Professional Documents
Culture Documents
occupy v to take up (space, time, form. The deliberately rudimentary space has nudged its way
etc) / to engage or employ (the mind, into this foreign cultural environment, and invites the viewer to
attention, etc, or a person) / to take contemplate the moveable and very transitory history it offers.
possession of (a place), as by invasion / Jones talks about his work evoking common memories by working
to hold (a position, office, etc) / to be with domestic materials, minimal forms and designs, and historical
resident or established in (a place) as moments of bicultural relationships. 3 The use of the tarpaulin is 3
f rom artist statement to author, 23
its tenant / to tenant1 1
Macquarie Encyclopedic Dictionary, 2010 suggestive of the great Aussie tradition of camping, in which a February 2012
edition, Macquarie Dictionary Publishers
Pty Ltd, Sydney typical Aussie weekend, particularly a long one, would commence
The recent Occupy movements, the Tent Embassies in Canberra with a three-hour drive in a designated direction, followed by
and on Matagarup (Heirisson Island) in Perth, Western Australia, the selection of a campsite and the pitching of the tent/dome/
and the Single Nyoongar Land Claim2 have brought into sharp 2
the traditional country of the Nyoongar humpy; it would end usually with a sightseeing tour and shared
focus the zones of contestation that are taking place in (also spelt Noongar and Nyungar) people meal. This benign signifier the tarpaulin functions in dual ways
of Western Australia extends roughly from
contemporary society as they relate to the negotiation of Esperance at the southern tip of WA to just in Jones works. It operates simultaneously as a bland material,
homelands, and the pattern of economic and socio-cultural below Geraldton in the north-west and to capable of providing a waterproof shelter to its occupants and used
exchange that is currently occurring. Southern Cross in the east. On 17 December in countless habitable structures by holiday goers universally,
2009 the State Government signed a
Complex patterns of cultural exchange and interaction have Heads of Agreement with the South West and as a signifier of a foreign material, introduced to its context
caused extraordinary shifts in the configuration of occupation Aboriginal Land and Sea Council aimed to cover, to claim, to deny, to keep out.
at resolving the six Noongar (South West
across the globe, but perhaps no more so than on and in the Aboriginal Land and Sea Council spelling) The notion of home is a critical organising metaphor for how we
lands of colonised Indigenous peoples. Geographical dislocation native title claims over Perth and the south- understand the relationship between individuals and society at
has been instrumental in an almost fatal cultural displacement west of WA by negotiation rather than by large, and for how this work can be interpreted. A wide range of
slow and costly legal action, which has been
for Indigenous people across the continent. The legacy of removal running in the federal court for twelve years. cultural and legal practices enshrine the home with various
from Homelands has forced Indigenous people to rapidly modify The negotiations covered a wide range of protections that ensure the dweller a degree of privacy, security,
how connection and re-connection occurs to Country, kin and issues including recognition of the traditional solitude and control over their lives there. 4 Jones temporary 4
aniel J Weitzner, 2007, From Home to
D
ownership of Noongar land, a range of health Home Page: New Challenges to Basic
to culture. and education programs, and possible joint home derides the western notion of home in its flimsiness,
Notions of Privacy and Property, available
The site-specific work of Jonathan Jones (b1978) engages and management of some national parks, as well its impermanence. A transient symbol of vagrancy, this home at dig.csail.mit.edu/2007/05/ic-home-
as other initiatives aimed at strengthening offers none of the privacy, security or solitude stipulated by weitzner.html
challenges the viewer to consider ideas about the disrupted Noongar culture, and community self-
occupation of space and the concept of dislocation, both as it determination. The negotiation process aimed Daniel J Weitzner.
relates to Indigenous people and to a broader global context. at resolving the Noongar native title claims Weitzner states that
and achieving a broader land settlement over
Jones is Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi Indigenous peoples from central Perth and the south-west of WA has started Rights in general and privacy in particular are
and northern New South Wales, respectively and the establishing as of the date of this essay, and is expected about boundaries: borders we erect around
to be finalised, and ready for implementation,
of an installation in prime Nyoongar territory at, specifically, by December 2012; from South West ourselves or those limitations that society is
the centre of the largest public car park in the Perth CBD could Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, 2012, prepared to respect. The most fundamental of
almost be construed as assumptive, were it not for the explicit available at noongar.org.au these demarcation lines are our home walls; the
acknowledgment by the artist that he is, in fact, camping in boundary of the home is often the principal
anothers land, temporarily claiming space and country. The dividing line between our public and private
tarpaulin of the work becomes a metaphor for takeover, a very selves. Inside the home, we can expect to be
real and tangible thing of occupation. The construction, however, free from arbitrary government intrusion, we have
is a pretend place, a conjured improvisation of built and found broad leeway in how we behave and use our
Jonathan Jones
untitled (car parks)