Indigenous fibre artists on silver screen

Dr Christiane Keller, visiting academic of the School of Archaeology and Anthropology, travelled to Germany last month to present her film Tjanpy Nyawa! Look at the grass! at the Down Under Berlin Film Festival.

Dr Keller screened her film, the result of recent research into sensory experiences of Aboriginal fibre artists, on Friday 13 September.

“The project investigates the multitude of senses involved in making and appreciating fibre art by Tjanpi Desert Weavers in Warakurna, Western Desert,” Dr Keller said.

“It looks at how these multisensory experiences of tactility, vision, rhythm and sound, smell and taste are connected to desert culture and examines their importance for the artists.”

Dr Keller is interested in how these experiences can be translated cross-culturally to a museum and gallery audience who’s sensory experiences of Tjanpi art is often reduced to a visual experience.

Her film highlights the multi-sensory experiences of fibre artists who mainly work with grass, wool and raffia. It portrays the integration of this more recently developed artistic expression within desert culture and captures the atmosphere of sociality of these women seldom seen in Australian films

The film also provides a voice to Indigenous fibre artists to promote and share their knowledge and culture.

Generous funds from the School of Archaeology and Anthropology and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies have made Dr Keller’s travel to Berlin possible.