Events Thurs 5 Apr – Sat 28 Apr

How does art provoke and support movements for change? How is the struggle passed on from one generation to the next? How have Tasmanian artists and migrants to Tasmania influenced the struggles that are so critical to our identity?

A Luta Continua (the struggle continues) was the catch cry of the FRELIMO rebels in Mozambique, and has been taken up around the world in struggles for resistance and change. The phrase neatly sums up the ways in which struggle changes, is passed on and provides hope for new generations.

The A Luta Continua project at Moonah Arts Centre is a concert, an exhibition, a film screening, dance workshops and a dance performance.

Incorporating stories from Aboriginal, environmental, and human rights struggles of Tasmania, the project celebrates the importance of non-violent protest in the Tasmanian cultural landscape and the significance of the arts as a means of communication and as a rallying call.

PROGRAM OF EVENTS

EXHIBITION OPENING
6pm Thursday 5 April
Curated by Selena De Cavalho, Caitlin Fargher and Sean Kelly, the exhibition brings together visual and audio material, objects, photos, video, interviews and social change art. Free entry.

REAL TO REEL: FILM SCREENING
6pm Friday 13 April
Screening short films about some of Tasmania’s iconic protest movements, curated by Matthew Fargher. $5 on the door.

MOONAH MOVES: DANCE STRONG
Dance Workshops running 16 – 20 April
Eric Avery and Gwenda Stanley with Tasmanian Indigenous youth and local dance leaders from pakana, explore resistance, struggle and identity through dance. Read more…

FRIDAY NIGHTS LIVE: A LUTA CONTINUA
6pm Friday 20 April
A performance bringing together generations of protest singers/rappers/poets from diverse cultural backgrounds, curated by Mwase Makalani and Shua Langford with Matthew Fargher. $5 on the door.

CONVERSATIONS WITH THE ARTISTS: A LUTA CONTINUA
1pm Sat 28 Apr
Join the artists exhibiting in current exhibitions for Conversations with the Artists. Meet the makers, and learn more about the artworks and the stories behind them. Free entry.

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A LUTA CONTINUA EXHIBITION

Catalogue of works

1. Ros Langford, Josh Langford

Our Heritage – Your Playground, 1982
A lecture given by Ros Langford (Yorta Yorta woman and Founder of TAC) at the 1982 Annual Meeting and Conference of the Australian Archaeological Association, about the central issues surrounding the white values and the misrepresentation of Aborigines, especially in Tasmania, within science. Following the move to return ancestral remains to Country from European museums, this lecture changed how science viewed this subject forever. Charcoal installation by Ros’s son, Josh Langford.

 

2. Jillian Mundy

kutalayna Series, 2009
In November 2009, despite Aboriginal heritage professionals recommending otherwise, the Tasmanian Government pushed ahead with construction of the Brighton Bypass through extensive Aboriginal heritage, scientists later deemed to be 40,000 years old. On several occasions Tasmanian Aborigines protested at the site and stopped works at kutalayna (Brighton Bypass construction site), many were arrested for trespassing, drawing international attention to the campaign. Aboriginal activist Jim Everett yelled, “[Premier] David Bartlett is using the police to stop Aboriginal people from protecting our cultural heritage, this is a shame on Bartlett, shame, shame, shame” as the police drove him away. The late Aunty Pat Green, a loved and respected elder and activist, was in her 70s at time and was amongst the arrested protesters, behind her is Smokey Beeton.

 

3. Matthew Newton

Brighton Bypass, 2011
“How can I tell my children that in 2011, in modern Tasmania, I was arrested for protecting 42,000 years of my people’s heritage?” Nathan Mansell yelled as he was handcuffed and loaded into the back of a police van.

Image: Brighton Bypass, 2011 – Matthew Newton

 

4. Permanent Protection Banner, 2018

 

 

Seed is Australia’s first nationwide Indigenous youth led climate justice action network; a movement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people standing up for and protecting country through the establishment of 100% renewable energy. Their strategy is talking with, building and moving the mob. The Permanent Protection banner was used at the 2018 Invasion Day march, the national day of action to ban fracking in the NT and at the Hobart screening of Seed’s Water is Life documentary.

 

5. Michael Roberts and Richard Hale

Postal Vote Costume, 2017
Recycled Vote Yes Corflute signs, Red Satin, Gaffa Tape
Made for a media event in Salamanca Square, in October 2017, the Post-box costume aimed to encourage more people to complete and send in their Australian Marriage Law postal surveys. It was also worn at various other times when handing out flyers around Hobart and wiggling Vote Yes signs at Hobart traffic.

Image: Postal Vote Costume, 2017 – Richard Hale, Michael Roberts

 

6. Tricky Walsh, Mish Meijers

Dear Minister for Women, 2015
This video is a protest and a vigil. It is a formal objection against how this gender has been represented politically and philosophically not only historically but as it exists in the current political climate that inches closer towards new and inhumane levels of conservatism. With only a weeks notice we did a Winter call out for Angry Ladies to run through a sports like banner on the Domain cricket grounds, it was cold and dark and ladies were angry about Tony Abbott self-appointing himself Minister for Women. The catharsis of the group was real, and the video very specific to the time and place of Abbott’s enormous arrogance, which eventually became his downfall.

 

7. Yvette Watt

Duck Lake Protest, 2016
An art-meets-activism event held on the opening morning of duck shooting season in March 2016, at Moulting Lagoon on the east coast of Tasmania. The aim was to counter the hyper-masculinity of the duck shooters, while drawing attention to the issue, and encouraging more duck rescuers to come. It was a huge success – media coverage was overwhelmingly positive and thorough, and a group of 30+ rescuers were on the lagoon with pink sparkly flags and in kayaks towing pink “decoys”, successfully scaring many ducks from the shooters guns. Ten months later, the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service charged Yvette for non-compliance with the permit for the event. The case was heard on Friday June 2, 2017; however, the case was dismissed, as the prosecution entered no evidence.

Image: Duck Lake project, 2016 – Yvette Watt

 

8. Lychandra Gieseman

Giant T-Shirt (Hunger For Gluttony), 2018, organic cotton, Hemp, Eco-friendly fabric paint.
Worn in the SAAKA’s Hunger For Gluttony runway show at MONA FOMA 2018. Its overbearing size, in contrast to the front painted section, is a rough representation of the average Australians buying habits in comparison to their needs, embodying the excessive amount of clothing waste annually. The textile print is a recurring element in the entire collection, reminiscent of the dye-stained rivers that are an increasingly problematic form of pollution as a by-product of the fast fashion garment industry.

Image: Giant T-Shirt, 2018 – Lychandra Gieseman

 

 

9. Greedozer (Benny Zable) Singing at a Warners Landing action

 

“WORK-CONSUME-BE SILENT-DIE-I RELY ON YOUR APATHY”

10. Hand Quilted Earth First Banner, 1983

 

A banner sewn on Benny Zable’s hand-cranked sewing machine at the Butler Island base camp during the Franklin Dam Blockade. Wren Cameron Frazer saved it from the incinerator after the campaign was over, and has since added the ‘Earth First’ patch for a continuing environmental campaign.

 

11. Climate Angels

Angels in Paris, 2015
Climate Guardians use angel iconography, inspired by the Weld Angel,  to highlight the vital role of guardianship of precious natural resources, both human and non-human, in light of climate change. Graceful and haunting, the angels have a beautiful, clear message to care for the environment for future generations. Climate Guardians are a wing of ClimActs, a political performance collective using striking visual spectacle as well as satire to communicate the urgent need for the world to respond to climate change.

 

12. Matthew Newton

The Weld Angel, 2007
Alana Beltran as the Weld Angel, with white scavenged Cockatoo feathers in her wings, sitting for 9 hours while loggers and police yell at her to get down.

 

13. Michael McWilliams

Please Save My Forests, 2002
Banner made in collaboration with Mary O’Doherty for environmental protests through the 2000’s, gifted to Suzy Manigan after Mary’s passing.

 

14. James Tylor

Un-Resettling: Dwellings, 2013
The Un-Resettling: Dwellings series is a self-experimental exploration project of re-learning traditional Indigenous cultural practices in contemporary society that have been lost due to European colonisation of Australia. Tylor has re-created dwellings on Knocklofty council land re-learned from oral discussions, language, drawings, paintings, photographs, historical journals and publications.

Image: Un-Resettling: Dwellings, 2013 – James Tylor

 

15. Selena de Carvalho

Live Feed, 2018
Sugar gliders are the main predator of some of Tasmania’s most endangered birds, including the imperiled swift parrot. Studies have found that while native to the Australian mainland, Sugar Gliders were introduced to Tasmania in the 1800s. An internet crawler live searches for endangered species as the preserved glider observes.

 

16. Aviva Reed

Drop of Aqua, 2018
“Water is alive, an entity of entities”. As waters around the world are given agency within legal frameworks, an investigation into what it means for water to be a living entity. A recent example is the Wilip-gin Birrarung murron (Yarra River Protection) Act where the Woi- wurrung peoples notions of water as living adds to the increasing world of rights for nature. This work seeks to investigate water as alive from an ecological perspective. Moving around and through the globe as liquid, ice and gas, water force becomes life force. Animation and Installation by Selena de Carvalho

 

17. Hazara Young Men, Curious Works, Pulse Youth Health

Stories and Names in Hazaragi and Farsi on Boat, 2013
Made as part of a community project, with Aimee Falzon, young Hazara men in detention at Pontville told stories of Hazara persecution and the dangerous journey from Afghanistan via Pakistan and Malaysia to Christmas Island. Shortly after this work was made all of the young men were sent either to other camps or settled on mainland. Not one of the young men has remained in Tasmania.

 

18. Pedder Pennies, 1972

Geoff Atkinson went to Lake Pedder in the winter of 1972 after it was flooded and there was hardly any beach left. “I collected the Pedder Pennies because I had read about how they formed at the lake entrance of the Huon River and were completely unique. I have since given them to my son Joe because I thought they would be a reminder of what was” – these Pennies are now very rare and found below the reservoir.

 

19. Franklin Blockade Handbook

An original handbook handed out to protesters who were going Up River to help the Franklin blockade.

 

20. Caitlin Fargher, Neylan Aykut, Matthew Fargher

Passing on Passion, 2018
A series of conversations with key Tasmanian activists about protesting for Aboriginal, environmental and human rights through art, music and passion. How do activists pass on the fire to the next generation, what advice do they have for future struggles? In order of appearance: puralia meenamatta (Jim Everett), Josh Langford, Nathan Maynard, Alejandro, Lawrence Gino, Jenny Webber, Benny Zable, Alice Hungerford, Lisa Yeates, Eli, Rissah Vox, Jillian Mundy, Bob Brown.

 

21. Fernando do Campo

Thanks for the introduction, 2018
Histories of species introduction and the consequent narratives of environmental impact, rarely include the human as a protagonist. The role is assumed, of saviour or historian; and narrated in a god-like puppeteer approach. Humans claim a stake; in this case, the colonial polemics of arrival and settlement seem to permeate an ongoing game of cause and effect for perpetual species mobilization. Is it possible to shift discourse to consider the non-human voice? Are we capable of listening to what they might say? Thanks for the introduction is anything but friendly. Its contractual, passive aggressive, hopefully polite – but it is where all relationships must start.

 

22. James Newitt

If They Fall, 2010
Drawing a thread through industry and environment – connecting different actions and social behaviours through prolonged observation as well as facilitated performance. Sound in collaboration with Pat Baretta. Filmed with the assistance of Kelly Oakley, Camp Florentine and Still Wild Still Threatened.

 

23. Erin Linhart

Introduced Species and Un-Natural Disasters, 2018
This work meditates on the ongoing cycles of destruction that play out on the Tasmanian landscape as a result of introduced species: animal, plant and human. This image respectfully reflects staged portraits of palawa people from the 1800s – photos that demonstrate resilience and strength in the face of war, genocide and imposed culture which develop in the course of introduced species asserting their dominance. Using pink as a metaphor for invasion and khaki as a representation of universal contemporary war and hunting, this piece is an ode to sacred inheritances and a protest against those who colonised and suppressed them. The totem kookaburra head on a stake is a representation of irony. Although declining in population in its native states, in Tasmania (where it is introduced), the kookaburra causes ecological harm and disruptions to native species akin to the destruction created by its fellow introduced species.

 

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This project is presented by the Moonah Arts Centre with support from the Australia Council and the Bellendena Small Grants Scheme.