Tap goes walkabout

This Sunday the Tap Gallery in Darlinghurst will play host to an indoor market featuring Indigenous food, music and art celebrating the conclusion of its Walkabout Aboriginal Art Exhibition.

Running in conjunction with NAIDOC week in recognition of the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the exhibition features the work of NSW artist and Mutthi Mutthi tribe member, Maureen Kelly, or Mor Mor as she is known.

The exhibition showcases originals and prints from her 17 year-long career and even contains a sample of sand from her tribe’s home region of Balranald on NSW’s Victorian border.

Mor Mor says her strong connection to the land and ancestry was the inspiration for her artistic work.

“The link to my Aboriginality, my community and Lady Mungo is the driving force behind it all, I feel like I didn’t choose to make art, instead it chose me,” she said.

Mor Mor is one of the direct descendants of the 30,000 year-old Mungo Lady discovered at Lake Mungo in NSW in 1969. She says she feels a strong connection with her Indigenous legacy but stresses her work isn’t a typical example of Aboriginal art.

“What I do isn’t what people are used to when they think Aboriginal artist,” she said. “I’m not a dot painter; I suppose I’m more contemporary.”

“This exhibition is a good example of that, it shows the beauty of the art and land and the progression into the future. There is a print of my first ever work up there through to what I’m doing now.”

“I would like to see aboriginal art keep that link with the land and spirit as it moves forwards. But I would never tell someone what to do; aboriginal artists need to be free to express themselves.”

Mor Mor said the proudest moment of her artistic career was during the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne when she was consigned to create and wear a traditional possum-skin cloak for use in the opening ceremony.

“Marching and representing my tribe with all the other tribes from Victoria was one of the proudest moments of my life,” she said.

“The cloak took me three months to make working eight or nine hours a day some days but it was worth it.”

The Walkabout Aboriginal art and artefacts indoor markets will be held this Sunday July 18 from eleven am to five pm at the Tap Gallery at 278 Palmer Street, Darlinghurst.

By Simon Black