Subject: The art, environment and culture of Australian Aboriginal people in Western Arnhem Land.

Creative cowboy publishes educational products for senior school, college and university. This education resource pack contains films which are about art and culture and art making. The conceptual process of art making leads the student to a wide range of disciplines such as science, history, biodiversity and philosophy. These disciplines are viewed from a different perspective, through the eye of the artist.

Director: ANDREA and PETER HYLANDS. Cinematography: ROB PIGNOLET and ANDREA HYLANDS. 4 DVDs: 16:9 widescreen; duration 110 minutes; audio English, occasional Kunwinjku.

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Knowledge, painting and country

Knowledge, painting and country, the third film in this series about the culture of Western Arnhem Land, takes us on a journey to meet two of the region’s most highly respected elders.

Aboriginal society respects its elders as the guardians of cultural knowledge and law. Community elders are important role models and educators and as the custodians of Aboriginal culture and lands, their responsibilities include passing on the stories and techniques of painting to younger generations of Aboriginal people. This passing on of knowledge has helped Aboriginal people retain a deep respect and understanding for the country and the nature that surrounds them.

Director: ANDREA and PETER HYLANDS. Cinematography: ROB PIGNOLET. DVD: Available Pal and NTSC; 16:9; duration 37 minutes; audio English and occasional Kunwinjku.

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A walk up Injalak Hill

Filmed in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory of Australia Meet Isaiah Nagurrgurrba and Alan Namaniyuo as they take us on a journey up Injalak Hill. The artists from Injalak Arts and Crafts, an aboriginal art centre in Gunbalanya, Western Arnhem Land, paint as their ancestors have always done, to mark their connection to the land and to demonstrate their rights and responsibilities to the country aboriginal people have cared for over tens of thousands of years.

Director: ANDREA and PETER HYLANDS. Cinematography: ROB PIGNOLET. DVD Available Pal and NTSC; 16:9; audio English; duration 21 min.

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Injalak Hill – An Aboriginal arts centre

Filmed in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory of Australia The brush sings is the first in a series of three films about the art and culture of Western Arnhem Land. The brush sings takes us to meet the artists of Western Arnhem Land and Injalak Arts and Crafts, the centre in which the artists work.

Director: ANDREA and PETER HYLANDS. Cinematography: ROB PIGNOLET. DVD: Available Pal and NTSC; widescreen; audio English; duration 30 minutes.

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Art and architecture / performance

Filmed in California and Victoria

Space Time Performance is a film about the inflatable sculpture A Sac of Rooms All Day Long which was exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in an exhibition called Sensate: Bodies and Design.

Join ALEX SCHWEDER La and PETER HYLANDS during the installation of this major work. As the work is choreographed, sound artist JANN NOVAK joins ALEX SCHWEDER La to complete the score for this enthralling work.

Director: ANDREA and PETER HYLANDS. Cinematography: ANDREA HYLANDS. DVD: Available Pal and NTSC; 16.9; duration 61 minutes (includes interview with ALEX SCHWEDER La), audio English. Sac of Rooms All Day Long (detail), 2009, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund Purchase; Alex Schweder LA. Photography: Ian Reeves

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1 DVD

These delicate and peaceful paintings are created by using a fine stick of bamboo, each of the many thousands of dots in a painting are applied individually. The paintings are often large in scale. The work itself becoming a contemplation in the artist’s mind. The state of painting creating the opportunity for meditation and focus, the execution is painstaking and precise and continues for many days.

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Filmed in the Rift Vallery, Kenya

The Maasai film essays are:
Women at work and women at home
Enkang life
Changing times
Food and celebration
Keeping knowledge
Birds sing and lions roar

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Contents

a potters film

Award winner Montpellier, France 2010

A 30 minute documentary about ceramic artist GWYN HANSSEN PIGOTT. Gwyn is recognised as one of the world’s leading ceramic artists and is particularly well known for her series of still life collections of porcelain vessels. The film shows GWYN making, glazing and firing her work. The film also includes sequences of a wood firing and the unpacking of the kiln.

Director: ANDREA and PETER HYLANDS. Cinematography: ROB PIGNOLET and ANDREA HYLANDS. DVD: Available PAL and NTSC; widescreen; duration 35 minutes; audio English

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Contents

The education resource pack follows GWYN HANSSEN PIGOTT as she creates a series of porcelain wood-fired groupings of pots, so highly regarded by collectors around the world.

Subject: Ceramics, concepts, making and processes.

This education resource pack, which, in an educational setting, should be used in conjunction with a potters film, contains a series of five films that document the processes of making;

• Interview: discussion between GWYN HANSSEN PIGOTT and PETER HYLANDS covering the philosophy of making, skills and the development of GWYN’S work
• Throwing, turning and altering
• Glazing
• Packing and firing a wood kiln
• Unpacking a wood kiln and selecting final works

Director: ANDREA and PETER HYLANDS Cinematography: ROB PIGNOLET and ANDREA HYLANDS. DVD: Available PAL and NTSC; widescreen; duration 120 minutes; audio English.

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Director: JEAN-PIERRE CHABROL and PETER HYLANDS. Cinematography: JEAN-PIERRE CHABROL. DVD: Available Pal; widescreen; duration of film material 120 minutes; audio English.

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The smokers have taken the gold

BETTY CHURCHER, a former director of the National Gallery of Australia, had this to say when she launched The smokers have taken the gold :

“In this film there is a wonderful shot of JOHN WOLSELEY talking about the diversity of Australia’s flora as he is crawling around through these lovely little desert shrubs pointing out how wonderfully different each one is to the other. This is a wonderful film that will get you right into the mind, eye and heart of an artist”.

Director: JEAN-PIERRE CHABROL and PETER HYLANDS. Cinematography: JEAN-PIERRE CHABROL. DVD: Available PAL; widescreen; duration 35 minutes; audio English.

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Contents

Multi DVD pack

• We walked on a carpet of stars (filmed in Tasmania and New South Wales).
• Ten works, interpretation and meaning, (filmed in Victoria).
• Julie Gough: Ware & Tear (filmed in Victoria).
• Additional CD contains student projects and a highly illustrated teacher’s resource book of 100 pages including critical writing and detailed description of works.

Director: JEAN-PIERRE CHABROL and PETER HYLANDS. Cinematography: JEAN-PIERRE CHABROL. Widescreen 16:9; Duration of film material 120 minutes; Audio English.

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Contents

Art and architecture / performance

Filmed in California and Victoria

We walked on a carpet of stars is a film about the work of artist JULIE GOUGH. We trace the links and references to Aboriginal Tasmania and cross the bridge to the heart of contemporary culture at the Biennale of Sydney. Filmed in Tasmania and New South Wales.

Director: JEAN-PIERRE CHABROL and PETER HYLANDS. Cinematography: JEAN-PIERRE CHABROL. DVD: Available Pal; widescreen; duration 26 minutes; audio English.

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Contents

Filmed in North Queensland: Erub and Cairns

One Australia’s most senior and inventive Torres Strait islander artists, Ken constructs mobilised artefacts, which today are exhibited in major art galleries and museums around the world. For the people of the Torres Strait, and for Ken in particular, the sea is central to daily life and culture. Ken’s extraordinary dance machines (headdresses) reflect the importance of the sea and its various symbols and totems. Ken has chosen the Hammerhead Shark as his totem and his most famous works incorporate this shark as a symbol of law and order.

Director: ANDREA and PETER HYLANDS. Cinematography: ROB PIGNOLET. DVD: Available Pal and NTSC; widescreen; audio English; duration 71 minutes. Two parts: Part one – Arrival song; Part two – Leaving song.

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Contents

Filmed in the Rift Vallery, Kenya

Birds sing and lions roar explores the relationship between the Maasai and the environment. As the drought deepens the men travel further and further in search of pastures. Dependent on their cattle and goats for survival, like all indigenous people, Maasai are in the front line when it comes to the consequences of climate change. This time the rains come and we make a dash to cross the rapidly rising rivers and we meet a group of Maasai warriors.

Director: ANDREA and PETER HYLANDS. Cinematography: ROB PIGNOLET. DVD: Available Pal and NTSC; 16:9; duration 32 minutes; audio English. Release date: July 2011.
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Contents

Filmed in the Rift Vallery, Kenya

Changing times explores some of the more confronting issues and challenges as Maasai society adapts and deals with the pressures of change. A group of Maasai girls recite a poem about the changes they want in their own lives, including the right to marry a man that they love and the opportunity to attend higher education.

Maasai films are:
Women at work and women at home
Enkang life
Changing times
Food and celebration
Keeping knowledge
Birds sing and lions roar

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Contents

Filmed in the Rift Vallery, Kenya

Enkang life documents the daily activities in Olmaroroi Village in Kenya’s Rift Valley. The women prepare a donkey transport, the men light a fire and a Maasai bride leaves the village.

Maasai films are:
Women at work and women at home
Enkang life
Changing times
Food and celebration
Keeping knowledge
Birds sing and lions roar

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Contents

Filmed in the Rift Vallery, Kenya

Keeping knowledge explores the ways in which Maasai believe they can preserve their precious cultural heritage while at the same time considering new ways of community development. Drought has a severe impact on the community’s capacity to maintain traditions and crafts, yet it is these traditions and crafts that provide an opportunity to develop other sources of income.
Maasai films are:
Women at work and women at home
Enkang life
Changing times
Food and celebration
Keeping knowledge
Birds sing and lions roar

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Contents

Filmed in the Rift Vallery, Kenya

Following a male circumcision, an important ceremony in life’s journey, the village gathers to sing and dance and celebrate the event. The women prepare the food as the men observe a goat slaughter. Goats and cattle are a source of wealth in Maasai society and the animals are looked after with great care, there is a very great difference here from the industrial farming of western society. This film contains scenes of a goat being butchered.

Maasai films are:
Women at work and women at home
Enkang life
Changing times
Food and celebration
Keeping knowledge
Birds sing and lions roar

For a video preview, a full description and related articles, go here.

Contents

Filmed in the Rift Vallery, Kenya

Following a male circumcision, an important ceremony in life’s journey, the village gathers to sing and dance and celebrate the event. The women prepare the food as the men observe a goat slaughter. Goats and cattle are a source of wealth in Maasai society and the animals are looked after with great care, there is a very great difference here from the industrial farming of western society. This film contains scenes of a goat being butchered.

Maasai films are:
Women at work and women at home
Enkang life
Changing times
Food and celebration
Keeping knowledge
Birds sing and lions roar

For a video preview, a full description and related articles, go here.

Contents

1 DVD

We join PETER CHURCHER in Spain. In the studio there is a sense of stillness. In the narrow streets below, the shops, restaurants and markets of Barcelona are as busy as they have always been. In A portrait in Barcelona PETER CHURCHER paints a portrait of ANDREA and PETER HYLANDS. What is it like to have your portrait painted and why do people commission these paintings? How is the portrait constructed and how does the artist capture a likeness? How does history influence the art of portraiture?

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The master at work

This film records an earlier phase of PETER CHURCHER’s career as an Australian war artist in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan and in his Melbourne studio.

Director: JEAN-PIERRE CHABROL and PETER HYLANDS. Cinematography: JEAN-PIERRE CHABROL. DVD: Available Pal; widescreen; duration 40 minutes (includes a film of PETER painting in his studio); audio English.

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Contents

The master at work

Back in contemporary Melbourne join ROBERT JACKS he installs his exhibition Never Ending Journey at Anna Schwartz Gallery.

Director: JEAN-PIERRE CHABROL and PETER HYLANDS. Cinematography: JEAN-PIERRE CHABROL. DVD: Available PAL; widescreen; duration 20 minutes; audio English.

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Contents

Multi DVD pack

The resource pack is intended as an introduction to the indigenous culture of the Torres Strait Islands with a particular focus on the culture of Erub or Darnley Island, as it is also known. The Saltwater People of the Torres Strait are a bridge between Aboriginal culture and the peoples of Papua New Guinea.

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