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Boat from the sculpture 'Arrival 2011'

Artist Garth Lena (1967)

Date2011

Object number00055123

NameSculpture

MediumSteel

DimensionsOverall: 80 × 75 × 290 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with funds from the Sid Faithfull and Christine Sadler program supporting Contemporary Indigenous Maritime Heritage in Far North Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands through the ANMM Foundation

Terms

DescriptionPart of sculpture titled 'Arrival 2011' by Garth Lena.HistoryEast Coast Encounter was a multi-arts initiative involving Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, writers and songwriters to re-imagine the encounter by Lieutenant James Cook and his crew with Indigenous people in 1770. Cook's voyage along the Australian east coast has become central to national historical narratives. The East Coast Encounter project asked artists to re-envisage this seminal journey by imaginatively exploring moments of contact between two world views during these encounters. It also brought these events into the present by incorporating artists' reflections on their relevance today, and their responses to visits to significant contact locations. Topics such as encounter, impact, differing perspectives, nature and culture and views of country are investigated. In Garth Lena's work 'Arrival 2011' a lively, communal culture is shown, sustained by the land and the community’s custodianship of it. Lena conveys the idea of watercraft as carrying culture and change, as the group members quietly consider what this arrival might mean for their people. SignificanceThis sculpture by Garth Lena is significant in providing an Indigenous view of first contact and European occupation of Australia.