Jenny Fraser: the cyberTribe Odyssey
noun
od·ys·sey \ˈä-də-sē\
1: a long
wandering or voyage usually marked by many changes of fortune.
2: an
intellectual or spiritual wandering or quest.
[Meriam Webster dictionary ]
Interview
with Djon Mundine
When did you
first go to Canada?
In 2000 I was
really keen to attend the International Curatorial Summit that was
being held at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta. I was a High
School Art and Media Teacher at the time so I had to take time off
from work. As I didn’t have a full grasp of the travel time or
distance then, I flew into Vancouver on the West Coast, then was off
on an 18-hour bus trip, inland to Banff, then all the way back again,
just for the three-day summit. Walkabout. Flyabout. It
happened to be my birthday, and the whole program for that day
presented by the Banff New Media Institute was specifically about New
Media Curating – could I have asked for a better present? There was
very little (if any) Native representation in the three-day program,
but I remember that Australian Aboriginal artist r e a was
an invited guest, speaking about New Media Art. It was also a
particularly memorable experience for me, because a ghost visited me
in my room there – the only time that I have seen one in my life.
Banff Camp is
like Club Med for artists, so after my three-day experience I was
keen to return. Later I did an eight-week Work Study program in the
Photography Department in 2003 for their first all-Indigenous
International Thematic Residency (which was initially supposed to be
a focus on Indigenous Digital Arts, but it was re-jigged shortly
beforehand to include visual arts in general). Titled ‘Communion &
Other Conversations’, the residency had 35 participants from
Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA and Mexico, and also included
the curatorial symposium ‘Making a Noise: Aboriginal Curators
and their Environment’ presented by the Walter Phillips Gallery and
the Banff International Curatorial Institute. ... I found it weird
that there were no exhibitions planned for the residency, so I
curated my own as a gift to the group: ‘Turtle Island’ for the
artists from Canada, the USA and Mexico; and, for the artists from
Australia and New Zealand, a show called ‘Niiksowkowa’, a name
given by Blackfoot artist Faye Heavyshield, which means ‘my blood
relative’. They were two of the best cyberTribe exhibition
opening parties ever, DJ’d by Navajo artist Bert
Benally.
Aside from trips
to other parts of Canada over the years, I also returned to Banff in
2005 to do a self-directed artists residency. Lita Fontaine took me
to my first Pow Wow, Alberta style, which was held in a giant indoor
rodeo arena. During my time at Banff, I also curated a small group
exhibition titled ‘Feathers Float’, which was later
featured in the Native online magazine Conundrumonline.org
and included some words by you Djon Mundine :).
 |
| proposed Digital Art Banff gathering |
The cyberTribe odyssey
was founded in 1999, in residence at an Indigenous New Media
gathering held in Darwin. But the first cyberTribe show
went live in 2000 at the Alchemy International Masterclass,
which was the first gathering held at the newly opened Powerhouse in
Brisbane. Titled ‘eyesee’, the online exhibition included
the work of Brook Andrew (AUS), Tina Baum (ACT/NT, AUS), Jonathon
Bottrell (now Jones) (NSW, AUS), Brenda L Croft (AUS), Jason Davidson
(NT, AUS), Nellie Green (WA, AUS), Latuff (Rio De Janeiro), Mwema
African Gallery (Uganda, AFRICA), r e a (NSW, AUS), Skawennati
Fragnito (CAN/USA), Troy Hunter (British Columbia, CAN) and myself
Jenny Fraser (QLD, AUS).
This was a time
before social media, so it was amazing to get instant feedback like
this from a Filipino artist: ‘I have been looking at your gallery
section and am especially impressed with Cyber Tribe: Indigenous Art
Eyesee. The section on ‘kitsch’ was especially striking. The
consciousness of aboriginal representation and the positive action of
the arts circle in this issue is truly remarkable and commendable. My
dream is to awaken similar sensibilities in art in my country and
enable art to become an active agent to some degree of
ethnocentricity.’
The idea
for cyberTribe was seeded some years before ... As a
student, in the final year of my long undergraduate degree, I
remember drafting up my selection criteria for an art teaching job to
include a section on how the internet would open up the presentation
opportunities for museums and galleries and how that could benefit
schools in regional and remote areas.
Then in the late
1990s, I took a year’s leave from teaching in Cairns to return to
study in Brisbane for a postgraduate course in film and media. For an
independent study project towards academic credit, English computer
artist and academic Paul Brown invited me to work
on Fineartforum.org, an
online magazine running out of Brisbane. A lot of the students and
academics working in different roles were from all over the world,
including the United Kingdom, Ukraine and many Asian countries. It
was enjoyable and fulfilling, there was a distinct feeling of working
on something that was innovative, had a big picture approach and
reach, and a continuous publishing program.
We had inherited
Fineartforum.org from an
American University, and one part of the original site was ‘Trophies
of Honour – Art Chronicles of Indigenous Peoples’, independently
created and maintained by Native American artists and performers. It
was set up by Donna and Jeff Lee-Hand in an effort to
preserve Native culture and art by presenting museum quality works on
the Internet for future generations. So it was up to me to think
about how to present an Aboriginal version from our country.
A year or so
later, when I had finished the course, my leave was over and I had
been transferred to the Gold Coast to go back to work as an art
teacher. But I didn’t last long, as shortly after I officially
resigned. My passion for Hobby Curating had started to take over my
life :). Fortunately, I have received some in-kind support from
people like Sam De Silva, who has provided cyberTribe with
server space over the years. To me, this is as valuable as land or
prime real estate, and should be populated by Blakfellas. As they
say, the internet doubles every 90 days.
In 2002 Fineartforum.org
marked 15 years, and closed down that year. At that stage, it was the longest-running arts magazine on the internet. This
influenced the international approach of cyberTribe,
which started out online as a love job ... and it still is.
Indigenous people make up 6% of the world’s population, which
doesn’t seem much, but it’s actually the largest minority group,
and also constitutes representation from 20% of our planet’s land
mass, and therefore 80% of the worlds remaining Biodiversity. So we
are always proud to show alongside our cuzstodian Indigenous brothers
and sisters and other artists in the international community.
 |
| Brazilian artist Latuff in eyesee - the first cyberTribe online exhibition |
How many
exhibitions have you mounted and promoted as cyberTribe?
As
the founder of cyberTribe, I have been the centrifuge or
spearhead for realising over 50 projects, taking on the roles of
curator, webmistress, writer, designer, publisher and sometimes
producer. This has been a mix of online and white cube
exhibitions, live events and screenings, all without annual or
triennial funding. This year cyberTribe will be
marking 15 years of presenting exhibitions. It also happens to be a
triennial year, so we will be marking the anniversary to coincide
with the other APT in
a then-and-now approach in
Brisbane and Cairns.
cyberTribe showcases
are often innovating ahead of the arts industry. But some of the
projects have taken up to a decade to get up, and are usually done
without any funding support. Over the years, it has been very
difficult to get around the anti-web-specific rules of some funding
bodies due to the lack of interest or assessor insight into the
field. Insults added to the burden of working without budgets have to
be endured, as some institutions have stolen our ideas and run with
them, while then trying to write us out of history by publicising
that their own ventures are a first. It’s ugly, especially when
it’s done by our own mob.
On a personal
level I know I am lucky because most things that I have wanted to do
in my career, have been achieved already. This has not been without
sacrifice or struggle, but I have been guided along the way by spirit
and my ancestors. Being
a modern day custodian of screen culture is what I am meant to be
doing.
When we, as
Aboriginal artists, go overseas, we are usually respected and hosted
really well, and that is a good feeling. I like to go on mystery
flights, and have my Art Family wherever I land. Naturally we want to
return the favour and show off our beautiful country, but sometimes
simple gestures of culture can be problematic in Australia, because
Aboriginal people have very little access to public space or funds
and we don’t really want our guests to suffer racism while they are
here.
Aside from
others, in 2014 I brought over Lori Blondeau (Tribe), Michelle
Derosier (Thunderstone Pictures), Ariel Smith (National Indigenous
Media Arts Collective), Hiona Henare (Wairoa Maori Film Festival) and
others from around Oz, for the SOLID Screen retreat
at Innot Hot Springs. The events over a week in July were the
culmination of ten years of chasing funds and planning, and intended
to be a consolidation and acknowledgement to the field of Indigenous
Women Screen Makers over the past 30 to 40 years. The
screening festival component was also a reciprocal gift to the local
Far North Queensland community. As a leadup to the 15th anniversary
of cyberTribe, SOLID was shaped to showcase and
enhance the local, national and international wealth of creative
talent in the variety of artforms made by and for the screen.
The artworld in
Australia is male-dominated, a reflection of Australian society in
general, which in 2014 was ranked as 24th in the world for the
Gender Gap Report. Even women can be misogynistic, and this is alive
and well in the arts, with women curators also favouring and
constantly pandering to the boys clubs. The arts industry here is
also very individualistic, and focused on the art star model of
presentation and promotion. So it
is very reassuring and good medicine to be able to rise above the
misogynistic blanket of oppression and reach out to
the SOLID sisterhood, nationally and
internationally, also to allow ourselves some time out to realign
with the stamina of the warrioress energy that we are a part of. We
all need to do our bit to grow the industry, and to seed and nurture
our own collaborations. I feel so satisfied that I am doing my bit,
and this has already been rewarding in so many ways, including
invitations to tour to Indigenous Screen events in Yucatan (Mexico),
Saskatoon (Canada) and Nuhaka (Aotearoa/NZ).
With the
final Blak Screen Festival happening in Melbourne this
year, and with Messagestick Festival in Sydney going multi-artform in
recent years, it seems that there is now only one dedicated
Indigenous Film and Media Arts Festival currently running in
Australia, and that is the Colourise Festival in Brisbane.
 |
| SOLID Screen Arts Healing Retreat and Festival - Innot Hot Springs July 2014 |
How do
indigenous Canadians get on in the general Canadian art scene? What
about their idea of themselves?
Listening to the
Native Canadian experience at their gatherings like the Conferences
run by the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, has helped me to make
sense of the Australian Aboriginal experience. One term that has
stuck with me – ‘cultural apartheid’,– is acknowledged to
have come to us via South Africa, but the magnitude of truth in the
expression has made it part of the vernacular in Canada, and should
be here as well.
Effective
Indigenous activists all around the world are less interested in
complaining, and more interested in devising a strategy to deal with
the issues at hand. Early on I had been aware of the beginnings and
motivations behind imagineNATIVE, that was founded by Cynthia
Lickers-Sage and is now held in Toronto every year.
imagineNATIVE is a world-class event that generously includes
perspectives from other Indigenous peoples as well, but it was
originally born from an identified lack of Native Canadian
representation at TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival. This
is the spirit and strategic approach that I am trying to evoke in the
other APT exhibition and other cyberTribe events
and exhibitions, which aim to redress representational imbalances. In
the case of the other APT, no amount of complaining or
highlighting the cultural apartheid entrenched in the selection
process of the Queensland Art Gallery has worked to get more
Australian Aboriginal artists represented in the Asia Pacific
Triennials, so we just have to show them how it’s done.
For a long time
I have believed that if I go with the flow and am true to myself,
then my ancestors will smooth the way for me. Cultural integrity in
itself is an effective methodology or framework, as explained
eloquently by Cree scholar Willie Ermine: ‘Mamatowisowin defines
the methodology used in a quest for vision, where the seeker / artist
begins to explore his / her own existence subjectively. By placing
ones self into a direct stream of consciousness, the seeker / the
knower / the artist will begin to unfold a greater, inherent
understanding of self, by utilizing the methodologies of
Mamatowisowin.’ (Ermine 1995).
As I have
explored the potential of my own creative healing and decolonisation
techniques to address the associated questions brought up, I have
made an effort to involve and encourage others. So, as a seeker, I
can try to understand the story of others, because I know and further
understand my own story. My direct ancestral line has had to deal
with oppression for most levels of survival, including the impact of
massacres, the fear of child removal, living under the act and the
permit system, stolen wages, broken families and the culture war. The
shared understanding of what has happened to us and our old people
during the processes of colonisation in places like Australia and
Canada allows us to engage in advanced levels of conversation and
creative dialogue. There is no need for us to continuously start at
the beginning of the conversation, like there is for some outsiders,
and there is a strength, empathy and comradeship gained in the
similarity of experience. Native Canadians are our Art Family, and
sometimes this means that we take the good with the bad. When someone
over there has ripped me off, another cousin will take up the slack
to try to make it right. Just like here in Oz.
 |
Ahzhekewada (Let us look back) Aboriginal Curatorial Collective Conference in Toronto, Canada 2011 |
What are your
views on the appointment of a Native Canadian Director of the
Biennale of Sydney in 2012?
It’s a problem
when the white gatekeepers of culture, being in the majority, make
the decisions by and for themselves. I am disappointed, but not
surprised that there has not been an Aboriginal curator chosen for
the role of Sydney Biennale Director. I expect more from places like
Sydney (as opposed to the backwards norm in Queensland), as Sydney is
an arts capital, with some progressive Aboriginal initiatives. But,
cultural apartheid is rife, as is the low tactical strategy of
engaging outsiders from other cultural backgrounds in order to divert
issues of ownership and inclusion of First Peoples here.
When there was a
public questioning of the Queensland Art Gallerys’ selection of a
Maori artist for their first international public artwork commission
(before there was an Aboriginal commission), a younger Maori Curator
commented on social media that it was too big an opportunity and too
much money, to turn down ...
Given these kind
of ethically dubious situations that we can sometimes find ourselves
in, I think it might help if we were to ask ourselves questions, such
as: If we were offered opportunities in other states, territories or
countries, would we take it? Whose position would I be taking? At
what cost? Why would they have chosen me, as opposed to others? Do I
enjoy being the only one? Will the outcome be about the curator as
hero?
Do I believe the hype about myself?
What does Indigenous inclusion look like, and how is it different
from the mainstream? How can we all move forward together, shoulder
to shoulder with our cousins?
 |
| Native All Stars TShirt project exhibited as part of the cyberTribe exhibition Nii'ksokowa : my Blood Relative. The Other Gallery. Banff, Alberta, Canada 2003 |
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