SHOWCASE PROJECT
BUKU-LARRNGGAY MULKA ART CENTRE: DIGITAL LEARNING CENTRE
The Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre is the Indigenous community controlled art centre of Northeast Arnhem Land, located in Yirrkala, a small Aboriginal community on the north-eastern tip of the top end of the Northern Territory. Their mission is to sustain and protect Yolngu cultural knowledge in Northeast Arnhem Land under the leadership of community members. The Mulka Project opened the door to its new digital learning centre on July 31st 2015. Within its first week the community elders renamed the Yirrkala Digital Learning Centre 'Yalu' which is dhuwal language for 'nest'. The Nelson Meers Foundation is a founding supporter of the Yalu, providing support for a Digital Learning Co-ordinator to manage the Digital Learning Centre and guide visitors through the Yolngu digital archive.
CONVERSATION
Interview with Mella Jaarsma: Give Me Shelter
By Naima Morelli
It's not easy to introduce Mella Jaarsma because she's so many things at the same time. Let's limit ourselves to the basic coordinates to begin with. Mella is an artist who is widely known for her body-covering shelters made out of the most unusual materials.
The skins of frogs, squirrels, bats, snakes and chickens are all put to use in her wearable works, as well as moth cocoons, water buffalo horns, the bark of banana trees, and more. The garment becomes a symbolic protection and a visual representation of fear or a need for security. Her work also alludes to the isolation of human beings and the need for a filtered approach to the world.
CASE STUDY
THE STELLA PRIZE
STELLA WRITING CAMP: GIRLS WRITE UP
Bossy. Slutty. Aggressive. Prudish. Precious. Princess. Hysterical. Whiny. Demanding. Dramatic. Oversensitive. Wallflower. Young women are constantly being presented with images of themselves that reduce them to contradictory stereotypes.
Stella Writing Camp: Girls Write Up is a writing intensive for teenage girls in Sydney and Melbourne, where they will have the opportunity to read more critically, consider ways in which they can reclaim the language used against them and imagine a future not limited by their gender.