Mud Maps

By Fredericks, Bronwyn

Artwork of an Aboriginal Australian Woman Inspires Action on Climate Change

Introduction

Dr Pamela Croft is an artist and member of the Kooma clan of the Uralarai people in South West Queensland, Australia. In the interview that follows, she discusses her perspective as an Australian Aboriginal woman and how her land-centred artwork inspires action around climate and other environmental changes.

Residing Within Country

To many Aboriginal Australians, Country means place of origin in spiritual, cultural and literal terms. It refers to a specific clan or a tribal group or nation of Aboriginal people and encompasses all the knowledge, cultural norms, values, stories and resources within that area. The notion of Country is central to Australian Aboriginal identity and history, and contributes to overall health and wellbeing. Women and men both have a central role within Country, in terms of ownership, care and rights. The increasing shift of Aboriginal people to urban or other areas does not mean that one’s connections to Country are lost, or that the significance of Country is no longer present. Instead it means that many Aboriginal Australians now pass through, dwell in, and live within the Country belonging to other Aboriginal Australians. It has been estimated that Aboriginal Australians have lived on the Australian continent for over 100,000 years. As a result we have a long history of relationships connected to Country: Australia’s landscapes and seascapes and all the animals and plants and peoples that inhabit them.

Dr Pamela Croft names her Country as that of the Kooma clan of the Uralarai people in South West Queensland. She lives in Keppel Sands on the Capricorn Coast in Central Queensland within the Countries of the Darumbal (mainland and coastline) and the Woppaburra (Keppel Islands), areas that are intricately linked through history and relationship to each other. This region is at the southern end of one of the world’s greatest wonders and World Heritage Site, the Great Barrier Reef. Throughout broader Australia, the region is marketed as the ‘Beef Capital of Australia’ and where ‘the beef meets the reef.’ Croft has practised as a visual artist since the mid-1980s and uses both Aboriginal Australian and Western techniques, education and style to tell stories about identity, sense of place, and the effects of colonization. She was the first Aboriginal Australian to earn a Doctor of Visual Arts.

Mapping Darumbal Country

In her artwork, Dr Croft focuses on concepts of place, space and change within Country. She undertook a recent series of artwork on the muddy banks of the upper regions of Pumpkin Creek at Keppel Sands. Pamela is familiar with how the moon and the sun impact the tidal flows and how the time of year affects the temperature of the water. She has traced the tracks of animals and other people who at times dwell within the area. She has watched, observed, hunted and gathered in ways of Aboriginal women, past, present and future.

In the Creek, Pamela used special paper to capture the gentle nomadic nature of the tides, which result in delicate patterns left on the mud that change with each ebb and flow of the water. The crabs imprinted their presence as they foraged for food, so too did the ibis and seagulls. This evidence of water and animals became stories, recorded in the mud like texts that have been imprinted within the artwork. Croft later used the paper as canvases for her artwork and added local ochres – black, brown and red to symbolise the water’s connection to land, people, place, and a sense of past, present and future. The colours and Unes flow within the artwork just like the contours of the Creek. They are tied within the artwork to a sense of Country that binds water, land, animals and us as human beings. Over time, the changes in Country became mapped in Croft’s “Mud Map” and other artwork.

Interview with Dr Pamela Croft

I interviewed Dr Croft in her studio at Keppel Sands in January 2006 to talk about her artwork and her messages about climate change in Country.

DR PAMELA CROFT [PC]: I am a Kooma woman of the Uralarai people. I give honour to the Darumbal dreaming ancestors and acknowledge the Darumbal people as the Traditional Owners of the Capricorn Coast where I now live. I additionally give honour and acknowledgement to the Woppaburra people who are the Traditional Owners of the Islands and waters off the Capricorn Coast mainland where I sometimes dwell and forage for food and items for my artwork. It is important to me to recognize that the site of my home and studio and where the majority of my artwork has been carried out is within Darumbal Country and Woppaburra Country.

DR BRONWYN FREDERICKS [BF]: Pamela, can you tell me about the foundations of your artwork?

PC: Most of my artwork is land-centred. From the positioning of an Aboriginal women, I try to portray the importance of tradition, recognition of ancestors, respect for uniqueness in spiritual expression and facilitate an understanding of history and culture, a sense of place and connections to family and community. I try to challenge non-Aboriginal people to come to an understanding of our world.

BF: Your “Mud Map” series of artwork is of particular interest. It details the movements in the water, the tides, and the animals found in different areas of Pumpkin Creek. What has undertaking this type of artwork told you about the environment?

PC: Scientists, politicians and environmental activists talk on the TV about global warming, greenhouse emissions, nuclear power and renewable energy resources. There are advertisements on TV that tell me to use different light bulbs and to change my showerhead to conserve water. They are looking at the big picture things. I see the day-to-day things, the changes in the water along the coastline, in the Creek and on the land that laps the water. I see what is happening to the mangrove areas. I have witnessed the removal of the areas where the crocodiles used to forage for food. The process of undertaking the “Mud Maps” reveals all of this. The process maps out the connections to place and reveals sets of relationships including the physical, physiological, social, spiritual and metaphysical. It also maps the botanical, colonial and the Indigenous layers of memories within the landscape sites. They are showing changes within the sites, within my mapping.

BF: What are the changes that have been mapped and how do you know there are changes within the environment, within Country?

PC: When I sit in the Creek I can feel the temperature of the water and I used to know exactly when the seasons were changing. Nowadays, it is harder to pick. The temperatures of the waters around Darumbal Country and Woppaburra Country have changed. The fish follow the tides and the temperature of the water. Other animals follow the fish, like pelicans, and other sea birds. With the warmer water, we now all have less fish. We have to go further out from the coastline to forage for food. The temperatures are not uniform – some areas seem to have changed more than others. The corals tell me that I am not lying. You see, the corals change colour, they become bleached when the waters get too warm. Some corals might regenerate; it is hard to say. We hear on the TV in Australia that the frequency and severity of the reef bleaching is inevitable. It concerns me that there will be further deterioration of the reef. To me, that says that other aspects of the reef will also deteriorate and die.

BF: What about the animals within the reef, along the coastline and in the creeks?

PC: There are now not as many crabs and ibis and seagulls. In my last series of “Mud Maps” there were so few crab prints. It really bothered me. I will be going back down into the Creek soon to do another series of Mud Maps to see if the crabs have returned or if they are no longer there.

Fishing has become a problem. The biodiversity within the waters has been damaged by large-scale commercial fishing and by the large number of people recreational fishing. People have fished for more than just what they need for food. There have been incidents where fish have just been left Or discarded. In 2001 a big cod washed up on the beach near the Creek. It had been pulled up by a big trawler chasing smaller fish and just discarded. I tried to incorporate that incident into my artwork at Yeppoon main beach but the local Council didn’t take it up. Maybe it was too political. What has happened now is that there are large areas where there are no fishing zones. This is vital if the area’s ecosystem and biodiversity is going to be fixed up and protected.

BF: You have also concentrated on the pollution that washes up on the beach in some of your other artwork.

PC: Pumpkin Creek, Coorooman Creek, Long Beach and the other beaches in the area are always scattered with litter from people on boats out at sea. Most of the litter washes in with the tides. In 1997, I made a huge net from all the rubbish that washed up on the beach. I used small bits of other nets along with small pieces of rope, twine, rubber and plastic. I also incorporated all the skeletons of sea animals that I found trapped within the rubbish. I assembled the net across one entire side of my house and members of my community would watch as it progressed into thishuge net. Sometimes they would also bring me bits that they had found too. The ocean would cast the rubbish out of itself as if knowing the destruction it does within the water.

BF: Tell me, Pamela, what do you try to do in your artwork when you put them into the public domain?

PC: Through my artwork, I try to ask people how they know about Country, how do people understand Country, and how will they contribute to the care of Country for now and the future. What decisions and actions will they take that will impact on the natural activities within the Darumbal landscape, the Woppaburra landscape, Country, and the other landscapes on this continent and on this planet? I ask how can we all best work to safeguard the landscapes and seascapes so they can continue to be enjoyed; and so that future generations will be able to see and know Country as we see it today and as it was seen yesterday? I want to ask the people who view my work: What are you doing?

Water helping us see, connecting the knots artwork (close-up).

The Giant Cod washed up on Keppel Sands beach.

Water helping us see, connecting the knots artwork on display.

Dr Pamela Croft in Pumpkin Creek.

Bronwyn Fredericks is an activist, writer, and educator from the Queensland region of Australia who has been involved with Aboriginal organisations for over 25 years. She is currently working with the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council (QAIHC), a State body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled health services.

Copyright WEED Foundation Spring 2007

(c) 2007 Women & Environments International Magazine. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.