Get a Gift - Give a Gift
A Love Magic Coo-ee Christmas
Get a Gift - Give a Gift
Opening Saturday 3rd at 2pm
3rd - 24th December 2011
This exhibition will show case 120 9x12†and 40 12x17†works on canvas board from various art centres across the country. These small scale works created specifically for this show offer a unique opportunity to purchase affordable works from established and remote communities while giving these artists a gift at Christmas time. This year the theme is Love Magic! The art centres involved are:
Ngaruwanajirri Artists in the Tiwi islands
Bula’bula Arts in Ramingining
Warlukurlangu in Yuendumu
Waringarri Artists in Kununurra
Weave Art Centre - Redfern Sydney
Love Magic


Passion knocks lovers sideways. Love unites them forever…

Anonymous French saying


All You Need is Love

Beatles song, 1960s


Love is never having to say you’re sorry…

Love Story, 1970, dir. Arthur HillerÂ


Few people realize that love is a universal theme in Aboriginal culture just as it is in Western culture. There are however many interesting contrasts. For Anglo-Europeans, the heart is considered to be the seat of the emotions, of feelings, intuition, and love. For many Aboriginal peoples, the primary seat of the emotions is not the heart, but in one’s miyalu, or stomach!


Falling in love Warlpiri- or Kukatja-style is described as a very differently experience than for Anglo-Europeans. 

We talk about happiness, sadness, rage, anger, desire, concern, anxiety, depression, with expressions like ‘broken-hearted’, ‘heart-breaking’, ‘heart-rending’, ‘heartache’, ‘open-hearted’, or ‘heart-throb’ used to describe a sexually attractive person, while Warlpiri and Kukatja people use the expression ‘miyalu-kari’ (other-stomached) to describe a person in a state of being low in spirits, depressed, or down-at-heart.Â


For them, the throat (‘waninja’) is the primary location of love, amorous feelings, sexual yearning and attraction. Falling in love is described as ‘waninja-nyinami’ (throat-sitting). When Warlpiri and Kukatja people fall in love, it gets them in the throat, not in the heart! For this reason necklaces and other body adornments worn about the neck, close to one’s throat, hold special significance and are often used in ceremonies pertaining to love. Often these are woven out of hairstring and used in yilpinji (Love Magic) ceremonies.


Aboriginal people have powerful traditions of love magic rituals and ceremonies, involving the singing of secret love songs as well as other forms of artistic expression. Sometimes this involves the painting of special designs onto their bodies or the production of 'love objects' to enact these ceremonies. Called 'Yilpinji' in the Warlpiri language, these ceremonies are enacted separately by men and women as a means of attracting the object of their sometimes adulterous or otherwise forbidden desire.
The works in this exhibition in some way relate to the theme of love, or love magic. But most of all they are about compassion, and generosity, two emotions that seem perfect for a special Christmas exhibition. 


Adrian, Anne and Mirri are delighted invite you to the opening of our special ‘Love Magic ‘Christmas. Come and join us for a chirstmas drink.


An ideal Christmas present for all of our, and your, best friends and supporters.

-Adrian Newstead
(With thanks to Dr. Christine Nicholls for reference material)