Reconciliation Action Plan

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Reconciliation Action Plan 41 CASE STUDY: PUBLIC PROGRAMS A Platform for First Australian Voices QAGOMA’s Public Programs connect audiences with exhibitions and the Collection, highlighting the voices of Australia’s First Peoples, including emerging and established artists, designers, historians, writers and musicians. Talks Talks and panel discussions address the big ideas behind exhibitions, and broaden the conversation beyond art. Pay Attention talk series during ‘Tony Albert: Visible’ This four-part talk series featured guests in conversation with artist Tony Albert, highlighting a pressing issue, story or history in need of attention. Speakers included Alethea Beetson (Artistic Director, Digi Youth Arts and First Nations Producer, BIGSOUND), Leesa Watego (Director, Iscariot Media and blogger), Melissa Lucashenko (author) and Wesley Enoch AM (playwright and artistic director). Special Events and Projects Special events and projects provide opportunities to delve deeper through experiences, hands-on workshops and commissioned projects. Drawing from the Collection project Poets and writers were commissioned to respond to artworks from QAGOMA’s Collection. Their responses were published on site and online, as well as being performed for audiences. Participants have included writers and poets Ellen Van Neerven, Graham Akhurst, Lionel Fogarty and Theresa Creed. Performance and Music Performances by artists, community, dancers and musicians activate the Gallery and bring exhibitions to life. Up Late The Gallery’s flagship ticketed after-hours program has been running for 13 years and attended by over 120 000 visitors. Past performers include Archie Roach, Electric Fields, Emily Wurramara, Gawurra, Luke Daniel Peacock, Mojo Juju and The Medics featuring Bunna Lawrie (Coloured Stone). ‘…I think it’s time to recognise the opportunity that we have not just through exhibition, not just artists, but the sophisticated conversation that decision makers can have with Aboriginal people. With people who understand land and understand that knowledge. People who live on the land and what they can bring to the conversation to support better decision making, grown up decisions, that can support us to be sustainable if we choose to live in that way.’ Nicole Foreshew Wiradjuri artist and writer, during the panel discussion ‘Traditional Responses, Contemporary Problems’ during the ‘Water’ opening weekend, 2019 ‘I’m so thankful to have been given that opportunity to speak and advocate for things I’m passionate about, so thank you for reaching out to me.’ Jamie Graham Trawlwoolway Pakana activist and ecologist-in-training, speaker at GOMA Talks: Beyond Eco Anxiety, 2020 ‘Being an Indigenous writer, I was thrilled to engage with the work of three Indigenous artists in the Gallery’s Australian collection display, and found that in responding to their work, I also explored elements of my personal history and identity. The voice, subjectivity and agency of Indigenous artists are inherently political and unique, because of the history of colonisation and the intergenerational trauma that informs our engagement with society.’ Graham Akhurst Kokomini people, writer, participant in ‘Drawing from the Collection’, 2017 Opposite: Injinoo artist Teho Ropeyarn leads a teens’ printmaking workshop during ‘GOMA Q: Contemporary Queensland Art’, GOMA / Photograph: Chloë Callistemon Artist Grace Lillian Lee leads a drop-in weaving workshop in the Open Studio space, QAG / Photograph: Katie Bennett