Julie Dowling's guest appearances

Julie Dowling

ABC RN Arts

National Gallery of Australia | Audio Tour | National Indigenous Art Triennial 07

National Gallery of Australia | Collection Video Tour | Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander art

FavourEconomy Vol 2. 2016 - 2017

The Art Show

Frontier War Stories

OwlTail

In the Third episode of Frontier War Stories Boe yarns with Julie Dowling an artist &amp; activist who for about 18 years has been painting Aboriginal Warriors such as Wayler, Dundalli, Yagan, Pemulwuy, Musquito, Windradine and many more. Julie Dowling was born in Subiaco and is Warida kinship, Badimaya First Nation from Western Australia. Julie Dowling identifies culturally &amp; politically as a Badimaya First Nation woman not as an 'Australian' Aboriginal and is a Fine Artist.

In the Third episode of Frontier War Stories Boe yarns with Julie Dowling an artist &amp; activist who for about 18 years has been painting Aboriginal Warriors such as Wayler, Dundalli, Yagan, Pemulwuy, Musquito, Windradine and many more. Julie Dowling was born in Subiaco and is Warida kinship, Badimaya First Nation from Western Australia. Julie Dowling identifies culturally &amp; politically as a Badimaya First Nation woman not as an 'Australian' Aboriginal and is a Fine Artist.

Frontier War Stories - Julie Dowling - Warrior Art Exhibition

Julie Dowling: Artist - painting                                                                               FavourEconomy is a collection of audio recordings shared by women* for the benefit of other women* working in the arts. The project operates as a platform for contributors to voice their experience, insights and skills and share it to the archive. The archive comprises of a series of volumes that develop over a one-year period coinciding with each financial year. The recordings shared to FavourEconomy are termed ‘favours’ because they have been produced by with the intention of being of value for other women* working in the arts to hear. The word ‘favour’ encapsulating a social gesture of ‘sharing something’ without defining exactly what that something might be. FavourEconomy operates as an audio gift economy, where each contributor has determined the content and value of their recording set in accordance with their own experience and is received by the listener according to their current situation and need. The audio favours concurrently give value and power to the female* voice and perspective, which is too often silenced.  *female identifying and non-binary inclusive      http://www.favoureconomy.com

Julie Dowling: Artist - painting FavourEconomy is a collection of audio recordings shared by women* for the benefit of other women* working in the arts. The project operates as a platform for contributors to voice their experience, insights and skills and share it to the archive. The archive comprises of a series of volumes that develop over a one-year period coinciding with each financial year. The recordings shared to FavourEconomy are termed ‘favours’ because they have been produced by with the intention of being of value for other women* working in the arts to hear. The word ‘favour’ encapsulating a social gesture of ‘sharing something’ without defining exactly what that something might be. FavourEconomy operates as an audio gift economy, where each contributor has determined the content and value of their recording set in accordance with their own experience and is received by the listener according to their current situation and need. The audio favours concurrently give value and power to the female* voice and perspective, which is too often silenced. *female identifying and non-binary inclusive <a href="http://www.favoureconomy.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.favoureconomy.com</a>

Julie Dowling, Badimaya/Yamatji/Widi peoples (1969), Self-portrait: in our country 2002. Painting, synthetic polymer paint, oil and red ochre on canvas, 120.0 h x 100.0 w cm. Purchased 2002. Courtesy of Artplace.

Julie Dowling, Badimaya/Yamatji/Widi peoples, Self-portrait: in our country 2002

Dowling’s portrayal of Walyer, a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman resistance ﬁghter, is a rallying cry of opposition. Dowling’s protagonist, standing like an antipodean Bodicea, is a culture warrior, overturning the myth of passive submission.George Augustus Robinson, a former missionary, and Chief Protector of the Aborigines in the Port Phillip District (Victoria) from 1839 to 1849, referred to Walyer as ‘an Amazon’. Shortly after her capture in 1830, she died on 5 June 1831 from another insidious gift from the colonists: inﬂuenza. She had fought on behalf of her people with bravery and tenacity in a war for which no memorials exist.Walyer (aka Te Nor and Tarenorerer), a Plair-Leke-Liller-Plue woman from Tasmania, was abducted in her teens by men from another tribe and traded to sealers for ﬂour and dogs. Such transactions occurred as Tasmanian Aboriginal people’s lives were disrupted by encroaching European settlement. Sealers took Aboriginal women for labour and as sexual commodities. During her time with the sealers, Walyer learnt English and how to use ﬁrearms. She escaped in 1828 and joined the Lairmairrener group of Emu Bay. In 1830, colonial authorities reported that Walyer was leading violent attacks against settlers and other Aboriginal groups. She and her group used muskets in these assaults, which was previously unprecedented in Aboriginal attacks.Walyer represents to me the hundreds of women who fought for their land against the invading colonial forces. Walyer also represents the women of today who see that their struggle has never ceased in obtaining rights for their people over their land and lore. I painted Walyer gesturing towards a group of colonial houses in the distant right. The moon shows light from behind the clouds, outlining her cloaked body as she holds two guns. She is gesturing to the viewer as if they were one of the ﬁghters she has assembled to battle the colonial encroachments upon their land and hers.There is a road carved into the trees under the distant mountains leading to the houses, which have smoke coming out of their chimneys, signifying their occupancy. Walyer stands in action, holding a fowler’s riﬂe with a small ﬂintlock pistol held in the belt around her skirt. She wears a bookah (kangaroo cloak), a shell necklace and clay ornamentation covers her hair.This painting is about early historical interactions between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Australia. First contact relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the colonies reveal much about the divide that continues to exist today and this painting is about what we can learn from such engagements. Aboriginal people use their oral histories as well as written historical records from non-Aboriginal colonial perspectives to construct racial consciousness and visions of Aboriginal self-determination.I have painted the stories of Aboriginal resistance ﬁghters to grapple the construction of the hero in art. Romanticism was widely used in early colonial art in Australia emphasising Rousseau’s theory of the noble savage. These early power relations must be highlighted so that we can see how nationalism and imperial sentiment were constructed. As an Aboriginal person, I feel that it is important to understand colonial art practices brought here and how they can be used for decolonisation. By using the colonial romantic imagery of Aboriginal people as a tool, I can inform non-Aboriginal people of the denial of Aboriginal culture in current representations of Australian history.Julie Dowling, 2006

Dowling’s portrayal of Walyer, a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman resistance ﬁghter, is a rallying cry of opposition. Dowling’s protagonist, standing like an antipodean Bodicea, is a culture warrior, overturning the myth of passive submission. George Augustus Robinson, a former missionary, and Chief Protector of the Aborigines in the Port Phillip District (Victoria) from 1839 to 1849, referred to Walyer as ‘an Amazon’. Shortly after her capture in 1830, she died on 5 June 1831 from another insidious gift from the colonists: inﬂuenza. She had fought on behalf of her people with bravery and tenacity in a war for which no memorials exist. Walyer (aka Te Nor and Tarenorerer), a Plair-Leke-Liller-Plue woman from Tasmania, was abducted in her teens by men from another tribe and traded to sealers for ﬂour and dogs. Such transactions occurred as Tasmanian Aboriginal people’s lives were disrupted by encroaching European settlement. Sealers took Aboriginal women for labour and as sexual commodities. During her time with the sealers, Walyer learnt English and how to use ﬁrearms. She escaped in 1828 and joined the Lairmairrener group of Emu Bay. In 1830, colonial authorities reported that Walyer was leading violent attacks against settlers and other Aboriginal groups. She and her group used muskets in these assaults, which was previously unprecedented in Aboriginal attacks. Walyer represents to me the hundreds of women who fought for their land against the invading colonial forces. Walyer also represents the women of today who see that their struggle has never ceased in obtaining rights for their people over their land and lore. I painted Walyer gesturing towards a group of colonial houses in the distant right. The moon shows light from behind the clouds, outlining her cloaked body as she holds two guns. She is gesturing to the viewer as if they were one of the ﬁghters she has assembled to battle the colonial encroachments upon their land and hers. There is a road carved into the trees under the distant mountains leading to the houses, which have smoke coming out of their chimneys, signifying their occupancy. Walyer stands in action, holding a fowler’s riﬂe with a small ﬂintlock pistol held in the belt around her skirt. She wears a bookah (kangaroo cloak), a shell necklace and clay ornamentation covers her hair. This painting is about early historical interactions between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Australia. First contact relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the colonies reveal much about the divide that continues to exist today and this painting is about what we can learn from such engagements. Aboriginal people use their oral histories as well as written historical records from non-Aboriginal colonial perspectives to construct racial consciousness and visions of Aboriginal self-determination. I have painted the stories of Aboriginal resistance ﬁghters to grapple the construction of the hero in art. Romanticism was widely used in early colonial art in Australia emphasising Rousseau’s theory of the noble savage. These early power relations must be highlighted so that we can see how nationalism and imperial sentiment were constructed. As an Aboriginal person, I feel that it is important to understand colonial art practices brought here and how they can be used for decolonisation. By using the colonial romantic imagery of Aboriginal people as a tool, I can inform non-Aboriginal people of the denial of Aboriginal culture in current representations of Australian history. Julie Dowling, 2006