At first the scene seems familiar – people sipping white wine from plastic cups, strolling from one room to the next, admiring works on the walls.
But within minutes it’s clear something very different is in store at the Kluge Ruhe museum. The floor vibrates as the music of the Australian aboriginal people floats through the galleries.
Four men with traditional instruments parade through the crowd, sharing the story of crocodiles and warriors in Arnhem Land – the far northeastern part of Australia.
Curator Henry Skerritt says the song, the paintings and prints on the walls descend from the oldest continuous art tradition on the planet. The works are rich in texture with repeating patterns and images of nature reflecting the spiritual beliefs of the artists.
"There are ways of seeing and understanding the world that are very different to the ways that you and I here in the United States see and value the world + It also says we are all connected. We are all family. One of the artists in the exhibition says we’re all under the same stars, so how different can we be?"
And artist Joshua Thaiday says these works speak to the resilience of his people in their fight to preserve their culture and protect their land.
"We have a word in our language — it means standing up from where you’re sitting and going again, and standing up and going again. It speaks of the resilience of my people and the struggles that we went through, but nothing is going to stop us from taking one step forward in the right direction."
He and seven other Aboriginal men and women were welcomed in Cherokee and English by Kody Grant, UVA’s tribal liaison.
"It is a great honor to visit with you here today. I’m very glad that the creator was able to guide you here safely to spend time with us. In our language we don’t have a word for goodbye, so we say until we see each other again."
And future meetings are possible. The museum has hosted more than 400 Indigenous artists and scholars since Charlottesville resident John Kluge donated his massive collection to the University of Virginia.
"In 1988 John Kluge, at that stage one of the richest men in the world, visited Dreamings – The Art of Aboriginal Australians at the Asia Society in New York," Skerritt explains. "He saw the work, and he – like many people – fell in love with it. Unlike many people, he had the money to hop on an airplane immediately and go to Australia and start buying aboriginal art. He was just buying with a budget and a speed that no one could match."
He would also purchase the collection of Edward Ruhe, a Professor at the University of Kansas who discovered Aboriginal art as a visiting professor. Today, the museum is the most significant collection of its kind outside Australia with more than 3,600 pieces.
It stores many of them in a climate-controlled room filled with cabinets that contain narrow drawers stacked 20 high. Skerritt invites translator Mayatili Marika to view one particular painting on bark – a common medium for artists in her homeland.
"We come from a very, very remote coastal hamlet in the northern most part of Australia," she says. "We don’t even have traffic lights or roundabouts. The closest cinema or McDonalds is 1,100 kilometers on a dirt road, which takes 12 hours if the track is good."
Skerritt opens a drawer to reveal a painting featuring monitor lizards – the spirit animal of Marika’s people. She’s moved to tears –- seeing this work which was created by her father and grandfather.
"I see the spirit of my grandfather and my father in this, and I don't really have sufficient adjectives to articulate the power and the life force that this brings me right now standing here," she whispers. "It’s a little bit overwhelming."
The show is called Madayin – a word that means sacred. It will be on display until July 14th at the museum and the Fralin on campus, the Second Street Gallery, Les Yeux du Mond and the rotunda. Then it will travel to the Asia Society in New York where John Kluge had his first encounter with Aboriginal art.
