Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route

Description

The Aboriginal people of Australia's Western Desert lived in their homelands for thousands of years. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the expansion of the Western Australian mining and pastoral industries led to the surveying of a track along which cattle could be driven from Kimberley stations to markets in the south. This track became known as the 'Canning Stock Route'. In July and August 2007, nearly 70 artists travelled up the stock route on a six-week return to Country. Yiwarra Kuju includes beautiful plates of the complete Canning Stock Route Collection and for the very first time tells the story of the stock route's impact, and the importance of the country around it, by Aboriginal voices and interpreted through Aboriginal eyes.

John Carty is a Canning Stock Route Project anthropologist who has worked extensively throughout the Western Desert and Kimberley regions. Carly Davenport works for FORM, an independent not for profit organization dedicated to advocating for and developing creativity in Western Australia. As project team leader, she guided the development of the Yiwarra Kuju exhibition in collaboration with the National Museum of Australia. Monique LaFontaine is an artist, a writer, and a manager of the Canning Stock Route Project's archive of content.