In May 2018, rising third-year Callie Collins traveled to the remote Aboriginal island community of Milingimbi for a two week internship initiated by the Kluge-Ruhe Collection. Located off the north-coast of Australia, Milingimbi is home to around 1,000 Yolngu people, and is rarely visited by outsiders. Collins’ internship came at the invitation of UVA Mellon Indigenous Arts Fellows Raymond Bulambula and Mrs. Goriyindi, who undertook a 2017 residency at Kluge-Ruhe, where Collins was a curatorial intern. A Virginia resident who had never been on an airplane before, Collins took up the invitation to travel across the world to spend time learning from Aboriginal elders while researching the extensive collection of artworks from Milingimbi in the Kluge-Ruhe Collection. Her visit was sponsored by the UVA Mellon Indigenous Arts Program and the Office of Global Internships at UVA. While at Milingimbi, Collins was adopted into the local community, and given the Aboriginal name Manangurra Wumutjan Garrawurra. Collins describes her adventure as “a life-changing experience. My new family in Milingimbi will forever be in my heart.”
When she returned, she curated an exhibition of three works in a hallway at Kluge-Ruhe, writing extensively about the works she researched at Milingimbi. This mini-exhibition will be on view through July 2019.
About
Milingimbi Art and Culture is a community owned Art Centre that maintains an important position in the national art and cultural arena. Milingimbi Art and Culture has a long history of producing works steeped in active cultural practice such as barks, ceremonial poles, carvings and weavings. Works from Milingimbi are integral to important collections in many National and International institutions. Image: Miligimbi artist Raymond Bulambula stands in front of his artwork at “Gapu Murnak,” an exhibition of Milingimbi works at the Embassy of Australia in 2017.
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“‘Honey Bee Girl’ at Milingimbi” by Callie Collins
The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia acknowledges the Monacan Nation, the traditional owners of the land and waters upon which it stands.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are warned that this website contains the names and images of deceased people.