Reflections from our visit to Bula’bula Arts Centre

By Cree Oliveira, Outreach Secondee, KWM

It was an incredible highlight to travel out to Bula’bula Arts Centre in Ramingining, NT. Ramingining is a special place and Bula’bula is absolutely at its heart. We worked with Bula’bula to prepare and workshop an artists agreement, with the aim of empowering artists to ensure that their intellectual property rights are protected and that they are fairly compensated for their work, including in ways that make sense for Yolnu culture. We spoke about Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property and got some great feedback on how this fits within a Yolnu understanding of moieties and cultural protocol – it is clear that Australian law has some catching up to do with Yolnu lore, but this regime represents a positive step. Everyone we worked with was so generous in sharing their stories and work with us. A standout was an incredible catfish weaving, and the meticulously crafted cross-hatched lines on many of the paintings, which appear to shimmer off the wall.

We were very generously hosted by Mel, the manager at Bula’bula, who took us out to look for wild buffalo and showed us some of the beautiful landscape around the area. We had the incredible gift of seeing culture and ceremony in action, and especially, so many little children being raised strong in culture. And nothing compares to seeing Arnhem Land from the air. Ramingining is a unique place, and it is difficult to appreciate its challenges and opportunities unless you make the trek out for a visit. This trip has given us great context for the work we do to support Bula’bula and other arts centres like it, and the hope is that, by entrenching strong governance practices and continuing to share knowledge both ways, they will continue to go from strength to strength.