The perpetual fellowship, named in honour of Darvell Hutchinson AM who this year retired after 50 years’ leadership of the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, was established with a $1 million grant from the Trust.

The first-of-its-kind Fellowship will be awarded annually, and enables a Victorian Indigenous artist to undertake a $45,000 one-year residency at the University of Melbourne to complete a project of their choice.

Tiriki Onus is a Yorta Yorta man, the son of celebrated artist and Indigenous activist Lin Onus, who championed Indigenous art in Victoria.

Also active in opera and performance art – Tiriki Onus will work on a project that takes as its starting point the traditional role of the Koori possum skin cloak, placing it in a contemporary context with a focus on identity and narratives to create a new body of work.

Mr Onus said for the Koori people in southeast Australia there was no more significant and defining work of art than the possum skin cloak.

“It was given to you at birth, and as you grew, it also grew,” he wrote in his Fellowship application.  “More panels would be added as required, all the time incising your clan designs and stories into the skin of the cloak with a scribe. When you died, you were wrapped in your cloak and buried.”
But he says over the last 10 generations so much of the knowledge about the cultural role of the possum skins has been scattered, devalued and replaced with a growing sense of displacement and alienation for many Aboriginal Australians.

“I constantly find myself asking the questions: ‘what are the multiple narratives that inform my identity as a 21st century Yorta Yorta man; what technologies and oral histories remain that I can draw upon in a quest for a greater understanding of my own identity as an artist; how can those technologies, narratives and cultural markers be employed for the betterment of the wider community?’

“Over the course of the next year, I plan to investigate the motivations, emotions and pressures felt by many of those in my past, draw on their stories to inform my own practice and create a new body of work that, like a ceremony, draws together the stories of many for strength.

“This increased knowledge, skill and experience will inform the creation of new works of theatre, poetry, song and visual art, of which a possum skin cloak will be the central tangible element.”

Deborah Cheetham AO, Head of the VCA’s Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts said that inter-disciplinary resources of the University of Melbourne would enable Mr Onus to create a multi-dimensional work that was truly representative of the spirit of the Hutchinson Fellowship.

Darvell Hutchinson said he was “thrilled” with the selection of Tiriki Onus.

“He is a very worthy recipient who exemplifies the qualities, skills and thinking of emerging Indigenous artists in Victoria today. I very much look forward to his contribution to the establishment of the HIF, and to his project outcomes.

“I am also deeply grateful to my co-trustees for naming this important Indigenous education initiative in my honour.”

Download 2014 HMSTrust Annual Report for the Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship case study P37  2014 HMSTrust Annual Report- Part 1

Image: Peter Casamento