Hermannsburg, Tjinta Tjinta and Date Plams, 2008
Fabric and stranded cotton made in collaboration with Catherine Grundy
73cm x 50cm each
Photo: Michal Kluvanek.

HERMANNSBURG, TJINTA TJINTA AND DATE PALMS, 2008

Again the tea towel has been used to represent the important role of women
at Hermannsburg Mission. It is also symbolic and representative of the
importance of food, water and shelter for survival at the mission, as well
as the exchange of cultural information and practices that took place in and
around the mission. This has been highlighted by the use of images of the
historic church, a small yellow daisy and a date palm.

On one tea towel the Hermannsburg church stands next to a beautiful old gum
tree, underneath is the word "Hermannsburg" in the old German script. The
church is symbolic of the cross-cultural interactions that took place in and
around the mission.

Embroidered onto another tea towel is a Tjinta Tjinta or Yellow Daisy, which
is a small plant, found widely around Hermannsburg. Young girls at the
mission often collected these bright yellow flowers. On the third is a date
palm, a plant that was introduced to Hermannsburg Mission via the first
missionaries to work there. They planted many palms in the early days at the
mission site, even at one stage sectioning an area of land off just for
growing the palms.

Hermannsburg, Tjinta Tjinta and Date Plams, 2008
Fabric and stranded cotton made in collaboration with Catherine Grundy
73cm x 50cm each
Photo: Michal Kluvanek.

Hermannsburg, Tjinta Tjinta and Date Plams, 2008
Fabric and stranded cotton made in collaboration with Catherine Grundy
73cm x 50cm each
Photo: Michal Kluvanek.

Kylie Waters - Artist's statement

I was born in 1967 in Adelaide where I trained to be a Teacher. After moving to Melbourne 
in the early 90's , I completed my Bachelor of Fine Arts (Ceramics) at the Victorian College 
of the Arts. During my final year I had my first solo exhibition and began a Mentorship with 
Marea Gazzard, which was funded by Arts Victoria.
After eight years in Melbourne I moved back to Adelaide where I studied at the University of 
South Austraila, SASA and have completed a Bachelor of Arts Hons and Master of Visual Arts 
by Research, during which I was awarded a Post Graduate Award.  I have also worked as a 
sessional Lecturer for the Ceramics and Glass Departments at Uni SA for the past six years.
Within my art practice I am interested in exploring issues of identity; concepts of histories, 
cross cultural experiences and interactions. I have a particular interest in cross-cultural 
interactions that took place historically between Indigenous Australians and German 
Lutherans particularly in South Australia and Central Australia. 
The German Lutheran traditions and cultural practices brought to the Australian landscape 
helped develop a sense of place for the German settlers and mission workers. Moreover 
such traditions and cultural practices impacted on Indigenous people and the Indigenous 
cultural landscape.
A family background connection to the Barossa Valley in South Australia and Hermannsburg 
Mission in Central Australia has led to my interest in this and has been the stimulus for my 
Post Graduate research (which looked at the role of German Lutheran missions in the 
changing understandings of Indigenous Australian Art), and an exhibition titled  New Ceramics. 
Journeys and Place; Exchanges in a Cultural Landscape at the Jam Factory in 2005.
With my background knowledge of technical skills in working with clay, I will often choose 
the medium to investigate conceptually and experiment through ideas, forms and textures. 
I also use non ceramic objects often in my work particularly if they have come from my family. 
I also use the old German script in my work which was a tradition with a strong connection to
the Lutheran settlers' homeland, and a cultural practice that is still continued by a small 
number of people. 
In my most recent work I have been exploring the historic roles of women at Hermannsburg 
mission , the kinds of activities practiced by wives of Lutheran missionaries and pastors and 
by the Indigenous women living in and around the mission. The white on white embroidery 
introduced to the mission by Frieda Strehlow is of particular interest to my work, as are the 
other kinds of  important jobs done by the women such as cooking, doing the laundry, the 
gardening , milking and sewing.

Conjunction, 2008
Embroidered cotton
50 x 72 cm
Photo: Michal Kluvanek

'garden launder cook embroider milk sew'

These words, in the old German script, have been embroidered repeatedly onto a cotton/linen blend tea towel. The words refer to the types of activities undertaken by women at Hermannsburg mission. During such work, cultural exchanges often took place between the Lutheran women and the Indigenous women, cultural traditions and practices were often shared. Exchange(s) is suggestive of the idea that such work undertaken by the women at the mission was equally as important as the study of languages by the missionaries.

Exchange(s), 2008
Embroidered cotton
50 x 72 cm
Photo: Michal Kluvanek

Kylie Waters
Cultural Traditions # 1-4, Pt 2. 2008
Slip cast earthenware clay, glaze and ceramic decal.
Various sizes.

The images used on the plates come from an old German handwriting textbook (unknown publication date) that belonged to my grandfather, A.V. Heidenreich. He used the book in the early 1900's at school up at Bethany in the Barossa Valley. He used to stay there a lot with his grandmother, Anna, and grandfather, Georg Heidenreich who came out from Germany in 1866. Georg Heidenreich was the first Superintendent at Hermannsburg mission. He was in fact involved in determining the site and the establishment of the mission in 1876.
The images on the ceramic plates come from the writing textbook and were chosen as they relate to water, food and shelter.
Food, shelter and water were vital for survival, they were also lures used by the missionaries to bring people into the missions with the intention of conversion, which in turn also led to the documentation of Indigenous languages and cultural practices.
The plates have been cast from those that I have been given, handed down through generations, creating a link between the past and the present. The forms along with the images on them also reference cultural traditions and practices brought to the missions by the Lutheran missionaries and their wives.

Cultural Traditions #1, Part 2, 2008
earthenware clay, glaze, decal
32 x 39 cm

Cultural Traditions #2, Part 2, 2008
earthenware clay, glaze, decal
24 cm diam

Cultural Traditions #3, Part 2, 2008
earthenware clay, glaze, decal
17 cm diam

Cultural Traditions #4, Part 2, 2008
earthenware clay, glaze, decal
19 cm diam

Sand 2002

Accounts of documentation of Indigenous Australian languages such as that which took place at Hermannsburg Mission from 1877, have often motivated my studio research. In Sand 2002 I have used a nineteenth century wooden ink box with glass inkwells, containing not ink but sand and soil. Underneath the ink well box is a hand written letter from Bethany in the Barossa Valley, dated 1894. The handwriting is in the old German script and was written by one of G.A.Heidenreich's children, Anna Heidenreich.
G A Heidenreich and his wife Anna Heidenreich were my great great grandparents arriving in Adelaide from Germany in 1866. Heidenreich was the first superintendant of Hermannsburg Mission.
I have intended that this work refer to the collection of Indigenous cultural objects and the documentation of Indigenous languages, completed by Lutheran missionaries, at Hermannsburg. My work focuses on the actual style of script used by the missionaries and the nature of translation.

The missionaries asked the Indigenous people to transcribe their language into this script in ruled books. The sand and the soil contained within the glass ink wells, make reference to the Indigenous practice of making marks in the sand to convey information/stories about their place in the world. The work can also allude to the closeness of Indigenous languages to the land, the mythical stories attached to land forms and the impossibility of capturing cultural meaning during language translation. The ink has become sand, the pen cannot transcribe and the task of written language to describe concepts across different cultures, has proved inadequate .

Sand, 2003
wooden ink box, glass, paper (letter dated 1894), sand
25 x 23 x 6.5 cm
Photo: Michal Kluvanek

Cultural Traditions (detail), 2005
earthenware clay, glaze, decal
30 x 26 cm
Photo: Michal Kluvanek

Cultural Fertility (detail), 2005
earthenware clay, glaze, decal
30 x 26 cm
Photo: Michal Kluvanek