Moving tribute during NAIDOC week

NAIDOC week activities at the Lismore campus began with a moving musical performance and art exhibition opening held in the library on Monday night attended by around 60 people.

The 'CitizenBelonging Country' art exhibition features original artworks from the Indigenous Australian Aranda artists from Hermannsburg in the MacDonnell Ranges region of the Northern Territory, all of whom are family members of the renowned Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira.

The art exhibition continues at the Lismore campus library in A-block, until Friday, July 23.

Ash Dargan, from the Larrakia people of the Northern Territory, who is one of the world's premier performers on digeridoo, performed at the exhibition opening.

Rob Cumings, senior projects officer for the Equity and Diversity Office at Southern Cross University, said the music and artwork combined to create a powerful experience.

"Ash did two pieces of music, one on a didgeridoo that evoked the landscape in the paintings as well as the birds and animals that inhabit that landscape," Mr Cumings said.

"He also played a piece on a Native American flute that captured the birdsong of the Gouldian finch. A bird he described by saying the flocks paint the landscape with colour as they fly through.

"Many people commented afterwards on how the performance had touched their souls, it was deeply moving, there were tears in a few peoples' eyes.

"The performance was also special in that it paid tribute to this year's NAIDOC theme, 'Unsung Heroes – Closing the Gap by Leading Their Way' because Albert Namatjira was one of the first Aboriginal people to cause white Australian culture to look at Indigenous culture in a different way. It was a turning point because it highlighted the injustices in the laws back then."

The artworks in the exhibition were loaned to the University by Robyn Harrower and the exhibition curator is Scott Harrower, one of Australia's leading mosaicists and a part-time visual arts student at the Southern Cross University Lismore campus.

A NAIDOC family day is being held in the Plaza at the Lismore campus today (Friday, July 9) from 10am – 2pm.

Photo: Attending the opening of the exhibition are, from left Professor Peter Lee, Vice Chancellor of Southern Cross University, Robyn Harrower, Scott Harrower (curator) and Rob Cumings.