Help shape Deakin NAIDOC art project online

INDIGENOUS and non-indigenous people across the country are being invited to join a live online event on Thursday and help create a large-scale abstract artwork for Deakin University’s NAIDOC Week celebration.

The live-streamed collaborative painting project will be led by Kiri Wicks and Dr Jenny Murray-Jones at the National Indigenous Knowledges Education Research Innovation (NIKERI) Institute.

Working together on a 4m x 2m canvas, they will paint for more than seven hours and people can join online any time between 10am and 5pm, either observing or contributing their story so the artists can consider how to represent it artistically.

The completed artwork will be then be displayed at the NIKERI Institute.

NIKERI Institute director Gabrielle Fletcher said the event was part of the institute’s ongoing commitment to honouring and sharing indigenous knowledge, culture and values.

“NAIDOC 2020 celebrates the past, present and future and our place as First Nations Peoples, well before 1770 and well after now,” Associate Professor Fletcher said.

“This year’s theme, ‘Always Was, Always Will Be’ invites all Australians to fully embrace the true history of this country — some 65,000+ years — and the recognition that we have the oldest continuing cultures in the world and this is everyone’s history, knowledge and ingenuity.”

Ms Wicks, NIKERI’s partnerships co-ordinator, said that with most of Deakin’s NAIDOC Week events rescheduled to November due to COVID-19, the collaboration via Zoom was the perfect way for NIKERI to safely share and celebrate during this important week.

To be a part of the online event go to: https://bit.ly/2NAcPQQ