The Keeping Place

August 30, 2010

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is in support of ‘The Keeping Place,’ the largest single collection of Aboriginal art assembled by a single Aboriginal artist, Mr. Gordon Syron, a Biripi and Worimi man from New South Wales. The collection is unique in other ways as well: It contains more than 500 paintings and sculptural works that represent contemporary Australian-Indigenous art history, and therefore, represents Australian history in general. The collection currently resides in Redfern, a historic community of Aboriginal peoples, and this urban home is an important symbol to Aboriginal people, their displacement and resettlement, and their decades long struggle for social justice. In this way, the collection represents this struggle, and, in my view as a cultural heritage specialist, it constitutes a national cultural treasure.

I first met Gordon and his wife Elaine in 1997 when they ran a gallery and photography shop on Oxford Street in Darlinghurst. At that time, Gordon had rarely shown his work in public exhibition, having taught himself how to paint in prison. The late 1990s were the peak of Reconciliation Movement, and Gordon painted his reflections on those times. At issue – and part of my own research in Australia – was the concern over cultural appropriation of Aboriginal art forms by non-Aboriginal artists that devalues the work of artists, as well as the Australian export economy in Aboriginal art. I bought the painting, “Imposter Rollcall,” which depicted those issues through Syron’s own iconic renderings. The painting, as it turned out, is now a visual historical document of those times. What this example highlights is Gordon’s ability to serve as an antennae of his times, the mark of a true visionary artist.

His works, as well as the works of other well-known and lesser-known Indigenous artists, form the core of the The Keeping Place, aptly named, and a timely opportunity for a local and national response to Indigenous aesthetics from an Indigenous point of view. As an academic, museum specialist, and international supporter, I stand by the Syron’s position to locate a suitable facility for this collection of regional and national importance. The Keeping Place is not just a place; it is an idea whose time has come – to build a cultural bridge through the establishment of a cultural centre, that will not only exhibit works from this historic collection, but provide the foundation upon which to build cultural exchanges, employment opportunities, education, and national pride in Indigenous art and culture in the urban environment in which the majority lives, works and votes. In these ways, the preservation of The Keeping Place is an opportunity for all.

Sincerely,


Tressa Berman, Ph.D.
Principal, IICP