The Melbourne Art Trams Program returns in 2022, again featuring all designs by First Peoples artists.

Melbourne/Naarm is a city built on the lands of the Kulin Nation peoples; Traditional Owners who continue to maintain deep connections to their country, kin and waterways that have existed for tens of thousands of years.

Along with Victorian Traditional Owners, Melbourne/Naarm is home to many First Peoples from across the country.

RISING Artistic Associate Kimberley Moulton (Yorta Yorta), curated the six artists and artworks featured on the 2021 First Peoples Art Trams. For 2022, Jarra Karilinar Steel (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba), a previous Melbourne Art Trams artist, will be joining as curator to take on this important piece of Melbourne’s artistic landscape.

2022 CURATORIAL STATEMENT

‘Unapologetically Blak’ is the theme for the 2022 Melbourne Art Trams, curated by Boon Wurrung artist, curator and cultural consultant, Jarra Karalinar Steel.

‘Unapologetically Blak’ invites First Nations artists who are either Victorian Traditional owners, or a First Nations person residing/working in Victoria, to respond to ideas of family and kin, connection and care of country, personal expressions of culture, language, and blak excellence.

The theme is a call for self-determined expressions, recognising the dynamic ways of existing as a First Nations person, living in so called Victoria; a celebration of our success, our growth, and our continued desire to be stronger as a peoples; recognising our mob disrupting, and redefining what being blak means for them, and that we can, and will, continue to do what our passions are, regardless of the glass ceiling that attempts to hold us.

Creating space for these diverse identities allows for conversations around individual identities within a community of many realities, and honouring the peoples that have grown within this space. We have not only survived, but are thriving, and creating footsteps worth following for our future generations.

The concept pays homage to the 1994 collaborative First Nations group exhibition, Blakness: Blak City Culture! featuring the work of Destiny Deacon. Curators of the exhibition Clare Williamson and Hetti Perkins described Destiny Deacon’s development of the term ‘Blak’ as “part of a symbolic, but potent strategy of reclaiming colonialist language to create means of self-definition and expression”.

Journalist Kate Munro reflected on this contribution more recently in her piece, Why ‘Blak’ not ‘Black’, stating that, “Deacon staunchly redefined both the spelling and the meaning of the word ‘black’ as a direct response to non-Indigenous people's labelling and consistent misrepresentations of our people”.

The brief to artists: Be bright, bold and Unapologetically Blak.

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TRACK THE TRAMS

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THE BRIEF

We are inviting Victorian Traditional Owners and First Peoples curators to respond to Melbourne/Naarm and the multiple layers of history, country, community, and connections across Victoria.

Five artists will be selected to participate in the 2022 First Peoples Art Trams Project. The project aims that three trams will be allocated to artists who identify as Traditional Owners of Victoria and two trams to First Peoples who live in Victoria. We encourage artists from both the city and regional Victoria to apply.

Submissions should add positively to the public experience of commuting in Melbourne. Please note that the trams are not a flat canvas, so the initial creative concept should consider that trams are different shapes and sizes. It’s important you consider you design to all the types of tram classes—this will facilitate the tram allocation process.

Please read the The Brief and FAQs below for more detailed information on this.

SUBMISSION CRITERIA

The following criteria applies:

• Strength of the creative vision
• Originality of response to the creative brief outlined in the curatorial statement
• Technical feasibility
• How the artwork responds to its context (ie. riding the tramlines each day)

Jarra has answered more questions about the creative direction and submission process on Wormhole—watch the video or read the transcript.

Thank you to all applicants. The 2022 trams will take to the tracks in May/June 2022.

2022 ARTISTS :

• Lin Onus (Yorta Yorta)
• Louise Moore (Wamba)
• Patricia Mckean (Gundijtmara/Kirrae Wurrong)
• Dr Paola Balla (Wemba-Wemba/Gundijtmara)
• Tegan Murdock (Burapa)
• Darcy McConnell / Enoki (Yorta Yorta/Dja Dja Wurrung)