Studio Visit

How Tibrean + Taungurung Artist Iluka Sax-Williams Explores Kinship + Connection Through Art

Iluka Sax-Williams has always been a creative; whether it’s pyrography, traditional dance, fashion or modelling, he works across a number of different practices. But, he is best known for his burning of possum and kangaroo skins.

TDF columnist, Koorie woman and business owner Jirra Lulla Harvey, of Kalinya, caught up with Iluka at his studio to hear his story!

Written
by
Jirra Lulla Harvey

Tibrean + Taungurung artist Iluka Sax-Williams. Photo – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files

Iluka’s finished work. Photo – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files

Iluka stands in his new studio in Southbank, Melbourne. Photo – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files

Iluka’s pyrography pen, which he uses to burn his designs onto the possum and kangaroo skin. Photo – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files

Iluka says a piece can take anywhere from five to 25 hours, depending on the size. Photo – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files

Since his first time working with kangaroo skin when he was 17, Iluka has loved this practice. Photo – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files

He generally maps out the design first, but in some cases he just free-hands! Photo – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files

Iluka gets his possum skin from New Zealand. Photo – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files

He also hosts workshops with the kids from The Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency. ‘I can now spread and share our culture, pass it on,’ he says. Photo – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files

Photo – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files

His broad artistic practice involves acts of cultural reclamation, pyrography, traditional dance, fashion and modelling. He is best known for his burning of possum and kangaroo skins. Photo – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files

His designs are not just limited to animal skin! He also carves/burns on wood! Photo – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files

Photo – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files

See Iluka’s latest work in the upcoming Yirramboi Festival exhibition KIN (5 May – 14 May, Meat Market, 3 Blackwood Street, Melbourne). Photo – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files

Writer
Jirra Lulla Harvey
1st of May 2023

A  decade ago, when I was first starting my own business, I went to the home of Annette Sax and Robert Williams. Robert was setting up my accounting system, while Annette showed me her workshop. Annette was one of the first Koorie women I met in business. She showed me puppets that she used in education programs to share Taungurung knowledge, and told me about the Nepalese artists who created them using intergenerational knowledge of felt production.

That day I was introduced to the concept of supply chain. I imagined a chain of relationships between Indigenous people around the world, designing, creating, and living the knowledge that has been passed down to them by their Ancestors. This thought has stayed with me and has driven much of my own research, decision making and dreams. 

Fast forward to a sunny autumn day in North Melbourne where I met their son, Iluka Sax-Williams, for coffee. He has recently returned from Nepal with his father Robert, to meet the fair-trade artists producing garments for Anette’s new fashion label, Wa-ring.

I had watched the trip playout over Instagram. Iluka was in the backrooms of creative studios, talking, laughing, connecting with makers. He was preparing pieces for local cultural festivals and testing his design technics on Nepalese materials. The dreams we held of continuing international, intergenerational Indigenous supply chain collaboration was happening. 

‘Our Ancestors have actively been trading for many millennia. Whether it may be food, resources, tools, or weapons, all have impacted the techniques, skills, and services our people could implement to provide for family and community’ Iluka explains. 

‘In Nepal, their practises have been passed down for thousands of years. Working with businesses that are still creating with this knowledge, it’s really powerful. I was working with people in ceramics and textiles. One day I carved my own line work into one of their sound bowls. I have connections out there that I will now have for life.’

Iluka Sax-Williams is a Tibrean (Torres Strait) and Taungurung artist. His broad artistic practice involves acts of cultural reclamation, pyrography, traditional dance, fashion and modelling. He is best known for his burning of possum and kangaroo skins. 

‘I had been exposed to burning a bit, working with possum skins to make cloaks, and learning from my mother and uncle up on Country. It really took off at an education conference I went to with Mum. I did a demonstration for teachers. It was my first time ever using kangaroo skin and I was so into it, no one could get me to leave it alone long enough to have lunch. I was about 17 and had lots of people coming up to me and asking questions. It took off from there.

Having a family support system where I can ask questions about culture and business, and then build on this knowledge in my own way, it’s second to none. The cool thing is that now I do workshops with the kids from VACCA [The Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency]. It’s a state-wide Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation protecting the rights of Aboriginal children and families. I can now share and spread our culture, pass it on. 

The workshops I do are with families and the family get to keep the cloak we make. If the kids are too young, we leave the skins to burn for when they are ready. The kids, they know that’s their culture, and they take pride in knowing that this is ours. And it’s about family working together. I really love it.’

As a cross-disciplinary artist, Iluka recently teamed up with glass artist and teacher Dan Bowran to create ‘Marririning’, which means to ‘Renew’ in the Taungurung language, for the Victorian Metro Tunnel project. This project recovered old glass work items from numerous project dig-sites, which Iluka and Dan transformed into Coolamons (an everyday item used by Indigenous people across Australia to hold food, water, resources, and cradle babies). 

‘Through this project, an architectural firm bought my work and placed it in their building, and I have had my photos displayed on buildings, but my dream is to study and go into architecture. Growing up in Melbourne, in such a colonial setting, you want to leave your print somewhere. To reach that point where I can activate my design into this urban setting and bring it to life. That’s the dream.’

Iluka’s wood and ceramic pieces, made in Nepal, will be on show in the upcoming Yirramboi Festival exhibition KIN (5 May – 14 May, Meat Market, 3 Blackwood Street, Melbourne). His series of work is titled “MAAB” which in the Taungurung Language means to Give, Offer or Sell.

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