NGURRA KUJU WALYJA, ONE COUNTRY ONE PEOPLE
THE CANNING STOCK ROUTE PROJECT
In development since September 2006, the Canning Stock Route Project (CSR Project) is an alliance between nine Aboriginal arts and cultural organisations. It is a collaborative project, which promotes a greater awareness of the history, culture and country of some of Australia’s most renowned Western Desert artists.
The Project encompasses a major exhibition, the production of two companion publications, a professional development program, a multi-media and a public education program. It records a rich and deeply compelling record of Aboriginal communities from this remote region. The material captures a diverse and distinctive Aboriginal worldview and audiences are invited to consider ways in which contemporary Aboriginal people conceive connections to country, family and the Jukurrpa (Dreamtime).
109 artists and countrymen, comprising some of Australia’s most senior and respected artists, such as Eubena Nampitjin, Jan Billycan, and Patrick Olodoodi Tjungurrayi, have contributed to the Project material in multiple ways.
The National Museum acquired the CSR collection in late 2008 and have commited to working with the FORM team to assist in the building and launch of the exhibition In July 2010 and also manage its subsequent tour to selected national and international venues. Museum Director Craddock Morton describes the collection “as a peerless archive of the social and cultural histories of communities across a vast area of Western Australia... it is a national treasure”