[The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade]
[In Association With Cry Havoc Media]
[Presents]
[Narrator] The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade...
...has a long and proud history of touring indigenous visual arts exhibitions.
This enables Australian overseas missions...
...to deliver targeted and high-profile cultural diplomacy...
...through the presentation of quality Australian visual arts.
These exhibitions, over the years, promote positive images...
..of indigenous Australia as sophisticated as culturally diverse.
It encourages the development of sustainable institutional partnerships...
...with presenters, venues, and other arts-sector contacts...
...in priority regions for the Australian government.
The success of these touring programmes...
...is best demonstrated in the increased exposure of international audiences...
...to indigenous art and culture.
And the publicity and business opportunities...
...for individual indigenous artists and arts centres that may result.
[Australian Journey Festival, 26 January - 24 February]
[Indigenous Visual Arts Exhibitions]
[Havana, Cuba]
# Traditional Cuban music #
[3 Days To Opening]
[Wayne Quilliam]
My name is Wayne Quilliam, a Tasmanian Aboriginal Photographic Artist...
...here in sunny Havana, Cuba.
Three separate exhibitions we've brought to Cuba as part of the Synchronicity show..
...in Sydney that we held at Boomali, but it's actually an expansion of that.
The 40-odd prints that were in that show have travelled...
...but we've also included an additional twelve large prints...
...that now accompany the three different series of works.
One is Lowanna, which is my art nudes...
...the other is [Tuwindri] which is my landscapes, and the third show is Ceremony
...which explains a little bit about ceremonies throughout aboriginal Australia.
[Maree Clarke]
My name is Maree Clarke, I'm from Mildura.
My tribal groups are Mutti Mutti, Yorta Yorta and Bunurong...
...from up along the Murray-Darling.
I was invited by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade...
...to bring my exhibition, Rituals and Ceremony, to Cuba.
And Rituals and Ceremony is about the mourning practices...
...and the rituals and ceremonies that go into the mourning practices...
...and scarification of aboriginal men along the Murray-Darling.
There are 60 prints that we brought over...
...and they're now hanging throughout the venue in three separate spaces.
This has probably been the most unique I've ever experienced...
...on so many different levels.
From the time that it was shipped over from Australia to Cuba...
...and the intricacy of shipping something that large...
...into a country that has a great deal of cultural barriers...
..to bring a certain amount of artworks in was always probably going to be challenging
But once we got it here, it's absolutely phenomenal...
...the amount of people who have worked on this to create such a successful show.
We've had the local people working with us...
[Danay Medina, Office of the Historian]
...and not only hanging the show but also assisting in the curation of the work.
[2 Days To Opening]
I was invited to be part of an exhibition in Melbourne...
...that was held at the Melbourne Arts Centre...
...and the exhibition was around life, death and spirituality...
[Richard Jameson, Festival Project Manager]
...and I had to then work out how I was going to interpret mourning practices...
...and make a respectful artwork to honour those people.
So after doing lots of research, I found out about the Kopi mourning caps.
Installing has been interesting; we're having to improvise...
...like for instance we're using Cuban sticks and Cuban soil.
The sticks are representative of huts that were built...
...for the women to sit in and wail...
But also beneath the huts would be the deceased to lay in.
And that's what the sticks represent.
[Cuba Nationwide Radio Interview]
[Narrator] Wayne and Maree were interviewed on Radio Havana...
...the same radio station to broadcast interviews...
by many of Cuba's most influential people, including Che Guevara.
[Interpreter] We'd like to start off by asking you which is your opinion...
...about the Bagra Hills exhibition which will be shown in Cuba.
What's the significance of it being here in Cuba?
I guess inviting three different artists to exhibit here in Cuba...
...is also showing the diversity of Australian aboriginal art.
[Narrator] Wayne and Maree express their appreciation to the people of Cuba...
...for the opportunity to exhibit their art in the Cuban capital.
The interview was heard nationwide.
[1 Day To Opening]
[Narrator] As part of the advertising for the festival...
...the Office of the Historian arranged a TV ad promoting the festival.
[BALGO Cultural Exhibition: AUSTRALIA JOURNEY in the History Centre]
[Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art]
[A BALGO HILLS Collective Exhibition]
[from the 26th of January until the 24th of February]
[Contemporary Aboriginal Art of Australia, BALGO]
[Convento de San Francisco de Asis, from the 26th of January until the 24th of February]
The show's been unique in so many different ways.
Normally with exhibitions in other countries...
...they bring you in to curate the show and hang it.
I'll come in and look at the hanging system and the space...
...and work out how the prints are to be organised.
This time it was more of a general consensus from a number of different people...
...and we involved the Cuban people a lot more in this show...
...by asking them their thoughts on how the artwork should look...
...and how it felt to them.
Once we'd established the parameters of where the show was to be put...
...and how it was to be hung, we had numerous opportunities...
...to move the artwork into different spaces to create a different look...
...and it's been hugely successful...
...because we've got a fantastic amount of response...
...from a variety of people about how wonderfully it's come together.
[Narrator] For the festival in Havana, the Department showcased indigenous art...
...on a number of levels...
...including the traditional art of Balgo Hills in Western Australia...
...embracing the modern medium of digital photography as an accepted art form...
and highlighting traditional practices through ritual and ceremony.
Titled 'The Australia Journey Festival' it was a direct outcome...
...of the Department's international cultural visits programme..
...coordinated by the Cultural Diplomacy section...
...of the Public Diplomacy and Information branch.
It was planned over a six-month period...
...with the strong support of the Cuban embassy in Australia...
...and the Office of the Historian in Havana.
[Press Conference]
[Narrator] Banners hung outside the gallery.
The artists and the Australian Ambassador attended a media conference.
[Speech in Spanish]
[Dr. Felix Alfonso, Vice Dean San Geronimo College of Havana]
[H.E. Katrina Cooper, Australian Ambassador to Mexico]
On behalf of Maree and I, we would like to say thank you for being on your land.
I'm here today to share my experiences and my photographic images and artwork...
...with the people of Cuba, in partnership with the Australian government...
...for our special day, for Australia Day.
[Festival Opening, Australia Day 2012]
There was the most people I've ever seen in an exhibition, in an opening.
And I know there's myself and Maree Clark and the Balgo mob here...
But to have all those dignitaries...
...in particular the ambassadors from different countries visit us...
...or to come to the opening of the exhibition was something quite special.
Also to have such senior people in the Cuban government and Cuban ministries...
...attend the event, we've been told, was highly unusual.
And they show genuine interest when they ask questions...
...on the artwork and how we developed it and how we brought it over.
And are genuinely open about future opportunities to collaborate.
[Katrina] The gallery tonight was saying that it was the first time ever...
...that they have seen so many diplomatic cars in the square here in Havana...
...and they were pretty excited.
And for myself, I thought it looked fantastic.
[H.E. Katrina Cooper, Australian Ambassador to Mexico]
Our relationship with Cuba has been developing over the last few years.
And for Cuba, culture is very important - they put a lot of emphasis...
...on culture and sport.
And so to have a cultural event in Cuba is really very significant.
And we've seen today that we've had very senior-level representation...
...from the Cuban government, which sends us a message...
...that they're very pleased about the exhibition and they're very pleased...
...about Australia strengthening its cultural relations with Cuba.
So I think for all of those reasons...
...the exhibition is really a very important moment...
...in our bilateral relationship.
[Ritual and Ceremony, by Maree Clarke]
[Sound of digeridoo]
We didn't initially have Cuba planned as part of the itinerary...
...but the Cuban ambassador in Australia...
...heard about it and became very enthusiastic about it.
[Mr. Abel Prieto, Cuban Minister for Culture]
And the reaction from the people to the art has been phenomenal.
So I think it's been an outstanding inauguration.
[Mr. Fidel Castro Diaz-Barat, Scientific Adviser to the Cuban Government]
And from what we're hearing, we expect that we'll see a lot of people...
...through the exhibition over the next month.
[The Future]
[Narrator] With a number of possible outcomes from the festival...
...Maree and Wayne are excited about what the future may hold.
What I like to do, what I do back in Australia with our mob...
...is to take photography to a new level.
To allow people to explore their culture through digital technology...
...and through cameras and photography.
And if there's some way that we can bring back...
Not maybe myself but maybe some other indigenous photographers or artists...
...to work with the local Cuban people
To explore their culture and maybe assist them with some sort of technology..
...and bring them some technology...
Because what we've found since delivering a series of talks here...
...is that they have the eye, they have the passion, they have the drive...
..but unfortunately they don't have access to the high-quality equipment...
...that we do in Australia.
Being in Cuba has been incredible, the amount of artists that we've met...
...the amount of galleries that we've seen:
I didn't realise there was so much fantastic art here.
[Wayne] Before we left Australia, the Cuban ambassador...
...was very interested in how we, as indigenous Australians...
...perceived Cuba and the Cuban people.
So he's asked us to put together a show...
...of photographic works through indigenous eyes.
And since I've been here, I've walked streets, I've gone into the countryside...
...and I've experienced Cuban culture from what I'd call a very grassroots level
...and through my perception of how I've viewed it...
I think the show that we develop is going to be very very interesting.
I'm quite excited to be able to share this when we return to Australia.
I guess from this trip to Cuba...
...it would be great to try and organise some cultural exchange...
...between Aboriginal artists and Cuban artists.
Maybe even organise a residency to bring four or five Aboriginal artists over here..
...to collaborate with ceramic artists, sculptors, printmakers...
A range of different people.
And at the end of that have a sort of arts-cultural exchange...
...arts festival. That would be fantastic.
[Sound of digeridoo]
[Produced by The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade]
[In Association with Cry Havoc Media]
[Director of Photography / Editing: Peter Butz]
[Voiceover by Rob Corrigan]
[Very special thanks and appreciation to: The Australian Embassy, Mexico]
[The staff of the Office of the Historian]
[The director and staff of the Convento de San Francisco]
[The director and staff of the Carmen Montilla Gallery]
[and the people of the Republic of Cuba]