Shared Aspirations

Join artist Marilyn Havini and DPAG curator Lucy Hammonds for a tour of Havini’s paintings in Shared Aspirations. During this tour, Marilyn will discuss the locations she has painted and their significance, leading into sharing about her life in Bougainville as an artist and working as part of the Hako Women’s Collective.

“For over 50 years I have lived and travelled through Bougainville, flown over it, walked the jungle paths, swam in seas and rivers, travelled by boats ferries, helicopters…I have lived in villages, towns, hiding through times of conflict and had many escapes from perilous circumstances (usually from weather or mechanical breakdowns). For most of those years I painted the life and scenes of living around me - out in the open air – totally immersed in a unique culture and vibrant environment. “ – Marilyn Havini

For this series of paintings Marilyn revisited locations of personal significance to her in Bougainville. She treated these revisits as an emotional stocktake of the current situation, to see what these places look like now 35 years after war drove the Havini family away from Bougainville, and 25 years after Marilyn returned after leaders signed peace agreements. Marilyn’s daughter Taloi Havini joined on several of these visits in the lead up to creating this exhibition, where they shared their aspirations for Bougainville’s future.

The Hako Women’s Collective is a local Community Service Organisation in the Haku Constituency of Buka in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB). They provide a range of services and support including providing the Meri Seif Haus (Women’s Safe House) which provides emergency shelter and counselling from family violence.

To donate and support their work, follow this link: http://www.hakowomen.org/how-you-can-help.html

FREE 12:15pm Friday 10 November
in the Shared Aspirations exhibition on the first floor

[image: Marilyn Havini Ngalbokul, Tsuhana and village 2022. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the artist]