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• Auction House:
  Leonard Joel
• Sale Name:
  Fine Art Auction
• Sale Date:
  16 Sep 2014 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  111
• Lot Description:
  Sue Ford
  (1943-2009)
  Bob Hawke and Gerry Hand receiving a painting, Barungh, Northern Territory,June 12, 1988. Meeting/Baunga Treaty, 1988. Sue Ford. 
  photograph
  50.5 x 61cm
  titled, dated and signed on reverse in pencil: MENS (sic)
• Provenance:
  The artist; Private collection, Melbourne
• References:
  LITERATURE: Maggie Finch (Ed), Sue Ford, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2014, CAT. p. 165, ILLUSTRATION p. 118. In 1988, Bob Hawke, the Prime Minister of Australia (1983-1991), was invited to attend the Barunga Festival in a small Indigenous community south of Katherine by Wenten Rubuntja, chairman of the Central Lands Council, and Galarrwuy Yunupingu, AM, chairman of the Northern Lands Council.
• Notes:
  In 1988, Bob Hawke, the Prime Minister of Australia (1983-1991), was invited to attend the Barunga Festival in a small Indigenous community south of Katherine by Wenten Rubuntja, chairman of the Central Lands Council, and Galarrwuy Yunupingu, AM, chairman of the Northern Lands Council. 1988 was the Bicentennial Year, marking 200 hundred years since European settlement, and it prompted widespread response and activism by Aboriginal people. At Barunga, in two separate ceremonies, Mr Hawke was presented by Mr Rubuntja and Mr Yunupingu with paintings. Ford took photographs at each ceremony. This photograph records what Bob Hawke describes as 'the gift-giving ceremony' where he and Gerry Hand were presented with bark paintings. (1) Hawke is seen shaking the hand of Mr Rubuntja. In front of Mr Hawke is a bark painting. Mr Yunupingu is kneeling next to Mr Rubuntja, holding the painting upright, and Gerry Hand, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs (1987-1990), is on Hawke's left. Will Stubbs, Co-ordinator, Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, comments on the painting: “The painting is a Yirritja fire painting from the Gumatj clan (Mr Yunupingu's clan). Elders have previously allowed public revelation of some limited details of the outside interpretation of such a painting. The white central section (which cannot be seen in this photograph) represents the white beach of Biranybirany. Baru the Ancestral Crocodile is associated with fire for the Madarrpa clan on Blue Mud Bay and the Gumatj people who have several homeland areas that were affected by the same Ancestral fires including Biranybirany. “Biranybirany is a coastal outstation on Caledon Bay which faces the Gulf of Carpentaria. The bay is protected and shallow with vast sandy areas covered with a sacred weed that waves with the currents of tide and the mixing of freshwaters with the sea. A river running through a paperbark swamp is an area where Baru goes to breed and is thus associated with fertility for the members of this Gumatj clan. The river empties its special water into the sea at Biranybirany. These are grazing grounds for the totemic dugong who is also associated with the fire and these two Yirritja clan groups. Roundrels either side of a white central area represent the areas already grazed by the dugong and the (camp) fires of the ancestral past. “The crosshatched design is the sacred clan signature for Gumatj Ancestral Fire. The diamonds are representative of the scarring Baru received from handling the fire and the elements of fire and the Gumatj themselves. Black charcoal and skin, red flame and blood, yellow dust and fat, and white ash and bone.” (2) Respectfully, Ford takes her photograph at some distance from the ceremony. Ford was given permission from the Northern Lands Council and the Barunga Festival to take photographs and to show them in an exhibition at Melbourne Contemporary Art Gallery, 1989. To another painting was adhered the Barunga Statement, written by Indigenous people, which called on the Australian Government to recognise the rights of Indigenous land owners and to formalise a Treaty with them. The Barunga Statement painting nows hangs in Parliament House, Canberra. (3) Professor Marcia Langton comments that it was a time when 'Aboriginal people were rarely taken as the subjects of fine art photography' and that in Ford's photographs 'the spectacular ceremonies at the Barunga Festival appear sublime.' (4) Dr Janine Burke 1. Bob Hawke, The Hawke Memoirs, William Heinemann, Melbourne, 1994. p.435 2. Email information from Will Stubbs. 1 July; 8 July 2014. 3. See www.sueford.com.au. Exhibitions. A Different Landscape (1989). Image No. 12. This photograph shows Bob Hawke with the Barunga Statement painting. 4. Marcia Langton, “A Record of Humanity: Sue Ford's Photographs of Aboriginal People,” in Maggie Finch (ed.) Sue Ford, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2014, p. 116.
• Estimate:
  A$4,000 - 6,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.