APT9 Exhibition Report

WOMEN’S WEALTH The Women’s Wealth project asserted the importance of women’s voices in the predominantly matrilineal societies of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, and their relationship to the land and culture through the creation of textiles, pottery, body adornments and audio visual artworks. The project involved artists from across Bougainville and nearby provinces of the Solomon Islands. People in this region share longstanding cultural and linguistic connections, as well as histories of matrilineal descent and environments damaged by foreign-owned mining, logging and development. Integral to the project was a ten-day workshop held at the Nazareth Rehabilitation Centre on Bougainville in September 2017, where a group of Australian artists worked with their Bougainville and Solomon Islands counterparts to reflect on shared histories and to learn from each other. In the process, they established new creative relationships and developed more nuanced understandings of the region, which was reflected in the works on display. Developed especially for APT9 with Bougainville- born co-curator Sana Balai, the Women’s Wealth project was accompanied by a new multichannel video work by Taloi Havini, Habitat 2018, alongside works on paper from an intergenerational group of men. These provided context for the women’s works by introducing audiences to the region’s devastating recent history and Australia’s place within this. Women’s Wealth was supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Gordon Darling Foundation, the Brisbane Bougainville Community Group Inc., the Cairns Bougainville Association, QUT Creative Industries and Queen Emma Chocolate Company. The Solomon Islands artists’ participation was supported by QAGOMA’s Oceania Women’s Fund, enabled by the generous bequest of Jennifer Phipps. 17 EXHIBITION