Slide 1

Teacher Notes:

Slide 2

Teacher Notes:

In this section, students will explore the Tiwi Islands and consider how its geographic isolation

contributes to its unique culture.

Slide 3

Teacher Notes:

The isolation of the Tiwi Islands has resulted a unique language and culture. This question is

designed to encourage students to think about their own experiences of unique places, and the

factors that can make a place unique. Encourage students to consider the ways personal

experiences can make a place feel different and unique, e.g. a town by the ocean might be

described as unique by someone who has always lived inland.

Slide 4

Teacher Notes:

Diana Wood Conroy worked as coordinator of Tiwi Design on Bathurst Island in 1974. Reflect

on this quote with reference to the map and further information on the following slides,

considering the reasons why mainland Australia could be considered ‘remote’ by people on the

Tiwi Islands.

Slide 5

Teacher Notes:

Referring back to Wood Conroy’s words, “despite appearances…”, encourage students to

consider the location and size of the Tiwi Islands in comparison to the rest of Australia.

Slide 6

Teacher Notes:

Encourage students to consider the way remoteness has created uniqueness on the Tiwi

Islands.

Slide 7

Teacher Notes:

This activity has been designed to encourage students to become familiar with the location and

remoteness of the Tiwi Islands. Tools like Google Maps might be used to further explore this

journey.

Slide 8

Teacher Notes:

This section introduces students to the aspects of Tiwi culture that inform Tiwi art.

Slide 9

Teacher Notes:

Related to the quote on the following slide, this activity is designed to encourage students to

consider the ways a deeper understanding of a person or group can come from gaining a

knowledge of their background.

Slide 10

Teacher Notes:

Encourage students to continue reflecting on the relationship between Tiwi art and culture, and

the ways a knowledge of Tiwi culture allows the audience to better appreciate Tiwi art.

Slide 11

Teacher Notes:

The following slides contain background information on the aspects of Tiwi culture that provide

a greater appreciation of Tiwi art. Students who visit the exhibition will notice the wall texts

provide further information on each artist’s country, skin group and dance.

Slide 12

Teacher Notes:

Slide 13

Teacher Notes:

Slide 14

Teacher Notes:

Encourage students to consider the traditions and ceremonies they have experienced in their

own lives. These might include shared religious or cultural traditions and ceremonies, or those

practiced by one family (e.g. birthday parties, or a weekly dinner). What might these traditions

or ceremonies tell an onlooker about your family, e.g. what would someone learn about your

family, culture or religion if they attended a family wedding?

Slide 15

Teacher Notes:

This section explores the use of printmaking and painting on the Tiwi Islands, and the ways

Tiwi artists use these processes to translate cultural traditions into new forms.

Slide 16

Teacher Notes:

Examples to consider might include wearing or altering an old piece of clothing or jewellery,

constructing a new object from old or recycled materials, or restoring an old bike or car.

Slide 17

Teacher Notes:

This quote explains the way early Tiwi printmaker, Bede Tungutalum, applied the designs used

in traditional ceremonies to the works he created through the newly introduced practice of

printmaking.

Slide 18

Teacher Notes:

The following slides provide a background on the history and development of printmaking on

the Tiwi Islands, and importantly outline the way the artists in Being Tiwi draw from ceremonial

traditions to create new works. Note: Bishop O’Loughlin was inspired to place the

advertisement after seeing the prints produced by the Canadian Inuit using their traditional

stone carving techniques.

Slide 19

Teacher Notes:

Slide 20

Teacher Notes:

This video demonstrates the ways traditional techniques and materials are used in new ways

for the creation of new works by contemporary Tiwi artists.

Slide 21

Teacher Notes:

Examples might include remakes of old films or songs, or contemporary interpretations of plays

or stories. Encourage students to consider a range of reasons behind these reinterpretations,

e.g. the timelessness or value of the original, a desire to make things better through advances

in technology, a concern for preserving the past, etc

Slide 22

Teacher Notes:

Traditional Tiwi ceremonies are transforming, or no longer regularly undertaken on parts of the

islands. Revisit or recall the description on Slide 7 of the Tiwi people’s concern for maintaining

their unique culture and customs. Encourage students to consider the significance of new and

innovative forms of cultural expression as a way of maintaining past traditions into the future.

Slide 23

Teacher Notes:

This section explores the ways artists in Being Tiwi embrace individuality through their unique

expressions of shared cultural traditions.

Slide 24

Teacher Notes:

This activity is designed to highlight the uniqueness of individual interpretation. Encourage

students to consider how each individual’s differing experiences and ways of thinking can

contribute to their unique responses to the same instructions.

Note: These instructions were based on the drawing below.

Slide 25

Teacher Notes:

This quote addresses the following slides’ exploration of the ways each artist in Being Tiwi

creates a unique response to a shared cultural traditions.

Slide 26

Teacher Notes:

Slide 27

Teacher Notes:

Encourage students to look closely at and compare each artwork. Students might note the:

• Shared titles and subject

• Use of the same materials

• Use shared and unique elements in their designs, e.g. dotting and lines; triangles and

rectangles

• Unique use of colour

• Unique styles, e.g. rigid vs. flowing

Many of the artists in Being Tiwi have been influenced by their experiences of ceremony and

cultural traditions passed down from family members, as well as by other artists. Encourage

students to consider how each artist’s different experiences could contribute to their unique

version of Jilamara.

Slide 28

Teacher Notes:

Encourage students to consider the ways cultures change over time due to technology, new

ideas, the influence of other cultures, politics, environmental factors, etc. Discuss the ways the

artists in Being Tiwi respond to change by both preserving their culture as they continue to

draw from traditional practices, and evolving their culture as they find new ways of expressing

these traditions (e.g. translating body painting onto a canvas).

Slide 29

Teacher Notes:

Encourage students to consider the significance of the artists in Being Tiwi in continuing a

knowledge of Tiwi culture, and to reflect on what they have learnt about what is means to be

Tiwi through this exploration.

Slide 30

Teacher Notes:

Slide 31

Teacher Notes: