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Tiwi Textiles: Design, Making, Process
Tiwi Design, Making, Process tells the story of the innovative Tiwi Design centre on Bathurst Island in northern Australia, dedicated to the production of hand-printed fabrics featuring Indigenous designs, from the 1970s to today. Written by early art coordinator Diana Wood Conroy with oral testimony from senior Tiwi artist Bede Tungutalum, who established Tiwi Design in 1969 with fellow designer Giovanni Tipungwuti, the book traces the beginnings of the centre, and its subsequent place in the Tiwi community and Australian Indigenous culture more broadly.
Bringing together many voices and images, especially those of little-known older artists of Paru and Wurrumiyanga (formerly Nguiu) on the Tiwi Islands and from the Indigenous literature, Tiwi Textiles features profiles of Tiwi artists, accounts of the development of new design processes, insights into Tiwi culture and language, and personal reflections on the significance of Tiwi Design, which is still proudly operating today.
'Tiwi Textiles is a unique historical document, a formidable vindication of the accomplishments of great Indigenous artists, and an account of a missing chapter in world art history. The book is a wonderful chronicle of a vital and fertile period for Tiwi practice in the emergence of contemporary Indigenous art. But it is also a charter for the future.'
— Nicholas Thomas FBA FAHA Director, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge
'Wood Conroy not only writes, intricately and sensitively, a vital history of Tiwi she also firms up the place of fibre and textiles practices in Indigenous art and leaves space for us to consider how art history can shift to become more responsive to the lived realities of Indigenous peoples and our non-Indigenous accomplices.' — Tristen Harwood, The Saturday Paper
Bringing together many voices and images, especially those of little-known older artists of Paru and Wurrumiyanga (formerly Nguiu) on the Tiwi Islands and from the Indigenous literature, Tiwi Textiles features profiles of Tiwi artists, accounts of the development of new design processes, insights into Tiwi culture and language, and personal reflections on the significance of Tiwi Design, which is still proudly operating today.
'Tiwi Textiles is a unique historical document, a formidable vindication of the accomplishments of great Indigenous artists, and an account of a missing chapter in world art history. The book is a wonderful chronicle of a vital and fertile period for Tiwi practice in the emergence of contemporary Indigenous art. But it is also a charter for the future.'
— Nicholas Thomas FBA FAHA Director, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge
'Wood Conroy not only writes, intricately and sensitively, a vital history of Tiwi she also firms up the place of fibre and textiles practices in Indigenous art and leaves space for us to consider how art history can shift to become more responsive to the lived realities of Indigenous peoples and our non-Indigenous accomplices.' — Tristen Harwood, The Saturday Paper
Kindle Edition
Published December 1, 2022
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March 27, 2026
Dieses Buch dokumentiert die Entwicklung des Tiwi Design-Zentrums und die kulturelle Bedeutung seiner Textilkunst. In Zusammenarbeit mit Künstlern bietet es Einblicke in kreative Prozesse und gemeinschaftliche Praktiken. Es zeigt eindrucksvoll, wie Kunst zur Selbstbestimmung beiträgt und Tradition mit Innovation verbindet.
Die Textilkunst der Tiwi ist die farbgewaltige Widerlegung jeder Theorie, die Tradition als starres Relikt missversteht. Das Werk zeigt, dass Stoffe nicht nur den Körper kleiden, sondern das Gewebe der Souveränität selbst sind. Wer diesen ‚Atlas der Muster‘ betrachtet, begreift: Hier wird kein Schicksal verwaltet, sondern Zukunft gewebt. Es ist der Beweis, dass Innovation nicht den Bruch mit den Vorfahren bedeutet, sondern deren lebendige Fortsetzung mit anderen Mitteln – eine Kunstform, die sich weigert, in den Vitrinen des kolonialen Archipels zu verstauben.
Die Textilkunst der Tiwi ist die farbgewaltige Widerlegung jeder Theorie, die Tradition als starres Relikt missversteht. Das Werk zeigt, dass Stoffe nicht nur den Körper kleiden, sondern das Gewebe der Souveränität selbst sind. Wer diesen ‚Atlas der Muster‘ betrachtet, begreift: Hier wird kein Schicksal verwaltet, sondern Zukunft gewebt. Es ist der Beweis, dass Innovation nicht den Bruch mit den Vorfahren bedeutet, sondern deren lebendige Fortsetzung mit anderen Mitteln – eine Kunstform, die sich weigert, in den Vitrinen des kolonialen Archipels zu verstauben.
Displaying 1 of 1 review