ACMI presents Indigenous arts festival

The National Indigenous Photomedia Forum, Shadow Life: Moving Image and Remembered By are three separate events presented by ACMI as part of the Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival 2012.

The National Indigenous Photomedia Forum will address the the obstacles faced by Indigenous people who have an interest in photomedia, film and online media but struggle to be represented in many professional media and photographic associations. The forum will present professional development and networking opportunities in order to assist Indigenous artists to to develop knowledge and skills.

Speaking at the forum are ACMI's Artist in Residence Reko Rennie, Indigenous speaker and photo journalist Mervyn Bishop, broadcast journalist Daniel Browning, Patricia Adjaye from Copyright Agency Ltd., photographer Darren Slewes, photo-media artist Diane Jones, Maori multimedia artist Lisa Relhana and visual artist r e a. The three day program will also include workshops by photographer and educator Dr Les Walkling and more.

The forum will run from Wednesday, February 8th till Friday, February 10th and is free to Indigenous artists.

The second event, Shadow Life: Moving Image is a free event that will be presented as a looped screening from 10AM to 6PM with a contextual talk by curator Djon Mundine at 3PM. The screening is an exhibition of moving image works by contemporary Indigenous Australian artists, and explores the notion of the shadow as a representation of the soul.

Artists participating in Shadow Life include Vernon Ah Kee (Whitefella Normal, Blackfella Me, 2004), Bindi Cole (Seventy Times Seven, 2011), Destiny Deakin and Virginia Fraser (Good Golly Miss Dolly, 2005), Fiona Foley (Bliss, 2006), Genevieve Grieves (Picturing the Old People, 2005), Tracy Moffatt (Other, 2009) and Christian Thompson (Gamu Mambu (Blood Song), 2010).

Shadow Life will be presented on February 11th at ACMI.

The final event, Remembered By, is a screening and talk program with a focus on Indigenous representation on screen. ACMI Artist in Residence Reko Rennie has selected a variety of films which feature Indigenous peoples and issues such as Wrong Side of the Road (Ned Lander, 1981), Babakiueria (Don Featherstone, 1987) and Urban Aboriginal Artist, Talking about Aboriginal Art (PeterLipscombe, David Roberts, Chris Willing, 1991). Leading figures in the Indigenous arts community have also been invited to respond to the works from a contemporary perspective.

Speakers include Glenn Iseger-Pilkington (Nyoongar and Yamatji peoples of WA, Curator of Indigenous Art at the Art Gallery of Western Australia) and Genevieve Greeves (Lead Curator on the redevelopment of Bunjilaka at Melbourne Museum). The event is also free and will be running from 11AM on Sunday, February 12th at ACMI.