Michelle Woody Minnapinni, YOYI (Dance) film still, Wulirankuwu Country. Courtesy of the artist and Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association.
Good Coffee Doing Good is a project-based initiative in which we partner with impact-focused enterprises both local and global and is fuelled by our Golden Rule Espresso Blend. Through the sales of Golden Rule, we raise funds for some meaningful organisations and projects, donating $4 for each kilo sold across our retail and wholesale operations.
To date, we have raised and donated over A$75,000 through our Golden Rule initiative to our project partners. You can shop the coffee here.
We’re incredibly proud to announce our latest partnership is with Agency Projects - an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander not-for-profit organisation.
This year, our campaign with Agency focuses on Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association, and the work being done to preserve Tiwi Culture by creating a media library and digital archive. Continue reading to find out more.
YOYI (dance), Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, University of Melbourne, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association.
Agency Projects is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander not-for-profit organisation working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across the country to identify, develop and sustain initiatives that promote, celebrate and support cultural practice, allow Indigenous leadership to thrive, and ultimately feature strong participation and economic opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Agency was established in late 2019 in response to a need expressed by cultural leaders and which resonates with those who care deeply about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, art and Country. They exist not only to establish meaningful new connections between Indigenous-led initiatives and social and ethical giving, but also to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, culture and people and develop networks to support programs of cultural significance. They do this through the facilitation of bespoke learning opportunities, exhibitions, events, publications, residencies and cultural experiences for audiences in Australia and abroad.
This year’s Good Coffee Doing Good campaign focuses on the important work being undertaken at Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association to preserve Tiwi Culture, where artists and the broader community are creating a multi-media knowledge centre and digital archive for the audiovisual documentation and distribution of Tiwi heritage. The archive project, Wurrungura, will celebrate and safeguard cultural knowledge on the Tiwi islands.
YOYI (dance) – Pius Tipungwuti dancing Buffalo, The National 4 : MCA Australia, (2023) Photo: Jenni Carter. Courtesy of the artist and Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association.
Marriwiyi Project Project, finalist in the Bowness Photography Prize (2022). Courtesy of the artist and Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association.
In Tiwi language, the term Jilamara refers to body paint design.
Established in 1989, Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association is owned and governed by artists from the community of Milikapiti on the Tiwi Islands. The Milikapiti community is on Wulirankuwu Country on the north coast of Melville Island overlooking the Arafura Sea. It is a small community that celebrates family, culture and art-making.
The art centre is the cultural hub of the community and houses working studios, wood carving and screen-printing workshops, the architecturally designed Kutuwulumi Gallery and the Muluwurri Museum. Through workshops, training and representation Jilamara members of diverse abilities are supported to build careers as internationally renowned artists. In the community, the art centre is also an important place for local school children to learn through culture classes and for many generations of Tiwi people to build bright futures.
The term Jilamara describes "design" based on ceremonial ochre markings on the body. Reimagining these styles at the art centre has fostered a dynamic creative field for maintaining Tiwi knowledge, as well as sharing and celebrating contemporary living culture. These performative foundations have directed the organisation’s course for decades, from its origins in translating Jilamara design to screen-printed garments as an adult education centre in the 1980s to producing major exhibition outcomes as an indigenous governed art centre in more recent decades.
"From body it moved onto bark and then canvas, silk, printing and now we are moving into digital. Culture is evolving with time."
- Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri, 2019
Nikita Puruntatameri, Columbiere Tipungwuti and Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri on Country filming YOYI (2019). Courtesy of the artist and Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association.
YOYI (dance) – Pius Tipungwuti dancing Buffalo, The National 4 : MCA Australia, (2023) Photo: Jenni Carter. Courtesy of the artist and Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association.
Using a Tiwi word that describes a picture or moving image but also the action of moving forward, Wurrungura is a multi-media knowledge centre and digital archive for the audiovisual documentation and distribution of Tiwi heritage and culture. It provides community members with access to a culturally relevant library and locally managed digital recording studio. The mission is to celebrate and safeguard cultural knowledge on the Tiwi islands such as
The project is being driven by a small group of project producers and mentors and is delivered by Jilamara staff and board. For over 30 years, the focus of the art centre has been keeping culture strong through creative practice and cultural preservation. This has led to the Art Centre producing a number of multi-media projects performing and documenting song, dance and language. What has emerged is the need to house this project as its own part of the organisation.
“Before we did not record these things, but now we are using this new medium to record calling out, singing and clapping. The songs and the dance connect to our ancestors and the wulimawi (elders). Our culture is still alive from parlingarri (longtime) to today.”
- Pedro Wonaeamirri, senior language and cultural leader and Art Centre Director“We are moving forward, some songs are changing and some dances are changing a little and technology is changing, I see this as I get older, but we still connect as one mob Tiwi and we are moving forward together – like the old and the new coming together, wurrungura meaning moving forward.”
- Pedro Wonaeamirri, senior language and cultural leader and Art Centre Director
Wurrungura team assessing repatriated and digitised materials for the museum archive, 2024. Courtesy of Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association.
This project is important to the community as it drives cultural heritage outcomes for Tiwi people. These outcomes include
The outcomes build on existing Jilamara projects, but also further develop its mission to keep language and culture strong through art. In the past, community members lacked control over recording, audio visual and archiving projects, and still have limited access to Tiwi audiovisual cultural material. Wurrungura will become a production studio and digital keeping place that not only presents and preserves Tiwi heritage, it also provides a platform for Tiwi knowledge management by Tiwi leaders and the Tiwi community.
Pedro Wonaeamirri, Jilarti (Brolga) Dance, install, UnLearning Australia SeMA South Korea. Courtesy of the artist and Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association.
Doriana Bush and Pamela Brooks recording songs on Country, Wulirankuwu (2021). Courtesy of Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association.
Michelle Woody and Cassie Puruntatameri at Agency. Courtesy of Timothy Hillier and Agency.
Agency supports projects by First Nations people through exhibitions and collaborative opportunities for Artists and Art Centres which celebrate Indigenous knowledge, wisdom and artistic practices.
Agency is supporting Jilamara Arts commitment to maintaining their rich cultural practices through the development of the multi-media knowledge centre and digital archive which in turn strengthens cultural connections.
Purchasing our Golden Rule Espresso Blend will directly assist Agency to deliver this powerful initiative and others like it. Supporting Agency supports Indigenous-led programs like safeguarding knowledge and directly enables Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander capacity and empowerment, increases opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, cultural leaders and creative practitioners to tell their own stories in their own voices.
Your donation will directly support Indigenous-led initiatives that:
Pedro Wonaeamirri, Jilarti (Brolga) Dance film still, Telstra Multimedia winner 2021. Courtesy of the artist and Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association.
You can contribute by purchasing our Golden Rule Espresso Blend. $4 from each kilo sold will be donated directly to Agency to support this powerful initiative by Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association and others like it.
We would like to thank Agency and Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association and for their assistance in writing this article and for sharing these images with us.
You can also donate directly to Agency via their website, which we have listed below.
Shop Golden Rule Espresso Blend!
Agency Projects Website
Padre Coffee acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their continued connections to land, sea and community.
We pay our respect to Elders past, present and future, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
