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Djon Mundine
OAM
Born
John Mundine

Grafton, New South Wales, Australia
AwardsRed Ochre Award
Websitewww.djonmundine.com

Djon Mundine OAM (born 1951) is an Aboriginal Australian curator, writer, artist and activist.

Early life

Djon was born in Grafton, New South Wales in 1941. He is one of 11 children born to Roy Mundine and Olive Bridgette Mundine (nee Donovan). His siblings include Roy, Anne, Olive, Kaye, Charles, Peter, Philip, Warren Mundine, James and Graeme.[citation needed] He is a Wehbal man from the West Bundjalung nation, from the Northern Rivers of New South Wales.[1] He is also a descendant of the Gumbaynggirr, Yuin people.[2]

Mundine spent his early life growing up in South Grafton. In 1963, his family settled in the western Sydney suburb of Auburn. Mundine went to the Catholic Benedict Marist Brothers College and went onto commence study at Macquarie University.[citation needed]

Career

Mundine is a curator, writer, artist and activist and is celebrated as a foundational figure in the criticism and exhibition of contemporary Aboriginal Australian art.[citation needed]

Mundine has held many senior curatorial positions in both national and international institutions, some of which include the National Museum of Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Campbelltown Art Centre.[citation needed]

Arafura Swamp Ramingining

Between the years 1979 and 1995, Mundine was the Art Advisor at Milingimbi and curator at Bula-bula Arts in Ramingining, Arnhem Land for sixteen years. Mundine was the concept artist and producer of the ‘Aboriginal Memorial’. The Aboriginal Memorial is a work of contemporary Indigenous Australian art from the late 1980s, and comprises 200 decorated hollow log coffins. The work was realised by 43 artists from Ramingining and neighbouring communities of Central Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory. Artists who participated in its creation included David Malangi and George Milpurrurru.The work was created to coincide with the Australian Bicentenary and commemorates those Indigenous Australians who died as a result of European settlement. It was acquired by the National Gallery of Australia, where it is on permanent display. Its first exhibition was at the Sydney Biennale in 1988, and it was the centrepiece of an exhibition of Indigenous art at Russia's Hermitage Museum in 2000. As of 2014 it stands at the entry to the National Gallery's new wing that opened in September 2010. The Memorial was central to the 1988 Biennale of Sydney and remains on permanent display at the National Gallery of Australia in the main entrance hall.[citation needed]

In 1993, Mundine received the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the promotion and development of Aboriginal arts, crafts and culture.[citation needed]

In 1994 he co-curated (with Fiona Foley) I Shall never Become a Whiteman,[3] for the Havana Biennale and Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Tyerabowbarwarryaou was the first exhibition to exhibit contemporary Aboriginal art at the MCA. Tyerabarrbowaryaou aimed to present a new voice of Aboriginal culture. Mundine was a curator for 'Aratjara’ exhibition (Dusseldorf, London, and Denmark, 1993–94). In 1994 Mundine and Foley worked together to co-create the MCA Aboriginal Art: The Arnott's Collection exhibition.[4] The exhibition was the first public display of the Arnott’s Biscuits Collection of Aboriginal Bark Paintings. The Arnott’s Biscuits Collection of Aboriginal Bark Paintings comprises 275 bark paintings donated to the MCA in June 1993 by Arnott’s Biscuits Limited. The collection features works from the 1960s through to the early 1980s by important artists from the creative hubs in and around Groote Eylandt, Yirrkala, Galiwin’ku, Milingimbi, Maningrida, Ramingining, Gunbalanya, Wadeye and the Tiwi islands; places still significant today for their ongoing contribution to contemporary Aboriginal art practice. The collection is widely considered to be one of the most important collections of bark paintings in the world.

The Native Born (1996, MCA), is an exhibition and publication showing ceremonial and utilitarian weaving and artistic work from Ramingining community.[5] This led to the inclusion of artists such as Robyn Djunginy in the 1998 Sydney Biennale. Other major exhibitions include They are Meditating: Bark Paintings from the Museum of Contemporary Art's Arnott Collection (2008).[6]

In 2017 Mundine was the inaugural recipient of the Power Publications Award for Indigenous Art Writing for his essay "The Aboriginal Memorial: Australia’s Forgotten War",[7] published in Artlink[8]

Between 2005 and 2006 Mundine was resident at the National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku) in Osaka, Japan as a Research Professor in the Department of Social Research.[citation needed]

In 2020 Mundine won the Australia Council's Red Ochre Award for Lifetime Achievement.[9]

Mundine is currently[when?] an independent curator of contemporary First Nation art and cultural mentor for fellow First Nation artists.[citation needed]

Honours and awards

Exhibitions

Year Exhibition Co-Creators Artists Gallery Festival Location Description
2020 Three Visions of the Garingal Djon Mundine, Karla Dickens, Adam Hill, Jason Wing Mosman Art Gallery Sydney Festival Sydney, NSW From the early days of the colony, Sydney’s authorities built military sites designed to thwart invasion. Conscious of the irony, First Nations artists Blak Douglas, Karla Dickens and Jason Wing, working with curator Djon Mundine OAM, have taken over some of these secret sites for a series of poignant, darkly humorous, site-specific art installations created to inspire deep reflection and offer new perspectives on Sydney Harbour.
2019 Who Are These Strangers and Where Are They Going Fiona Foley Ballarat International Foto Biennal Ballarat, Victoria The exhibition brought together Foley’s acclaimed photographic series, large-scale installations, and the Sydney debut of a new musical soundscape premiered at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale. The title for the show came from the soundscape, created in collaboration with musicians Joe Gala and Teila Watson, based on the oldest known Aboriginal song documenting the first exchange between Captain Cook in 1770 by Foley’s ancestors the Batjala people of K'gari (Fraser Island). Was also presented by the National Art School in January 2020.[citation needed]
2017 Living in Their Times Daniel Boyd, Jason Wing, Peter McKenzie, Leanne Tobin, Amala Groom, BLAK Douglas (Adam Hill), Leah Flanagan, Sandy Woods, Chantelle Woods, Caroline Oakley, Bjorn Stewart, Karla Dickens and Warwick Keen.[citation needed] Mosman Art Gallery Sydney Living in Their Times was an exhibition that reflected on the lineage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander self-determination and activism that both preceded and followed the landmark 1967 Referendum, in which Australians voted to formally remove passages from the Australian constitution that discriminated against Aboriginal people. The program included a restaging of Bungaree’s Farm, an immersive three-channel video installation reflecting on the life of Bungaree, an important Aboriginal figure in colonial Australia and the first person to be referred to as an ‘Australian’ and was first staged at Mosman Art Gallery in 2015.[citation needed]

Boards, committees and associations

Year Role Board, Committee or Association Location Description
2020 Member Biennale of Contemporary Art, Festival of Pacific Arts Noumea, New Caledonia
1985-2000 Member - Visual Arts AIATSIS Research Ethics Committee Canberra, ACT
1998 Executive Member Australian Indigenous Cultural Network Canberra, ACT The Australian Indigenous Cultural Network (AICN[12] was an initiative initially funded independently in 1998 by Richard Pratt, through the Australian Foundation for Culture and the Humanities. It became an incorporated association in 2001, and was jointly supported by the Australia Business Arts Foundation and AIATSIS. Patrick Dodson was the Chair of the Board at that point.
1991-98 Executive Member National Indigenous Arts Association (NIAAA) East Sydney NSW NIAAA (previously Aboriginal Arts Management Agency A.A.M.A) is

a national indigenous arts and cultural service and advocacy association

which advocates for the continued and increased recognition and

protection of the rights of Indigenous artists. NIAAA also provides

culturally appropriate advice, information, referrals and support services

to Indigenous artists and organisations.

1996      Member of the Indigenous Reference Group Intellectual Property Protection for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Canberra, ACT A Commonwealth Inter-Departmental Committee.
1996 Expert Examiner National Cultural Heritage Committee Canberra, ACT A committeed established by the Department of Communication and the

Arts under the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986

1992, 95-96 Committee Member ATSIC Cultural Industry Advisory Committee (CIAC) Canberra, ACT A committee established by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Committee (ASIC) to develop and manage the Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander Cultural Industry Strategy.

1987 Founding and Executive Member Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Land Australian Aboriginal Artists (ANKA) Darwin, NT Arnhem, Northern and Kimberley Artists (ANKA), the peak support and advocacy body for Aboriginal artists and Aboriginal-owned community art cntres spread across over one million square kilometres of country in the Top End of the Northern Territory and Western Australia
1989 Member Australia Council - Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Arts Committee Canberra, ACT
1985-87 Director Aboriginal Arts Australia

Other roles

References

  1. ^ a b "Djon Mundine". National Portrait Gallery (Australia). Retrieved 3 September 2021.
  2. ^ "Djon, 1990 (Printed 2013)".
  3. ^ Tyerabowbarwarryaou — I Shall never Become a Whiteman
  4. ^ MCA Aboriginal Art: The Arnott's Collection
  5. ^ The Native Born
  6. ^ They are Meditating: Bark Paintings from the Museum of Contemporary Art's Arnott Collection
  7. ^ a b "Award Announcement: The Inaugural Recipient of the Power Publications Award for Indigenous Art Writing". Power Publications. 18 July 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  8. ^ Artlink Issue 35:1 | March 2015
  9. ^ The Australia Council’s Red Ochre Award for Lifetime Achievement
  10. ^ "Djon Mundine - OAM". Australian Honours. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 13 June 1993. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
  11. ^ Museums and Galleries National Awards 2015
  12. ^ )Australian Indigenous Cultural Network (AICN)
  13. ^ a b & Wood Mallesons Contemporary First Nation Art Prize
  14. ^ Woollahra Small Sculpture Award
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