Celebrating two decades of law studies at Bond University, the Faculty of Law organised a unique event of lasting legal and artistic significance. Prominent aboriginal artist and tribal leader Bill Yidumduma Harney was commissioned to paint a new work of art on the theme ‘the Law of the Wardaman People’.
Yidumduma is an Elder of the Wardaman People of the Victoria, Flora and Katherine River Districts of the Northern Territory. Sadly, however, he is also the last senior lawman (‘knowledge custodian’) of his people. With him, an irreplaceable piece of Australia’s cultural and legal history will die.
The Faculty of Law arranged for Yidumduma to take up a two-week residency on campus to complete the painting. To compliment the residency, the Faculty planned a number of activities including artist master classes, Campus art tours and public lectures for the duration of the residency, generating dialogue with Aboriginal art and law among staff, students and alumni.
The Artist in Residence program provided an opportunity for genuine collaboration between Bond University, as a socially aware and responsible institution of higher education and its immediate and broader constituencies, thereby demonstrating the University’s commitment to principles of community engagement and social inclusion.
Yidumduma is uniquely suited to this task, bringing together law and art to convey his people’s cultural knowledge through a medium of traditional cultural expression. Ancient night sky story-songlines will be the theme of the artwork as Bill Yidumduma Harney uses traditional concepts and integrates ancient forms and symbols with paints made of original earth ochres.
The artwork is a wonderful addition to the University’s already extensive art collection and will be proudly hung on the walls of the Faculty of Law’s Legal Skills building for the community to view and appreciate. For more information on the artist and for images of the painting in progress visit our artist-in-residence webpage.
