Women's Wealth
APT9
Women’s Wealth is a major project focusing on the closely connected matrilineal societies of Bougainville and the Solomon Islands, and the art forms made by women — from cane and pandanus weaving, to shell ornamentation and earthenware pottery.
As the title suggests, the project explores ideas of value and the role of these art forms as a kind of wealth or currency. Developed out of a week-long workshop in Bougainville, and additionally involving artists Elisa Jane Carmichael, Janet Fieldhouse, Kay Lawrence and Taloi Havini, Women’s Wealth highlights the significance of creative spaces — such as the weaving circle — within indigenous communities. The project emphasises the ways in which women’s practices act as a quiet means of resilience in the face of major historical changes.
Women’s Wealth is co-curated with Sana Balai, a respected curator and elder in the Pacific community in Australia. It will also include a major new video installation by Taloi Havini, contextualising the project and workshops.
Pauline Kimei Ania has also worked with the QAGOMA Children's Art Centre to develop a project for APT9 Kids.
Discover more about the Women's Wealth art project.
Biruko and Nukumanu coconut leaf mat, Women’s Wealth workshop, Nazareth Rehabilitation Centre, Chabai, Bougainville, September 2017 / Photograph: Ruth McDougall, QAGOMA
Co-curator: Sana Balai
Project Co-ordinator: Marilyn Havini
Artists: Sister Theresita Alona, Adelaide Mekea Aniona, Pauline Kimei Anis, Kiria Asike, Elisa Jane Carmichael, Gwendalyn Dava Damusoe, Janet Fieldhouse, Jesmaine Sakoi Gano, Taloi Havini, Josephine Manta Kaepaku, Kay Lawrence, Georgianna Maetale Lepping, Joy Wongatina Pazabeto Madada, Emma Hopuhopu Makusu, Elizabeth Gawa Marata, Helen Dusimoi Miriona, Aida Hilo Pais, Elizabeth Watsi Saman, Imelda Vaevavini Teqae
Support: Prisca Suana, Maria Wotsugogha, Milceller Gabu, Lucy Makoro, Maria Hugese, Therese Harohi, Rachael Hakot, Elizabeth Lambert, Lydian Havini, Judith Pena, Nancy Butu, Rose Peter, Papou Pirian, Christie Tohua, Hakö Women’s Collective, Solomon’s Artist Alliance, Choiseul Provincial Council For Women, Nazareth Rehabilitation Centre and the Australian High Commission, Port Moresby.
Women’s Wealth is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Gordon Darling Foundation, Queen Emma Chocolates, QUT Creative Industries, Brisbane Bougainville Community Group Inc. and the Cairns Bougainville Association. The Solomon Islands artists’ participation has been supported by QAGOMA's Oceania Women’s Fund, enabled by the generous bequest of Jennifer Phipps.
Habitat 2018 is a multichannel video installation that critically addresses the representation of landscape and conflicting interests in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. The earliest iterations of this series, entitled Habitat: Konawiru 2016 and Habitat 2017, used dramatic image sequencing as part of large-scale projections, together with immersive surround sound. Evoking a sense of loss and displacement, these works explore Bougainville landowners’ experiences of mining operations at Panguna in Central Bougainville, which were run by Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), a subsidiary of Conzinc Rio Tinto Australia, from 1966 to 1989.
Commissioned for the APT9 Women’s Wealth project, this new iteration of Habitat explores relationships of history, identity, nation-building and environmentalism in Bougainville’s matrilineal societies. Archival footage, originally collected by news agencies and colonial powers, is redeployed alongside Havini’s own recordings and family archives in the retelling of Australia and Bougainville’s complex shared history. According to Havini:
The work investigates and interrogates the colonial relationship between Australia and Bougainville from a matrilineal point of view, providing international audiences with context and understanding of the vibrancy of indigenous women’s cultural practice and connection to the land in these locales.
