Indigenous Art Code

AACHWA Advisory Group

The Aboriginal Art Centre Hub Western Australia (AACHWA) Advisory Group meets twice a year to provide input into service delivery identification and prioritisation and to provide guidance in relation to selected strategic issues addressed by AACHWA. The Advisory Group also plays a significant role in relation to AACHWA's development as an independent Aboriginal Corporation.

The AACHWA Advisory Group is composed of one Indigenous representative (artist or board member) from each member art centre and one art centre manager representing the interests of all managers of member art centres.

 

2011/12 Advisory Group Members

James Brockman

Artist and Chair, Wirnda Barna Artists

Charmaine Green

Artist and Chair, Yamaji Art

Debbie Hansen

Artist, Spinifex Arts Project

Debbie was raised in a traditional camp environment at Cundeelee and attended both the Mission school (until 1975) and Government school during her primary years. Debbie boarded at an Aboriginal hostel near Norseman while completing three years at Norseman High School. After high school Debbie was employed at the Cundeelee school as an Aboriginal Education Worker until 1984. With her family and others she returned to the Great Victoria Desert to homelands left in the 1950s.

During this time Debbie married and had two children. She became involved in many aspects of community development during the re-settlement phase. In 1997 a school was finally established and Debbie was able to resume her career in education. In 2000/01 she completed Certificates 3 and 4 in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education through Notre Dame University in Broome WA and became an integral part of education staffing at the Tjuntjuntjara Remote Area School.

In 1997 the Spinifex Art Project started and Debbie mainly painted the stories of her birth place, Cundeelee. She also assisted and learnt from her Auntie, Lucy Hogan, a senior Spinifex woman and premier painter. When Lucy died in 2003, Debbie "inherited" Lucy's stories and designs from the Spinifex area and began to use them to form the basis of her own works. She has also participated in many collaborative works painted in country with senior Spinifex women.

Debbie continues to be a strong and active member of the Spinifex Arts Project and is currently living at Tjuntjuntjara.

 

Kimberley Krakouer

Artist and Executive Committee Member, Mungart Boodja Art Centre

Stacey Petterson

Artist and Steering Committee Member, Birriliburu Artists of Tjukurba Gallery

Loreen Samson

Artist, Roebourne Art Group

Kathleen Sorensen

Artist and Arts Worker, Martumili Artists

Kathleen started painting at Jigalong in 1999. Kathleen completed a visual arts certificate at Pundulmurra TAFE campus in Port Hedland in 2000.

Painting stories about her country including 'Wukartu' Honey Ants and stories from her mum and from family trips out bush, Kathleen experiments with different mediums and is developing her own unique style.

Kathleen is also a basket maker; she learned how to make baskets from her Aunt Dora Booth. She states, "My Aunty asked me to help her start the centre ring of the basket one day and then I started to get the hang of making baskets myself. I started collecting Spinifex and sitting with my Aunty and working with her making baskets, then I started making my own."

Kathleen sells her baskets and painting at galleries in the Pilbara and has sent some paintings to Queensland.

"The good relationship I have with the other artists and working with Martumili is based on respect. With the respect I have for elders and knowledge of two cultures Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal, that makes me the perfect person to help the Martu people of the Western Desert region to understand how the art centre operates and other things that influence Martu people's lives".

Managers’ Representative

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