Matilda Nona & Emily Beckley, Bridal Pendants, 2018, Silver, bronze, silk. Photo: Melinda Young

The Indigenous Jewellery Project

Emily Beckley
Angie Davis
Krystal Hurst
Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello
Lynette Lewis
Djuwakan #2 Marika
Munuy'nu Marika
Dindirrk Mununggurr

Marrnyula Mununggurr
Matilda Nona
Maryann Sebasio
Rosaline Tomasina
Mandy Y. Wanambi
Mothara Wirrpanda
Birrpunu Yunupingu
​Marrawaymala Yunupingu

7 – 14 September 

Tue– Sun 12-5pm

(OPENING)

Tue 10 September, 6-8pm

at 

peanut

Level 8, Room 15 
Nicholas Building 
37 Swanston St
Melbourne 3000

WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE

Kayannie Denigan, Brooches, 2018, bronze. Photo:  Brenton McGeachie.

The Indigenous Jewellery Project (IJP) is a nation-wide Australian contemporary jewellery project working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander owned art centres & artists across Australia. 
IJP was created by curator Emily McCulloch Childs in 2012 in order to help traditional Australian Indigenous jewellers, who are the inheritors of the world’s oldest continuous jewellery practice, to actively create projects and space to maintain and develop their practice in a professional capacity. Workshops are held with contemporary jewellery lecturer Melinda Young (UNSW) on Country and in contemporary jewellery studios, with outcomes exhibited in public and commercial galleries across the Indigenous and contemporary craft sectors nationally.

#theindigenousjewelleryproject

The Bulay(i) Project workshop, Buku-Larrnggay Mulka, Yirrkala, 2016. Image Buku-Larrnggay Mulka.

(ABOUT THE ARTISTS)
​
Lynette Lewis is a ceramic and jewellery artist from Ernabella Arts, APY Lands, South Australia. Working with The Indigenous Jewellery Project, she was the first Aboriginal jeweller in the National Contemporary Jewellery Awards. She has since held several solo exhibitions in public galleries.

Marrnyula Mununggurr is a Yolngu artist from Buku-Larrnggay Mulka in Yirrkala, NE Arnhem Land. She was an active participant in the Bulay(i) Project, the contemporary jewellery project run by The Indigenous Jewellery Project. Her large scale brak painting and larrakitj sculptural installations have been exhibited in the NGV and Gertrude Contemporary. Her work is held in major public gallery collections around Australia.

Birrpunu #2 Yunupiŋu (Buku-Larrngay Mulka) is of the Gumatj, Rrakpala group, her homeland is Biranybirany and moiety Yirritja. Her father was Father is Dhakuwal 2 Yunupiŋu. Her work as a weaver has been exhibited at the MCA (String Theory), A.G.S.A and the Santos Museum of Economic Botany, and as a jeweller at the Australian Design Centre. 

Dindirrk Munuŋgurr is a young artist from Yirrkala who hails from a significant family of artists. Her mother is an exceptional traditional jeweller who has taught Dindirrk technique.

Djuwakan #2 Marika is a young artist from a very senior Yolngu family of artists and leaders. His 'Dhirimbi: Stingray ring' created with The Indigenous Jewellery Project's Melinda Young was the first piece of Contemporary Jewellery to be exhibited in the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards held at the Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.

Munuy’ŋu Marika is a young Yolngu artist from Buku-Larrnggay Mulka, Yirrkala, NE Arnhem Land. She is director of the Print Space as this art centre.

Marrawaymala Yunupiŋu is a young Yolngu artist of the Gumatj clan, from Biranybirany homeland. She is a very knowledgable traditional jeweller, with great skills for collecting seed beads, and was one of the Bulay(i) Project's most enthusiastic and skilled participants. 

Mothara Wirrpanda is a Yolngu jeweller, of the Dhudi-Djapu clans, whose homeland is Dhuruputjpi. She is a skilled traditional jeweller who also actively engaged with learning metal techniques during the Bulay(i) Project.

Mandy Y. Wanambi is a traditional Yolgnu jeweller, of the Marrakulu clan, Gurka'wuy homeland. Her work includes both traditional Yolngu seed bead jewellery and now metals.

Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello An artist, poet, writer and photographer of Southern Arrernte, Chinese and Anglo-Celtic descent, Adelaide-born, Canberra-based Jenni Kemarre Martiniello is well-known particularly as a glass artist. In 2013 Martiniello won the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, the most prestigious award for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander art. She is represented by Sabbia Gallery, Bilk Gallery and Paul Johnston Gallery.

Krystal Hurst is a Worimi artist from Forster, NSW. She is a second-generation professional jeweller; her mother and father established Gillawarra Arts in 1983, in Taree (NSW). She has inherited her family business and specialises in jewellery. She says that for her jewellery is a different way to tell stories through different mediums. In the IJP workshops Hurst made a series using traditional Aboriginal iconography, including carved petroglyph designs. Hurst says that learning contemporary jewellery was important to her, as ‘we are allowed to adapt and evolve, as people’. 

Angie Davis is a young Worimi artist from Forster, NSW. The niece of Krystal Hurst, she works with her aunt on Gillawarra Arts, a professional jewellery & art business based in Canberra. Davis is a very talented emerging jeweller, who has shown an innate ability for silversmithing, working in the ANU School of Art & Design Gold & Silver studio with IJP. Her jewellery work is derived from her culture, depicting native plants, animals and totems of her country.

Emily Beckley is an artist based in Horn Island, Torres Strait, Queensland, of the language groups Meriam Mir and Kala Lagaw Ya. Much of her work as a Contemporary Jeweller is concerned with reviving and maintaining cultural practice from her Meriam Mer ancestry. Since participating in the Indigenous Jewellery Project from 2018, Beckley has held solo exhibitions at Craft ACT and Everywhen Artspace, and participated in several other group exhibitions. Her work on the Haddon Bridal Pendants held in the British Museum was featured on ABC News. Her third solo exhibition of contemporary jewellery will be shown at Artisan, 2019.

Rosaline Tomasina is a jeweller from Horn Island, Torres Strait Islands. She is an exceptional beader, who runs workshops regularly in beading at Gab Titui Cultural Centre on Thursday Island. 

Matilda Nona is a printmaker based on Badu Island, Torres Strait Islands, and is of the Badhulgal/Maluyligal people.Nona explores and engages with Torres Strait Islander culture, history and tradition from new and innovative perspectives. Her work has been included in several major group exhibitions in public galleries around Australia. 

Maryann Sebasio is of the Meriam Mir language group, and lives on Erub (Darnley Island). She is a highly skillled multi media craft artist. Her work as a contemporary jeweller is included in the NGV collection.​