Collective Movements

First Nations Collectives, Collaborations and Creative Practices from across Victoria

Collective Movements is a wide-ranging project focusing on the work of historic and contemporary First Nations creative practitioners and community groups in south-eastern Australia that recognises collectivity as integral to Indigenous knowledges and ways of being. This project and publication begins from a desire to make a language and terminology beyond Western art concepts of ‘collaboration’ and ‘collectivism’ more visible, and to better describe and acknowledge the way Indigenous creatives work within a broader community and its inheritances.

Collective Movements includes contributions from Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander chamber orchestra, Ensemble Dutala; leading Australian First Nations theatre company ILBIJERRI; Aboriginal art centre Kaiela Arts Shepparton; Melbourne-based collective this mob; Ballarat artist collective Pitcha Makin Fellas; Koorroyarr Arts, the creative platform founded by Gunditjmara sisters Kelsey and Tarryn Love; and The Torch, an arts support platform for Indigenous offenders and ex-offenders in Victoria. It also traces the stories of the widespread return of Possum Skin Cloak making in south-eastern Australia, the landmark 1996 festival We Iri, We Homeborn, and Latje Latje Dance Group Mildura, one of the earliest organised dance groups in Victoria.

Collective Movements is co-curated by Taungurung curator, artist and writer Kate ten Buuren; Lardil and Yangkaal artist and curator Maya Hodge; and Boon Wurrung Elder and Traditional Owner, N’arweet Dr Carolyn Briggs AM. The publication is edited by Kate ten Buuren and Maya Hodge, and includes texts and interviews by Bryan Andy, Paola Balla, Belinda Briggs, Yaraan Bundle, Maddee Clark, Brian Martin, Tiriki Onus, Steven Rhall and the Collective Movements curatorium. It is designed by Larrakia, Wardaman and Karajarri artist-designer, Jenna Lee.