True to form it’s been a long time since my last update. This time it’s been over a year. So, what’s been happening? It’s probably easier to ask – what hasn’t been happening? A global pandemic, 5 waves of Covid lockdowns, lots of personal stuff, good and bad, and the loss of my Dad. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-05/aboriginal-elder-john-patten-laid-to-rest-in-traditional-burial/12210992 […]
Life’s a fight, and I’ve taken a few serious blows to the ribs since my last update. But it’s about getting back up off the canvas, and not letting even those harder times get the best of us. Right? I won’t go into heavily into the full details, but suffice to say we all experience […]
Here’s a video I forgot to post last time around. This is an ad campaign I featured in for Siemens Europe whilst still managing the cultural centre, late last year.
As always, there’s a lot to write about. Big adventures, big changes. In October 2017 I headed overseas again as I travelled to the Middle East, working on an oral history project in association with the Rona Tranby Trust who are based in Sydney. It was to document the stories of my ancestors who served in […]
In July through to August I spent several weeks on Turtle Island, otherwise known as the United States and Canada. I was there primarily to present a paper at WIPCE 2017 – The World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education, held in Toronto on July 24-28. My presentation was titled,’65,000 Years in 45 minutes’ and was […]
In my last update I had some trouble remembering what I’ve been up to over the past 12 months. It’s been a very busy time. It’s kinda funny then that I had forgotten the moment that perhaps grabbed most peoples attention! In March 2016 my colleagues and I at Museums Victoria entered into the International […]
It’s been an age and a day since my last post. Here’s what’s been happening over the last year plus. In August 2016, I took on the Manager’s role for Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Melbourne Museum. For a range of reasons over the full first year I continued to down my old job as […]
Today I was excited to see a public artwork I was commissioned to create installed at the Donkey Wheel House. The DWH is a heritage listed building here in Melbourne, situated in the CBD on Bourke Street, just across from Southern Cross train station. Because of the site’s heritage listing, any work produced was required […]
Perforated steel! Here’s a sneak peek at a recently completed commission, produced for the good folks at the Donkey Wheel House, near Southern Cross train station, here in Melbourne. The work is created in perforated steel and is a step in a new direction in my artistic practice. I’ll write more about the piece when […]
Whilst this site was originally intended as a site to catalogue my artistic and cultural output, recently I’ve let slip my leanings and have begun to write entries of a more political nature. This is simply a matter of needing to vent, regardless of the fact that I may be the only person reading this. […]
Some recent publicity relating to my shortlisting in the 2015 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards. Articles were published in the two local newspapers – the Sunbury Leader, and the Sunbury & Macedon Ranges Star Weekly. http://www.starweekly.com.au/news/sunburys-john-patten-shortlisted-for-indigenous-art-awards/
Unless it’s of little consequence I don’t like to comment on a topic until I’ve had time to digest and appreciate its complexity, and to look at a majority, if not all contributing factors and points of view. Otherwise, my view will have little intrinsic value. I’d only be adding to an already deafening chorus […]