For two weeks in February UNSW Art & Design's printmaking community hosted our annual Aboriginal Print Workshop. 

Spanning 10 intensive days, the workshop offered opportunities for current students to work with leading Indigenous artists from across Australia and Canada. The selected participating artists represented a wide array of artistic practices ranging from textiles and digital design to sculpture, painting, photography, and video. With extensive knowledge and expertise in their chosen disciplines, artists explored the application of story, history, and visual expression within the area of printmaking with Michael Kempson, master-printmaker and Director of UNSW Art & Design’s Cicada Press, and Tess Allas, Director of Indigenous Programs at UNSW Art & Design.

The artists participating in the 2017 Aboriginal Print Workshop included: Caroline Sibosado and her son, Garry Sibosado, from Lombadina on the West Kimberley coast, award-winning artist Raymond Zada, Adelaide-based emerging artist Amanda Radomi, and Art & Design graduate Lucy Simpson.

For the first time UNSW Art & Design's Print Workshop hosted an international artist, Adrian Stimson, who returned to Australia from Canada after he was commissioned to produce a new work as part of the critically acclaimed project, With Secrecy and Despatch, curated by Allas at the Campbelltown Arts Centre in 2016. 

In addition, highly regarded Sydney-based artist and UNSW Art & Design Indigenous Elder, Uncle Vic Chapman, participated the workshop and current students Ruth Saveka, John Waight, and Dennis Golding acted as volunteer studio assistants.

2017 Participating Artists included:

Lucy Simpson, a graduate of UNSW Art & Design and the founder and director of design business Gaawaa Miyay. Lucy was involved in the first of the Bowen Bungaree Aboriginal artist residencies at UNSW Art & Design which culminated in the exhibition, Dhuwi, held at the Australian Design Centre in Sydney.

Raymond Zada is an Adelaide-based artist who works primarily with photography, video, and digital design. He won the 2012 Telstra Art Award in the area of new-media. Read more about Zada’s involvement previous UNSW Art & Design Aboriginal Print Workshops and listen to him speak about his work here. 

Caroline Sibosado and her son Garry Sibosado flew in from Lombadina, which is approximately 3 hours along a red-dirt road north of Broome in Western Australia. Caroline is the matriarch of the Sibosado family, which runs a tourism business from their small community in Lombadina. Garry was featured in an exhibition curated by Allas, Shimmer, investigating historic and contemporary shell-working practices of Indigenous Australia in 2015/16 at the Wollongong Art Gallery.

Adrian Stimson is a member of the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation of southern Alberta, Canada. He is a performance and visual artist of international repute. He was commissioned to produce new work for the exhibition, With Secrecy and Despatch, curated by Allas at the Campbelltown Arts Centre in 2016. Read more about Stimson here. 

Amanda Radomi is an emerging artist based in Adelaide where she is currently a tutor and Masters Candidate in the area of Indigenous Studies at the University of South Australia. She was an exhibiting artist in the Tarnathi Festival last year and is a member of the artist-run group the Onesixteeth Collective.