Kado Muir

Last updated

Kado Muir
Born
Leonora, Western Australia
NationalityAustralian
Occupation(s) Visual artist, anthropologist, Indigenous rights activist
Years active1990s–present
Political party

Kado Muir is an Australian Aboriginal artist, anthropologist, [1] archaeologist, and Indigenous rights activist [2] in Western Australia.

Contents

Early life and family

Muir's father was dogger Peter Muir, who gave the important sacred and archaeological site Serpent's Glen, in the Little Sandy Desert, its name. Muir spent 16 months in the area around the Carnarvon Ranges (also known as Katjarra) in 1962, and gave the first written account of the rock art at Serpent's Glen, now known as Karnatukul. He also named Billycan Spring. He married Daisy, an Aboriginal woman, and had sons Talbot and Kado. [3]

Traditional owner

Muir is a Ngalia traditional owner, [2] holder of cultural knowledge and of the Mantjiltjara language, and of the country to the northwest of Leonora. [4] He is an applicant on the Mantjintjarra Ngalia peoples native title claim in the Goldfields region. [5]

Advocacy

He is a fierce advocate for the rights of Indigenous Australians in land rights, [6] protecting heritage, [7] and recognising the value of traditional knowledge [8] [9] and cultural expression, and has researched and published on Australian Aboriginal heritage and native title. [5] [10]

In July 2021 told the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP), in a meeting presided over by current chair Megan Davis, that the Australian Government had not been doing enough to protect Aboriginal heritage, and that the draft Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Bill (which would supersede WA's Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 still allowed the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs to override the wishes of traditional owners. [11] He has written several articles about the destruction of Juukan Gorge for The Conversation. [12]

Art

Muir is an accomplished visual artist, specialising in printmaking, [13] and also works on canvas. [4]

In 2018, together with his wife Deeva, Muir painted a mural called Reti on the wall of Kalgoorlie Police Station. Reti (English name Empress Springs) is a significant cultural site in Great Victoria Desert, and is situated on land subject to a native title claim. [14]

In 2022 he has led workshops to make rugs made of recycled fabric for a cross-cultural art project called Reclaim the Void, created by Ngalia elders and others under the direction of Muir and Vivienne Robertson. The rugs will be joined, creating a huge textile artwork depicting the story of the Tjukurrpa of the country where gold mines have been dug, and intended to comment on both the desecration of the land and the over-consumption of society. The work will be displayed in the Western Australian Museum. [15] [16]

Other roles

He was chairperson of the Tjupan Ngalia Tribal Land Council (an Aboriginal corporation) around or before 2008, [8] and as of July 2022 is chair of the National Native Title Council, co-chair of the First National Heritage Protection Alliance and a member of the steering committee of the First Nations Clean Energy Network. [4]

As of 2021 he is a director of the Wakamurru Aboriginal Corporation, which represents Manta Rirrtinya Native Title Holders. [11]

He is also an advocate of bilingual and "two-way" education in Australia. [2]

Politics

Muir stood as a candidate for the Greens at the 2004 and 2010 federal elections and the 2005 and 2013 state elections. In 2016, he was selected as the WA Nationals' lead senate candidate at the 2016 federal election. [17] [18] His bid was unsuccessful, the Nationals having been overtaken by Pauline Hanson's One Nation. [19]

Personal life and family

Muir is married to artist Deeva Muir, who was born in Malaysia and has a Sri Lankan Tamil background. [20] Their eldest son Karthi is an actor who trained at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts; his younger brother Kuberan is an artist, as of 2019 in his second year of a degree in photography at Curtin University; and younger sister Ammbigai is also a visual artist. [21]

Related Research Articles

The human history of Western Australia commenced "over 50,000 years ago and possibly as much as 70,000 years ago" with the arrival of Aboriginal Australians on the northwest coast. The first inhabitants expanded across the east and south of the continent.

Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rights were first recognised as a part of Australian common law with the decision of Mabo v Queensland in 1992. The doctrine was subsequently implemented and modified via statute with the Native Title Act 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Sandy Desert</span> Ecoregion and desert in Western Australia

The Little Sandy Desert (LSD) is a desert region in the state of Western Australia, lying to the east of the Pilbara and north of the Gascoyne regions. It is part of the Western Desert cultural region, and was declared an interim Australian bioregion in the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aboriginal Australians</span> One of the two categories of Indigenous Australians

Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Dodson</span> Australian politician

Patrick Lionel Djargun Dodson is an Australian indigenous rights activist and former politician. He was a Senator for Western Australia from 2016 to 2024, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Central Road</span> Track in Western Australia and the Northern Territory

The Great Central Road is a mostly unsealed Australian highway that runs 1,126 km (700 mi) from Laverton, Western Australia to Yulara, Northern Territory. It passes through a number of small communities on the way. It forms part of the Outback Way which goes all the way to Winton, Queensland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Indigenous Australians</span>

The history of Indigenous Australians began 50,000 to 65,000 years ago when humans first populated the Australian continental landmasses. This article covers the history of Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples, two broadly defined groups which each include other sub-groups defined by language and culture. Human habitation of the Australian continent began with the migration of the ancestors of today's Aboriginal Australians by land bridges and short sea crossings from what is now Southeast Asia. The Aboriginal people spread throughout the continent, adapting to diverse environments and climate change to develop one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth.

Yamatji is a Wajarri word that has at least two different meanings:

Wangkatha, otherwise written Wongatha, Wongutha, Wangkatja, Wongi or Wangai, is a language and the identity of eight Aboriginal Australian peoples of the Eastern Goldfields region. The Wangkatja language groups cover the following towns: Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie, Menzies, Leonora and Laverton; these towns encompass the North-eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Aboriginal sacred site</span> Places deemed significant and meaningful by Aboriginal Australians based on their beliefs

An Australian Aboriginal sacred site is a place deemed significant and meaningful by Aboriginal Australians based on their beliefs. It may include any feature in the landscape, and in coastal areas, these may lie underwater. The site's status is derived from an association with some aspect of social and cultural tradition, which is related to ancestral beings, collectively known as Dreamtime, who created both physical and social aspects of the world. The site may have its access restricted based on gender, clan or other Aboriginal grouping, or other factors.

Land councils, also known as Aboriginal land councils, or land and sea councils, are Australian community organisations, generally organised by region, that are commonly formed to represent the Indigenous Australians who occupied their particular region before the arrival of European settlers. They have historically advocated for recognition of traditional land rights, and also for the rights of Indigenous people in other areas such as equal wages and adequate housing. Land councils are self-supporting, and not funded by state or federal taxes.

In Australia, Indigenous land rights or Aboriginal land rights are the rights and interests in land of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people; the term may also include the struggle for those rights. Connection to the land and waters is vital in Australian Aboriginal culture and to that of Torres Strait Islander people, and there has been a long battle to gain legal and moral recognition of ownership of the lands and waters occupied by the many peoples prior to colonisation of Australia starting in 1788, and the annexation of the Torres Strait Islands by the colony of Queensland in the 1870s.

The Mandjindja, Mantjintjarra or Manytjilytjarra are an Aboriginal Australian people of Western Australia belonging to the Western Desert cultural bloc.

The Ngalia, or Ngalea, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Western Desert cultural bloc resident in land extending from Western Australia to the west of South Australia. They are not to be confused with the Ngalia of the Northern Territory.

The Kokatha, also known as the Kokatha Mula, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of South Australia. They speak the Kokatha language, close to or a dialect of the Western Desert language.

The Ngaliya (Ngalia) are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory who speak a dialect of the Warlpiri language. They are not to be confused with the Ngalia of the Western Desert.

Juukan Gorge is a gorge in the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) from Tom Price. It was named by the daughter of Puutu Kunti Kurrama man Juukan, also known as Tommy Ashburton, who was born at Jukarinya.

Pantjiti Mary McLean was an Australian Ngaatjajarra Aboriginal artist.

The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2021 is a law in the state of Western Australia governing the protection of Aboriginal cultural sites. It superseded the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 on 1 July 2023. On 8 August 2023, the Government of Western Australia announced the act would be repealed and the 1972 act reinstated. Some people saw a link between repealing the act and the incoming 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum.

References

  1. ↑ "ACMC members - Department of Indigenous Affairs". Department of Indigenous Affairs (WA). 27 March 2008. Archived from the original on 12 September 2009. Retrieved 20 July 2022. ACMC [Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee] Member - Specialist Anthropologist
  2. 1 2 3 "Our Board". National Native Title Council. 23 September 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  3. ↑ McDonald, Jo (2 July 2020). "Serpents Glen (Karnatukul): New Histories for Deep time Attachment to Country in Australia's Western Desert". Bulletin of the History of Archaeology . 30 (1). doi: 10.5334/bha-624 . ISSN   2047-6930. S2CID   225577563.
  4. 1 2 3 "Kado Muir". State Library of Western Australia . 29 April 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  5. 1 2 Muir, Kado (July 1998). Strelein, Lisa (ed.). ""This earth has an Aboriginal culture inside": Recognising the cultural value of country" (PDF). Land, Rights, Laws: Issues of Native Title: Issues paper no. 23. Native Title Research Unit, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 August 2006. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
  6. ↑ "Govt asked to rethink native title claims process". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 13 January 2006. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
  7. ↑ "Mt Leonora work angers Indigenous group". ABC News. 17 August 2009. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
  8. 1 2 Muir, Kado; Evans, Louis. "Mining for Country – Aboriginal enterprise and capacity building through partnerships between mining companies and Indigenous communities" (PDF). www.minerals.org.au. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 August 2008. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
  9. ↑ "Songman Circle of Wisdom". ATNS . Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  10. ↑ Lisa Strelein and Kado Muir (eds) in Native Title in Perspective (2000)
  11. 1 2 Coulson, Britney (30 July 2021). "Proposed heritage law an 'abuse of human rights' says Kado Muir". National Indigenous Times . Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  12. ↑ "Kado Muir". The Conversation. 31 August 2021. Archived from the original on 20 July 2022. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  13. ↑ "Kado Muir". www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
  14. ↑ "Kado & Deeva Muir". Artgold. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  15. ↑ "In a land scarred by mining, Elders weave rugs to reclaim Ngurra". National Indigenous Times . 21 April 2022. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  16. ↑ "The story and the vision". Reclaim the Void: weaving country whole. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  17. ↑ (5 May 2016). "Kado Muir ready to follow Pat Dodson's Senate lead for Nats" – The Australian . Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  18. ↑ Probyn, Andrew (10 June 2016). "New Senate ballot rules deliver new election games". The West Australian . Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  19. ↑ Tomlin, Sam (2 August 2016). "Unsuccessful WA Nationals Senate candidate says rise of One Nation took party by surprise". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  20. ↑ "Artist Residencies: Previous: Deeva Muir, May 17 – July 25, 2021". Art on the Move. 6 September 2021. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  21. ↑ Miner, Kalgoorlie (8 February 2019). "Rising Aboriginal art star drawn to Goldfields roots". Kalgoorlie Miner. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
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