Blacktown Proper Way: Us Women, Us Men

Blacktown Proper Way: Us Women, Us Men

Curated by Dr Virginia Keft & Jamie Eastwood
Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre, Blacktown NSW
4 March - 31 March, 2022

​Blacktown Proper Way: Us Women, Us Men is a powerful statement on the resilience of tradition, the power of cultural memory, and the strength of Aboriginal identity. The exhibition and the accompanying public program is about connection to culture and to traditional cultural practice. It acknowledges and respects Aboriginal ways of being, knowing, and doing. Implicit in this curatorial vision is an understanding and respect for the distinct ways in which women and men in Aboriginal cultural tradition have separate roles and responsibilities. It is the responsibility of Elders to pass on knowledge and understanding to younger generations. Us Women celebrates and highlights the importance of women’s arts practice and weaves together the threads of connection, healing, resistance, and community. 

The weaving works and paintings on display in Proper Way, create a dialogue with the physical presence of the women weavers who take up their residency in the gallery throughout the duration of the exhibition. The Aunties and emerging artists whose work comprises Us Women weave and yarn to build connections with the younger women who join them. Their voices speak to a strong adherence to traditional practices and protocols and at the same time they engage in a powerful vision of contemporary arts practice where past, present, and future speak across time to resistance, healing, and connection. ​

Virginia Keft, Proper Way: Us Women, Us Men, 2022