Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 2013

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ARTIST IN RESIDENCE Krishna Nahow: The hidden history

ARTICLE

MS LORRAINE THORNQUIST DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE ARTS

AUTHOR

Through my art, I’m giving a voice to who we are; our history is quite hidden. — Krishna Nahow, Brisbane Girls Grammar School Artist in Residence, 2013 In 2001 the Queensland Government introduced an action plan to recognise and support Australian South Sea Islanders (ASSI). Most of these people are the Australian- born descendants of the South Sea Islanders who were brought into Queensland between 1863 and 1904 as indentured labourers (DATSIMA, 2013). During this period, thousands of people were tricked, kidnapped and stolen from their island homes in Melanesia, primarily Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, and taken to Australia to work on cotton and sugarcane plantations, where they were treated as the slave labour in a practice that was known as ‘blackbirding’ (DATSIMA, 2013). Artist Krishna Nahow belongs to that cultural heritage. Her work speaks to this legacy and the questions of identity that continue to haunt the descendants of this complex, difficult and hidden part of Australia’s history. In February, Ms Nahow spent four weeks as Brisbane Girls Grammar School’s Artist in Residence. The residency was generously sponsored by Ms Lesley Bryant, alumna and former member of the Board of Trustees. With The Retreat in the Cherrell Hirst Creative Learning Centre as her base, Ms Nahow worked on her own projects and shared her creative process with the girls by speaking with individual students and classes. Her residency provided Visual Arts students with a dynamic opportunity to reflect on social history and their own artwork through watching and participating in the evolving body of work of a professional artist. Ms Nahow said, ‘I feel honoured and proud to have been able to share

my art practice with the girls, and to be given this platform to raise awareness of ASSI history. There is a historical connection between Girls Grammar through [former Chair of Trustees] Sir Samuel Griffith and the Australian South Sea Islander story. I hope that students will have the opportunity to explore this further across the curriculum.’ During her residency Ms Nahow developed two series of artworks to be exhibited in 2013 as part of the ASSI 150 Project. Her techniques involve using free apps, such as Sketchbook and Sketch Agent, and traditional mark-making using inks and paints on paper or canvas prints. The portrait photographs in her work are historical and present day images. The historical images come from the State Library’s John Oxley Library collection. The works will be exhibited later in the year in the ASSI 150 programme at the State Library of Queensland, The Centre at Beaudesert and the Floating Land art and culture festival on the Sunshine Coast. Ms Nahow said of the residency experience: ‘My time here went by so quickly. I really enjoyed being immersed in the creative energy generated by the students, and witnessing the generous and caring spirit of Girls Grammar. I’m happy with what I achieved, and what I will leave with the School.’ REFERENCES Queensland Government, Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Multicultural Affairs (DATSIMA). 2013. Australian South Sea Islander recognition . Retrieved from http://www.datsima.qld.gov.au/ multicultural/community/australian-south-sea-islanders/australian-south-sea- islander-recognition

GRAMMAR GAZETTE