\nW hile Gulamanmanha took shape\, an affiliated Yamaji art centre\, Ku’ar lu Mangga\, was engaged in their own revival. They turned to belongings already in their care traditions well remembered and shared\, message st icks held within their own community collective memory and reimagined th ese in new materials\, scales\, and interpretations. This work is ground ed in their own knowledge and making practices\, speaking to resilience and the enduring presence of culture. Across generations and disruption\ , Yamaji culture survives.\n\n\n\nAlthough their starting points differ\ , the works of Yamaji Arts and Ku’arlu Mangga meet in shared purpose. Together\, they are acts of strength\, reclamation\, and cultural contin uity. They are proof that together we are stronger.\n\n\n\nThese artwork s came together for the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial – IOTA24 at the M useum of Geraldton\, where audiences witnessed the scope of Yamaji creat ivity and the depth of ancestral connection carried in each belonging.\n \n\n\nThe making of these unique works reaches far beyond the studio. Ad ditional body adornments and ancestral forms were created from materials that were gathered on Country\, during journeys and visits to significa nt sites. Skills were shared between generations\, weaving together know ledge from Elders with the hands and imaginations of younger artists. Ea ch belonging is a vessel for story\, a bridge between past and present\, and an assertion that Yamaji culture is not just surviving\, it is thri ving.\n\n\n\nWhile these traditions may have been resting for a time\, t heir roots stretch back into deep time\, carried forward through memory\ , story\, and the DNA in our bones and Country. These belongings as are not merely an artistic exercise\, they reconnection to the ancestors who walked Yamaji Country\, and are an affirmation that the knowledge they carried still lives and breathes.\n\n\n\nMore than an exhibition\, this is a meeting place. It honours the old people who endured\, acknowledges the gaps and absences created by colonisation\, and celebrates the revi val of yamaji culture in contemporary forms. It also calls attention to the collecting collection practices of the past\, where belongings were removed without consent and placed in institutions far from their commun ities. In doing so\, it raises urgent questions of ethics and responsibi lity\, in how collections are cared for and who has the authority to tel l their stories. By remaking and returning these cultural belongings\, Y amaji artists not only assert that the relationship between people\, obj ect\, and Country remains unbroken\, but also propose a new way forward\ , one built on reciprocity\, respect\, and the active return of cultural heritage to it’s the rightful custodians.\n\n\n\nThrough Gulamanmanha \, Yamaji Arts responds to a collection long kept out of sight\, bringin g it into the light of the Community’s care. Through their own acts of reimagining\, Ku’arlu Mangga shows that culture thrives wherever it i s nourished. Together\, they show we see that making is an act of sovere ignty\, and that by working together Yamaji people strengthen each other and the generations to come.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis exhibition is dedicate d to Dr Charmaine Papertalk Green Smith\, Yamaji visionary\, Chair of Ya maji art and visitor to TMAG\, who guided this project and now walks wit h our ancestors.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nYamaji Art (2024)\n\n\n\n\n\nNIAF X ADC Exhibition Opening. Photographer Stephen Wilson Barker.\n\n\n\n\n\nN IAF X ADC Exhibition Opening. Photographer Stephen Wilson Barker.\n\n\n\ n\n\n\n\n\n\nPhotographer Stephen Wilson Barker (2025)\n\n\n\n\n\nNIAF X ADC Exhibition Opening. Photographer Stephen Wilson Barker.\n\n\n\n\n\n NIAF X ADC Exhibition Opening. Photographer Stephen Wilson Barker.\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nAccessibility\n\n\n\nAccessible Toilets (Level 2 and the Court yard / Ground Floor)Registered Assistance Animals welcomeWheelchair Acce ssible (via Lift in the Courtyard)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGet in Touch\n\n\n \nhttps://yamajiart.com/ URL;VALUE=URI:https://www.sac.org.au/events/gulamanmanha-bringing-someth ing-closer/ UID:urn:uuid:303293f7-0b28-4873-8be3-01832496b8a9 STATUS:CONFIRMED ORGANIZER: DTSTAMP:20260418T085140Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251010 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251031 LOCATION:Salamanca Arts Centre END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR