Djilpin Arts began 20 years ago as a vision underpinned by trust, and the knowledge that Beswick was a stronghold of culture. Our next exhibition—comprising all of our galleries and even foyer spaces—celebrates the extraordinary two decades of creativity, culture, and community from this special place in our region. Godinymayin is proud to invite you to the visual arts experience Djarmalak, Come Together from 18 June to 30 July—and this opening reception on Friday 17 June from 5:30pm. 

Even before Djilpin emerged, their community had been the place where cultural practice had found various modern iterations: the White Cockatoo Dancers, Jarraluk Arts, and the legacy of David Blanasi. In Djilpin’s origins, founding Director Balang T E Lewis was initially driven by a desire to bring back the songs. And so in August 2002 Walking With Spirits, an ambitious experiment in the bush, was born.
 
Ignited by this project, artists began bringing their works to the site of the future building, expressing their long-held desire to have their cultural practice appropriately supported. So Djilpin Arts developed around new infrastructure, and what a sight and place it has become.

From the early days, Djilpin artists explored new mediums: etchings, silk screen and wood block prints, textiles and traditional weaving practices that flew off to fine art galleries beyond the Territory. They introduced metal and timber sculptures, digital media, works laser cut into architecture and award winning buildings. What grew from Djilpin was a vast array of new art—not for art’s sake, but for cultural survival.
 
This exhibition seeks to represent Djilpin’s range and history—and to do that, we’ve filled all of our exhibitions spaces with work by their artists. Visitors will discover a rich mix of both archival and recent art, the new and un-exhibited as well as special pieces from Djilpin’s legacy artists. Everything in Djarmalak, Come Together blends tradition with the varying modalities and creative experiments of the Djilpin artists.
 
It matters little to them that the timber has been carved with the help of a small electric tool, that the wood block print has been bled through with pigment and printed on Iwaki paper, that the surface has been sealed with the help of whitefella adhesive, or that the image scratched into an etching plate was revealed in an acid bath. For Djilpin artists the medium is never the message. Nor is the message—most often referred to as “story”—a linear narrative. Rather each artwork in this exhibition represents a section of an infinite knowledge system, a tapestry of history, a living culture. Everything you will see on view at Godinymayin—whether depicting plant, animal or spirit, or whether manifested as print, sculpture, woven object or painting—sits within a complex system of kinship, place, and identity.
 
This identity is the star picket in conquered yet unceded land. A culture that won’t be silenced. And one with an incredible generosity and interest in sharing. This is the strength and beauty of Djilpin’s artists and the art of this exhibition. Djarmalak is an exhibition that asks us to Come Together. Be with us in Katherine on Friday 17 June as we open this extraordinary collection of creative and cultural work. Let it invite you in.