Wurrungura
Jilamara’s Digital Archive and Multimedia Centre
Dorianna Bush and Pamela Brooks recording songs on Country
Using a Tiwi word that describes a picture or moving image but also the action of moving forward, Wurrungura is a media library and digital archive for the audiovisual documentation and distribution of Tiwi heritage and culture. It provides community members with access to a culturally relevant library and locally managed digital recording studio. The mission is to celebrate and safeguard cultural knowledge on the Tiwi islands.
Columbiere Tipungwuti, Raelene Kerinauia, Colin Heenan Puruntatameri, Dorianna Bush and Pedro Wonaeamirri looking through new repatriated images of family members at ceremonies
Wurrungura is housed at Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association in Milikapiti. Situated in the towns cultural precinct, the media library and studio is located next to the Art Centre’s contemporary commercial gallery, the Muluwurri Museums local collection of significant artefacts, and the island’s busy artist studios
Installation view The National 4: Australian Art Now at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia, photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter
The project is being driven by a small group of project producers and mentors and is delivered by Jilamara staff and board. For over 30 years, the focus of the art centre has been promoting Tiwi artists, and preserving Tiwi artworks. This has led to the Art Centre producing a number of media projects performing and promoting song, dance and language. What has emerged is that Jilamara needs to house and archive the rich cultural knowledge being generated as well as collect and repatriate from old digital archives in Australia and overseas.
Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri and Columbiere Tipungwuti discussing old photographs that Colin is working to digitise
Walter Brooks and Raelene Kerinauia sharing images from the current archive Colin is digitising
Do you have photos taken in Milikapiti you would like to share back to the community? Please get in contact email info@jilamaraarts.org.au we can receive digital files, slides or printed photographs
Short film produced by MCA for The National 4 Australian Art Now about Yoyi (dance) 2020 4-channel video, HD, colour, sound. 30 artist collaborative artist-led video work by Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association.
L–R: Pedro Wonaeamirri, Will Heathcote, Janice Murray, Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri, Raelene Kerinauia, Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri and Hannah Raisin at the opening of the artist-led collaborative multi-media work YOYI (dance) at The National 4: Australian Art Now in 2023.
Why Wurrungura project is important in Milikapiti
Mary Elizabeth Moreen talking about the importance of keeping culture strong and the next generation
Karen Tipiloura with Sharna Tipiloura and Henry Tipungwuti talk about what the project means to them
Marius Puruntatameri talks about why the archive is important for Tiwi culture
The Wurrungura Team
Colin Puruntatameri- Heenan | Project producer
Colin is a young emerging language and culture expert. Previous Art Centre director, ANKA director and artsworker
at Jilamara Arts. Colin was selected to be part of the ANKA Artsworker Extension Program and ICTV’s FRAIM program in Alice Springs, training people to produced news reports for the channel. Colin also did a year intern- ship at the National Gallery of Victoria and has an interest in new technologies and how they can be utilised to record and celebrate language, culture and art.
Arthurina Moreen | Project producer
Arthurina is a young emerging language and culture expert. She is a current Art Centre Director. Arthurina is a permanent part time arts worker at Jilamara Arts and Crafts, with skills and interests
in audio visual and database technologies. She currently coordinates art centre photography and cataloguing, as well as facilitating curriculum for the Jilamara culture class- es. She has previously worked at the Milikapiti Sports and Social Club and Milikapiti Primary School.
Michelle Woody Minnapinni | Cultural advisor and mentor
Michelle is a senior language and culture expert, current Jilamara artist and artsworker overseeing the Muluwurri Museum. She is a previous Jilamara Pres- ident and ANKA director. Michelle has completed a Specialist Certificate in Arts Conservation from the University of Melbourne’s Grimewade Centre. She has also been part of ANKAs Artsworker Extension Program and the Wesfarmers Indigenous Leadership Pro- gram at the Nation- al Gallery of Australia. She received the 2020 King Wood Malleson Contemporary Indigenous Art Award and has published essays on Tiwi art and culture.
Raelene Kerinauia | Cultural advisor and mentor
Raelene is a language and culture expert and current senior artist at Jila- mara Arts. She is the longest standing active member of the organisation, joining in the mid 1980s. Over the years Raelene has held numerous governance positions and has con- tributed to many art and culture projects produced by the art centre. Her works is held in many collections and in 2009, she was the recipient of the National Aboriginal and Tor- res Strait Islander Art Award in the bark category.
Pedro Wonaeamirri | Cultural advisor and mentor
Pedro is a senior language and culture expert, artist, current Art Centre director and previous President and ANKA director. Pedro has been a central part of the organisation since the early 1990s. With a strong knowledge of old language and ceremonial songlines, he has performed around the world as part of his practice. In 2018, he performed and presented at the Vatican in Rome and in 2021, he won the NATSIA Multimedia Award for a performance and video art work. He is a founding voice behind Wurrungura.
Will Heathcote | Museums and Projects Manager
Will has worked at the Tiwi governed arts organisation Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association in Northern Australia since 2018. For 6 years at Jilamara, he has worked with Tiwi artists to develop their art careers, publish written material on art and culture, produce multimedia works and help manage the gallery, museum, painting and carving studios in Milikapiti. Originally from Tasmania, he has a Bachelor of Arts in Art History, a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours and a Masters of Fine Art from the University of Melbourne. As an artist he has shown throughout Australia in gallery exhibitions, public sculptural commissions, collaborative projects and studio residency programs. Will has worked professionally in fine art, photography and film studios as well as coordinating woodwork, foundry, ceramic and metal workshops at the Victorian College of the Arts and as a free-lance contractor. He has also taught as a sessional academic at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, the University of Tasmania and the University of Melbourne.
ICTV storie 2019