Exhibition Insight... Ernabella Arts: Ceramic Warka Wiru 20 Years-kutu (20 Years of Creating Ceramics)
Collection of works from Ernabella Arts, photo: Connor Patterson
Ernabella Arts: Ceramic Warka Wiru 20 Years-kutu (20 Years of Creating Ceramics)
Words by Caitlin Eyre
In celebration of the 20 year anniversary of the Ernabella Arts Ceramics Studio, JamFactory and Ernabella Arts present Ernabella Arts: Ceramic Warka Wiru 20 Years-kutu (20 Years of Creating Ceramics), a major exhibition and publication recognising the skill and creativity of their talented artists.
Exhibitors: Jayanna Andy, Alison Milyika Carroll, Elizabeth Dunn, Rupert Jack, Langaliki Lewis, Lynette Lewis, Melissa Lewis, Nicole Rupert, Inawinytji Stanley, Janice Stanley, Renita Stanley, Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM, Anne Nginyangka Thompson, Carlene Thompson, Derek Jungarrayi Thompson, Marissa Angapiya Thompson, Kunmanara Tjilya, Fiona Wells, Tjimpuna Williams.
Ernabella Arts: Ceramic Warka Wiru 20 Years-kutu (20 Years of Creating Ceramics) is showing at JamFactory Adelaide from 30 September – 3 December 2023 as part of the Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art.
Nestled in the eastern fringes of the Musgrave Ranges, the township of Pukatja (previously known as Ernabella) is located on the traditional lands of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara in South Australia, a mere 30 kilometres south of the Northern Territory border. Pukatja is the oldest permanent settlement of the Anangu, whose rich history and culture has been present on these lands for tens of thousands of years. It is also home to Ernabella Arts which, now in its 75th year of operation, proudly celebrates the 20 year anniversary of its industrious and widely regarded Ceramics Studio.
Founded in 1948 when a women’s craft room was created at Ernabella Mission, Ernabella Arts is Australia’s oldest continuously running Indigenous art centre and is an important part of the lives of the Anangu people. Since the mid 1990s, Ernabella Arts and JamFactory have fostered a special relationship, with ceramics first introduced to Ernabella Arts by JamFactory Ceramics Studio alumni Robin Best during a visit to Pukatja in 1996. The artists responded positively to Best’s suggestion of adding ceramics to their artistic repertoire and Best developed the foundations for a pilot program. As the art centre did not yet have access to ceramic facilities, JamFactory supplied a number of large blank bisque-fired terracotta plates and Best focused on teaching the artists how to apply decorative designs using underglazes.
Following a series of intensive decorative underglazing workshops, JamFactory and Ernabella forged a formal production relationship that saw blank plates regularly being sent to Pukatja for decorating. The artists maintained full creative control over their artworks and were encouraged to develop their own designs and style of working. Once decorated, the pieces were then returned to Adelaide for glazing and firing before being sold in JamFactory’s retail outlet. While the introduction of ceramics was highly successful and enjoyable for the artists, transporting the vessels to and from a remote location proved to be challenging and resulted in very slow production turnaround.
Over the next few years, JamFactory facilitated a number of workshops through which the artists began learning the techniques of hand-coiling and slip casting in order to lay the foundations for making their own ceramic vessels to decorate in the future. By 2002, it was clear that the artists were extremely interested in pursuing ceramics as a business and establishing a permanent ceramics studio at Ernabella Arts. After securing considerable arts funding, the Ceramics Studio was created in the old craft room the following year, with initial onsite workshops for the artists using the new facilities being conducted by several visiting ceramic artists. The creation of a dedicated Ceramics Studio greatly impacted on the development of the artists’ decorative skills and the refinement of their individual design aesthetics and styles, as well as the production of the ceramic vessels themselves.
In 2023, the 20th year of operation, the Ernabella Arts Ceramics Studio is highly industrious, with several top quality kilns, pottery wheels and an array of specialist equipment. Approximately 30 ceramic artists work regularly and are assisted by the Ceramics Manager and local Anangu arts workers, as well as a number of visiting artists who run onsite workshops throughout the year. Proudly held at the centre of community life in Pukatja, the art centre is home to a rich and varied cohort of artists both young and old, men and women, established and emerging. Ernabella Arts has a strong intergenerational history with cultural knowledge and artistic skills being passed down from grandparents to children and their children, all working together in the art centre.
The exhibition Ernabella Arts: Ceramic Warka Wiru 20 Years-kutu (20 Years of Creating Ceramics) celebrates the proud history of Ernabella Arts by showcasing more than 30 new ceramic artworks by 19 artists working at the art centre, including Jayanna Andy, Alison Milyika Carroll, Elizabeth Dunn, Rupert Jack, Langaliki Lewis, Lynette Lewis, Melissa Lewis, Nicole Rupert, Inawinytji Stanley, Janice Stanley, Renita Stanley, Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM, Anne Nginyangka Thompson, Carlene Thompson, Derek Jungarrayi Thompson, Marissa Angapiya Thompson, Kunmanara Tjilya, Fiona Wells and Tjimpuna Williams. Presented as part of the Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, the exhibition was co-curated by Carly Tarkari Dodd and Caitlin Eyre from JamFactory and Alison Milyika Carroll and Rowena Withers from Ernabella Arts. Taking cues from the aesthetics and materiality of life in Pukatja community, the exhibition display has been thoughtfully designed by Grieve Gillet Architects and fabricated by JamFactory’s Furniture Studio.
Ernabella Arts: Ceramic Warka Wiru 20 Years-kutu (20 Years of Creating Ceramics) is accompanied by a bilingual publication of the same name. Co-published by JamFactory and Wakefield Press, the publication is written in Pitjantjatjara and English, the translation of which was completed by Dr. Sam Osborne and Ernabella Arts Board Chair Anne Nginyangka Thompson. It features interviews with key artists who have generously shared their stories and experiences, historical details and a timeline, as well as a dedicated essay by emerging Lardil and Yangkaal writer Maya Hodge, which explores Ernabella Arts within the context of First Nations ceramics.
Anne Nginyangka Thompson, Strong Family Connection, 2022, stoneware, 220 x 250 x 250 mm, Photo: Connor Patterson
Marissa Angapiya Thompson, Tjulpu (bird), 2022, stoneware, 290 x 290 x 50 mm,
Photo: Connor Patterson