Women’s Work profiles twelve prominent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in a free display that was shot by multi-award winning Australian Aboriginal photographer Professor Wayne Quilliam and curated by South Australian Museum’s Rebecca Richards, who says the exhibition adds an important perspective to conversations around sovereignty, justice, and leadership captured in NAIDOC Week’s 2020 theme, Always Was, Always Will Be.

“Aboriginal women have always been engaged with the struggle for land rights, and have always been in leadership positions,” says Richards, an Adnyamathanha and Barngarla woman, and South Australian Museum Early Career Researcher.

“We’re now recognising some of these women from across South Australia; some of them are younger, some of them are older, but when we asked them who were their inspirations, it was their mothers, their family, their culture. Now, they want to teach that to their children and their youth so they become strong and healthy and know the truth of our culture and history.”

“For a lot of Aboriginal people, it’s hard for our history to be encapsulated in text, or words, or even traditional kinds of historical displays,” says Richards. “Often, it’s through things like art that we can bring in our history and our voices.”

Professor Wayne Quilliam said, the twelve black-and-white portraits will be accompanied by short reflections from each of the women that trusted us to share their stories, their essence and their culture.

“Creating this series of work was an extraordinary journey. The enigmatic Kari from Sparkke contacted me to see if it were possible to create an exhibition celebrating the incredible achievements of Indigenous women throughout South Australia and at the same time raise funds to assist community ventures. Having created, curated, and delivered over 300 shows across the globe, this was the first that would be done in three weeks from concept to opening.

“The biggest challenge was to narrow the thousands of incredible women down to just 12 and then travel the state to capture their essence in a creative way. It was an amazing team effort to create the first exhibition and I applaud all that have worked so hard to ensure the light continues to burn, especially in these challenging times”, said Quilliam.

Women’s Work was originally hosted by Sparkke at the Whitmore, a female-owned and operated pub and nano-brewery Launched on January 26 in the venue’s Queen’s Room, Women’s Work sought to recognise the contribution of Indigenous women on a date that remains contentious and painful for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. 

After an eventful nine months that saw the original exhibition close early due to COVID-19 restrictions, NAIDOC Week 2020 postponed from July to November, and a historic protest movement for racial equality sweep the globe, Women’s Work remains as relevant as ever.

“These are portraits of just some of the Aboriginal women whose names and faces should be known – and whose voices and messages should be heard by all Australians in 2020,” Sparkke co-founder Kari Allen says of the series. “These are the people who support the retention of the deep knowledge gathered over tens of thousands of years that is critically important as our world is heating physically, spiritually, and morally.”

The limited-edition prints will also be available for purchase, with funds raised supporting the Museum’s mission to better recognise the work of women in its collection through the acquisition of the ‘Story Necklace’, a 50 metre-long collaborative work of threaded gum nuts, ininti, and quandong collected on country by the women of Central Australian art centre Ikuntji Artists.

“The ‘Story Necklace’ is important for us to acquire because our collections are historically gendered towards male collection items – because our collectors tended to be male,” says Alice Beale, Senior Collection Manager Humanities and World Cultures.

 “They focussed on the tools of life – spear throwers, weapons – and there was less focus on collecting women’s materials, and even recording women’s stories that might accompany an object. The Museum decided a few years ago now that we would try to address this gender balance in the collection through targeted acquisitions of historic pieces, but also in the acquisition of artworks predominantly made by women, such as the ‘Story Necklace’.”

Prominently positioned in the foyer of the Museum from 6 November - 6 December, Women’s Work represents another step in the South Australian Museum’s efforts to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to tell their own story. 

“Being in the foyer of the Museum, it’s like we’re now the ones giving that first statement about what our culture is before you go into the Aboriginal Cultures Gallery,” says Richards. “Hopefully, it will make people think in a different way.”