In October 2003, Dutch born artist Luna Ryan made her first trip to Nguiu on Bathurst, one of the Tiwi Islands. Informed by her European upbringing, she took with her a heart and mind open to linguistic and cultural difference, along with a few initial contacts and, she says, 'about 30 kilos of glass in my suitcase.' Ryan was responding to an invitation from Caroline Hunter, then manager at Tiwi Designs, to introduce glass casting techniques to Tiwi artists. Ryan and Hunter had first met in the 80s as students at the Canberra School of Art, but the idea for a residency began its gestation when they met again at the National Sculpture Prize in March 2003. Ryan also became acquainted with senior Tiwi artist Mark Virgil Puautjimi and when she held the first glass workshop at the Tiwi Design pottery, he was among the participants. Her first sessions focused on open face casting, but during her five week residency Ryan also demonstrated a latex mould making process, which was used to create wax copies from original ceramic forms.

Senior men familiar with kiln technology and pottery techniques learned to cast glass using the lost wax process. Describing it as laborious and exacting, Ryan says glass casting demands a particular temperament. During the first workshop John Patrick 'Yell' Kelantumama was another senior artist to complete a work, while Jock Puautjimi demonstrated considerable perseverance and attention to detail by finishing two pieces. Like most Tiwi artists, Puautjimi is accomplished in a number of mediums. He enjoys the challenge of working with a new material and describes glass as 'pupuni,' or very good. A ceramicist, printmaker, painter, carver and designer, Puautjimi has exhibited in major galleries in Australia, Europe and the USA. His work is held in the art galleries of South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory as well as in the collections of Flinders University and the National Gallery of Australia. His designs and profile can be accessed from the Tiwi Design page at http://www.tiwiart.com/index.html

Ryan's profile can be found here. She graduated from the Canberra School of Art Glass Workshop in 1990 and has exhibited regularly at ANCA, Craft ACT, interstate glass galleries and Ausglass as well as internationally, with shows in the Netherlands. She was profiled in Dr Norris Ioannou's Australian Studio Glass , 1995 and since 2001, has worked from a studio at the Mitchell campus of ANCA (Australian National Capital Artists) in Canberra. A second series of Tiwi glass workshops in October and November 2004 produced larger scale works and an increase in participation and interest from the Bathurst Island community. During these sessions Jock Puautjimi's wife, Edna, was ill and a patient in Darwin Hospital. A strong supporter of her husband's art practice, Edna encouraged Puautjimi to stay at the pottery and work. He threw himself into the work, responding by completing the casting of two large lidded vessels and beginning a significant, major project.

Visitors to the Effen Glass show opening in the ANCA Gallery on the 27 th of April last year were stunned by the inclusion of two Pukumani poles cast in glass. Puautjimi attended the opening in Canberra, which was timed to precede the international Glass Art Society (GAS) Conference held in Adelaide in May 2005. By coincidence, at the time of the Effen Glass opening when Puautjimi and Ryan were in Canberra, the Dutch Ambassador to Australia, then Dr Hans Sondaal, had traveled to the Tiwi islands. He was attending a celebration of 300 years of Dutch contact with Tiwi people and Pukumani poles were erected on Melville Island to mark the occasion. It is likely that the Dutch connection will have continuing significance. Dr Sondaal has returned to the Netherlands and taken a position on the board of AAMU, the Aboriginal Art Museum Utrecht, which is currently showing Opening Doors , an exhibition of Australian indigenous art including 12 famous dot painted doors from the Yuendemu school.

AAMU's new curator, George Petitjean is acquainted with Ryan and has expressed an interest in the glass project that she and Puautjimi are working on. After the Effen Glass opening at ANCA one of the Pukamani poles travelled to South Australia for inclusion in the Ausglass Member's Exhibition at the Light Square Gallery, an official event on the GAS Program. Pauatjimi was not able to travel to Adelaide to see the work and returned to Nguiu after a brief visit to Canberra where he visited Ryan's studio and those of other glass artist tenants at ANCA Studios including, Elizabeth Kelly, Jonathan Baskett and Simon Maberly. Sections of the poles, modelled in ceramic by Puautjimi, had been sent to Ryan's studio where the glass was cast and finished. The first pole was made using traditional ochre colours of red and yellow, while clear glass with a black core was chosen after consultation with Ryan for the second. The dramatic colour dominates one pole, while surface relief is a more prominent visual feature of the other.

Each pole has a strong presence, in part due to the scale, but the dialogue between the two was the most profound aspect of the work and could be fully appreciated at ANCA opening. Each pole informed the other and together they told a story of shared purpose and collaboration. Ryan has been awarded an artsACT grant to continue to develop glass work in collaboration with Puautjimi. The funding will support the material costs of making new work, the purchase of a glass cutting tool for carving directly into glass and for travel costs so that Puautjimi, supported by his wife, can spend time in Canberra using Ryan's studio facilities in order to fully participate in the making process. It is anticipated that this ground breaking collaboration will result in the production of works that will be exhibited in August 2007 at Craft ACT. It would be exciting to see such significant work travel around Australia and overseas before being purchased for public collection and display.

Each artist will produce works of their own for the exhibition as well as collaborating on a new series of Pukumani poles. Referencing the most important of Tiwi ceremonies, mortuary rites that properly assist the spirits of the deceased to move on, Pukumani poles have become cultural icons. Not only have they been sought for ethnographic collections as material evidence of Tiwi rituals and spiritual beliefs, they are also significant contemporary art works. Burial poles, which reference the log coffins of Yolngu people from Arnhemland in the Northern Territory, were depicted in the Aboriginal Memorial 1987-88. Curated by John Mundine and displayed at the National Gallery of Australia, the work symbolizes indigenous sovereignty and the cost of 200 years of political struggle since colonisation. Pukumani poles, however, are traditionally placed by Tiwi people around graves to mark both the physical and spiritual landscape.

'Tiwi history is inside all Pukumani Poles,' Puautjimi says, 'The traditional ironwood Pukumani poles you see from the outside as a painted sculpture they are the representation of the first and most important Tiwi ceremony. With the glass Pukumani poles you see inside, it is a window into the ancient Tiwi Culture.' Art work allows Tiwi artists to represent their culture to the rest of the world and Puautjimi hopes to reach a new audience by working in glass. He is looking forward to learning more when he visits Canberra later in the 2006 and plans to visit the studios of as many artists as he can to see different methods of glass working. Puautjimi would like to travel overseas with future exhibitions and for conferences so that he can meet international glass artists, particularly those from indigenous communities. He wants to teach glass techniques to other Tiwi artists but says, 'It will take a while before we can set up a glass workshop. We will need equipment and more teaching from people like Luna.'

Ryan's skill in casting is highly developed. Her recent work has focused on producing multiples that are used in installations as well as larger forms that incorporate relief work and complex internal voids. She has just begun a third residency at Tiwi Designs in February 2006 and sees her role as providing technical assistance to Tiwi artists. Her support enables them to tell stories in the medium of glass about their land and ancestral spirits. Mudungkala, the mother and Bima, represented as a bird woman, have been subjects in previous workshop sessions. Ryan expects Alan John Kerinaiua and Francis Kerinaiua to swell the numbers and be productive participants in the third workshop series. She will be working with women artists including Josette Orsto, Roslyn Orsto, Ita Tipungwuti and Berna Timaepatua.

Because glass is an exciting new medium, 'some of the young people might be interested,' Puautjimi says. There are few young Tiwi artists and Puautjimi speculates that it is related to the problems that come with modern life . Such concerns are shared by community leaders and parents everywhere, but Tiwi elders are conscious that traditional knowledge must be learned by younger generations. Art tends to be practiced by indigenous artists that have ritual standing and deeper cultural knowledge. So art is not only a vital source of income for Tiwi artists, it is critical as an area of cultural learning and expression. Puautjimi is able to devote much of his time to making and teaching art, but in the future, he will take on more of the ritual duties that are currently the responsibility of his older male relatives.

While Puautjimi creates works that reveal Tiwi spiritual beliefs and stories, Ryan also reflects on her cultural heritage, especially the legacy of Christian spirituality and the relationship between the environment and pagan beliefs. Her 2004 ANCA solo show, Eccentric Ensemble , displayed a particular concern with rituals that mark significant events. This is perhaps the most significant feature of Tiwi culture. The routines of everyday life are often interrupted by ceremonial activities. Ryan's workshops are not exempt and she knows that for Tiwi artists cultural business comes first. The Tiwi glass workshops are an environment of mutual exchange and respect, for skills, knowledge, relationships and understanding. The contribution of such collaborations cannot be underestimated as they create a more tolerant and positive future.